We need momentum from innovation to promote the high-quality development of the photovoltaic industry

Green development is the background color of high-quality development, and new quality productivity itself is green productivity. As green development has become a global consensus, China's "new three" represented by photovoltaic products continues to sell well overseas. During the two sessions of the National People's Congress this year, "new quality productivity" has become a high-frequency hot word, and the photovoltaic industry, as an important representative of new energy and emerging industries, has attracted much attention on how to better implement new quality productivity and "double carbon goals".

After nearly ten years, from being controlled by others to being a world leader

Under the "dual carbon" goal, the development of solar energy in mainland China has achieved remarkable results.

According to the data, by the end of 2023, the country's installed power generation capacity will reach 2.92 billion kilowatts, an increase of 13.9% over the end of the previous year, and the installed capacity of grid-connected solar power generation will reach 610 million kilowatts (of which photovoltaic installed capacity accounts for 99.9%), an increase of 55.2%, accounting for 20.9%. In 2023, the newly installed grid-connected solar power generation capacity will reach 216 million kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 145%, and the grid-connected distributed photovoltaic capacity will increase by 96.29 million kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 88%, accounting for 44.6% of the country's newly installed photovoltaic power generation capacity.

In the eyes of many people in the industry, such achievements are not easy to come by.

"From being controlled by others in the past, to leading the development of the world's photovoltaic industry today, the industry has experienced nearly ten years. In 2023, mainland China will account for more than 80% of the world's production capacity in the main photovoltaic production links, producing more than 90% of the world's polysilicon, about 98% of solar silicon wafers, more than 85% of solar cells, and more than 80% of photovoltaic modules. Wang Zhixuan, vice chairman of the expert committee of the China Electricity Council, said that the mainland photovoltaic industry has entered the fast lane of development, and the photovoltaic manufacturing industry, photovoltaic power generation capacity, and photovoltaic power generation are all in the first place in the world, leading the global energy transition. As one of the "new three things" for exports, China's photovoltaic industry has become a bright business card with obvious Chinese characteristics.

Innovation is a powerful tool to crack the "involution" of the industry

In 2023, overcapacity, "involution", and price wars will become the keywords of the photovoltaic industry. How to maintain the sustainable development and global leading position of the mainland's photovoltaic industry? The interviewed industry insiders generally believe that the photovoltaic industry, as one of the representatives of new quality productivity, scientific and technological innovation is the core element of its development.

"From the concept of new quality productivity, we can extract several key words: technological revolution, innovative allocation, industrial upgrading, productivity, high quality, etc. As a technology-intensive industry, the key to the development of the photovoltaic industry is to continuously carry out all-round innovation, so as to achieve continuous upgrading of competitiveness. The use of digital and intelligent technology to guide operation and production can increase production efficiency and product quality, the exploration of high-efficiency solar cell technology can increase the benefits and application scenarios of photovoltaic power generation, and the maintenance of power stations with intelligent operation and maintenance technology can reduce power generation and maintenance costs and ensure output. It can be said that the direction and results of the development of the photovoltaic industry are the direction and results of the new quality productivity requirements. Zhu Daocheng, vice president of JA Solar, said that photovoltaics, as the "vanguard" of renewable energy in the mainland, should take technological innovation as the key force point, continuously enhance the innovation chain of the new energy industry chain in the mainland, and form a new economic momentum for green and sustainable growth.

At the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) in 2023, a worldwide consensus was reached to "triple the global installed renewable energy capacity by 2030". Driven by policy guidance and industrial technological innovation, technological iteration and productivity upgrading in all links of the photovoltaic industry chain have become an inevitable trend.

"In terms of PV installations, this means that PV capacity will increase from 1,055 GW in 2022 to 5,457 GW in 2030. In this context, the application of photovoltaic scenarios needs to be constantly opened to adapt to the installed demand. Considering that after 2030, the realization of the carbon neutrality goal of all countries around the world, the application of photovoltaic scenarios must continue to be developed, and offshore photovoltaics, building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV), and consumer-grade photovoltaic products may usher in great development. In order to allow more photovoltaic applications to better play their value, the photovoltaic industry needs to continue to explore the path of realizing new quality productivity, continue to explore and innovate, and set a good example for the development of new quality productivity in the mainland. Zhu Daocheng said.

