Recently, the perovskite track suddenly caught fire!
In the A-share market, perovskite concept stocks led by Jingshan Light Machinery and so on have quickly stepped out of a wave of main rising markets.
The trigger was an article titled "Perovskites: Technology Drives the Development of the Photovoltaic Industry" published by Hillhouse Capital on its public account in mid-June, and Hillhouse said that perovskites are considered by the industry to be the next generation of photovoltaic materials with great potential.
The photovoltaic industry is an internal history of technological iteration, and cost reduction and efficiency improvement are the core of the development of the industry. At present, the mass production efficiency of mainstream PERC batteries has been increased to 23.1%, and its theoretical limit efficiency is 24.5%, and the future efficiency improvement space is limited, and the improvement is extremely difficult. As the mainstream technology PERC efficiency gradually approaches the ceiling, the development of N-type battery HJT, TOPCon, and IBC technologies is in full swing.
The photoelectric conversion efficiency exceeds that of perovskite solar cells of N-type batteries, as a new force of photovoltaics in the next generation, has naturally become the top priority of photovoltaic manufacturers in the future.
In recent years, both enterprises in the photovoltaic industry have studied the layout, and there are big men outside the industry Ningde era fiercely cut in, and now there are well-known investment institutions betting heavily and high-profile platforms, perovskite continues to attract attention.
With the help of capital, can the industrialization of perovskite accelerate? Which A-share companies deserve investors' attention?
Why did the perovskite suddenly catch fire?
In mid-June, Hillhouse Capital published an article titled "Perovskite: Technology Drives the Development of photovoltaic Industry" on its public account.
As mentioned in this article, perovskite is considered by the industry to be a next-generation photovoltaic material with great potential, and the world goes hand in hand in the industrialization process of perovskite photovoltaic technology; Compared with traditional crystalline silicon solar cells, perovskite photovoltaic cells have a simple process, lower equipment and preparation costs, and have extremely low unit energy consumption, which can effectively reduce the cost of electricity. At present, perovskite solar cells are still in the early stage of industrialization, and the main bottleneck lies in long-term stability and large-area preparation process.
Subsequently, the news of the acceleration of the development of perovskites continued.
Jingshan Light Machinery said that it achieved a breakthrough in equipment, and Shengcheng photovoltaic cluster multi-cavity evaporation equipment ushered in mass production and delivery, which gave a shot of strength to accelerate the commercialization of perovskite.
At the beginning of July, the Ecole Polytechnique Fédération de Lausanne and the Swiss Centre for Electronics and Microtechnology jointly developed a perovskite-stacked battery, and its conversion efficiency exceeded 30% to 31.3%, a record high.
Under the resonance of multiple factors, the perovskite suddenly caught fire.
The A-share market also set off a wave of big market in an instant. In just one month, the share price of Jingshan Light Machinery has doubled.
According to Choice data, since June, Jingshan Light Machinery has welcomed 163 institutions to investigate, including Tamsui Spring Investment, Dachen Investment, Kaifeng Investment and other well-known institutions.
The survey mentioned that in the cell link, the company laid out a variety of technical routes such as HJT, TOPCon, perovskite, etc., to provide photovoltaic automated production lines. According to the 2021 annual report data, the photovoltaic business of Jingshan Light Machinery currently accounts for 54.5% of the main revenue, and the subsidiary Suzhou Shengcheng is the bearer of the photovoltaic sector of Jingshan Light Machinery.
In 2017, Jingshan Light Machinery spent 808 million yuan to buy Suzhou Shengcheng, which is engaged in the manufacturing of photovoltaic module automation equipment. At the beginning of 2021, Suzhou Shengcheng Photovoltaic invested 1 billion yuan to build a new intelligent equipment manufacturing center, which is used to add high-end photovoltaic module equipment production lines and establish a research and development institution for the core equipment for the preparation of heterojunction and perovskite stacked cells.
In May of the same year, Shengcheng Photovoltaic and the industry's leading enterprises in perovskite batteries to carry out strategic cooperation in the development of perovskite laminated battery technology. After a long period of research and development and experimental data verification, Shengcheng photovoltaic perovskite cell cluster type multi-cavity evaporation equipment has been mass-produced and successfully applied to multiple clients.
In terms of financial data, Suzhou Shengcheng's operating income and net profit continued to grow during the period of 2017-2021, and its performance was good. In 2021, Suzhou Shengcheng achieved operating income of 2.231 billion yuan and net profit of 208 million yuan, becoming the most important source of performance of listed companies Jingshan Light Machinery.
