Author丨Qing Mu
Editor丨Six sons
Photovoltaic is involution, and the faucet is joining forces. On December 15, Canadian Solar, Risen Energy, TCL Zhonghuan, Trina Solar, Tongwei Co., Ltd., and Chint New Energy launched the "700W+ Photovoltaic Open Innovation Ecological Alliance" pilot upgrade at the 2023 Photovoltaic Industry Annual Conference.
*Source: China Energy News
Just a few days ago, these giants jointly issued the "Joint Initiative on Promoting the Standard Design and Application of 700W+ Photovoltaic Modules", which made a unified agreement on the external dimensions and long-side installation hole spacing of 700W+ photovoltaic modules.
It can be seen that the industry is accelerating to reach an agreement on the large size and high power direction of products. For the photovoltaic industry, which lacks fixed standards, perhaps only such an alliance form can accelerate the industry's efforts to move together. For the leading giants, even if the real 700W+ will not change the established development trajectory of the industry at once, if it can occupy a first-mover position in the trend of standardization as soon as possible, it can also bring a lot of help to subsequent business development.
01
"Standards, the best way to break the bottleneck"
The reason why the 700W+ alliance has received widespread attention from the industry is that Canadian Solar, Risen Energy, TCL Zhonghuan, Trina Solar, Tongwei Co., Ltd., and Chint New Energy are determined to let the industry see and participate in this trend as much as possible.
*Source: 2023 PV Industry Annual Conference
On the one hand, at the 2023 annual conference of the photovoltaic industry, they jointly issued an alliance message to representatives of alliance response enterprises such as Aiko New Energy, Hongyuan Green Energy, Huasheng New Energy, Jietai New Energy, Kaisheng New Energy, etc., as well as 300 third-party industry institutions and media on the scene, undoubtedly hoping to directly expand the influence of the alliance and move the focus of the industry perspective to 700W.
On the other hand, on December 11, the alliance members announced the specific module size requirements. The six companies jointly put forward an initiative to promote the design and application of 700W+ photovoltaic module standards, and continue the existing standard 700W+ photovoltaic module dimensions and installation hole technical specifications: module dimensions are 2384mm×1303mm, the long side mounting hole spacing is 400mm and 1400mm, and 790mm hole slots are added. The unification of module size is also an important manifestation of the standardization of the PV module market, and it is also the value of the alliance.
Moreover, at the meeting, industry experts such as Professor Stefan W. Glunz of the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany pointed out that leading enterprises are leading the progress of China's photovoltaic industry. The alliance is driven by this group of heavyweights who have a voice in the industry, which means that this high power standard may be on the road to prosperity as soon as it is born.
At the scene, Xing Guoqiang, Chief Technology Officer of Tongwei Solar, expressed his optimism and support for the large size: "The 66 modules of the 210 are 'born as standard', and its width and length have been fully demonstrated. Today, the standardization of the size, design, and installation of 210 modules is also a milestone event for our industry. "In this way, the industry as a whole can reduce costs, and the cost of user installation will also be reduced.
Zhang Haipeng, BG of TCL Zhonghuan New Energy Photovoltaic Materials, and Zhang Rong, President of Kaisheng New Energy, expressed their views on the high-power ecology, the former believes that focusing on the new era of 700W+, "we should focus on the rapid expansion of capital in the past to focus on innovation and the value creation of technological innovation and product innovation based on production lines in the future." The latter means that auxiliary material companies and partners on the module demand side need to form a close long-term mechanism and fully coordinate.
It can be seen that the most important significance of the 700W+ high-power direction is "unification", which refers not only to the unification of module size and installation standards, but also to the unification of more enterprise fronts. From a positive point of view, when the total cost of the industry is reduced, most companies can obtain profit margins that can be improved.
Just like the famous buzzword: before PV entered the 700W+ era, it went through a lot of exploration. So now, to write the value of 700W+, you can't just write 700W+. There is a lot of foreshadowing for high power and large size, and all the results come from past competition and cooperation.
02
"Power, the optimal solution to reduce costs and increase efficiency"
In 2020, Trina Solar, one of the initiators of the alliance, successively launched ultra-high power modules of 500W+, 600W+, and 660W+, which can indeed reduce the cost of electricity by more than 3%. So, following this route to continue to deepen, can the photovoltaic industry have a stronger scale effect? For this reason, 700W+ is put on the agenda.
In the development of the industry, due to the lack of standards for the manufacture of photovoltaic modules and the different application scenarios, most enterprises have gradually formed their own standard sizes. The size of the silicon wafer has undergone a series of changes such as 125*125mm, 156*156mm, 166*166mm, 182*182mm and 210*210mm, but all of them are subject to each company's own planning.
In practice, differences in module size begin to negatively impact details such as efficiency, power, installation and transportation costs. From the perspective of the industry, the existence of different sizes means that the production capacity is divided, and the upstream raw material manufacturers and downstream installations have to pay the corresponding adaptation costs, and the overall cost is more. In addition, the larger the size of the module, the smaller the energy loss in the rod production process, and the greater the total benefit, the larger the size of the silicon wafer, the smaller the energy loss in the rod production process.
When it comes to settling accounts, because the large-size modules mentioned above mean receiving more light, improving photoelectric conversion efficiency, and reducing the installation and maintenance costs required by the unit power station, which can reduce the cost per kilowatt-hour of electricity.
