"If you don't lead, you won't expand production." Keep an eye on the track and dare to make big bets.
Text | "Chinese Entrepreneur" reporter Li Yanyan
editor | Zhou Chunlin
Headshot photography | Shi Xiaobing
26.81%. This is the highest world record for silicon cell efficiency in the 68-year history of photovoltaic development so far, and was created by a Chinese photovoltaic company called Longi Green Energy.
On November 19, LONGi Green Energy announced the news. On the same day, Martin Green, the "Father of Solar Energy in the World" and a professor at the University of New South Wales, announced via video that this is the current record for the highest efficiency of silicon-based solar cells in the world. This is also the latest world record set five years after a Japanese company set a single-crystalline silicon cell efficiency record of 26.7% in 2017.
At present, global photovoltaic technology is rapidly iterating. LONGi Green Energy has been laying out new production capacity since 2018, continuously developing and iterating, and has also formulated the principle of "not leading, not expanding production" to take advantage of the industry's rapid development and dividend period. Today, LONGi Green Energy has become the world's largest monocrystalline silicon manufacturing giant and the world's largest solar technology company.
"Technological innovation is the driving force for the long-term development of enterprises. Once we confirm that we are the industry leader in the future, we will invest heavily to quickly gain first-mover advantage in the market and get the dividends of technological innovation. " As the helmsman, Zhong Baoshen, chairman of LONGi Green Energy, elaborated on the company's "growth secrets."
In the secondary market, LONGi Green Energy, known as "Photovoltaic Mao", has a total market value of around 350 billion yuan. In terms of performance, in recent years, LONGi Green Energy’s operating income has continuously achieved double-digit growth. In the first three quarters of this year, revenue was approximately 87 billion yuan, and increased by 755% year-on-year; net profit has exceeded 10 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of more than 45%.
identified the track and dared to make big bets, and the company was able to grow explosively. In the past nine years, LONGi Green Energy’s compound annual growth rate has been 53.52%. "If you were standing a year ago, I think half of the development of LONGi has met expectations, and half has not met expectations. But if you look at today from the perspective of 2015 and 2016, it has indeed exceeded the expectations of that year." Zhong Baoshen commented on LONGi's development speed.
"We have been constantly testing the boundaries of reliability in the past, but now, we are returning to the main track of battery cell competition." Zhong Baoshen said. He said that with the full start of the global terawatt era, LONGi will continue to increase its efforts in innovative research and development, increase its investment in research and development of new battery materials and new technologies, and accelerate the upgrading of the photovoltaic industry.
barrier
On November 2, LONGi Green Energy launched the Hi-MO 6 series of new components based on HPBC battery technology for distributed application scenarios. Official data shows that the mass production efficiency of the standard version of HPBC batteries can reach a maximum of more than 25.3%. Zhong Baoshen said that HPBC technology is unique to LONGi Green Energy and named by LONGi.
From materials, equipment to processes, many technological innovations in the photovoltaic industry are unprecedented "zero breakthroughs" and require overcoming many bottlenecks. Zhong Baoshen said that the overall R&D investment in HPBC technology exceeded 1 billion. "A product can really go to the market. In fact, its R&D process and R&D investment are very large. Fortunately, we ran out."
15 years ago, due to the high cost of monocrystalline silicon, the market share was less than 5%. After LONGi entered this track, by continuously reducing the manufacturing cost of monocrystalline silicon and improving the conversion efficiency of photovoltaic power generation, monocrystalline silicon's market share exceeded 90%, and it eventually became the mainstream of the market. Looking back at the development of the photovoltaic industry, technological progress is the core factor driving the continuous improvement of battery conversion efficiency.
To a large extent, LONGi Green Energy, which has pushed photovoltaic power generation on the road to cost reduction, has changed the pattern of the entire world's photovoltaic industry. Over the past two decades since then, technological innovation has become the gene of LONGi’s own development. "The core of the photovoltaic (industry) is the continuous reduction of the cost of electricity and the improvement of battery power generation efficiency." Zhong Baoshen said, "LONGi has always spared no effort in this regard."
In 2019, the front-side conversion efficiency of LONGi's monocrystalline bifacial PERC cells reached 24.06%, breaking through the 24% bottleneck and setting a world record. In June 2020, LONGi's Battery R&D Center announced the world's highest conversion efficiency of 25.21% certified by a world-recognized authoritative testing agency, achieving a comprehensive lead in the new solar cell technology in the field of N-type TOPCon cells.
Since then, LONGi has “fully blossomed” in PERC, TOPCon and HJT technology routes. In 2021 alone, LONGi has broken the world record for conversion efficiency of photovoltaic cells seven times on different technical routes. Since the beginning of this year, especially in the past month or so, LONGi Green Energy has refreshed the efficiency record of silicon solar cells three times with efficiencies of 26.74%, 26.78%, and 26.81% respectively.