What the hell is perovskite?
What the hell is perovskite? Literally, perovskites are hard not to associate with minerals, but in reality, it's a new compound material.
According to the data, perovskite refers to a class of ceramic oxides, which are cube-shaped and can be used to make alternative materials for solar cells.
In 1839, german scientist Gustav Rose discovered the element composition CaTiO3 mineral in the Ural Mountains during a Russian expedition, and named it "perovskite", or perovskite, in honor of Russian geologists.
Solar cells that use perovskite-type organometallic halide semiconductors as light-absorbing materials are called perovskite-type solar cells.
Perovskite structures are ideal as active layers for solar cells to absorb light, as they absorb light more efficiently and at a lower cost than silicon. The equipment required to integrate the perovskite structure into the solar cell is also relatively simple. A common practice is to dissolve into a solvent and spray directly onto the substrate.
In the past decade, the photoelectric conversion efficiency of perovskites has developed rapidly. From the perspective of theoretical limits, the theoretical efficiency extreme value of single-layer cells of perovsky batteries can reach 31%, the conversion efficiency of crystalline silicon/perovskite double-cell stack can reach 35%, and the theoretical limit of three-layer batteries may appreciate to more than 45%. This is enough to hang the current mainstream crystalline silicon cells and N-type batteries (HJT, TOPCon, IBC).
In addition, perovskite solar cells also have the advantages of low cost and high flexibility. In the finished solar module, conductive glass accounts for more than 30% of the cost, followed by metal electrodes, so the cost of perovskite-related materials is very low; Due to the large light absorption coefficient of perovskite materials, the thickness of photovoltaics only needs microns to achieve the effective use of sunlight, and thin-film batteries can be made to achieve flexibility.
These advantages of perovskite batteries make it have a broader market space than the current crystalline silicon solar energy. The high flexibility allows perovskites to open up new photovoltaic power generation markets, such as biPV, electric vehicle mobile power generation and other fields.
Perovskite batteries are not without drawbacks, and the biggest drawback is poor durability. Because perovskite is an ionic crystalline material, it is fragile and poorly stable than crystalline silicon, has shortcomings such as easy oxidation and high temperature resistance, and short life and high decay rate are important reasons why it has not entered industrialization.
However, recent media reports have reported that researchers at the Princeton Institute of Engineering in the United States have developed the first perovskite solar cell with a commercially viable service life, and the team expects the service life of the device to be greatly improved.
Industrial capital has long been laid out
As the next generation of HJT and TOPCon technology, perovskites have become the object of competition among the big guys for their higher conversion efficiency and lower cost.
Hillhouse Capital has long been laid out on perovskites. Beijing Yaoneng Technology Co., Ltd., a perovskite photovoltaic company in which it invested, was established in 2017 and is one of the earliest teams in the world to carry out research and development of perovskite solar cell industrialization. In 2019, Beijing Yaoneng built a high-standard R&D center and put it into use, accelerating the industrialization process.
The recent primary market financing of a company has exposed the fact that Ma Huateng, Zeng Yuqun and other bigwigs bet on perovskites.
Recently, Kunshan GCL Optoelectronic Materials Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as GCL Optoelectronics) announced the completion of a series B financing of hundreds of millions of yuan. The financing is led by Tencent, and the funds raised will be used to further improve the company's 100MW perovskite production line and process. According to the aiqi investigation, GCL Optoelectronics has changed its investors and added Guangxi Tencent Venture Capital Co., Ltd., with a shareholding ratio of about 5.97%.
Some investors revealed that GCL Optoelectronics' B round of financing is very hot, and many investment institutions will not hesitate to squeeze their heads in order to grab shares, but Tencent eventually became the only investor in the B round.
GCL Optoelectronics is a perovskite photovoltaic technology company, founded by three Tsinghua alumni. In 2020, the company had a Pre-A round of financing of 180 million yuan, and the main investors included Kunshan High-tech, Total Energy, and CATL.
According to the official introduction, the 45cm × 65cm perovskite modules prepared by GCL Optoelectronics have been approved by the authoritative photovoltaic module commercial certification body TÜV? Rheinland certified, with an efficiency of 15.31%, is currently the world's largest area, the highest module efficiency certification of perovskite modules.
