A number of major Chinese manufacturers have contemplated opening factories overseas, and several have actually done so, including JA Solar, which has a new factory in South Africa, and CSun, which is making modules in Turkey.

But none have taken the strategy to the same extreme as Zheijiang-based ReneSola, which claims to have 11 factories in operation around the world. In many countries, like Poland, ReneSola operates through contract manufacturers.

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