On June 16, the newly added 30,000-ton FBR granular silicon capacity of GCL TECH's (03800.HK) Xuzhou base was successfully put into operation, heralding the beginning of the "6.0 Era" for granular silicon capacity. The project has become the world's largest R&D and manufacturing matrix for monomer granular silicon thus far.

Meanwhile, GCL TECH's Leshan base in Sichuan province is also expected to begin operations in the near future as planned.

Currently, GCL TECH is planning to build several 100,000-ton granular silicon production bases in Inner Mongolia, Sichuan and Jiangsu respectively. The total silicon material capacity of these bases will reach 360,000 tons within the first year, including 260,000 tons of granular silicon. With orders of over 700,000 tons of silicon materials already in hand, sales and production are being seamlessly connected and mobilized.

The capacity quality of the 30,000 tons of FBR granular silicon that GCL TECH Xuzhou base has already put into production fully meets the requirements for N-type silicon wafers, and has been steadily improving. The total power consumption is 14.8kWh/kg, and the overall steam consumption per unit is 15.3kg/kg.

 In October 2021, after obtaining China's first-ever granular silicon carbon footprint certification, GCL TECH was awarded the world's first-ever granular silicon carbon footprint certification certificate issued by ADEME (French Environment and Energy Management Agency). This certifies that the carbon footprint of 1 kilogram of granular silicon produced is equivalent to only 37,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide, far lower than the previous world record held by the German company Wacker, which was the equivalent of 57,559 kilograms of carbon dioxide emitted in a high hydropower environment.

The silicon materials produced by GCL TECH in 2021 can achieve a reduction in carbon emissions of 44.67 million tons per year for the construction and operation of photovoltaic power plants. If calculated based on the 25-year life cycle of the modules, the cumulative reduction in carbon emissions will exceed 1.1 billion tons.

 Based on the 183GW in newly installed capacity worldwide in 2021, the full application of FBR granular silicon will achieve extra reductions in carbon emissions of over 20 million tons globally.

GCL TECH said that the successful operation of the granular silicon project at its Xuzhou base has laid a solid foundation for the construction and commissioning of the company's other bases in Leshan, Baotou, Hohhot, and more, while providing downstream customers with more high-quality, low-carbon footprint granular silicon products. Even more importantly, GCL will be forming a photovoltaic low-carbon industry chain based on granular silicon low-carbon silicon-based materials, help the energy industry comprehensively decarbonize, and promote a clean energy revolution globally while emphasizing "peak carbon emissions" and "carbon neutrality".