The whole industry chain is large, the technology iteration has entered a critical period, and the entire photovoltaic industry is ushering in the strongest "involution" in history, and the industry situation has brought a severe test to the strategic decision-making of enterprises.
Huaxia Energy Network learned that on December 20, at the shareholders' meeting held at Canadian Solar's Suzhou headquarters, Qu Xiaohua, chairman of Canadian Solar, answered questions on how the company responded to the industry's involution, the selection of n-type technology routes, and the development of energy storage.
In the face of the involution of the industry, Qu Xiaohua said that in addition to "steady", Canadian Solar also has a slogan called "Outstanding Difference", and while pursuing excellence, it should adopt a different way of operating and product and technology orientation.
He said that the current crazy involution of the photovoltaic module market and the fierce "first war" are mainly concentrated in the domestic market, and Canadian Solar's advantage is overseas, more than seventy percent of the company's revenue comes from overseas markets, accounting for the highest proportion among the five leading enterprises, and high gross profit overseas orders will improve the company's profitability.
In addition to modules, Canadian Solar has actively deployed the vertical integration of the photovoltaic industry chain, which has greatly reduced the company's comprehensive manufacturing costs and further improved its profitability. Judging from the public financial report data, its gross profit margin has increased from 1141% rose to 14 in the third quarter of this year78%。
PV involution is a double-edged sword, which ultimately promotes both technology iteration and industry elimination. "Qu Xiaohua**, in the future, there will be 4-5 integrated leaders or carve up the vast majority of the market share, and some small new players will quickly lose market share or even die.
Regarding the disagreement in the industry on the n-type technology route, Qu Xiaohua said that this is a good thing, indicating that photovoltaic cell technology "a hundred birds compete and a hundred flowers bloom", and the more this is the case, the more it shows that the photovoltaic industry will flourish.
Canadian Solar's TOPCON technology is becoming more efficient, and there is a lot of room for cost reduction. At the same time, in R&D, we see that HJT technology may have advantages over TOPCon in some application scenarios. Regarding the choice of these two technologies, Qu Xiaohua believes that "it is necessary to let the 'bullet' fly a little longer."
It is understood that Canadian Solar has a layout on a variety of mainstream technology routes, and Canadian Solar is one of the few companies in the market that can provide both TOPCon and HJT module products.
At the same time, Qu Xiaohua said that the company's current new technology mass production process is the fastest is TOPCON, and the expansion is mainly in three bases: first, the 8GW production capacity of the Suqian base has been put into operation in April this year, followed by the 14GW production capacity of the Yangzhou base and the 8GW production capacity of the Thailand base, both of which are climbing normally. The company's topcon production has not been fully released this year, and it is expected to increase significantly next year.
Regarding the development of Canadian Solar in the field of energy storage, Qu Xiaohua introduced that in recent years, the trend of photovoltaic + storage integration has become more and more clear. With the "three-in-one" business model of system integrator, project contractor and long-term maintenance service, which is rare in the market, the company has a higher degree of control over terminal demand and profits. At the same time, it generates recurring revenue by providing long-term services such as maintenance services.
In terms of energy storage capacity, Canadian Solar is building a Solbank large-scale energy storage product production line in Dafeng, Yancheng, and the first batch of products has been successfully rolled off the production line, and it will have a mass production capacity of more than 10GWh by the end of this year. The company has also planned a new energy photovoltaic + storage industry chain project at the Yangzhou base to prepare for the rapid growth of the energy storage system integration business in the future.
Qu Xiaohua said that Canadian Solar's energy storage orders are mainly overseas orders, and the proportion of revenue is also increasing. Judging from the delivery in the first three quarters, this year is a small year for delivery, but it is a big year for signing orders.
He revealed that as of the end of September this year, Canadian Solar Energy Storage Technology had an order reserve of about 43GWh for energy storage systems. As of mid-November, $2.6 billion was on hand under contract, including long-term service contracts. Since December, the company has received two orders for energy storage projects in the UK.
The upgrade of PV involution will inhibit the profitability of the industry. In contrast, the profitability of Canadian Solar's energy storage business next year is more promising. Qu Xiaohua said.
*Please indicate the source, article**: Huaxia Energy Network, **hxny3060).