Smart manufacturing accelerates innovation and change

In the view of Lu Yang, who has been engaged in the photovoltaic industry for a long time, intelligent manufacturing is the core asset of photovoltaic enterprises, "intelligent means can not only solve the problems in the production process, but also the 'amplifier' for enterprises to accelerate technology research and development, and is an important means to find problems, study problems and solve problems." He said.

A few days ago, a reporter from China City Daily came to the Hefei Smart Factory of JA Technology, one of the leading enterprises in the photovoltaic industry in the mainland, and saw several workers staring at the screen for testing, surrounded by various robotic arms and automated production lines in an orderly and busy manner. After 10 years of continuous development, in 2022, the Hefei base achieved module sales of 12.07 GW and an output value of 21.2 billion yuan.

A reporter from China City Daily saw in this intelligent factory that a circular track connects the material ports on each line, and a rail-mounted guided vehicle (RGV) carries heavy materials, gliding smoothly and quickly in the track, and the mechanical arm lifts the material from the RGV and then puts it into the corresponding production line, the whole process is completed in one go, without the participation of any personnel. Pieces of cells go through a series of automated processing processes to become pieces of photovoltaic modules, only some relatively complex processes and testing work are completed by manual assistance, and the rest of the steps are almost all completed by "robots".

At present, the production line of JA Solar's Hefei smart factory can realize unmanned handling, automatic classification, and automatic packaging, and the mechanical automation productivity reaches 90%. At the same time, the factory is equipped with the industry's most advanced whole-process intelligent detection technology and fully automatic intelligent material distribution system.

However, the continuous development of smart factories does not mean that human resources are not important, on the contrary, driven by intelligence, the photovoltaic industry is expanding rapidly, and the demand for manpower is increasing unabated.

"Driven by the high-quality development of Hefei's photovoltaic industry, Hefei JA Solar has developed from 500 MW modules put into production in 2012 to today's photovoltaic industrial park, driving the employment of 4,000 people and becoming a leading enterprise in the development of the photovoltaic industry in Anhui Province. At the same time, we launched the n-type DeepBlue 4.0 Pro series products in 2023, in which the 2465 mm × 1134 mm 72 version flagship modules have a maximum mass production power of 635 watts and a conversion efficiency of 22.8%, which is currently the highest power product in the industry's 182 series modules. According to the staff, nowadays, the conversion efficiency of mainstream P-type cells is almost close to the theoretical limit, and the TOPCon technology process of the new n-type battery can be compatible with the existing emitter and backside passivated battery (PERC) production lines, which has become a new technology route that has been implemented quickly. From a cost perspective, the cost of TOPCon products is expected to be on par with PERC products, and it will be more competitive in terms of actual power generation. Therefore, the TOPCon technology of n-type cells has also become one of the main points of JA Solar's focus in terms of future battery materials.

"The explosive growth of Hefei JA Solar is a microcosm of the high-quality development of Hefei's photovoltaic and new energy industries. The staff told a reporter from China City Daily that in the 10 years since 2012, the installed photovoltaic capacity in Hefei has maintained an average annual growth rate of more than 30%. As of the end of October 2023, the total grid-connected PV capacity in Hefei reached 3,359.97 MW, ranking first among provincial capitals in the country, and the revenue of photovoltaic equipment and components manufacturing in Anhui Province ranked among the top three in the country. In recent years, Hefei has adhered to the "five development concepts" of innovation, coordination, green, openness and sharing, and promoted the development of the photovoltaic industry through innovative methods such as "photovoltaic to the countryside" and "fishery and photovoltaic complementation".

■China City Daily reporter Kang Kejia