The solar energy industry has entered a period of structural adjustment, "gold mining" hundreds of millions of rural markets.

Solar photovoltaic industry is considered to be an important part of new energy. In the financial crisis, China's photovoltaic industry, which developed at a high speed but relied excessively on "supplied materials processing" and "both ends away", encountered difficulties. In 2009, with the introduction of a series of national industrial support policies and the gradual recovery of private investment, China's photovoltaic industry began to enter a period of structure and market adjustment. A number of experts interviewed by this reporter believe that in 2010, China's photovoltaic industry will further "shift" from over-reliance on the international market to the vast domestic market, especially the rural market. But they also believe that with the rapid development of China's photovoltaic industry, many problems still need to be dealt with cautiously.

It is difficult to sustain "both ends".

Before the financial crisis, the photovoltaic industry has been a hot spot for Chinese private enterprises to invest. Chinese photovoltaic enterprises, from 2005 to 2006, as many as 11 Chinese photovoltaic companies were listed in the United States. In 2008, China's solar cell output reached 2600m, making it the largest solar cell producer in the world.

Behind the bubble development of the photovoltaic industry is the over-reliance on structural problems such as "processing of supplied materials" and "overseas markets".

According to Li an, a senior researcher at the Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2003-2008 is the first stage of the development of China's photovoltaic industry. in the five major links of the photovoltaic industry chain, such as high-purity polysilicon production, silicon ingot wafer production, battery wafer production, module packaging line production, photovoltaic application and so on, Chinese enterprises can only seize the ingot wafer production, battery wafer production, module packaging line and other links. The production of polysilicon materials in the upstream of the industrial chain and the photovoltaic applications in the downstream appear to be insufficient.

Before 2008, the international price of polysilicon soared, from US $40 / kg in 2001-2003 to a peak of US $480 / kg in 2008. at that time, there was even a saying in the industry that "silicon owners own the world". Driven by exorbitant profits, China's photovoltaic industry has flocked to polysilicon production. In 2007, of the 15.67 billion yuan investment in the new energy field of 25 domestic listed companies, polysilicon projects have taken up one of them, with an input output of more than 4000 tons. However, the production of polysilicon in China is mostly maintained by high energy consumption, high cost and high pollution, which is far from the international advanced level in terms of technology and technology.

Li Anan said that the cost of polysilicon in China is generally 50 to 70 US dollars / kg, and individual companies are even as high as 100 US dollars, while the production costs of advanced enterprises in Germany and other countries are only 25 US dollars / kg.

Compared with the "quantity but no quality" of polysilicon production, the prominent contradiction of photovoltaic applications lies in the lack of domestic demand. In 2008, 98% of China's photovoltaic cells were exported abroad, and local applications were scarce.

This structural problem of China's photovoltaic industry is particularly obvious in the financial crisis. Affected by the financial crisis, the silicon market has fallen, from a peak of nearly US $500 to US $70 to US $80. polysilicon production in China, which is sustained by high costs and high energy consumption, is difficult to sustain; at the same time, major photovoltaic demand countries such as Germany and Spain have adjusted their photovoltaic development strategies, and foreign orders have plummeted, making it even worse. Chinese photovoltaic companies, which used to be hot on the international stock market, were snubbed by wall street, and in September 2008, the overall Chinese solar sector fell 10% in the first week after the collapse of Lehman brothers. Since then, no Chinese photovoltaic company has made a penny on Wall Street.

"PUBG" opens up the domestic market

China's photovoltaic industry in 2009 is the most appropriate. In 2009, under the guidance and support of government policies, China's photovoltaic industry began to adjust its industrial structure like "strong men breaking their wrists".

Opinions on curbing overcapacity in some industries and repeated construction to guide the healthy development of industries ", strengthened the control over new polysilicon projects, clearly proposed that the scale of new polysilicon projects must be greater than 3000 tons / year, and encouraged polysilicon production enterprises and downstream solar cell production enterprises to strengthen association and cooperation to extend the industrial chain.

Experts believe that in recent years, the development of China's photovoltaic industry, especially the production of polysilicon, is largely an act of striving for quick success and instant benefits, and the government has eliminated backward production capacity through the guidance of industrial policies. it is the inevitable choice to realize the technological upgrading and sustained and healthy development of China's photovoltaic industry. Although the industry reshuffle in the crisis is in labor pains, it is often those enterprises with high technical level and strong market competitiveness that have withstood the test in this crisis, which has more advantages than disadvantages to the development of China's photovoltaic industry.

