Great Power Technology

In 2021, China's photovoltaic product exports exceeded 28.4 billion taole, an increase of 43.7%, an increase of 14 percentage points compared with 2019.

The module shipments of China's top ten photovoltaic companies account for more than 75% of the global market share. In 2021, China's photovoltaic power generation added 54.88GW, continuing to rank first in the world, accounting for nearly 40% of the world's newly installed capacity.

At the same time, almost all equipment, key raw materials and core technologies in China's photovoltaic industry have been independently controlled. We control almost the entire supply chain of the global photovoltaic industry. Eight of the top 10 companies in the world are from China.

From a technical point of view, our photovoltaic industrialization technology is already at the world's advanced level and has begun to accelerate its deployment to cutting-edge technologies. It is this technological leadership and control of the entire industry chain that enable China to occupy a leading position in the international competition in the new energy field. Absolute advantage, and this is why the West dares to impose restrictions on China's chip industry, but has been reluctant to take action on China's photovoltaic industry.

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However, 18 years ago, or even 10 years ago, China's photovoltaic industry was not in such a small state. Even faced with Western trade barriers, the industry was once on the verge of annihilation.

It all started with a meeting many years ago.

In 1996, the World Solar Energy Summit was held in Zimbabwe, and photovoltaic power generation began to enter China's horizons. At this time, there were still 76.56 million people without electricity in our country. These people without electricity were concentrated in the northwest region, far away from the power grid, with small loads and scattered wide.

Among them, the proportion of households without electricity in Tibet area is as high as 78% due to geographical reasons. If this problem is solved by extending the power grid, it will take at least twenty years.

Photovoltaic power generation can reverse all this.

In the second year after the Zimbabwe Conference, China began to implement the Bright Project. Through solar and wind energy and other power generation methods, it established thousands of independent power generation systems in the west, solving the power problem of more than 700 villages in the west.

The Guangming Project's demand for photovoltaics created China's first generation of photovoltaic companies. Those Chinese photovoltaic companies that later entered the world stage all started in small villages in the west.

However, unlike other industries that endure humiliation and bear heavy burdens, China's photovoltaic companies have a dazzling start.

In 2004, under the pressure of a series of energy issues and environmental protection judicial investigations, Western countries began to pursue energy transformation, and wind power and photovoltaics became the obvious choices. This year is known as the first year of the photovoltaic industry.

Stimulated by policies from many countries, China's photovoltaic industry has entered its first explosive period.

Contrary to many people's perceptions, photovoltaic companies are not actually a technology-intensive industry in the strict sense, because the assembly of silicon wafers and the integration of battery components were actually a labor process without automated production in the past. Intensive industry.

Therefore, at that time, Western countries gradually moved the most energy-consuming and polluting aspects of the photovoltaic industry, including the silicon purification and smelting links, as well as the assembly and production links that require a large amount of labor, to China.

From 2004 to 2007, in just 4 years, the cell module production capacity of China's photovoltaic industry jumped from less than 100MW to 1088MW, making China the world's largest photovoltaic cell manufacturing country.

At that time, Suntech Power, the leading company in China's photovoltaic production, was listed on the New York Stock Exchange only the second year after the photovoltaic industry exploded, becoming the first Chinese company to be listed on the main board of China.

At this time, China's photovoltaic industry had many companies, forming the "Chinese Solar Army" internationally, which was one of the brightest moments of China's photovoltaics.

However, when the entire industry is immersed in the impulse of expansion and fantasy of wealth, the Chinese people are immersed in another "China's first", and China is about to achieve overtaking in the field of new energy, little do they know that the entire industry is already brewing a huge crisis .

The cause of this crisis was the “three heads outside” structure of the photovoltaic industry at that time.

In terms of industry, high-tech manufacturing joints such as silicon crystal manufacturing and slicing are still dominated by Western companies. China's rapidly growing photovoltaic module assembly industry and huge production capacity have to rely on high-priced imported silicon wafers, but they can only earn a meager profit from them. profit.

In terms of technology, key equipment such as silicon smelting equipment, silicon crystal smelting furnaces, and slicers, key supporting raw materials such as silver slurry and polishing agents, and key electronic devices such as inverters are still monopolized by foreign suppliers, and have imposed restrictions on China. strict technological blockade and patent protection.

At the market level, because China's new energy market was still in its infancy at that time, overseas sellers almost monopolized the sales channels of China's photovoltaic companies - the photovoltaic equipment we built could only be sold abroad.

Under such a situation, if there is any slight disturbance in the international market, the entire enterprise will face the risk of annihilation.

It is a pity that China's industrial circles did not realize the seriousness of the problem at that time, and instead, international capital seized the opportunity.

Due to the explosive growth of China's photovoltaic module production capacity, from 2004 to 2007, the spot price of polysilicon in the international market skyrocketed from 40 Torres per kilogram to 200 Torres.

In fact, at this time, the market had already sounded the alarm for China's photovoltaic industry.