For many years, LONGi Green Energy has been focusing on research and development. Third-party data shows that it is the company that invests the most in R&D in the global photovoltaic industry, and the proportion of R&D investment in revenue has remained stable at around 5%. Since its listing in 2012, as of mid-2022, LONGi Green Energy has invested more than 16 billion yuan in R&D.
Currently, LONGi is accelerating mass production. In September this year, LONGi Green Energy's Xixian Leye annual production capacity of 15GW high-efficiency monocrystalline battery project was officially put into production, marking the new battery technology HPBC entering the mass production stage. It is reported that this is the largest photovoltaic cell production base with the highest production capacity in the world. "It is expected that after the full production capacity is reached next year, the annual output value of and will reach 30 billion yuan." Zhong Baoshen said.
Institutional research report believes that HPBC is the moat chosen by LONGi by combining the advantages of upstream and downstream silicon wafers and components. This technology has high requirements for upstream and downstream supporting facilities, so it is difficult for other companies to follow the technology. The commissioning of this project will also be of great help to improve the conversion efficiency of the photovoltaic industry.
be realistic
Zhong Baoshen graduated from Lanzhou University, and the brand "Longi" is derived from the name of Mr. Jiang Longji, the third president of Lanzhou University. Talking about this relationship, Zhong Baoshen said that on the one hand, it is to express his admiration and commemoration for the educator; on the other hand, he also hopes that Longi can inherit the LCU spirit of "diligence, truth-seeking, and enterprising", "this is the foundation of what we do."
Zhong Baoshen believes that today’s Longi has a special emphasis on “truth-seeking”. " Avoid exaggeration, arrogance, self-centeredness, and avoid office decision-making, all of which emphasize a realistic culture. Diligence is what we have always firmly practiced, needless to say. LONGi's progress is reflected in continuous innovation and setting higher goals."
Looking through the financial reports over the years, LONGi Green Energy has reduced its holdings of large amounts of assets every year. Why? In Zhong Baoshen's words, this is to destroy the old and create the new, retaining the most sustainable assets. "In fact, it ensures that every penny we spend can create value in the future. Even if this asset is useful, if it can no longer create profits, we think its assets will return to zero."
What is high-quality development? Zhong Baoshen said that in addition to maintaining asset quality, we must also meet customer needs, always be more competitive than competitors, and become the first choice of customers. Third, there must be a reasonable debt structure, "to ensure that when the industry is in difficulty, sufficient resources must be invested in the original scientific research project to ensure that it can move forward healthily."
"Only when an enterprise focuses on its main business can it be possible to take the lead and invest. It is not that you just do what the market is lacking. After you finish it, the profits will go down and the investment will go up, and the business operation of the enterprise will not be able to Guarantee." Zhong Baoshen said that after 20 years, Longi has developed into a leader in the industry, with branches in more than 150 countries and regions. "In this process, we have always adhered to the basic principles of focusing on the main business, continuous innovation, investment only when we are ahead, and a reasonable debt structure. "
An energy revolution with new energy as the main body is coming.At present, there is an endless stream of companies entering the photovoltaic industry "cross-border". Photovoltaic companies in the original pattern are accelerating their expansion, and capital is also pursuing this track. In this big trend, what direction will LONGi take?
Zhong Baoshen said: There are two main points. The first is that everything is based on customer satisfaction. "The goal of many companies is to reduce costs and improve efficiency, but they have actually forgotten whether customers are satisfied. The glass is getting bigger and bigger, the film is getting thinner, and it is very dangerous to constantly test the bottom line of the industry." He therefore called on the photovoltaic industry to pay attention to the reliability of new energy assets that have been operating for more than 25 years to ensure that they are guaranteed throughout their life cycles.
The second is innovation driving . “Not only must resources and manpower be invested sustainably within the enterprise and effective organizational innovation be carried out, but there must also be collaborative innovation across the entire industry.” In July this year, LONGi Central Research Institute, known as the “photovoltaic brain”, was officially put into operation. This place will be the first promoter of various new products and new technologies released by LONGi Green Energy. At the same time, it is also an open innovation platform. "We hope to attract innovators and researchers from the global photovoltaic industry chain and make LONGi their best partner."
Regarding the future of the photovoltaic industry, Zhong Baoshen believes that efforts need to be made in multiple aspects.
First of all, in terms of photovoltaic applications, it is necessary to develop power stations in deserts and water surfaces, but the problem of long-distance transmission between the power generation side and the user side needs to be solved. Secondly, due to the intermittent nature of photovoltaic power generation, the integration of unsourced grid-load and storage will have great room for development. At the same time, photovoltaic hydrogen production and green energy hydrogen production will also be one of the focuses of future industry development.
In addition, in the future, the photovoltaic industry will also need to pay attention to issues such as asset security, product use safety, and how to better integrate photovoltaics and scenarios. Zhong Baoshen said that the industry innovation requires the investment of enterprises as the main body and the coordinated development of all parties. Collaboration includes collaboration between upstream and downstream ecological chains, collaboration between experts in scientific research institutes, etc., so that scientific research results can move toward mass production and society.
