Per reporter: An Yufei Per editor: Yang Xia
After the situation in Ukraine changed, many A-share listed companies have come forward to respond to the impact of this matter on themselves.
Goldwind (002202, SZ) said the company has not invested in wind farms in Ukraine, only orders for complete machine products, which are not affected at present. Longyuan Power (001289, SZ) said that the installed capacity of the Ukrainian wind power project only accounts for three-thousandths of the company's installed wind power capacity, and the production and operation are normal.
Combing through it, you will find that the listed companies related to Ukraine also include Oriental Risheng (300118, SZ), JA Technology (002459, SZ), Taisheng Wind Energy (300129, SZ), China Energy Construction (601868, SH) and so on.
I wonder if you noticed? Most of the intersections between A-share listed companies and Ukraine are concentrated in the fields of wind power and photovoltaics. So, what is the magic of Ukraine that can attract these companies to this layout?
In fact, it is also related to Ukraine's desire to get rid of its energy dependence on Russia and reshape its own energy system.
In early 2020, the Minister of Energy and Environmental Protection of Ukraine delivered a series of speeches on the concept of renewable energy Image source: Visual China
Lin Boqiang, a researcher at the Jiageng Innovation Lab and dean of the China Energy Policy Research Institute at Xiamen University, believes that this event may prompt the whole of Europe to accelerate the development of alternative energy sources and reduce its dependence on Russia's energy.
Ukrainian business of A-share wind power and photovoltaic companies
Walking around Ukraine, you might see household photovoltaic modules like "dark chocolate" on the rooftops of residents, or see large wind turbines like "giant fans" in the suburbs. But you may not realize that many of these photovoltaic and wind power products actually come from China.
In April 2019, near the city of Nikopol in central Ukraine, a large-scale photovoltaic power plant with a designed installed capacity of 200MW was officially connected to the grid. This photovoltaic power plant was once called "the largest green energy project in Ukraine".
It was built by China Machinery and Equipment Engineering Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "China Mechanical Engineering") in addition to the Donbass Fuel and Energy Company (hereinafter referred to as "DTEK"), the largest private energy company in Ukraine at that time.
China Mechanical Engineering and DTEK related personnel Image source: China Mechanical Engineering official website
According to the international photovoltaic media PV-Tech, the 750,000 solar panels used in the power station come from Trina Solar (688599, SH) and Jiangsu Seraphim Photovoltaic System Co., Ltd., with 80 inverter stations and 160 photovoltaic inverters from Crestec (002518, SZ).
Not only that, but 60 percent of the actual investment in the 216 million euros (about 1.959 billion yuan at the time) in the power plant project came from China.
Before the project was connected to the grid, Timchenko, the general manager of DTEK, said that this is not only the largest green energy project in Ukraine, but also one of the three major photovoltaic power plants in Europe after completion.
But When Timchenko said these words, he probably did not expect that the name of "the largest green energy project in Ukraine" would quickly become history, and in addition to DETK itself, there was another Chinese company, Oriental Risheng.
In November 2019, a photovoltaic power plant located near the city of Dnipropetrovsk in south-central Ukraine was successfully connected to the grid, with a planned capacity of 323MW, surpassing the Ukrainian photovoltaic power plant previously built by China's mechanical engineering.
The new "largest photovoltaic power plant in Ukraine" was born, and at the same time, it also took away the title of "the second largest photovoltaic power plant in Europe". The photovoltaic modules of this power station are all from the Chinese company Dongfang Risheng.
The succession of the "largest photovoltaic power station" from generation to generation is only the "tip of the iceberg" for Chinese photovoltaic companies to enter Ukraine. According to the data of the Announcement of Oriental Risheng, in 2019, Ukraine ranked 8th in the top ten markets in terms of mainland photovoltaic module exports. The mainland's shipments of photovoltaic modules to Ukraine accounted for 5.78% of the total exports of related products in the year.
Image source: Oriental Sunrise Announcement
In addition to photovoltaics, there are also many Chinese companies in the Ukrainian wind power market.
On June 29, 2021, longyuan power project in southern Ukraine started construction. This means that 60 4.8MW wind turbines are about to appear in the Nikolayev Oblast in southwest Ukraine, near the Black Sea.
More than two months later, Goldwind set its sights on the Ochakov region of the same state and signed a 288MW wind power project. According to first financial reports, Goldwind technology also signed a 337.5MW wind power project in Zofia, Ukraine. After the completion of the two projects, Goldwind's market share in Ukraine will exceed 20%.
From a deeper level, the "encounter" of Goldwind and Longyuan Power's wind power project in Ukraine's Nikolayev Oblast is not accidental, but the inevitable development of China's new energy industry and going abroad.
However, why is the frequency of "encounters" between our wind power and photovoltaic companies in Ukraine so high? Or, to put it another way, why did Ukraine attract the above companies to this layout?
Behind the development of Ukraine "scenery"
Behind the entry of Chinese wind power and photovoltaic companies into Ukraine is actually the opportunity brought about by Ukraine's "reshaping" of the energy system.
Previously, Ukraine relied heavily on traditional fuels such as natural gas and coal and nuclear energy in the energy sector. But the War in Donbass between Russia and Ukraine in February 2014 sounded a wake-up call for "energy security" in Ukraine.
In November 2015, Ukraine stopped importing gas from Russia, and since then all of its gas imports have come from EU countries.
But embarrassingly, gas from EU countries is also mainly imported from Russia. In a research report in February this year, Yuekai Securities quoted data from Eurostat as saying that more than 40% of the EU's natural gas supply currently comes from Russia, of which about one-third of the Russian natural gas flowing to Europe needs to pass through Ukraine.
The data means that simply stopping buying gas directly from Russia won't give Ukraine real control of its own energy lifeblood. In this context, changing the traditional energy structure and developing clean energy has become one of the ways to break the situation.
