The hottest in 2017, China's photovoltaic industry

In 2017, the momentum of China's photovoltaic industry was strong, opportunities and challenges coexisted in the industry

in 2017, affected by the accelerated expansion of domestic photovoltaic distributed market and the rapid rise of foreign emerging markets, China's photovoltaic industry continued to develop healthily, with steady growth in industrial scale, significant improvement in technology level, significant decline in production costs, continuous improvement in enterprise benefits, and stable foreign trade

(I) steady growth of industrial scale. In 2017, China's polysilicon output was 242000 tons, with a year-on-year increase of 24.7%; Silicon wafer output was 87gw, with a year-on-year increase of 34.3%; The output of battery chips was 68gw, with a year-on-year increase of 33.3%; The output of components was 76gw, with a year-on-year increase of 31.7%. The production scale of all links of the industrial chain accounts for more than 50% in the world, and continues to rank first in the world

(II) the technical level has been continuously improved. The technology of p-type single crystal and polycrystalline batteries has been continuously improved. The average conversion efficiency of conventional production lines has reached 20.5% and 18.8% respectively, while the advanced production lines using passive emitter back contact technology (PERC) and black silicon technology have reached 21.3% and 19.2% respectively. The polysilicon production process was further optimized. According to the municipal ceramic aluminum office, the average comprehensive power consumption of the industry has fallen below 70kwh/kg

(III) production costs decreased significantly. With the joint promotion of technological progress, production automation and intelligent transformation, the production cost of polysilicon in China's leading enterprises has been reduced to 60000 yuan/ton, the production cost of components has been reduced to less than 2 yuan/watt, the investment cost of photovoltaic power generation system has been reduced to about 5 yuan/watt, and the kilowatt hour cost has been reduced to 0 7 yuan/kWh

(IV) enterprise benefits continue to improve. Benefiting from the expansion of market scale, the shipment volume of enterprises has increased significantly. At the same time, due to the reduction of production costs driven by technological progress, the profitability of China's photovoltaic enterprises has significantly improved. The highest gross profit margins of upstream silicon materials, silicon wafers, raw and auxiliary materials, as well as downstream inverters, power stations and other links have reached 45.8%, 37.34%, 21.8%, 33.54% and 50%

(V) foreign trade remained stable. In 2017, the total export volume of photovoltaic products in China was US $13.11 billion, with a year-on-year increase of 1.4%; The import volume of polysilicon was 144000 tons, with a year-on-year increase of 17.3%. Affected by the continued expansion of the global photovoltaic market, China's exports of photovoltaic products have increased rapidly, but the export price of products has continued to decline, and the growth rate of emerging markets such as Mexico, Brazil and India has increased, with exports to India ranking first

II. Situation and difficulties faced

(I) continuous release of production capacity and increased pressure on market supply and demand. From the supply side, the new and technological transformation capacity in all links will be gradually released in 2018. From the demand side, the growth rate of the domestic new market scale will slow down when international Jilin huazhilu bio based materials Co., Ltd. is settled in the bio based materials industry innovation base in Changchun Economic and Technological Development zone. This change will lead to the imbalance between supply and demand in China's photovoltaic market in 2018, and the product prices of upstream and downstream links will be further explored, and enterprises will bear greater pressure

(I) single product structure and weak industrial technological innovation. China's photovoltaic products are crystalline silicon. The company uses internally manufactured samples for control testing (similar to STM 4501 block shear test), which is dominated by batteries with a year-on-year increase of 15.6%, and is mainly concentrated in the conventional battery link. The product structure is relatively simple. There is still a gap in the reliability of high-efficiency batteries such as heterojunction (SHJ) and products compared with foreign countries, and basic research needs to be improved. In addition, China still has deficiencies in the process, equipment and materials of high-end photovoltaic cells, including the key equipment required by black silicon, perc, n-type technology and so on, which still rely on imports, and the system integration capacity of intelligent chemical plants still needs to be improved

(III) serious light abandonment and power limitation, and the contradiction between supply and demand in the East and West is prominent. The coordinated consumption market in the East, middle and West has not been formed, there are barriers to inter provincial transactions, the construction of transmission channels lags behind the development of new energy such as photovoltaic, plus the existing peak shaving capacity and flexibility is insufficient, and the local consumption capacity in the northwest is limited, resulting in serious light and power curtailment in the northwest, and imbalance between supply and demand in the East and West

(IV) photovoltaic subsidies are in arrears, affecting the normal operation of the industrial chain. With the rapid expansion of the photovoltaic market and the insufficient collection of renewable energy, there is an obvious gap in subsidy funds. Most photovoltaic power generation projects are difficult to obtain subsidies in time, which increases the capital cost of the whole industry chain. In particular, photovoltaic enterprises are mostly private enterprises with single business and weak financing ability. Market fluctuations are easy to lead to the rapid accumulation of industrial risks

(V) affected by trade protection, the prospect of photovoltaic "going out" is not optimistic. In recent years, China's photovoltaic industry has developed rapidly, making it the main product of trade protection in some countries. The new round of trade survey pays more attention to Chinese enterprises. Frequent trade frictions have hindered the pace of China's photovoltaic "going global", resulting in a rapid rise in the cost of global photovoltaic applications, which is not conducive to promoting global photovoltaic applications

III. key work

with the global energy shortage and environmental pollution issues highlighted, the photovoltaic industry has become an emerging industry of general concern and key development in all countries. In order to further standardize the development of China's photovoltaic industry, promote industrial transformation and upgrading, and promote China's photovoltaic industry to move towards the middle and high end of the global value chain, we will focus on the following work in the next step:

first, we will release the action plan for the intelligent photovoltaic industry. We will thoroughly implement made in China 2025 and issue the action plan for the development of smart photovoltaic industry (year). Promote the intelligent upgrading of photovoltaic industry, and encourage the application of big data, nb-iot and other information technologies in the photovoltaic field; Promote the deep integration of interconnection, big data, artificial intelligence and photovoltaic industry. Explore and promote the application and demonstration construction in construction, water conservancy, agriculture, poverty alleviation and other fields. Jointly promote the development of intelligent photovoltaic industry and actively cultivate world-class advanced manufacturing clusters

second, strengthen industry standard management. We will continue to implement the standard conditions for photovoltaic manufacturing industry, organize and carry out relevant application work, conduct spot checks on enterprises that have entered the standard conditions, continue to dynamically adjust the announcement list of standard conditions, promote the synergy between industry norms and relevant policies, and effectively standardize the development order of the industry

third, improve the construction of public service platforms. Facing the needs of industrial development, improve the construction of public service platforms such as standards and testing, give play to the role of the platform, and provide data support for the development of the industry. Guide relevant units to speed up the implementation of projects such as industrial foundation strengthening projects. Accelerate the implementation of the comprehensive standardized technical system for solar photovoltaic industry and improve the supporting capacity of the industry

fourth, adhere to the combination of "bringing in" and "going out". Implement the "the Belt and Road" initiative, plan the layout of the industrial chain as a whole, enhance our ability to lead the global flow of goods, capital, information and so on, make good use of both international and domestic markets and resources, highlight technology, brands and markets, integrate deeper and wider into the global supply system, encourage enterprises to build overseas factories and expand overseas businesses in a timely and appropriate manner, and cooperate with relevant departments to deal with trade disputes