BYD invested in a Fujian photovoltaic company

At the beginning of the Year of the Tiger, BYD made another investment.

The investment community has learned that Fujian Jinshi Energy Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Jinshi Energy), a provider of solar cell production equipment, recently completed a round of strategic financing, adding 6 shareholders including BYD, Huijin Venture Capital, Xiamen Guoxing Investment, etc. The company's business scope has also been extended to semiconductor devices special equipment manufacturing, photovoltaic equipment and component manufacturing, photovoltaic power generation equipment leasing and other aspects.

This is a microcosm of the popularity of the new energy track. At present, whether it is well-known VC/PE institutions such as Hillhouse, IDG Capital, Shenzhen Venture Capital, or industrial capital such as BYD and Huawei, they have poured into the photovoltaic track to help photovoltaic companies fill the capacity gap with capital or industry.

BYD casts a photovoltaic map

The story of BYD and photovoltaics has to start from 2007.

At that time, BYD had made breakthroughs in the three major markets of rechargeable batteries, mobile phone FOUNDRy and automobiles, and founder Wang Chuanfu had two listed companies, BYD and BYD Electronics. But he always has a new energy dream in his heart: he hopes to build a new energy house that uses photovoltaic and energy storage systems to generate electricity in the future, and let electric vehicles drive into people's lives.

In 2007, the BYD team began to create a dream, with a vertical integration strategy, the IT, automotive technology integration into new energy research and development, led by vice president He Long led by more than a dozen technicians of the R & D team, the BYD automotive body panel technology applied to solar photovoltaic technology. At the SNEC exhibition five years later, BYD launched a new PV TOP.5 photovoltaic technology, which increased the efficiency of solar modules in the power station by 10% and significantly reduced the construction cost of the power station.

If you comb through the timeline, BYD's photovoltaic map is slowly opening: in 2008, BYD Solar Was established; in December of the same year, the BYD solar energy project with an investment of 500 million yuan, mainly producing polysilicon and solar cells, was opened; in 2010, BYD set up its own module team to independently develop silicone module products, and achieved successful application in the Brazilian market, completing the construction of the world's largest silicone double-glass module photovoltaic project.

In September 2020, BYD invested in photovoltaic company CSI Solar, which was founded in 2001 by Dr. Qu Xiaohua, a returned solar energy expert, mainly engaged in the research and development, production and sales of silicon ingots, silicon wafers, solar cells, solar modules and solar application products.

Back to the present, this time BYD invested in Jinshi Energy. According to the data, the company was founded in 2016, based on the field of clean energy, mainly engaged in HDT high-efficiency heterojunction solar cell industrialization production equipment and the entire production line "turnkey project" research and development, manufacturing, sales and comprehensive services, and led the establishment of China's photovoltaic industry so far the first national engineering research center - "high-efficiency solar cell equipment and technology national engineering research center". BYD's strategic investment, in addition to helping Jinshi Energy expand its business areas and open up industrial markets, will also improve BYD's own layout planning in photovoltaic equipment and component manufacturing, heterojunction solar cells and other subdivisions.

Nowadays, BYD has mastered the whole industry chain technology such as silicon ingots, silicon wafers, cells, and modules, and continues to move forward in the construction and operation of photovoltaic power plants, and a hidden photovoltaic map has begun to appear.

Why are you investing in photovoltaics?

As we all know, policies such as the departure of the double carbon target, the 14th Five-Year Plan, the wind and solar base, and the auxiliary energy storage have been introduced one after another, and the photovoltaic industry has become an important area of policy support in recent years. Under the favorable policies and market conditions, the mainland photovoltaic industry has gradually improved, the cost of energy supply has declined, and the scale has reached the first place in the world.

Tianyancha's 2021 annual industry insight report shows that in 2021, more than 89,000 new photovoltaic-related enterprises will be added to the mainland, an increase of 71.4% year-on-year, and the relevant enterprises in the mainland will have more than 5,400 patents this year.

Here, a series of giant IPOs are being born. Not long ago, JinkoSolar was listed in Shanghai Mingluo, and finally raised 10 billion yuan, setting the fourth largest IPO since the opening of the science and technology innovation board, which is also the largest science and technology innovation board IPO in the A-share new energy industry. In addition, JinkoSolar is also the third A-share U.S. stock spin-off subsidiary to be successfully listed, and one of the largest companies in the strategic placement of the Science and Technology Innovation Board.

JinkoSolar has established a "vertically integrated" production capacity from silicon processing, wafer production, to cell and photovoltaic module production, and by the end of 2021, the company's effective production capacity of monocrystalline wafers, cells and modules will reach 32.5GW, 24GW and 45GW respectively, and the cumulative shipment of modules will lead the industry.

Prior to this, domestic photovoltaic giant LONGi became the first photovoltaic company in the history of A-share with a market value of more than 100 billion. At the end of 2020, LONGi shares won a heavy position of 15.8 billion yuan from Hillhouse, shocking the investment circle. Today, the market value of LONGi shares has reached 380 billion yuan.

Why is the photovoltaic track so hot?

From a policy point of view, standing at the time point of the alternation of new and old energy sources, the "double carbon" and other policy guidance promulgated by the state have helped the cost of photovoltaic power generation continue to decrease and usher in the era of parity. The cost reduction also makes photovoltaic power generation have a higher economy, the substitution effect of petrochemical energy is strengthened, and the industrial advantages are highlighted, attracting more players to pour into this track.

There is also an important premise, since 2000, the mainland photovoltaic industry has undergone early technology iteration and accumulation, continuous maturity, with the rapid development of enterprises with advanced technology or large-scale manufacturing advantages, in recent years, the industry's large-scale manufacturing advantages have gradually become prominent, and the global photovoltaic industry supply chain mainly relies on China, in raw materials, battery components, panels and components and other aspects of China has a clear advantage.

With many major economies around the world proposing new emission reduction targets, solar energy as an important clean energy source ushers in new opportunities. According to Soochow Securities, overseas countries such as India, Japan, and Poland will have a rush to install in the first quarter of 2022. By 2025, the proportion of installed renewable energy power generation capacity of central enterprises will also reach more than 50%, which will bring huge development space to the upstream and downstream of the photovoltaic industry chain.

New energy is becoming the golden track of the next decade.