If the development of wind power and photovoltaic industry in a country or region is a bit of a "rely on the sky to eat", there are no low requirements for local natural conditions. Then Ukraine obviously belongs to the type of "God appreciates food".
At the level of light resources, according to the data of the Ukrainian Renewable Energy Association (UARE) quoted by Jibang Consulting, the annual solar radiation in Ukraine can reach 800-1450W/㎡, which has great potential for development in the international photovoltaic market.
In terms of wind resources, Ukraine is on the verge of the Black Sea, and the potential is also good. Andrey Konychkov, a former member of the Board of Directors of the World Wind Energy Association and president of the Ukrainian Wind Energy Association, briefly introduced this when he came to China in 2013 to participate in the "2013 China Strategic Emerging Industry Development Forum".
Andrei Konychikov said at the time: "Many experts believe that the potential for wind power generation in Ukraine is very high. We have made a more conservative estimate that the potential of the whole country may be to achieve 1600 megawatts of installed capacity by 2030. Some power companies have made predictions that Ukraine's wind power potential will reach 7,000 megawatts by 2030, and most of the electricity will be available online. ”
Natural conditions, while crucial, are obviously too slow to "reshape" the energy system and wait for the "invisible hand" of the market to regulate. In order to rapidly increase the proportion of clean energy, Ukraine has also launched a series of supportive policies and launched a package of bills. In 2018, for example, Ukraine passed the relevant provisions of "exemption from VAT on the import of electricity facilities from solar and wind power stations".
In an announcement by JA Technology in July 2020, it also mentioned the preferential policy of "zero tariff on Ukrainian imports of Chinese component products".
Zero tariff policy on imported components from Ukraine Image source: JA Energy Bulletin
In addition, Ukraine does not hesitate to invest in "real money and silver". According to the official website of the Economic and Commercial Department of the Embassy in Ukraine, in 2020, Ukraine will invest more than 1.2 billion euros in the field of green energy, and the installed capacity of renewable energy will increase by 22%. Ukraine invested more than RMB 9.5 billion in green energy for the year at the end of 2020 at the exchange rate of the euro against the renminbi.
Under the layers of increases, Ukraine's green energy industry has made great progress. Risen Energy, which supplies components for Ukrainian photovoltaic power plants, has mentioned such a data in several official website articles: in 2017, renewable energy in Ukraine accounted for only about 1% of total power generation.
According to the official website of the Economic and Commercial Department of the Embassy in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Guarantee Purchase Company said that from January to October 2021, Ukraine's renewable energy power generation increased by more than 10% year-on-year to 10 billion kWh. By the end of October 2021, green power generation accounted for 9% of Ukraine's total electricity generation. Among them, in the renewable energy power generation structure, photovoltaic power generation accounted for 60.4%, ranking first, and wind power accounted for 29.8%, ranking second。
From about 1% in 2017 to 9% at the end of October last year, behind the increase in the proportion of green power generation in Ukraine is the construction of photovoltaic and wind power projects. It is also at this time that Chinese companies have entered the Ukrainian market more intensively, leaving the mark of "Made in China" on the components and equipment of many photovoltaic power plants and wind farms.
Will business be affected in the future?
In the context of today's Russian-Ukrainian conflict, will the Ukrainian business of A-share wind power and photovoltaic companies be affected? In response, many companies have responded.
The staff of the Oriental Sunrise Securities Department said in an interview with the "Daily Economic News" reporter that the relevant events had no impact on the company.
JA Technology Securities also responded that it had not received feedback that the company had been affected.
The staff of longyuan power securities department said in an interview that the Youri project is a project currently in operation in Ukraine by Longyuan Power, and its installed capacity accounts for only three-thousandths of the company's total installed wind power capacity, and everything is normal in production and operation.
Goldwind said on the investor interactive platform that the company did not invest in wind farms in Ukraine, only orders for complete machine products, delivered according to the normal plan, and were not affected.
Looking at the cooperation between A-share listed companies in the field of wind power, photovoltaics and Related Enterprises in Ukraine, most of them are mainly based on product provision, and some of them participate in the construction in the form of EPC general contracting, and there are not many operating projects. This may also be one of the reasons why the companies have generally responded that they are less affected.
Lin Boqiang told the "Daily Economic News" reporter that overall, the "volume" of them (related companies) in the Ukrainian market is still relatively small and negligible. And you can wait until the situation is stable before doing business.
However, an industry expert believes that the investment of enterprises in Ukraine and nearby regions will definitely be affected in a certain period of time.
After the change in the situation in Ukraine, other countries in Europe have also taken action on the energy side. On February 28, the German climate ministry proposed a new draft legislation to advance the target of 100% renewable energy generation to 2035, 15 years ahead of the previous target, according to the Financial Associated Press. Among them, the new installed capacity of photovoltaics gradually increased from 7GW in 2022 to 20GW in 2028, and then maintained this level until 2035.
The above-mentioned industry experts said that Germany has always been more determined in the energy transition, and it can be seen how strong its transition intensity is through the planning of renewable energy generation targets.
Lin Boqiang believes that behind this is actually the whole of Europe looking for opportunities to "break away from Russia" at the energy level. "This time will promote The development of other energy sources in Europe other than oil and gas, which is simply to find other ways out and promote low-carbon transformation." He said.
Lin Boqiang counted the energy structure of Europe, including natural gas, oil, coal, hydropower, etc., he believes that this is the "road since ancient times", which has been "impossible" at present, and ultimately it is necessary to develop wind power and photovoltaics, because this is in line with the needs of energy security and the goal of low-carbon transformation.
Lin Boqiang said that this will have a "positive impact" on China's wind power and photovoltaic companies to better enter the European market.
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