Domestic looming CIGS industry "fight" pattern

At present, China's CIGS thin-film solar cell industry vaguely presents a melee situation.

In Shandong, Shanxi, Guangdong, and Guangxi, according to incomplete statistics, nearly 20 companies from 11 provinces across the country participated in the feast of the CIGS industry. The total planned capacity of China's CIGS thin-film solar cells in 2015 is close to 2,000 megawatts, which is almost It is twice the capacity of all CIGS films in the world.

Is this an idiot's dream, or is it another metaphor of photovoltaic "nightmare"?

From a technical point of view, none of the numerous domestic CIGS thin film projects actually have their own core technologies. Instead of purchasing foreign equipment for production, foreign companies are introduced to set up production lines in China.

Sun Yun, a professor at the Institute of Optoelectronics at Nankai University, said that if the current situation is allowed to develop, the Chinese CIGS industry will once again become a danger to foreign manufacturers of dairy cows. China's emerging CIGS thin film solar cell application market may also become a "consumer field" for foreign second-rate technologies and waste products.

If the relevant government departments at this time can not timely release the corresponding industrial policy and strategic planning, then the emerging CIGS industry may repeat the mistakes of the crystalline silicon photovoltaic industry.

Zhuang Daming, director of the functional film laboratory of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Tsinghua University, believes that the government should formulate industry access standards and industrial planning and at the same time guide the effective integration and breakthrough of industries by leading large enterprises with capabilities to form a high-tech starting point and core Industry-leading companies with technology introduction effects.

Some Domestic CIGS Projects 1. Guangzhou Solar Battery Project - In 2009, Guangzhou City signed contracts with Yaofei International Co., Ltd. and Guangdong Xinyu Investment Co., Ltd. to invest 500 million U.S. dollars in the construction of four 25 megawatt CIGS production lines.

2. Shandong Vosges Group Project - Vosges PV plans to purchase two production lines from Germany's Johanna Solar, each with a design capacity of 30 MW, two with a total of 60 MW, and a total equipment cost of approximately 111.75 million Euros.

3. Jiangsu Suzhou Gaosai Project—Suzhou Gaosai Solar Energy Technology Co., Ltd. plans to officially put into operation a 25 MW production line in 2010. It is expected that the annual sales will reach 30 million US dollars.

4. Liaoning Benxi Project - Wei Nei Company and Benxi Municipal Committee agreed to invest RMB 480 million to build a CIGS solar module production enterprise; Weiner Company invested RMB 300 million to solely build an annual production capacity of 250 MW CIGS film production enterprise.

5. Fujian Chuanghui Optoelectronics Project—Chuanghui Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. plans to invest 60 million U.S. dollars, with 300 acres of land, and an annual output value of 1.2 billion yuan.

6. Guangxi Shangke Photovoltaic Project - The project plans to invest a total investment of 1.15 billion yuan to build a production capacity of 300 megawatts of polysilicon and 70 megawatts of CIGS thin-film batteries with an annual sales of more than 6 billion yuan and a tax of 500 million yuan. One phase of the project has a total investment of 200 million yuan and an annual output value of 1.6 billion yuan.

7. Shanxi Hongyi Photovoltaic Project—The total investment of the project is 808 million yuan. The production capacity will be 180 megawatts from 2009 to 2011; the total design capacity will reach 300 megawatts from 2011 to 2013, and a further 300 megawatts of capacity will be planned for 2015.

8. Henan Yankee Photovoltaic Energy Project - The project was started in May 2009. It plans to invest 780 million yuan within three years to complete the first phase of the project and build a production capacity of 60 megawatts.

9. Sichuan Panzhihua Solar Project—China Huitong Guarantee Co., Ltd. and Taiwan Weinai Technology Co., Ltd. plan to jointly invest 150 million U.S. dollars. In the first phase, the company invested 75 million U.S. dollars to build a 50 megawatt CIGS thin-film solar energy production line. In phase II, it invested 75 million U.S. dollars to build a 50 megawatt CIGS thin-film solar cell production line and build a 10 megawatt photovoltaic power station.

