Photovoltaic Market, Power Plants and Value-added Services

China's PV companies, which have experienced a downturn in the industry, have ushered in a year of renewal.

Recently, listed photovoltaic companies have disclosed their 2014 financial reports. The figures in the financial report all show that China's photovoltaic industry has already experienced the most difficult period.

At the same time, from the perspective of the national development strategy, the construction of photovoltaic power plants will also become an important part of the domestic energy structure, and the value-added services formed around the power plants also have a lot of space.

The industry turned a year

Recently, with the announcement of 2014 earnings of companies such as Hanergy, Shunfeng, and United Photovoltaic, there are shares of photovoltaic companies that have seen rising share prices in recent days. Investors are pleased to find that China's PV companies have ushered in the second round of development. .

Looking through the earnings reports of a number of companies, it can be found that the loss-making companies began to turn a profit, and the profits of the slightly profitable companies have greatly improved.

At the same time, the country has also issued relevant policies to promote the rapid development of the industry.

The National Energy Administration formally issued the “Notice of Implementation Plan for Photovoltaic Power Generation in 2015” (hereinafter referred to as the “Notice”), setting the scale of new photovoltaic power plants in the country to be 17.8 GW in 2015.

Northeast Securities pointed out in a recent research report that “multiple factors are resonant and domestic PV power plant construction will usher in blowouts. We believe that there are multiple factors such as persistent policy support, difficulty in financing, exit from unimpeded channels, and influx of social capital. Under the joint promotion, the total scale of domestic PV power plant construction is expected to reach 18 GW in 2015, a 70% year-on-year rapid growth. The large-scale construction of the power station has become a key factor in driving the photovoltaic company's performance into a sustained and rapid growth period.”

The comparison found that the 17.8 GW scale is not only higher than 14 GW for the 2014 filing plan and 15 GW for the draft, but it also represents an increase of more than 70% compared to the actual new photovoltaic grid connection in 2014.

Layout value-added services

Photovoltaic industry sources told reporters: "With the continuous development of the photovoltaic industry, the cost of photovoltaic modules has been further reduced. With the continuous introduction of relevant national policies, more and more photovoltaic module manufacturers have begun to enter the downstream photovoltaic industry. The power station business. At the same time, more funds and companies in the non-photovoltaic industry have begun to cut into the photovoltaic field from the power station project."

Recently, SPI Solar announced that it plans to invest 1GW of photovoltaic power station in Xinjiang. Rainbow Refine and China Nuclear Industry Second Construction Co., Ltd. have signed the "Cooperation Framework Agreement for Solar Photovoltaic Power Plant Projects." It is understood that the two sides agreed to achieve cooperation within three years. The scale of photovoltaic construction of not less than 1GW has a total investment of about 8 billion yuan.

It is foreseeable that the construction of photovoltaic power plants will continue to grow rapidly in 2015. The scale of photovoltaic power plants is continuously expanding, and the space for development of related industries behind them is also growing.

According to public information, photovoltaic power plants laid out by the photovoltaic company several years ago began to formally generate power from the grid in 2014, and the number of grid-connected generator sets in 2015 will further increase. With the increase in the scale of grid-connected photovoltaic power plants, the solution to the problem of building photovoltaic power plants, and the post-operation and maintenance operations have become the fastest growing business in the future power station sector.

At present, companies have begun to make extensive arrangements for the value-added services of the aforementioned photovoltaic power plants.

Recently, after the restructuring of *ST Chaori, GCL Group renamed the company as GCL Integration, and this company has a very clear development idea that focuses on providing integrated services for PV power plants.

Earlier, the company’s executives pointed out in an interview: “The purpose of setting up this company is to provide the public with integrated services for photovoltaic power stations to help everyone start using photovoltaic products as soon as possible. Suppose a family wants to build a rooftop photovoltaic power plant, its funds How to solve, how to operate and maintain, for the time being there is no such method, and the bank will be too small.”

Alcon Technology, which is the origin of photovoltaic stents and components, has also begun to gradually deploy downstream. Ma Wei, director of the company’s capital market, also pointed out in an interview with reporters that the operation and maintenance of the future will be a big market. “The provision of operation and maintenance services on the one hand can help some companies save unnecessary labor costs. At the same time, Effective operation and maintenance can also greatly improve the operational efficiency of photovoltaic power plants."

At present, China’s accumulated total photovoltaic installed capacity is around 28.05 GW, and according to the operation and maintenance costs generally accounting for 8% of the photovoltaic power plant revenue, the annual operation and maintenance market scale of photovoltaic power plants will approach RMB 3.4 billion, according to the current domestic PV installation speed. This market space will have a lot of imagination.

The "double anti-" problem is still

In fact, while the photovoltaic industry has ushered in a new round of development, we must not ignore the impact of the “double reverse” in Europe and the United States on the development of domestic photovoltaic companies.

On January 23, 2014, the U.S. Department of Commerce officially announced that it initiated anti-dumping and countervailing investigations on crystalline silicon photovoltaic products imported from mainland China, and launched anti-dumping investigations on crystalline silicon photovoltaic products imported from Taiwan. This is the second “double reaction” initiated by the United States for China's photovoltaic products. Compared with the first “double reverse” survey, the scope of the second “double counter” investigation has further expanded from photovoltaic cells to photovoltaic modules, laminates, and panels, and the target has also expanded from mainland China to Taiwan.

In May of the same year, Australia and India also issued announcements to make anti-dumping final decisions on photovoltaic modules and panels imported from China and on solar panels originating in China and Taiwan.

On December 5, 2014, the Canadian Border Service Agency announced that it officially launched a "double reverse" investigation of crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules and laminate products from China.

At the same time, on December 17, 2014, the US Department of Commerce announced the final outcome of the “double reverse” of China PV. Subsequently, the US International Trade Commission announced the final outcome of the China PV dual reverse case on January 21, 2015. China's imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic products constitute a real damage to the U.S. industry, and the United States will impose "double reverse" tariffs accordingly.

“Photovoltaic products have been tangled in international trade disputes, and at the same time, they have confirmed that photovoltaic new energy has become a focus of attention for governments of all countries. With the increase in the importance attached to photovoltaics by all countries in the world, trade disputes about photovoltaic products will increase in the future. It is not only a simple manufacturing trade dispute but a future energy resource competition,” said Jingxian Li Xiande, in an interview with the reporter.