August 30, 2019 Source: China Securities Journal

Datong, Shanxi, a typical coal resource-based city. Since 2013, the Datong Municipal Government has planned to use abundant solar energy resources, integrate development factors such as land and power grids in coal mining subsidence areas, and build large-scale photovoltaic power generation bases. After a year and a half of early efforts, the National Energy Administration approved the construction of a national advanced technology photovoltaic demonstration base in the Datong coal mining subsidence area in Shanxi. This is China's first large-scale photovoltaic power station base to promote the application of advanced technology photovoltaic products.

With the support of national policies and the deepening of the concept of green environmental protection, China's energy consumption structure has undergone tremendous changes, and the proportion of clean energy consumption has continuously increased. As a representative of green renewable energy, China's photovoltaic industry has occupied more than 70% of the global market share and become one of the “national business cards”.

Technological innovation, boosting industry

According to a research report by China Construction Investment Corporation on August 27, under the favorable factors such as continued decline in power generation costs and continued positive policies, it is expected to become the first year of PV parity in 2019. It is estimated that the global installed capacity of new PV will reach 110 GW in 2019, while China will remain at around 45 GW.

China's photovoltaic industry is one of the world's leading high-tech industries, 70% of the world's photovoltaic products are manufactured in China. Especially since the 18th National Congress, China's photovoltaic industry has developed rapidly, and its growth rate has far surpassed that of traditional energy. China has also become the world's largest PV market.

At present, the photovoltaic industry is shifting from extensive development to refined development; from scaling, speed, price to quality, technology, and efficiency; from relying on government subsidies to achieving parity online and full market competition.

The data shows that in the past 10 years, the photovoltaic industry's power generation costs have dropped by 95%. In 2009, the price of Longji's monocrystalline silicon wafer was 90 yuan per piece, and it has now dropped to 3 yuan per piece.

"Without technological advancement, there will be no Longji shares today," said Zhong Baoshen, chairman of Longji. It is understood that in the past six years, Longji shares continued to increase R & D investment reached 3.611 billion yuan, and in 2018 only R&D expenditure was as high as 1.231 billion yuan, accounting for 5.6% of operating income.

Under the joint efforts of all links in the industry chain, the cost of photovoltaic power generation in China has declined rapidly in recent years, and the efficiency improvement brought by the advancement of photovoltaic module technology is particularly obvious. New technologies for various batteries and components such as monocrystalline silicon, polycrystalline silicon, and cast single crystal silicon are emerging.

In July 2015, Yingli Group successfully won the bid for the “Technology Leadership” Advanced Technology Photovoltaic Demonstration Base of Shanxi Datong 50MW Ground Power Station Project. It is one of the six “Top Runner Programs + New Technology and New Model Demonstration Projects” of the PV Demonstration Base. . The project covers an area of 185.7 hectares and is expected to generate 83 million kWh of electricity per year, which can solve the daily electricity consumption of the local 37,000 medium-sized households.

This project uses N-type high-efficiency solar cells independently developed by Yingli Group, with a maximum conversion efficiency of over 21%. At the time, this was the world's largest high-efficiency N-type single-crystal double-sided power generation component application project.

“Transformation, upgrading and innovation are the only way out for the PV industry. The country has launched the PV “Leader” program, which aims to bring the dominant enterprises to a new competitive platform through high standards and high quality requirements, to promote healthy competition and accelerate technology and Application innovation," said Dr. Song Dengyuan, chief scientist of Yingli Group.

Photovoltaic poverty alleviation

As one of the “Ten Precision Poverty Alleviation Projects” that the State Council has decided to implement, photovoltaic poverty alleviation is also a new way of poverty alleviation and development work, with obvious industrial driving and social benefits. Through the construction of photovoltaic power stations, it can promote the development of human and material resources in poverty-stricken areas, and realize the combination of poverty alleviation and development, new energy utilization, energy conservation and emission reduction.

In Honghuawo Village, Rencun Township, Mianchi County, Sanmenxia City, Henan Province, there is a deserted slope that has never been touched before. Now it has become a “treasure bowl” in the eyes of local folks. Here, the 600-kilowatt photovoltaic poverty alleviation power station built by GCL is connected to the grid by the end of 2018. Each household in the village will receive a fixed income of more than 3,000 yuan per year.

The Honghuawo Village Photovoltaic Poverty Alleviation Power Station, which was built by GCL, is a microcosm of Sanmenxia City's photovoltaic industry as a breakthrough to carry out accurate poverty alleviation. GCL-Link's wholly-owned subsidiary, GCL Energy Engineering Co., Ltd. won the bid for the EPC project construction of the city's 140 MW village-level poverty alleviation power station. The Honghuawo Village Project is the first poverty alleviation power station built.

On the site of the Shibancun photovoltaic poverty alleviation station in Hongyang Town, Dianchi County, rows of solar panels stand on steep slopes full of rocks. Ping Fuqiang, secretary of the local village branch, said: "In the past, only the grassy slopes with long grasslands have become a 'cash tree' that helps the poor to get rid of poverty, so that the villagers can get real benefits."

In the Kubuqi Desert of Hangjinqi, Erdos, Inner Mongolia, there is a ground-concentrated photovoltaic power plant covering an area of 50,000 mu, installed capacity of 510 MW and annual power generation of about 900 million kWh, and planting and animal husbandry under the photovoltaic slab. Become a beautiful landscape in the local area.

In the photovoltaic construction project, Kuiqizhisha Shatou Enterprise Yili Group directly promoted 5170 people to become rich by renting sand, engineering contracting and labor outsourcing. In 2017, Yili Group fully implemented the “Phosphorus Module Cleaning + Planting and Planting Maintenance” precision poverty alleviation project, which led 57 households to get rid of poverty. Each poor household contracted an average of 4 megawatts of PV module cleaning and under-planting, 1,500-2,000 yuan per megawatt, and an average of 35,000 yuan per household.

Wang Wenzhao, chairman of Yili Group, said that Yili Ecological Photovoltaic Power Station organically combines ecological restoration, energy construction and precision poverty alleviation, that is, to control the sand and change the soil, and to help the poor, with ecological benefits, economic benefits and social benefits. Significant. Promoting in the “Belt and Road” desertification countries provides a good sample for China's renewable energy “going out”.

Affordable Internet, promote transformation

To achieve a green energy transformation, the first is to promote clean energy generation, especially renewable energy generation represented by photovoltaic power generation. Xiong Minfeng, director of the New Energy Division of the National Energy Administration, said that the development of photovoltaics is an inevitable requirement of the energy revolution and a strategic deployment of China. In the future, it is necessary to launch a demonstration project for affordable Internet access, accelerate the price of the Internet, promote distributed market-oriented transactions, and create a good business environment.

In 2019, under the impetus of a series of PV affordable Internet access policies, the era of PV parity online is coming. On August 18th, the government website of Dalate Banner of Inner Mongolia released the “Information Disclosure Table for Competitive Preferred Reporting Enterprises of the Dalat Banner Photovoltaic Power Generation Award Incentive Base in 2019”, and publicized the electricity prices of the five projects separately. Among them, the minimum declared electricity price is 0.24 yuan / kWh, and this price has been far lower than the local thermal power benchmark price, refreshing the new record of domestic photovoltaic power generation.

Liu Hanyuan, chairman of the Board of Directors of Tongwei Group, said that the photovoltaic industry is very close to the Internet. Gao Jifan, chairman of Trina Solar, said that 2019 will be a milestone in the history of photovoltaic development. The world will open a new era of comprehensive parity. The industry will move from "juvenile era" to "youth age", and photovoltaics will move to the center of the energy stage.