Behind the company are three Tsinghua alumni. Public information shows that the three founders of GCL Optoelectronics are from the Department of Chemistry of Tsinghua University. Among them, Fan Bin Tsinghua's graduation design born in 1981 is about three generations of photovoltaic technology. During his PhD at the Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne, Switzerland, he studied organic photovoltaics (OPV) with Michael Gratzel, inventor of perovskite structural batteries.
In October 2021, GCL Optoelectronics announced that the world's first 100MW large-area perovskite photovoltaic module pilot line is overcoming the problem of mass production process, with a target size of 1m×2m, a module efficiency of more than 18%, a cost of 70% lower than crystalline silicon, a life of more than 25 years, and plans to put into mass production in 2023.
The construction of this production line means that perovskite technology has entered the stage of large-scale mass production from the laboratory and officially opened the road to commercialization.
In the past two years, in this battlefield, state-owned assets such as China Three Gorges Group and Jingneng Group have entered the market, and big-name VCs/CVCs such as Hillhouse Capital, Great Wall Motors, Country Garden Venture Capital, and Fosun Group have followed. The entry of Tencent as an Internet giant has also made this unknown cutting-edge technology track more lively.
Which A-share companies are on the perovskite track?
At present, domestic enterprises have laid out perovskites and tried to seize the first-mover advantage of the perovskite battery track.
From the equipment side, the domestic equipment enterprise and the downstream solar cell enterprise strong alliance, to carry out perovskite laminated battery technology development strategic cooperation, joint development of perovskite and laminated battery process and related equipment (evaporation equipment); There are also RPD equipment developed and produced by other equipment companies that have also obtained pilot line orders, and the follow-up will carry out the research and development and promotion of the whole line of equipment in depth.
In addition to the equipment side, domestic photovoltaic companies (including Tongwei shares, Oriental Risheng, etc.) and non-photovoltaic companies (including CATL, Tingda shares, etc.) have laid out perovskite cell projects; At the same time, GCL Optoelectronics has become one of the fastest companies in perovskite solar modules, building a 100MW mass production line to promote the commercialization process of perovskite; In February this year, the world's first perovskite photovoltaic ground power station supplied by Fiber Nano Optoelectronics started construction, with an installed capacity of 12MW.
Some of the more flexible targets in A shares are as follows:
Jingshan Light Machinery: The company's current perovskite equipment business mainly focuses on the coating equipment in the front stage of perovskite; The company has shipped some perovskite battery equipment, and is actively laying out other perovskite battery equipment and carrying out corresponding technical reserves. At present, the company has carried out business contacts and cooperation with many perovskite battery companies in the industry, and has products applied to multiple clients.
Jiejia Weichuang: The advantages of the company's RPD equipment in terms of conversion efficiency have been verified on the client side, the company is still continuously optimizing and improving, and RPD equipment has also obtained customer orders. At the same time, RPD equipment is also expanding to perovskites, LEDs and other fields, and has obtained perovskite pilot line orders, and will also be imported into clients in the LED field for verification.
Oriental Risheng: The company intends to build a global high-efficiency photovoltaic R & D center project, the project by the company in Ninghai County, Ninghai County, Zhejiang Province, No. 23 Oriental Risheng Meiqiao factory construction implementation, the construction of HJT high-efficiency solar cell test line, TOPCon high-efficiency solar cell test line, perovskite and laminated battery test line and SMBB high-efficiency module test line and other 4 areas, and clean workshop decoration.
Hangxiao Steel Structure: Subsidiary Hete Optoelectronics plans to put into operation the first crystalline silicon thin film + perovskite laminated cell pilot line at the end of 2022, the production equipment of the battery is based on the independently designed production process, the planned production capacity is 100MW, and the target conversion efficiency is more than 28%.
Diamond glass: The company has independently developed heterojunction + perovskite lamination technology, including the use of lamination method to coat the surface of the heterojunction cell with a thin film layer of perovskite material, making full use of the absorption of light by the two batteries to improve the battery conversion efficiency.
GCL Integration: GCL Optoelectronics is building a 100MW mass production line, which will expand the component area to 1m*2m, and the component photoelectric conversion efficiency will be increased to more than 18%, which is the only perovskite manufacturing enterprise in the industry that currently has a mass production line.
Yamaton: FiberNa Optoelectronics and Almaden signed a cooperation agreement, and in the future, the two sides will carry out multi-dimensional cooperation in many aspects such as perovskite solar cell glass customization, BIPV components, TCO glass and so on.
This article originates from the value line