Tongwei Co., Ltd.: A leading model of photovoltaic cell technology innovation

In the photovoltaic industry, we can often hear a sentence: "cost reduction and efficiency increase is the eternal theme of industry development", and the core of cost reduction and efficiency increase is technological innovation. Throughout the history of photovoltaic development, from the earliest discovery of the photovolt effect, to the birth of the first photovoltaic cell in 1954, to the full commercialization of photovoltaic products since the 21st century, and in recent years, to achieve "grid parity", becoming the main force of new energy, technological innovation and product iteration have always been the long-term driving force to promote the high-quality development of the photovoltaic industry.

New battery technology may be the "winner" of the future competition

Technological innovation also has a cycle, and according to the attributes and patterns of different links, the technology cycle is also long or short. Among the four major links of the main photovoltaic industry chain, the polysilicon link is more chemical, and the mainstream technology route has been relatively stable for many years, and the silicon wafer link is the protagonist of the last round of "disruptive" innovation in the photovoltaic industry, which has achieved the monocrystalline era, and in recent years, the heat of the silicon wafer size dispute is much greater than the discussion of revolutionary technological breakthroughs. In the past 5-10 years, three generations of mainstream technologies from BSF to PERC to TOPCon have been completed, and the iteration speed is unprecedented in the photovoltaic industry. When N-type TOPCon swept in, new cell technologies such as HJT, XBC, and perovskite tandem were also "eyeing up" and "gearing up". Due to the typical financial attributes of terminal power stations, the economy of power generation is directly linked to the rate of return, and improving the efficiency of cells is one of the main ways to increase the power of modules.

The success of Tongwei PERC era is no accident, and technological advantages are the foundation

When it comes to photovoltaic cells, Tongwei is naturally a leading enterprise that cannot be avoided. With the outbreak of PERC cells in 2017, Tongwei has accumulated a lot of experience, relying on its continuous R&D investment and its own excellent technical strength, it has successively formed a number of technical achievements with independent intellectual property rights in the technical fields of atomic layer deposition back passivation, selective emitter process, bifacial cells, etc., and the battery conversion efficiency has achieved industry-leading results. Coupled with strong refined management capabilities, the company quickly transformed its technical and management advantages into cost and scale advantages in the following years, and finally became the enterprise with the largest production capacity, the largest shipments, the most profitable, the lowest cost, the highest operating rate and the fastest construction speed in the global battery industry for 7 consecutive years.

Although Tongwei's market position in the battery sector is self-evident, there is always a view that Tongwei is better at the "1 to 100" manufacturing stage, rather than the "0-1" innovation stage. In fact, if there is no technical advantage as the basis, the cost and capacity advantages are often just "short-lived".

From "0-1", the PECVD leader is underestimated because of its low-key pragmatism

As the improvement of PERC cell conversion efficiency is approaching the bottleneck, TOPCon technology has gradually been recognized by both the industry and the market due to its higher compatibility with PERC technology and better power generation economy. According to Infolink statistics, the market share of TOPCon batteries is expected to exceed 70% in 2024, becoming the absolute mainstream of the market.

In the more than two years since the outbreak of TOPCon batteries, Tongwei has not spent too much energy on building momentum in the capital market, nor has it blindly followed the selection of technical subdivisions, but has always maintained "independent thinking" in technology and focused on research and development, so that the market underestimated Tongwei's innovation achievements in this technology route before TOPCon was determined to become the mainstream battery technology.

TOPCon cell technology can be divided into LPCVD, PECVD, PVD and other subdivision routes due to the different ways of preparing tunneling oxide and doped polysilicon, and the current industrialization direction is mainly based on PECVD and LPCVD. Looking back at 2021, Tongwei successfully developed the industry's first large-size PECVD Poly deposition technology route, which fills the gap in tubular PE-Tox&Poly technology in the industry. Tongwei's tubular PECVD technology has also been featured on the cover of PIP (Progress in Photovoltaics) magazine twice, and has been widely recognized and reprinted internationally. At the same time, the company took the lead in achieving large-scale mass production of this route in the industry in 2022. As for the TOPCon segmentation technology route, there is no need to discuss excessively, and the market has given the answer. From the perspective of the current TOPCon stock and planned production capacity, PECVD is slightly better, accounting for 55%; There is a high probability that the technical routes of LPCVD and PECVD will coexist for a long time and be equally divided. In terms of product performance, according to Tongwei's official website, the power of its 72-version TOPCon single glass product is 580-590W, which is the most advanced level in the industry. In addition, the company recently released its TOPCon 72 version module to set a new record for power of 613.2W. In terms of capacity planning, Tongwei's TOPCon cell production capacity will exceed 100GW by the end of 2024, making it one of the companies with the largest production capacity in the industry. If Jinko is the representative enterprise of LPCVD technology route, then Tongwei is undoubtedly the leader in successfully promoting PECVD to industrialization.

Technology is for the layman to see the excitement, and the insider to see the doorway. According to the "2023 Photovoltaic Industry Innovation Achievement Promotion Catalog" selected by the China Photovoltaic Industry Association, Tongwei's "high-efficiency silicon passivated contact solar cell (TNC) technology" was successfully selected for its industry initiative and technological leadership, and became the only TOPCon cell technology selected in the industry. Although the process of innovation is extremely difficult, judging from the "0-1" result of TOPCon PECVD, Tongwei has not only achieved it, but also received "double endorsement" from the market and the photovoltaic industry association.