However, at this time, Chinese photovoltaic companies have been dazzled by the victory. Investments that were supposed to be carried out in technological transformation and industrial upgrading were once again used to expand production capacity. A large number of photovoltaic companies even borrowed debt to expand production.

Of course, with the price of polysilicon soaring and the industry expanding explosively, some Chinese companies are aware of the crisis and the importance of mastering upstream polysilicon manufacturing. Some companies have begun to invest heavily in the upstream polysilicon industry in an attempt to open up the industrial supply chain to cope with the situation. possible crisis.

However, the shortcomings of key equipment and technology accumulation were clearly exposed at this time.

A large amount of equipment and technology patents need to be purchased from foreign companies and even competitors, and the prices offered by the other parties are naturally sky-high. Coupled with the huge capital costs and long construction cycles, this has led to the short term investment by Chinese photovoltaic companies. It is extremely difficult for upstream polysilicon to make a profit, and it has even fallen deeper and deeper into a debt black hole.

After the outbreak of the European debt crisis in 2010, large-scale public debt defaults broke out in many Western countries. The photovoltaic power generation field also became the hardest hit area by default. The photovoltaic market, which had always relied on government subsidies to develop rapidly, came to an instant standstill. Not only did nearly 30% of the photovoltaic power generation industry The pre-construction plan for the power station was cancelled, subsidies for photovoltaic power generation also began to be significantly reduced, and the price of photovoltaic modules plummeted by 70%.

With prices of raw materials soaring on one side and prices of finished products plummeting on the other, the profits of Chinese photovoltaic companies, which relied on cheap labor, were eventually taken away by financiers thousands of miles away.

However, the hunt for Huaxia Photovoltaic companies is far from over. In this year, the globalization system that Huaxia Photovoltaics once harbored began to collapse.

In order to get out of the financial crisis, the West has proposed the national strategy of "re-industrialization", and the return and development of the new energy industry has naturally become a top priority. The banner of trade protectionism has begun to rise again in the West.

In November 2011, the U.S. Ministry of Commerce officially launched an anti-dumping and countervailing investigation into China's imported solar cells (panels). U.S. solar equipment manufacturer SolarWorld requested the U.S. government to impose anti-dumping duties ranging from 49.88% to 249.96% on such exports from China. taxes and countervailing duties.

For a time, almost all Chinese photovoltaic companies with "three heads outside" collapsed, and their sales channels were cut off, which dealt a fatal blow to the Chinese photovoltaic industry.

On March 18, 2013, China's largest photovoltaic company at the time, Suntech Power, declared bankruptcy. The second largest photovoltaic company, Yingli Group, has a total debt ratio of close to 80%, accounts receivable reaching 190 million yuan, multiple production lines suspended, and the company's life hangs on a thread.

U.S. investment bank MG mentioned in a report at the time that the cumulative debt of China's top 10 photovoltaic module manufacturers reached 17.5 billion yuan, and the entire industry was on the verge of collapse.

China's photovoltaic exports dropped sharply from nearly 25 billion yuan in 2011 to less than 13 billion yuan, a drop of nearly 50%. It can be said that the entire China photovoltaic industry has paid a heavy price for its industrial model with three branches.

However, it was after this disaster that the Chinese photovoltaic industry and Chinese officials finally fully understood that the technical foundation, industrial supporting facilities and market layout of any advanced industry must be in their own hands.

However, to achieve this, Rabbit faces an extremely difficult road.

At that time, the cost per unit of electricity of a photovoltaic power plant in Inner Mongolia was as high as 1 yuan, while the cost of coal power during the same period was only 0.38 yuan.

This means that if they want to keep the power plant operating, the government must first invest tens of millions of yuan to build the power plant, and then use a subsidy price of 0.62 yuan per kilowatt hour to maintain the normal operation of the power plant.

This is a huge difficulty. It is impossible for any country dominated by capital to risk such a huge investment.

It is true that everyone knows that with the development of the photovoltaic industry and technological advancement, the cost of photovoltaic power generation will gradually decrease until it is lower than traditional power generation methods. However, no one has a clear answer to how long this time will take.

No one knows whether the official finances will be dragged down by this emerging industry before reaching this so-called "parity point".

However, this rabbit is an anomaly.

Its strategic vision transcends any real interests and always looks further into the future.

In 2009, the Golden Sun Project was launched, with an estimated investment of 10 billion yuan to promote the development of the domestic photovoltaic market in the form of financial subsidies and establish a domestic to international buffer zone for domestic photovoltaic companies.

This project has saved hundreds of thousands of jobs and solved a large number of electricity problems. More importantly, it has given the most critical breath to the domestic photovoltaic industry companies that were already on the verge of death.

In the same year, China Power Investment Corporation, which had been in the field of new energy for more than ten years, left its roots in the west and traveled thousands of miles to the east.

The first move it made was to join the Jiangsu North Plan.

