An SNEC exhibition to see through the AB side of the photovoltaic industry.
On the one hand, the homogenization of photovoltaic products and technologies is serious. Taking the BC concept product that is in the limelight as an example, it was rare to see it in the last SNEC exhibition, but it was praised by the stars this year. Regardless of mass production or not, most of the leading photovoltaic companies have exhibited their own BC products, and named them with colorful names, HPBC, ABC, TBC, DBC, HBC, ZBC......
On the other hand, in different subdivisions, leaders who refuse low-end involution have emerged. In particular, LONGi Green Energy, which is the only module leader that has achieved BC mass production, has attracted the attention of the industry in terms of product iteration speed. From differentiated modules such as anti-fouling and damp heat resistance, to special modules for high-end villas, LONGi has launched a series of new photovoltaic products based on BC technology.
At the SNEC exhibition, Zhong Baoshen, chairman of LONGi Green Energy, said that the iteration of photovoltaic technology is accelerating, the BC era has come, and LONGi's judgment that "BC technology will be the mainstream technology in the next 5-6 years" has not changed. It can be seen that LONGi is full of confidence in the future of BC technology.
The 2024 SNEC exhibition has come to an end, but the industry involution and cruel competition will never have an "end". In the AB side, all companies are looking for their own positioning, and they are also looking for the right way to survive in the "shadow" of low-price competition and production capacity.
As a leader in the industry, in addition to its own development, LONGi shoulders the important task of leading the industry through the inflection point and bottoming out. Can LONGi, which is fully betting on BC, live up to expectations and lead the industry to break the involution and move towards a new stage?
The product scenario is further subdivided
LONGi released the Hi-MO X6 villa PV module based on BC technology at this SNEC exhibition. In the introduction of the exhibits, LONGi wrote "'Rolls-Royce' in the photovoltaic industry" in eye-catching font size, which is related to the high-end positioning of this product - "special for villas".
LONGi Hi-MO X6 villa module installed on the roof of the villa
What is the unique value of the villa market targeted by LONGi?
Huaxia Energy Network has noticed that in fact, more than one leading enterprise in the industry has set its sights on villa customer groups. Midea released an independent green power solution for villas, TCL photovoltaic technology brought a "zero-carbon villa" optical storage and charging solution, and Huawei's "home green electricity" also targeted villa users. The villa market has several distinctive features:
First of all, this market segment is dominated by high-net-worth customers, who have high requirements for residential experience. Niu Yanyan, President of LONGi Green Energy's distributed business in China, revealed that there are 5 million villas in the country. The electricity consumption of villas is much higher than that of ordinary houses, which is 16 times that of ordinary houses. In China, the average monthly electricity consumption of villas is 3,200 kWh. In winter and summer, the average monthly electricity consumption of villas is as high as 4,200 kWh, and the average monthly electricity bill of villas is 2,600 yuan, and the average annual electricity bill is 32,000 yuan.
Secondly, there is a huge demand for higher quality products with better power generation performance.
In recent years, the application scenarios of the distributed photovoltaic market have become more and more segmented. Some industry insiders told Huaxia Energy Network that the era of meeting all customer needs with only a few products in the past has passed, and the future trend is to see who can more accurately distinguish more subdivided scenarios and improve customer benefits in different scenarios.
For such a market segment, LONGi has devoted a lot of energy and has unique advantages. This is first of all due to the high adaptability of BC technology to the villa scene. Villa owners who have a demand for distributed products are often not highly price sensitive, but pay more attention to the aesthetics of rooftop PV, power generation in a limited area, safety and peace of mind. Compared with the TOPCon module, the BC module has the characteristics of more beautiful and efficient, and is more suitable for villa scenarios.
The Hi-MO X6 villa module does not have a busbar, and the maximum power of the module can reach 450W. In addition, through HPBC to black cell and structural glass and other processes, the light shining on the glass will be evenly reflected to different directions many times, so as to ensure that under different installation angles, the module visually presents a uniform 360-degree black effect without dead angles, and there is no glare, ensuring the unity of the module color and the perfect integration of photovoltaic and architecture.
Previously, LONGi has launched a series of modules based on BC technology, in addition to functional modules such as anti-dust accumulation and damp heat resistance, villa modules are an important step for LONGi to enter the distributed segmentation scenario, and the market performance is worth looking forward to.
Build a BC moat
The development of the photovoltaic industry is driven by the rapid iteration of technology, and its cruel side is that once the new technology occupies the mainstream of the market, the old technology will no longer have a foothold. LONGi firmly believes that technological leadership will determine the future survival space of an enterprise, and the strategic choice of an enterprise will determine its future destiny.
In the current wave of iteration from P-type technology to N-type technology, LONGi has strategically chosen BC, is this the right path?
In the battle for the technical routes of TOPCon, HJT, and BC, TOPCon has quickly increased its volume and occupied the market in a short period of time. Most leading companies have seized the opportunity to expand their TOPCon production capacity on a large scale from 2022.