There is no "ultimate" technology for batteries, and the continuous leadership of technology lies in the scientific research and development layout

Breakthrough technological innovation in the photovoltaic industry can often reshape the industry pattern, and at the same time accompanied by excess returns, but unfortunately, there is no one-and-done technology, especially the speed of technological innovation in the battery link is "very volatile", and there is still a lot of room for improvement in the long-term efficiency of cells. To this end, leading companies are constantly reforming their "lives", and new players are trying to "overtake in corners", all hoping to seize the opportunity of technological replacement.

Photovoltaic companies have always had "personality", and they can find out from the selection of new battery technologies. In 2023, the discussion of new battery technologies can be described as lively, and the capital market is "dazzled", Jinko focuses on TOPCon LPCVD, LONGi and Aiko are almost all-in BC, Huasheng New Energy anchors HJT, and from time to time there are some perovskite voices in the industry... So how to judge the mainstream technology in the future? The core is to pay attention to the cost of electricity, and the scientific R&D layout is "both, want, and".

Although Tongwei's promotion of new battery technology is a little low-key, it is not blindly "working hard", but also looking up at the road. Tongwei's 2023 annual report mentions: "The company has broken the HJT module power record 6 times, with the highest power exceeding 755W (210-66 version) (according to the latest news, the record has recently been refreshed to 762.79W). At the same time, the company continues to increase R&D investment in cutting-edge technologies such as back contact cells and perovskite/silicon tandem cells... The batch efficiency of P-type TBC pilot line was 25.51%, that of N-type TBC pilot line was up to 26.66%, and that of small-size perovskite/HJT tandem cells was 33.08%. "It can be seen that Tongwei, the new battery technology with the highest popularity in the industry and capital market, has a layout, and the efficiency data of various new battery technologies are disclosed in detail, indicating that there are strong R&D reserves. Some people worry that the parallel research and development of multiple technologies will promote more sunk costs, but research and development is not a gamble, all new photovoltaic cell technologies are currently making dynamic progress, and will continue to compete around economy and reliability; photovoltaic has never had a "God's perspective", so Tongwei's R&D layout is not simply "rich and rich", but the optimal solution that fully considers future technology risks and opportunity profits.

Tongwei's determination in technology layout is definitely worth looking forward to. According to its annual report, "in order to continuously transform technological innovation into enterprise competitiveness, the company launched the construction of Tongwei Global Innovation R&D Center during the reporting period. The center is positioned to study various mainstream photovoltaic technologies that may break through in the future, and will become an integrated R&D workshop with the largest workshop area, the highest pilot production capacity and the strongest upgradeable capacity in the industry, and is equipped with a complete and advanced material testing center and product reliability testing center. "In any industry, if an enterprise wants to achieve continuous technological leadership, it needs to pay attention to the construction of technical systems, continuous investment, continuous trial and error, move forward without hesitation, and ultimately need a little luck.

The closed loop of new battery technology is ecological creation

When reviewing the first two rounds of battery technology changes, there is a commonality that is easy to be ignored is that the two technology changes have not caused subversive changes to the industrial chain ecology. Although there are obvious changes in the process, from the perspective of the process, compared with BSF, the traditional PERC cell only adds a passivation layer and a laser slotting process, while TOPCon changes the diffusion process compared with PERC, adds a piercing process, cancels the laser slotting process, and the equipment compatibility is acceptable, and the industrialization process is relatively smooth, but on the other hand, HJT and XBC can be said to be "overturning and restarting" in the battery manufacturing process Therefore, the iteration of new battery technology is by no means overnight, nor does it rely on a single link, but needs to be jointly promoted by the upstream and downstream of the entire industrial chain, and the leading photovoltaic enterprises with a complete industrial chain layout have the right to speak in the industrial ecology and are expected to become the "whistleblowers" of new battery technologies.

In the past few years, HJT has been the "darling" of the capital market, giving people a feeling of "coming out" every year, and its market supporters are no less than TOPCon in the past two years. Even if the market frantically values HJT, funds, and many new players are eager to try, Tongwei, as the most recognized HJT leader, has never thrown out the plan of large-scale mass production of HJT, but continues to control the pilot test of about 1GW. The reason is very simple, the road to cost reduction of HJT is not smooth, and it takes time to build an ecosystem. At present, Tongwei is the only leading photovoltaic enterprise in the market that has opened up the entire industrial chain from upstream industrial silicon manufacturing to downstream photovoltaic power plant operation, and its leading position in the silicon material and battery sector has not been shaken so far. With its industry status and scale advantages, no matter what new battery technology Tongwei makes in the later stage, it can "respond to all calls" in terms of ecological construction, and the company's focus and huge investment in industrial integration research and development can be expected in the future.

epilogue

The annual report and first quarterly report of listed photovoltaic companies in 2023 have all been disclosed, and the sharp year-on-year decline in the industry's Q1 performance is already the inevitable result of short-term overcapacity, but the charm of photovoltaic lies in the space and elasticity of its demand and the potential for technological progress. Undoubtedly, Tongwei has clearly realized that the key to breaking the industry situation in the short and medium term is not to passively wait for demand to increase, but to actively stand out through "disruptive" innovation. From the most successful company in the PERC era, to the innovation promoter of the TOPCon PECVD route, to the forward-looking layout of all new battery technologies, I believe that Tongwei is expected to become the "perfect" PV target with the support of its global R&D and innovation center in the future.