Price war is hard to follow for domestic PV to seek technology breakthrough

In the chaos of the domestic PV market, a new turnaround has emerged as the Shanghai PV Fair, which is known as the industry trend indicator. Many companies did not throw out all kinds of expansion plans as they did last year, and they showed off the latest R&D technologies. Many companies claim to Technology will stand abandoning endless price wars. Li Huishou, chairman of Yanhui Sunshine, told the “China Business” reporter: “It is an insult to allow me to participate in bidding for low-cost domestic PV. We will not participate in any price war in the future.”

"The turn is obvious." Xu Hailiang, PV product manager of TÜV SÜD Group (hereinafter referred to as TüV), told reporters that as one of the largest third-party technology inspection and certification organizations in the world, the group accepted more domestic goods in the past year. The inspection applications of 100 photovoltaic companies have witnessed a rapid growth in domestic enterprises participating in inspection and certification. He believes that China's PV companies are gradually abandoning the competitive strategy of winning with scale and low prices, and begin to shift to the technical and quality level. A technology war will replace the price war.

Loss of standards For a long time, it has been an open secret that some domestic photovoltaic products and foreign sales products are different.

"Most of the exported products will be better than the quality of domestic sales." A photovoltaic company in Jiangsu told reporters. He revealed that PV products sold in Europe must pass TÃœV quality certification, and products sold in the US market must also be certified by third parties such as UL, otherwise it is impossible to enter these markets.

The source stated that compared with strict certifications in foreign countries, the quality standards of photovoltaic products have not been established in China for many years. Some domestic photovoltaic power station builders also choose cheap products in bidding and do not care about the inferior quality of products. "In 2009 and 2010, when the domestic photovoltaic market was just launched, in the bidding project for Golden Sun Project, because of the low bidder's winning bid, the product quality problem was serious, and the small factory sold the inferior product for the cost. Digestive stocks sell inferior goods, and the culture is bad."

“In some projects, a few photovoltaic companies and power plant developers have partnered together to defraud the state subsidies, and even use cardboard to paint colors to impersonate batteries to cope with inspections,” the source said. He said that the state has issued some regulations for this purpose, but these regulations have not been refined and cannot be landed. Therefore, the quality of domestic products has always plagued China's photovoltaic market.

Xu Hailiang told reporters that relatively speaking, the quality requirements for foreign construction of photovoltaic power stations are very strict, so inferior products cannot enter. He said that the small photovoltaic power plants in Europe are self-sufficient in their factories. They will test power generation 24 hours a day and complain about problems. Large-scale photovoltaic power plant builders must make money by selling power. No inferior products will be purchased; other builders will have to finance through the power station. If the power station has quality problems, the corresponding valuation will be greatly reduced.

An internal source of Zhongsheng Optoelectronics believes that the reason for some product quality problems in China is that the photovoltaic standards that are mandatory for certification by the relevant national departments have not been introduced and can only rely on the self-discipline of the company. However, due to serious excess market, the competition is fierce. In order to survive, companies have to reduce the standard sales of products, and the price war has gradually increased the harm to the development of China's photovoltaic market.

“The era of low price is king.” Xie Fangji, head of Jiangsu Aide Solar Technology, told reporters that the company's single-crystal module product has just passed TÜV's PID (potential induced decay test) test. According to him, because it directly affects the power attenuation of the battery, it has become the basis for many power station builders to purchase products, but in the past, domestic construction companies were only concerned about prices and seldom paid attention to product quality. "The obvious change now is that they have begun to pay attention to the conversion rate and attenuation of batteries."

Yan Huiguang sales personnel told reporters that the current production costs of first-line companies are basically the same, in the price war has no more cards to fight, is currently in a stalemate, "So in this situation, if the company's products We can make breakthroughs in conversion rate, decay rate and other technologies, the cost performance will naturally increase, and we will be able to win more markets, so everyone is seeking a technological breakthrough.”