10. Tianjin Project—The project has a scale of 200 MW and a registered capital of US$20 million. It is expected to start production in June 2010.

11. Beijing Hanergy Holdings Project — In early January 2013, Hanergy Holding Group Co., Ltd. acquired Siabro, a German subsidiary of Q-Cells, in June 2012 and acquired MiaSolé of the United States to become another production company of CIGS thin film solar cells. In 2015, the capacity of thin-film solar cells, including CIGS thin films, is expected to reach about 3 GW.

12. Taiwan’s Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.—with a capacity of 30 megawatts and a conversion rate of 13%, announced shipments in April 2011. The source of technology is the introduction of US technology plus independent intellectual property rights.

With the strategic introduction, the central enterprises will be responsible for the realization that the 1MW CIGS commercial power station in Yunnan Shilin has been built to generate electricity, bringing us hope for future development and making us feel the urgency of the problem."

Wang Xiaoyi, general manager of Beijing Sanglin Blue Sky Control Technology Co., Ltd., said that the construction of a 1 MW CIGS power station can import German MANZ company's products. However, to reach the CIGS tens of megawatt-class power station, catch up with the technical level of Germany, Japan and the United States, it is unrealistic to rely on imports for a long time.

If China cannot have the core technology and industrialization capabilities of CIGS, we will always be in a passive situation.

On the basis of having achieved good results in practice, how to start the introduction of core technologies and achieve industrialization will test the courage and wisdom of China's industrial strategic decision-making.

The introduction of basic thin film batteries is divided into silicon-based films, cadmium telluride and CIGS copper indium gallium selenide thin film batteries. Silicon-based thin films have low conversion rates, short lifetimes, and lack of market competitiveness. The domestic market does not accept, and the international market is less likely to be applied on a large scale. The cadmium telluride thin film technology is in the hands of the first solar energy First Solar in the United States and does not transfer technology to China.

Only the CIGS thin film battery, although its core technology is in the hands of Germany, the United States, and Japan, its industrialization scale is not large, and the CIGS thin film solar cell technology based on German R&D is looking for more extensive international technology cooperation and technology transfer. .

At the same time, some research institutes and enterprises in China have had some research and development and technology accumulation for CIGS thin-film solar cell technology. Although the technology is not yet mature, it already has the ability to digest and absorb international advanced CIGS technologies and to conduct secondary research and development.

The timely introduction of the most advanced core technology in the world breaks the bottleneck that restricts the development of China's CIGS technology and becomes an important opportunity for China to grasp the core technology of CIGS as soon as possible.

Then, in the world's many CIGS research and development companies, which specific technology process?

The outbreak of the US financial crisis and the European debt crisis has brought opportunities for China to see the target. In the crisis environment where the market shrinks and the investment ebbs, only companies with stronger capabilities, higher product quality, and lower costs can survive.

Solyndra and Solopower Corporation of the United States, after less than one year of obtaining a major loan from the Federal Ministry of Energy, declared bankruptcy due to defects in R&D path and product industrialization.

In Europe, Germany’s two giant solar giants, Q-cell and Centrotherm, also declared bankruptcy protection due to technical line errors and their inability to achieve industrial production.

At present, only Manz AG of Germany resists the impact of the market, and has achieved economical mass production in CIGS technology research and development, and created a world record of 20.3% CIGS solar thin-film battery photoelectric conversion in the laboratory, and its commercial transformation. The rate has also reached 13.5%, and the good rate is close to 80%. In terms of cost, power generation, and stability, and other technical indicators, it has formed an advantage over traditional crystalline silicon chip cells.

Wang Xiaoyi stated that after a two-year technical comparison, we finally decided to use a MANZ product that is more mature in industrialization and has a complete set of core R&D, production, and equipment technology systems, taking the first place in China’s CIGS power station construction. Steps to lay the most solid foundation for China's overall technological breakthrough.