Nearly 80% of exhibitors at Intersolar South America launched 600W+ modules. At the 2023 SNEC PV Exhibition, 600W+ module products appeared in more than 80% of the company's booths, Risen Energy and Tongwei in the alliance both launched 700W+ modules, and Canadian Solar and Trina Solar's product power hovered around 700W. In August this year, Trina Solar achieved mass production of the Extreme N-type 700W+ module for the first time.
*Source: LONGi News
However, if the enterprise is allowed to develop naturally, the difference in module size will become larger and larger, and the industry will be almost disorderly, and the benefits that have been hard to improve will be consumed. Why?
In July, nine domestic first-tier module brands, including LONGi Green Energy, Trina Solar, Jinko Solar, JA Solar, GCL Integration, Tongwei Co., Ltd., Chint New Energy, Risen Energy, and Yiyi New Energy, jointly issued a consensus that the size of the new generation of rectangular silicon wafers should be 2382mm*1134mm, and the distance between the long-side mounting holes should be 400mm/790mm/1400mm. Trina Solar also directly engaged partners in the mass production of new products and released the proposal of "Jointly Promoting the Sustainable and Healthy Development of the Industry and Steadily Entering 700W+", laying the foundation for today's alliance.
Therefore, driven by the cost of electricity and unit benefits, the pursuit of high power is the road that every enterprise will take. Now, the core question falls on the enterprises: do the mainstream enterprises have the ability to produce output, and how to make good use of the trend of large size and high power?
03
"The Game of Competition, Trend and Landing"
As one of the initiators of this alliance, Trina Solar has always been the most active supporter of the development of high power in the photovoltaic industry. Tianyancha shows that Trina Solar has been investing in photovoltaic technology, scientific research and other related companies recently. As early as March this year, Trina Solar began to advocate the standardization of the size of silicon wafer cell modules, and incidentally disclosed the 210R rectangular product solution and industrialization feasibility path to the industry. Three years later, in the second half of 2020, Trina Solar also launched the industry's first 600W+ modules.
*Sourced from Tianyancha
In fact, the 210mm silicon wafer supported by this group of players is the largest size specification in the current industry, and the maximum mass production power of the original 182 square chip module is only 610W, which is not suitable for the development of high power. Therefore, it makes sense to grab the first place in the layout. Today, Hesolar took the lead in coming up with a mature high-power mass production plan, and its market leading position will surely be consolidated again. Especially in terms of the right to speak after the high-power industry, the reason why Trina Solar vigorously promotes the formation of industrial alliances is also to build a united front of the industry as soon as possible.
However, in the highly competitive PV industry, where barriers to entry are getting lower, there are few technologies that can be used as a long-term moat. In terms of power, mainstream PV module manufacturers such as TCL Zhonghuan and JA Solar have the ability to produce 700W+ module products, but according to the needs of the project, different companies have their own considerations for mass production.
In July this year, TCL Zhonghuan 210 wafer shipments exceeded 100GW, reaching another milestone. Turning the clock back to the summer of 2109, it was TCL Zhonghuan that debuted 210 large-size silicon wafers and proposed 600W and 700W+ high-power modules. In addition, CHINT Xinneng, one of the initiators of the alliance, also released the ASTRO N6 product with a nominal power of 700W+ this year.
*来源于TaiyangNews
Although the alliance is menacing, the industry still has its own rules to follow. The main limitation lies in the application side, the photovoltaic industry is dominated by the project bidding system, and in this year's bidding market, many demand parties still only have knowledge of popular power products for the time being.
For example, in July this year, CGN New Energy issued a bidding announcement for the centralized procurement of photovoltaic module frames from 2023 to 2024, in which the selection is mainly for products below 600W. In November, in the announcement of the winning candidates for the 2023 group-level photovoltaic module public bidding and distribution procurement released by the National Energy Group Materials Company, four were selected: LONGi, Jinko, Tongwei and Chint New Energy, and their specifications are also below 600W.
It can be seen that for companies such as Trina Solar and TCL Zhonghuan, what they need to do is not only to set standards, but also to promote the implementation of the market. Under the trend of high power and large size, only those players who are truly deeply rooted in the market can transform their specification advantages into commercial advantages. When the alliance begins to generate profits, the market will usher in a more active phase.
"Conclusion"
It must be acknowledged that all consensus must be driven by specific interests in order to truly have a broad impact in the industry. Through the above analysis, although the current photovoltaic industry is mentally ready for the advent of the 700W+ era, at the most important business level, 700W+ cannot be said to be the best choice.
For photovoltaic module manufacturers, the role of 700W+ and the 210mm modules behind it in reducing costs and increasing efficiency is more theoretical, because the growth of the photovoltaic industry depends more on technological progress, for example, polysilicon was replaced by monocrystalline silicon, such leapfrog development is difficult to appear in a short period of time, and photovoltaic cost reduction is somewhat difficult to support only by size. On the demand side, as in the previous example, customers don't actually care too much about the details of the module, and what really wins the market is the products and solutions that meet the needs - today, the key factor is the low price.
But these problems will be solved over time, and now, for the giants to truly embrace the iteration of uniform size and high power, it means that they will gradually abandon their existing production capacity. For example, how can leading companies such as Jinko, JA Solar, and LONGi pour huge production capacity into 182mm modules because of a paper initiative?
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