Until the end of 2011, 40% of Tibet’s administrative villages and 520,000 farmers and herdsmen still had no access to electricity, seriously affecting and restricting Tibet’s economic and social development.

Photovoltaic power generation

Only four years later, in 2015, 130,000 households and 520,000 people without access to electricity in the Tibet Autonomous Region were able to solve the problem of access to electricity, achieving a 100% electrification rate in administrative villages. And all this is due to the “Golden Sun” demonstration project that started in 2009.

In order to promote industrial technological progress and large-scale development, the Chinese government has introduced a series of policy combinations since 2009. The photovoltaic building application demonstration project and the “Golden Sun” demonstration project have been implemented successively, which have continuously pushed the scale of China’s photovoltaic power generation industry to a new level. . By the end of 2012, the total installed capacity of photovoltaic power generation in my country had reached 6.5 million kilowatts, accounting for 6.5% of the total installed capacity of photovoltaic power generation in the world at that time, while Germany accounted for one-third of the total installed capacity of photovoltaic power generation in the world at that time, ranking first in the world at that time.

In 2013, the United States and Europe began a “double reverse” investigation against China’s photovoltaic power generation manufacturing industry. This indirectly stimulated another round of Boxing in the domestic photovoltaic power generation industry. In the past 10 years, China’s photovoltaic power generation has shifted from a purely policy-driven drive to an endogenous drive. Photovoltaic power generation that has achieved full grid parity will play a key role in the “dual carbon” era.

In 2021, China’s newly installed photovoltaic power generation capacity will reach 54.88 million kilowatts, the highest level in history, and the cumulative installed capacity will exceed 300 million kilowatts, ranking first in the world. Looking back on the past, the growth rate of China’s installed photovoltaic power generation capacity has been ranked first in the world for 9 consecutive years, and the cumulative installed capacity has been ranked first in the world for 7 consecutive years.

What kind of glorious 10-year history has China’s photovoltaic power generation experienced? From “sprouting” to “thriving”, what kind of hardships has China’s photovoltaic power generation industry experienced?

booming domestic market

Since 2007, China’s solar cell production ranks first in the world. In 2009, it accounted for 40% of the total global solar cell production. However, a big manufacturing country is not the same as a big industrial country. “Two ends outside” (raw materials and downstream markets) is a true portrayal of my country’s photovoltaic industry at that time.

In 2012, the United States and Europe successively imposed additional tariffs on photovoltaic products exported from China. The so-called anti-dumping and anti-subsidy “double-reverse investigation” has dealt a huge blow to China’s photovoltaic manufacturing industry. Suntech, the leading company at that time, suffered an average daily loss of tens of millions of yuan in the first half of 2021, and finally implemented bankruptcy reorganization in 2013.

In July 2013, the State Council issued “Several Opinions on Promoting the Healthy Development of the Photovoltaic Industry”, proposing measures to promote the healthy development of the photovoltaic industry from multiple levels such as price, financial subsidies, taxation, project management and grid connection management. In August of the same year, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the “Notice on Using Price Leverage to Promote the Healthy Development of the Photovoltaic Industry” in accordance with the requirements of the State Council’s documents, to further improve the price policy of photovoltaic power generation projects, and successively formulated benchmark on-grid electricity prices for three types of resource areas (0.9 yuan/ kilowatt-hour, 0.98 yuan/kwh, 1 yuan/kwh) and distributed photovoltaic power subsidy standard (0.42 yuan/kwh), established subsidy funds to be pre-allocated to grid companies on a quarterly basis, and subsidized by grid companies on a monthly basis mechanism.

The introduction of “power price subsidies” has triggered a wave of investment in domestic photovoltaic power generation. Since 2013, under the stimulation of the electricity price subsidy mechanism, China’s photovoltaic power generation industry has ushered in a wave of upsurge, and the installed capacity has entered the fast lane of doubling. .

In 2015, my country’s new installed capacity of photovoltaic power generation surpassed that of Germany for the first time, with a cumulative installed capacity of 43.18 million kilowatts, becoming the country with the largest photovoltaic installed capacity in the world, and has continued to lead the world since then. From 2015 to 2017, China’s annual average installed capacity growth rate reached 75%. By the end of 2017, the cumulative grid-connected installed capacity exceeded 130 million kilowatts.

The “Golden Sun” demonstration project in 2009 opened the prelude to the industrialization of photovoltaic power generation in China. However, in the early days of the photovoltaic power generation industry, the domestic enterprises involved in the development and operation of photovoltaic power plants were mainly state-owned enterprises. After that, the two batches of franchise bidding initiated by the National Energy Administration were also won by state-owned enterprises.

After the introduction of supporting policies such as benchmark on-grid electricity prices in 2013, private enterprises began to quickly enter the track, and Zhenfa New Energy, Shunfeng Power, China Merchants New Energy, China Minsheng Investment, Jiangshan Holdings, GCL New Energy, Aikang Technology, etc. Excellent enterprise, the market is very active.