The above-mentioned sources also revealed that first-line companies such as Yanhui Sunshine, LDK Solar, and GCL-Poly have jointly drafted standards for photovoltaic modules with SEMI China. “The first draft will be completed in August. Although this is only a trade association, It also provides reference and basis for the development of detailed standards at the national level. The Development and Reform Commission may also issue its own photovoltaic quality standards early next year."

However, there are disputes between the two lines of crystalline silicon and thin films in China's photovoltaic industry that are still in transition.

Before 2009, thin-film batteries had a chance to compete with crystalline silicon batteries. At the time, the conversion rate of thin-film batteries was only between 7% and 8%, which was far away from 14% of crystalline silicon batteries, but the cost was only crystalline silicon batteries. One-half of the price, but since the price of polysilicon fell from the peak of 400 US dollars / kg to the current 25 US dollars / kg, the thin film advantage lost.

According to report, the current market share of film is less than 20%, and the rest are all crystalline silicon batteries. In China's first-line photovoltaic companies, including Suntech, Yingli, and Jingao are basically silicon wafer manufacturers. The United States, the world’s largest manufacturer of thin-film battery equipment, also stopped sales of the equipment due to a loss of business, and Oerlikon, a film equipment manufacturer, also sold all of its production lines.

"Film can find market segments, but it is by no means the mainstream," Li Xianshou told reporters. He believes that price war damage people is not conducive to their own, technological innovation is the only way to get PV out of the predicament, since 2009, the company's annual investment in research and development is about two or three hundred million yuan, are the field of crystalline silicon batteries, and now harvest Feng.

According to Li, the latest technological innovations of Yu Hui are resin diamond cutting lines and new Virtus components. The former significantly increases the productivity of a single device and the conversion efficiency of the battery; and Virtus can convert the average conversion efficiency of conventional polysilicon cells from about 16.5%. Increased to 18.2% or more, and recently TüV also issued certificates to Virtus components, indicating that Virtus components have been recognized worldwide.

He believes that many PV companies have entered a misunderstanding of the entire industrial chain from polysilicon to components. At that time, these companies that had made full industrialization also made money, but now they have fallen into a loss-making quagmire because of a sharp drop in profits. As the market matures in the future, companies that focus on a certain part of the industry chain are clearly more competitive. “Yihui insists on specialization. In the second quarter of this year, our sales of components increased by 100%, and there are clear signs of recovery.”

Li Xianshou said that now China's photovoltaic industry is in a period of transformation pains, many companies are suffering unprecedented pain and suffering, the survival of the fittest out of strength to out of the enterprise, and as large companies such as Yan Hui have begun the transformation of the road, From production-based manufacturing, we began to shift our focus to research and development and markets.

Zhongsheng Optoelectronics told reporters that in fact, whether crystal silicon or thin film technology line, companies need to earnestly go to research and development, all have a harvest, for the entire industry, it will bring a new atmosphere. However, he also believes that technological R&D cannot be completed overnight. Breakthrough technological changes often take several years. For example, the first solar cadmium telluride thin film battery in the United States has been developed for seven or eight years, and domestic companies like Suntech and Yuen Hui are attentive. Companies investing in R&D are naturally there, but it is inevitable that some companies are still trying to fish in troubled waters.

Photovoltaic equipment manufacturer Manz of Germany produced both crystal silicon and thin film production equipment. The company’s executives told reporters that they are more optimistic about thin-film batteries because the cost and conversion rate of crystalline silicon batteries have reached the bottom and it is difficult to reduce them. There is also a breakthrough in thin-film battery technology. “We have developed a copper-indium-gallium-selenium thin-film battery equipment, and the conversion rate of thin-film batteries produced has reached 14%, but the cost is somewhat high. If the cost can be reduced to below crystalline silicon, I believe it will certainly be more. Competitiveness."

"If some photovoltaic companies in China are not able to calm down, they just use technology as a gimmick. It is inevitable that they will fall into a farce in the name of technical warfare." The above person reminded.