But LONGi has not made a move. Until September 2023, LONGi suddenly announced that it would bet on the BC technology route, which few companies are interested in. However, BC has been slow to start, with only 4.75GW of LONGi's HPBC products shipped in the first quarter of 2024. LONGi's choice has been questioned by the industry, and its position as the No. 1 module shipment will also be lost to TOPCon leader JinkoSolar in 2023.
LONGi was evaluated by the industry as "slow" in its steps, and was even criticized for missing the bonus period of TOPCon.
In fact, LONGi is not "slow", but has spent a lot of time and energy in the early stage to build a "moat" of BC technology.
Li Zhenguo, founder and president of LONGi, said in an interview with Huaxia Energy Network a few days ago that LONGi's technical moat includes three circles. The first circle is the application for a patented technology; The second circle is the construction of the supply chain, "such as the exclusive supply of key equipment and key materials"; The third circle is the management of key personnel and the protection of technical secrets under the national legal framework.
At the same time as the technical moat, there is also the layout of LONGi's BC product matrix.
In 2022, LONGi released its BC product Hi-MO 6 for the first time. In 2023, LONGi upgraded the Hi-MO 6 brand to Hi-MO X6, and successively launched a variety of subdivided components such as single-glass anti-fouling, double-glass moisture and heat resistance, rectangular sheet-based Max products, and villa-specific models released by SNEC, basically covering most of the application scenarios in the current distributed market.
In addition, in May this year, LONGi also released the Longding 4.0, a BIPV product equipped with BC batteries, for the centralized Hi-MO 9 and BC batteries.
A few years ago, LONGi once firmly established monocrystalline technology, and accordingly beat the multicrystalline camp and became an out-and-out "photovoltaic mao". Now, LONGi is all in BC and is bound to continue to lead the technological transformation of the industry. LONGi is convinced that "in the next 5 to 6 years, BC will become the mainstream of the market". The sense of oppression from the leading enterprises has given the industry, and judging from the variety of BC exhibits at this year's SNEC exhibition, this day may be greatly advanced.
Breaking the "volume" with technological innovation
Photovoltaic involution makes every photovoltaic person feel tormented. BC, HJT, perovskite, 0BB, shingling, anti-fouling...... SNEC is not only a product show for exhibitors, but also an arena for cutting-edge technology.
On the other side of involution, the photovoltaic industry is in oversupply at this stage. In the last 18 months alone, the industry has built 800GW of TOPCon capacity. Oversupply has led to low-price competition, and module prices have dropped to around RMB 0.8/W.
The entire photovoltaic industry chain is very hurt, and the product prices of most manufacturers have fallen to near the cost line, and the industry reshuffle is underway.
In fact, as early as last year's SNEC, Li Zhenguo warned the industry that "in the next two to three years, more than half of the manufacturers in the photovoltaic industry may be forced to withdraw from the market." ”
In the face of the current cold winter period, it is urgent for the entire industry and for LONGi itself to get out of the "strange circle" of low-price involution. However, how easy is it to break the "volume"?
There are many reasons for the involution of the photovoltaic industry, involving multiple factors in the industry, outside the industry, domestic and international. A few days ago, Gao Jifan, chairman of Trina Solar, pointed out that in addition to the independent battle and blind investment of photovoltaic enterprises, there are also many "behind-the-scenes promoters" such as local governments, financial institutions, and capital markets.
In addition, the rapid diffusion of technology is also the most important reason for overcapacity and low price involution. Li Zhenguo said in his analysis of "why TOPCon is surplus in a short period of time" that TOPCon companies have not established their own technical barriers, "Some companies invest a lot of resources in R&D, but some companies are copying and imitating." This is not conducive to the development of the industry and the competitiveness of leading enterprises. ”
Therefore, LONGi attaches great importance to the construction of unique competitiveness when developing BC technology. LONGi hopes to take advantage of BC's leading technology to stand out from the competition of low-end homogeneity.
In addition, LONGi has also made breakthroughs in more new technologies, and even walked into the "no man's land". In such an extremely leading field, "volume" is impossible to happen, because there are simply no competitors who can keep up.
During the SNEC exhibition, LONGi announced that the crystalline silicon-perovskite tandem solar cell it developed had a conversion efficiency of 34.6%, once again setting a new world record set by itself. Five days later, LONGi announced at Intersolar in Munich, Germany, that its commercial M6-size crystalline silicon-perovskite tandem cell has achieved a photoelectric conversion efficiency of 30.1%, marking a breakthrough in the commercial development of tandem cell technology.
In addition, LONGi recently won the "first lighthouse factory in the global photovoltaic industry". The comprehensive leadership from technology R&D, commercialization to engineering and manufacturing capabilities has given LONGi the confidence to break the "volume".
When the industry was biting cold, LONGi "built high walls and accumulated grain", spent more time building its own BC technology moat, pierced the involution dilemma with its technical advantages, and pointed to the next technology iteration and rewrite the pattern farther.
(Please indicate the source for reprinting, article source: Huaxia Energy Network, WeChat ID: hxny3060)