However, with the rapid expansion of China’s photovoltaic power generation scale, problems have gradually surfaced. The most prominent problem is that the gap in photovoltaic subsidies is getting bigger and bigger. As of the end of 2017, the cumulative renewable energy power generation subsidy gap reached 112.7 billion yuan, of which the photovoltaic subsidy gap was 45.5 billion yuan (accounting for about 40%), and it is expanding year by year.

Although China’s photovoltaic industry has got rid of the dilemma of “both ends are outside”, it relies too much on the “blood transfusion” of policies and subsidies, and China’s photovoltaic power generation industry urgently needs a battle to break the situation.

“531” watershed

In May 2018, the National Energy Administration issued the “Notice on Matters Concerning Photovoltaic Power Generation in 2018”, that is, the “531” New Deal, which again lowered the benchmark on-grid electricity prices of photovoltaic power plants in the three types of resource areas to 0.5 yuan/kWh and 0.6 yuan/kW respectively. hour, 0.7 yuan/kWh, for distributed photovoltaic power generation projects that adopt the mode of “spontaneous self-use, and the surplus is connected to the grid”, the full electricity subsidy standard is reduced to 0.32 yuan/kWh, and distributed photovoltaic power generation projects that adopt “full grid connection” Managed as a normal power station.

This is not the first time that China has adjusted the photovoltaic feed-in tariff. Since 2013, the National Development and Reform Commission has adjusted photovoltaic electricity prices in 2015, 2016, and 2017. However, the dual measures of “reducing electricity prices + limiting scale” have lowered the industry’s expectations for subsidies and directly affected the growth of photovoltaic power generation scale.

The development of China’s photovoltaic power generation industry has entered a shift period of about two years, and the growth rate of installed capacity has slowed down. In 2018, the growth rate of China’s newly installed photovoltaic power generation capacity was about 34%, which was about half of that in 2017; in 2019, the growth rate of installed capacity was about 17%, which continued to decline. Despite this, China’s photovoltaic installed capacity growth rate and cumulative installed capacity in the past two years are still the first in the world. Moreover, this new policy has further eliminated backward production capacity, effectively improved the quality of industry development, and gradually revealed the development resilience of photovoltaic power generation.

At this time, due to the relatively more stable and continuous electricity price policy of distributed photovoltaics, its investment economy began to be favored by market capital, and distributed photovoltaics ushered in explosive growth. Among them, the new capacity of distributed photovoltaics in 2017 It has exceeded 50% of the newly added capacity of centralized photovoltaics in that year. By 2018, the newly installed installed capacity of distributed photovoltaics was 20.7 million kilowatts, which is close to the newly installed installed capacity of centralized photovoltaics of 23.25 million kilowatts. The development momentum is evenly divided with that of centralized photovoltaics.

Looking back at the “531” New Deal at this time, it is not difficult to find that it has extremely important significance for the development of China’s photovoltaic power generation industry. First of all, the new policy clarifies the gradual decline of photovoltaic subsidies, although it will have a certain impact on the growth of photovoltaic power generation in the short term. However, photovoltaic companies also realized in advance that they can no longer rely on subsidies for development. Technology-driven and efficiency-driven have begun to promote the rise of China’s photovoltaic power generation industry. High-efficiency PERC components represented by 182mm and 210mm cells, N-type TOPCon, HJT, IBC components and tracking brackets have been widely used, further improving the overall power generation capacity and quality benefits of the power station.

During this period, under the influence of the New Deal and subsidy arrears, some private enterprises sold their power station assets, especially after the “531” New Deal, transactions became more frequent, and most of the receivers were powerful central or local state-owned enterprises. After 2019, power plant transactions have become more frequent. According to incomplete statistics, after this round of frequent transactions, nearly 90GW of photovoltaic power plants were finally sold, and nearly 70% of them were central enterprises and local state-owned enterprises. Choose to cooperate with state-owned enterprises in the form of equity participation or cooperation.

“Photovoltaic +” cross-border integration

Light is the messenger of light that penetrates the darkness; electricity is the warmth of the world like a spring breeze; photovoltaic power generation is the friendly bond that passes through the world. Compared with hydropower, thermal power, wind power, biomass and other energy sources, the charm of photovoltaic power generation lies in its flexibility, convenience and scalability, which can be highly integrated with all aspects of economic and social development.

In recent years, major energy state-owned enterprises and leading enterprises in the industry have made bold attempts. Through technological breakthroughs and business model innovations, they have explored “water-solar complementarity”, “wind-solar complementarity” and photovoltaic + “agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishery”, etc. A cross-border integration development model of industries, and promote the development of the photovoltaic power generation industry from a single category of power supply to “integrated smart energy”.