The so-called Jiangsu Plan is the development plan for the northern Jiangsu area. This plan had been prepared for nearly 15 years at that time. However, because the coastal economy at that time was mainly based on Qingdao and Shanghai, the northern Jiangsu Plan has always been a strategic preparatory plan. implementation.

After 2008, due to the impact of the international financial crisis, the domestic economy urgently needed a new growth pole. The North Jiangsu plan was upgraded to a national strategy. The most critical one is that by 2020, the new energy power generation of the entire province must reach the total power generation. 40% of the amount.

With the support of the Jiangsu North Plan, China Power Investment Corporation and GCL Group established a 1,000MW power station. Its main purpose was to develop and verify new technologies. This project has since then continued to provide strong technology for the development of domestic photovoltaic companies. support.

The market and technology have been solved, and the core raw material link was solved by a once unknown engineer.

Chen Weiping, chief engineer of Hualu Company.

In 2007, the cold hydrogenation technology he led and developed was fully implemented, breaking patent barriers in just a few years, and spreading this technology to all related industrial companies across the country.

At this point, the pattern of three heads outside was completely broken.

Subsequently, the potential of Chinese photovoltaic companies, which had been suppressed by the financial crisis, was fully released. Western industries that had previously chosen to shrink production capacity during the crisis were unable to adjust production capacity in a timely manner. However, Huaxia Photovoltaic Company, which maintained most of its production capacity in the Golden Sun Project, became the only company in the international market. choose.

In 2011, the output of China Photovoltaic Group reached 66% of the global output. China Solar Army once again went overseas, carrying the most advanced technology, the strongest financial strength, and the strongest policy support, and began to counterattack the West.

In 2012, Q-Cell, Europe's largest photovoltaic company, went bankrupt, marking the complete failure of this hunt for China's photovoltaic industry. The West's nearly 20-year history of high-profit monopoly in the photovoltaic industry ended.

In just six years, those capitalists hiding in Wall Street and Frankfurt could not have imagined that China Photovoltaic's counterattack would be so rapid and fierce.

This photovoltaic battle that spanned two financial crises has also become a classic battle in the international economic field.

However, the battle did not end there.

After that, the competition in the photovoltaic field began to leave the commercial dimension and enter the field of geopolitical struggle.

After the anti-dumping investigation was carried out, domestic photovoltaic companies collapsed overnight, 350 billion yuan of output value was lost, 200 billion yuan of loans appeared structural risks, more than 500 industrial companies went bankrupt, and 500,000 people lost their jobs at the same time.

This is the last darkness before dawn, but it is also the most critical moment for the entire Chinese photovoltaic industry.

We can use many reasons to explain such a crisis, but fundamentally, the root cause of this crisis is not only the confrontation between an industry, but actually the contradiction in the path choices of two countries, and the Chinese people's desire for a better life. The yearning and pursuit of contradictions with the hegemonic system in which Western vested interests condescend to squeeze everyone except themselves.

To regain the initiative in such contradictions and conflicts, there is only one path we can choose, and that is to return to the people.

In March 2013, China Photovoltaic Corps, led by China Power Investment Corporation, returned to the northwest.

Under this strategy, China gritted its teeth and shattered the industrial layout of the past ten years, redid the entire industrial logic, reversed the gradient transfer theory that had dominated the world economic history for decades, and transformed the latest industrial layout in developed regions. Technology is directly applied across regions to the least developed areas, and then gradually transferred from undeveloped areas to developed areas.

This is a huge innovation, and it is also an exploration full of risks and unknowns.

In this process, maybe even one wrong step will lead us into an abyss of eternal destruction.

However, perhaps it was the fate of the country, or perhaps Rabbit's strategic vision came into play again. The final effect of this strategy far exceeded everyone's expectations.

Under this strategy, all new technologies in developed regions will face the 100-billion-level market in the Great Northwest. The new technologies will gain the most direct and rapid economic benefits. At the same time, these technologies will gain the most arduous experience in the complex western battlefield. Hard work, promoting the leapfrog development of technology in the most extreme way.

This is the rabbit's ambition.

They simply don't bother to follow the steady path that others have taken step by step. What they want to take is a path that they have blazed alone, a path full of thorns but with an infinitely bright future.

This road eventually became wider and wider under the footsteps of successive pioneers. China's photovoltaic market exploded in an all-round way, with cutting-edge technologies emerging one after another. Even under the siege of anti-dumping strategies, China Photovoltaics still firmly returned to the international market from the west.

After 2019, China's photovoltaic industry has received orders from more than 200 countries. These countries completely ignored the anti-dumping investigations of the two major economies and expelled Western photovoltaic companies from the country at the slightest disagreement.

Because what we have at our disposal is already the most advanced technology in the world, and has even separated us from other countries by several generations. As long as we are a normal country, we know how to make choices.

This is nothing short of a miracle.

No country's industry has ever been able to survive the blockade of the two major economies, but China Photovoltaics not only survived, but even crushed them.

We are back with a vengeance.

And this time, no one can stop us.