While standardizing the development of the industry, the Chinese government has also issued a series of support policies such as "Roof Project" and "Golden Sun Project" to strengthen photovoltaic application capacity.

In July 2009, the Ministry of Science and Technology promoted the Golden Sun Certification Project, which explicitly subsidized 500 MW solar energy demonstration projects. In September, this amount was added to 642 megawatts. Experts estimate that the "Golden Sun Project" alone is equivalent to adding 500 to 680MW of photovoltaic installed capacity in more than two years, with an annual installed capacity of more than 250MW, which will provide more than 14% of the market for China's photovoltaic cell enterprises every year.

"the national industrial support policy has effectively stimulated the demand for photovoltaic applications in the domestic market and played a key role in achieving the first recovery of the photovoltaic industry in the financial crisis." Li Anding said.

The rural market has a bright future.

While the state promotes the structural adjustment of the photovoltaic industry through policies, the market-oriented adjustment of the photovoltaic industry itself also continues.

At the beginning of the 2010 New year, the "Photovoltaic New Energy and three-dimensional Agricultural industrialization" project in Hezhou, Guangxi, has been demonstrated by experts that the solar power plant project with an installed capacity of 4 megawatts will soon be located in Hezhou, known as the "Pearl River Delta vegetable basket". This is the epitome that China's photovoltaic industry is beginning to get rid of its over-dependence on foreign and urban markets and march into the vast domestic rural market.

Experts believe that the vast rural market and the Chinese government's subsidy policy for home appliances to the countryside have prompted photovoltaic industry application enterprises with high technology as the core to turn their attention to the potential rural market.

Photovoltaic enterprises, which saw the great potential of the rural market earlier, have benefited from it. Dongguan Donghailong Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd. is engaged in the technical service of LD solar lighting light source all the year round, and now has more than 10 patents of independent intellectual property rights.

Luo Guohao, chairman of the company, told reporters that from 2004 to 2009, the company continued to invest almost every year, with a cumulative investment of more than 200 million yuan, which belongs to a typical stage of technology accumulation. However, since 2010, the company has accepted more than 500 million yuan of service orders with solar photovoltaic as the core. It is expected that orders will show a "snowball" development in the next few years.

Luo Guohao believes that the combination of photovoltaic industry and agriculture has broad prospects. with the development of photovoltaic technology, photovoltaic and agriculture will be integrated in many fields to promote the development of green agriculture and ecological agriculture at the same time. Promote their own development and growth. Another project that Donghailong is currently working on is solar insecticidal lamps. Luo Guohao said that this combination of photovoltaic high-tech insecticidal lamps can kill more than 1000 kinds of pests in 50 to 100 mu of fields, environmentally friendly and efficient, and the cost of each lamp is only 10, 000 yuan.

Lin Bingying, a professor at Guilin University of Technology, is committed to studying the integration of photovoltaic power generation and biogas. Lin Bingying believes that biogas has sufficient raw materials in rural areas, and biogas can complement photovoltaic power generation to build a stable and sustainable green power supply system.

Experts believe that the entry of the photovoltaic industry into the rural market will further promote the development of domestic photovoltaic applications and change the awkward situation of "both sides", especially "application", of China's photovoltaic industry, which is of great significance for China's energy conservation, emission reduction and expansion of domestic demand.

Li Jingwen, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said: China is a large country in energy production and consumption, and energy development is in short supply. Promoting the combination of agriculture and photovoltaic industry plays an important role in promoting the development of new energy, promoting the role of energy in supporting the national economy, and realizing energy conservation and emission reduction.

Sun Yaowei, deputy director of the Policy and Law Department of the State Power Regulatory Commission, used "historical progress" to judge the combination of photovoltaic industry and agriculture: "one is the revolution of agricultural industrialization, and the other is to raise the use of new energy to a new level. It's revolutionary."

Industry insiders judge that the total value of the photovoltaic industry entering the rural market is more than hundreds of millions of yuan. The huge market demand will attract more photovoltaic enterprises to enter, which will rewrite the previous city-centered photovoltaic industry market pattern. (he Fenglun, Wang Qiufeng)