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China's Trina Solar has announced plans to set up a solar production and supply chain hub in the UAE.

According to local media reports, the plan entails setting up a production base for up to 50,000 tonnes of high-purity silicon, 30,000MW of silicon wafers and 5,000MW of battery modules across the solar industry chain.

These are understood to be annual capacities for the plants.

The project is located in the China-UAE Capacity Cooperation Demonstration Park and will be built in three phases.

An agreement for the deal was signed by Trina Solar, Abu Dhabi Ports and Jiangsu Provincial Overseas Cooperation & Investment (Jocic).

The China-UAE Capacity Cooperation Demonstration Park is an industrial zone located in Area A of Khalifa Port Free Trade Zone in Abu Dhabi.

In July 2017, five firms from China's eastern province of Jiangsu committed to invest an estimated AED1.1bn ($300m) in the free zone.

At the time, Jocic was designated the main stakeholder of the industrial zone after signing a 50-year lease agreement with Abu Dhabi Ports Company.

The firms and their planned investments in the industrial zone include:

• Hanergy Thin Film Power Group: AED800m in thin film production
• Guanzheng Group: AED155m in integrated industrial composite plant
• Fantai Mining: AED82m copper production of non-ferrous metals
• Jiangsu Jinzi: AED163m for environmental protection equipment
• (Fifth firm): AED55m steel production

The industrial zone was initially expected to occupy a land area of about 2 square kilometres (sq km) and cater to firms specialising in energy, aluminium, biomedicine and food production.

The land allocated for the China-UAE Capacity Cooperation Demonstration Park was expanded to 12 sq km the following year.

Trina Solar's planned project in Abu Dhabi follows an announcement by another Chinese company to build a solar wafer factory in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia's Vision Industries and China's TCL Central New Energy Technology Company last week signed a joint development agreement to implement the kingdom's first photovoltaic crystalline chip factory.

According to a local media report, the project's first phase will have a design capacity equivalent to 20GW of solar.

Photo: Trina Solar