The big strategy behind this proved that the investment in the 1MW CIGS solar thin film power station and photovoltaic building integration project at Shilin proved that the technical level, stability, and profitability that CIGS can achieve have greatly outpaced traditional crystalline silicon products.

The power generation capacity is 10% to 15% higher than that of the crystalline silicon product, and there is no attenuation. Even under high temperature conditions, the power generation power is still stable. The CIGS film is soft in appearance, strong in shape and plasticity, and has more appearance in curtain wall decoration, roof power stations and other aspects. Suitable for building integration needs.

In terms of the low level of CIGS technology, although the current import price per watt has reached 10 yuan, but with the development of localization and industrialization, the single plant scale is 220 MWh, and the CIGS cost can reach 0.55 U.S. dollars per watt. With a single plant size of 500 MWh, the cost is only 0.35-0.40 USD/W. At that time, the cost of power generation will also reach the level of 0.4 yuan/kWh, which will almost reach the price level of conventional energy power generation. The goal of achieving clean energy parity Internet access is just around the corner.

However, how to realize the localization of CIGS thin-film solar cells and truly have China's core intellectual property rights?

Wang Xiaoyi is thinking about the future of his CIGS power station and dreams of a route to China's technologically-affordable CIGS thin-film solar power station.

However, CIGS is a capital and technology-intensive high-end industry. Its characteristic is that it must have an industrial scale of over 2,000 megawatts, so as to match the development of high-end equipment manufacturing.

The characteristics of the industry determine that China can no longer take the old road of company's slapstick, decentralized product introduction, equipment introduction, duplicate construction, and finally big price war on the basis of summing up the glory and lessons of photovoltaic development in the past decade. In this way, China not only cannot master the core technology of the industry, but is also subject to people everywhere.

"In the "12th Five-Year Plan" photovoltaic planning catalogue formulated by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, it has been clearly stated that breakthroughs in industrialization and commercialization will be achieved during the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period. We have just made a breakthrough in our application, but Industrialization is still blank."

Wang Xiaoyi hopes that China’s powerful large enterprises, especially large central enterprises, should assume more responsibilities in the development of strategic industries.

State-owned enterprises are holding their ears. At present, the five major power generation groups and the China National Energy Corporation and China Building Materials Corporation of the central enterprises have already stepped into the photovoltaic industry. However, none of them has actually entered the upstream PV industry and have developed strategically. Some central enterprises seem to be more willing to earn the simplest profits in the downstream industries of PV by virtue of their dominant position in power production.

Large-scale Chinese enterprises cannot shoulder the responsibility for industrial pioneering construction, and will make it difficult for China to make breakthroughs and industrialization in major scientific and technological projects. Instead, it will allow foreign companies to control the Chinese market through various channels and agents over a long period of time.

“Strong large enterprises often become the main force for the research and development of CIGS technology abroad.” Sun Yun, professor at the Institute of Optics and Electronics at Nankai University, said that the state should encourage some powerful companies, especially those responsible for related functions and national will, to carry out industrial development. Investment and construction.

For example: China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group Corporation, as the only national company in the field of energy conservation and environmental protection, should bear the cost and risk of billions of yuan required for the introduction of international advanced environmental protection core technologies to take the lead in entering CIGS solar thin-film batteries. The introduction of technology core technology and industrial development.

If a large-scale central enterprise such as the China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group Company can assume its responsibilities and fulfill the country's will, it can form a high-low, matching and rich industrial support in accordance with market-oriented operating rules.

This will not only correctly guide the investment direction of social capital investment, promote the orderly and prosperous development of the entire industry, but also, in terms of large-scale enterprises, meet its own strategic positioning, become a model for China’s emerging strategic industries, and even save energy in the world. Environmental leader.

Regarding questions raised by central enterprises and the public, Wang Xiaoyi, who is a private entrepreneur, stated that as long as the central SOEs can achieve the parity of photovoltaic power generation, and they can establish supporting industrial clusters in accordance with the market mechanism and live the entire Chinese PV market, there will be no existence. The so-called issue of contending with the people is a good thing for the benefit of the people and the people and the country.