CHANGZHOU, China, Nov. 11 /Xinhua-PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Trina Solar Limited ("Trina Solar" or the "Company"), a leading integrated manufacturer of photovoltaic products from the production of ingots, wafers and cells to the assembly of PV modules, founded in 1997, today announced its development of a new product line fully based on Upgraded Metallurgical Grade (UMG) silicon material. UMG is a variety of solar grade polysilicon feedstock capable of delivering conversion rates comparable to higher grade polysilicon, but at a significantly lower cost. The product launch is part of Trina Solar's strategy to extend its product portfolio in order to better address customer demand for lower cost solar module systems. Trina Solar is one of the first vertically integrated solar manufacturers to offer a UMG-based module product.
"We are happy to announce our achievement of critical development milestones in the design, engineering evaluation and reliability testing of this new product, from efforts which initiated in mid-2007," stated Jifan Gao, Trina Solar's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "This advancement, which reflects significant proprietary processes, was aided by our integrated manufacturing capabilities, which offer efficiencies in both technology and quality feedback control from our single-campus, ingot-to-module development path. Our UMG-based product is currently meeting our targeted conversion efficiency levels of approximately 14%, and offers advantage via its competitively lower silicon cost component. Customer benefits include a significantly lower module system investment cost compared to our standard high efficiency module lines. Our product development path has involved various stages of trial production, performance testing and evaluation in both real-time field applications and accelerated test environments before commercial production."
The Company further announced that the UMG module products will be produced using existing manufacturing lines and will be marketed and sold under a separate brand, backed by a 20-year warranty. Initial sales are expected in the current fourth quarter, with increasing production planned throughout 2009.
About Trina Solar Limited
Trina Solar Limited (NYSE: TSL) is a well recognized manufacturer of high quality modules and has a long history as a solar PV pioneer since it was founded in 1997 as a system installation company. Trina Solar is one of the few PV manufacturers that has developed a vertically integrated business model from the production of monocrystalline and multicrystalline ingots, wafers and cells to the assembly of high quality modules. Trina Solar's products provide reliable and environmentally-friendly electric power for a growing variety of end-user applications worldwide. For further information, please visit Trina Solar's website at http://www.trinasolar.com .
For more information, please contact:
Trina Solar Limited
Terry Wang, CFO
Phone: +86-519-8548-2008 (Changzhou)
Thomas Young, Director of Investor Relations
Phone: +86-519-8548-2008 (Changzhou)
Email: ir@trinasolar.com
CCG Investor Relations
Crocker Coulson, President
Phone: +1-646-213-1915
Email: crocker.coulson@ccgir.com
Richard Micchelli, Financial Writer
Phone: +1-646-454-4516
Email: richard.micchelli@ccgir.com