SPIC’s Qinghai Longyangxia 850MW “Water-Photovoltaic Complementary” demonstration project has overcome the key technology of large-scale hydro-photovoltaic complementary coordinated control, using the rapid response of hydropower units and the adjustment ability of the reservoir to successfully convert randomly fluctuating photovoltaic power into smooth , safe and stable high-quality power supply. It is this kind of exploration that has created a world record for Qinghai for 7 days and 9 days powered by clean energy from wind, light and water for two consecutive years. Built the world’s largest 4050MW “water, wind, light, storage” integrated multi-energy complementary clean energy base in Hainan Prefecture, Qinghai, and is the main power source for the first large-scale transmission of clean energy ±800kV “Qingyu DC” UHV transmission line in China , becoming an important “energy landmark” for the construction of Qinghai’s clean energy demonstration province.

In Dengkou, Inner Mongolia, the first 70MW “photovoltaic sand control and ecological restoration” demonstration project in China was built. It combines photovoltaic power generation with desert control and water-saving agriculture, and the vegetation coverage rate has increased from 8% to 77%. It has become a photovoltaic power generation, modern An eco-industry demonstration base integrating animal husbandry, sand and grass industry, and eco-tourism. Dalat Banner, Inner Mongolia built the world’s largest 200MW “horse” photovoltaic power station with 196,320 modules, which became the world’s largest photovoltaic panel figure certified by Guinness World Records. The innovative photovoltaic + desert control + ecological restoration + agriculture and forestry + tourism development model has formed The new features of desert tourism such as sightseeing, picking, experience, and leisure have driven the employment and income of surrounding farmers and herdsmen.

In Huainan, Anhui, the largest 40MW floating photovoltaic power station in China was built using the water surface of the Lianghuai coal mining subsidence area, turning the former “coal mining subsidence area” into today’s “water power station”, and accumulated important experience for the governance of the Lianghuai coal mining subsidence area. experience.

The world’s first 0.5MW deep-sea floating photovoltaic demonstration project was built in the Shandong Peninsula South No. 3 offshore wind farm. The project consists of a ring-shaped anti-wave floating body, a high-strength film resistant to the marine environment, and a photovoltaic system. It is sent through an offshore booster station To the power grid, opened a new chapter in the project of floating scenery in the deep sea.

In Gonghe of Qinghai, Ganzi of Sichuan, and Daqing of Heilongjiang, the world’s most complete variety, most schemes, and most authoritative national solar power generation and energy storage demonstration bases have been built, and the “SPIC Photovoltaic Energy Storage Demonstration Blue Book” has been released. The design and development, equipment manufacturing, construction, technical standard preparation and product performance of the photovoltaic industry provide measured data, which effectively promotes the efficient integrated application of photovoltaic power plants.

SPIC combines photovoltaic power plants with agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishery and other industries to realize the harmonious development of man and nature that “needs both gold and silver mountains, but also green water and green mountains”. Jiangxi Leping Agriculture-Photovoltaic Complementary Project, the installation height of photovoltaics is more than 2.8 meters, which does not affect agricultural planting, and the sunshine illumination is more in line with the growth of crops. The Jiangsu Jianhu Fishery Photovoltaic Complementary Project has developed a photovoltaic power station that can generate electricity from the top and raise fish from the bottom, forming a high degree of integration of photovoltaic power generation with fishery and tourism.

Photovoltaic projects in Anhui Xinsheng, Zhejiang Jiaxing, Jingdezhen, Shentou and other industrial parks use idle roofs to build photovoltaic power stations, reducing the cost of electricity for users. Photovoltaic power generation is developed in coordination with various industries. There are also demonstration projects such as “grassland pasture” of Gonghe animal husbandry and solar complementary “grassland pasture” in Qinghai, “building photovoltaic” of smart buildings in Beijing’s financial street, and comprehensive smart energy in Anhui’s “beautiful Xiaogang village”; photovoltaic poverty alleviation projects in Sichuan, Guizhou, Hebei and other regions; Beijing, Ningxia Green electricity transportation and green electricity conversion projects such as regional hydrogen energy buses, battery replacement heavy trucks, and photovoltaic hydrogen production are actively contributing wisdom and strength to the implementation of the national “3060” goal.

In order to promote photovoltaic power generation to play a more important role in energy transformation, SPIC actively leveraged its own advantages in operation, system integration, and investment, and innovatively practiced “multi-energy complementarity”, “agricultural photovoltaic complementarity”, and “fishery photovoltaic complementarity” , “Photovoltaic + Ecology + Poverty Alleviation”, “Photovoltaic + Sand Control”, “Photovoltaic + Building”, “Floating Water Photovoltaic” and other “Photovoltaic +” development models, forming a photovoltaic system integration optimization and “Photovoltaic +” model core competitiveness, and achieved good economic and social benefits.