Exterior view of Sichuan Yongxiang New Energy *** Distillation Tower. Photo by Yin Renjie.
The world's photovoltaic looks at China, and the green Silicon Valley is in Leshan. In recent years, Sichuan Leshan has pursued "light" and "chain", unswervingly regarded the crystalline silicon photovoltaic industry as the city's "number one project", and made every effort to build a world-class advanced manufacturing cluster.
A set of data strongly illustrates the strong momentum of the rapid rise of "Green Silicon Valley". According to statistics, compared with 2020, the output value of Leshan crystalline silicon photovoltaic in 2022 will increase from 68500 million yuan increased to 698600 million yuan, an increase of nearly 10 times;Taxes start from 0600 million yuan increased to 61600 million yuan, an increase of 100 times;From January to October this year, Leshan's crystalline silicon photovoltaic industry achieved an output value of 700400 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 223%。
Anchoring development goals.
In the 60s of the last century, Emei Semiconductor Research Institute began to develop and produce polysilicon, and in 1965 produced the first polysilicon in New China, and then gave birth to China's first modern polysilicon production line with independent intellectual property rights, and built the first 1,000-ton polysilicon production project. A group of professionals in crystalline silicon photovoltaics have also been trained here.
Today, Leshan has become "China's Green Silicon Valley" and an important carrier of green and low-carbon advantageous industries in Sichuan Province. "Leshan's crystalline silicon photovoltaic industry has a complete foundation, leading core technology industry, and industrial development agglomeration, which is a realistic choice for Leshan to reshape its new advantages in industrial development under the guidance of the 'double carbon' goal. Ma Bo, secretary of the Leshan Municipal Party Committee, said.
Leshan has a grand goal - during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, with Leshan Wutongqiao Industrial Base as the core bearing area, the layout of optoelectronic information, photovoltaic and new materials and other characteristic parks, the construction of the "China Green Silicon Valley" focusing on the whole photovoltaic industry chain, and contribute a world-class advanced manufacturing cluster to Sichuan. The Sichuan Provincial Party Committee and the provincial government have given firm support to this, and recently issued opinions on supporting Leshan's high-quality development to accelerate the improvement of the energy level of regional central cities, and supporting Leshan to focus on building China's green Silicon Valley to cultivate and expand advanced manufacturing clusters.
In the past few years, Leshan has successively introduced GCL 100,000 tons of granular silicon project, Yongxiang 200,000 tons of high-purity crystalline silicon project, etc., and 7 of the world's leading photovoltaic enterprises have invested in Leshan. Today, Leshan's high-purity crystalline silicon production capacity ranks first in the country and third in the world.
Strengthen the support of elements.
Although it has a good industrial foundation, in the process of promoting the transformation of energy structure and industrial structure in the country and even the world, it is not easy for Leshan to achieve the goal of building a globally important photovoltaic energy industry base and win from fierce competition. Fortunately, Leshan not only has traditional advantages, but also strives to build new competitiveness.
The "Leshan speed" of the major project "100 days of landing" is one of the new advantages. "From signing to starting, the first phase of the project took 100 days, and from construction to production, the second phase of the project took 100 days. Liu Shengjun, Secretary of the Party Committee of Sichuan JinkoSolar, gave a thumbs up to such an efficient project progress. The speed is still refreshing, and the process is constantly shortening. The 12GW high-efficiency monocrystalline silicon rod project of Leshan Jingyuntong New Material Technology Co., Ltd. took only 84 days from the start of construction to the ignition trial production.
The leading group for the construction of "China Green Silicon Valley" under the command of the municipal party committee and the main leaders of the municipal government and the "one office and seven special classes" under the command of the municipal party committee and the municipal government have adopted the comprehensive coordination and staff services in the form of substantive operation, and promoted the project-based work, project list, list node, and node responsibility through the management of the "weekly report system" and "red and black list", so as to provide a strong service guarantee for the successful completion of various goals and tasks. "The cultivation and growth of the industry is inseparable from a good business environment, we continue to optimize the project approval process, the establishment of a 'parallel approval' cycle working mechanism and a 'helper' service mechanism, the implementation of a form of application, a declaration, a window acceptance, a approval, for key projects to take a 'one-stop acceptance, full tracking, coordination and supervision' of the whole process of assistance agency services. Zhang Guoqing, deputy mayor of Leshan City, said.
Leshan has also established a green financial service system focusing on meeting the financing needs of enterprises in the crystalline silicon photovoltaic industry chain, and is preparing to build a photovoltaic industry development with a total scale of 10 billion yuan and an initial scale of 5 billion yuan. Since 2019, Leshan City has cashed out 15 million yuan of support funds for characteristic and advantageous industries and 25 million yuan of science and technology funding funds to help enterprises reduce taxes and fees by 317.8 billion yuan, financing loans 214.9 billion yuan.
For crystalline silicon photovoltaic companies, sufficient, stable and reliable power** is crucial. Leshan hydropower resources are very rich, with a capacity of 6.31 million kilowatts, and the city continues to optimize the grid structure of the power grid, accelerate the construction of a number of power infrastructure such as Wutongqiao Yinhaishan 220 thousand volt substation, improve the power guarantee capacity, and meet the needs of crystalline silicon photovoltaic enterprises.
Accelerate technological innovation.
The crystalline silicon photovoltaic industry is a "crowded" industry. In the previous development cycle of the industry, which fluctuated sharply, Leshan always adhered to the targeted force, and supported enterprises to break through the predicament and stabilize the position through technological innovation, cost reduction and efficiency increase. "Every fluctuation is the survival of the fittest in the industry, but also the self-reinvention of enterprise innovation and upgrading, and past history has proved that high-quality development can help enterprises survive the industrial cycle and remain invincible in the competition. Zhang Guoqing said.
Sichuan Yongxiang New Energy, a subsidiary of Tongwei Group, is a large-scale private enterprise specializing in the research and development, production and sales of high-purity crystalline silicon technology, rooted in Leshan for more than 20 years, and has become a global leader in polysilicon, and its crystalline silicon sales have ranked first in the world for three consecutive years. "From 2010 to 2015, when the development of the domestic photovoltaic industry was the most difficult, Yongxiang Co., Ltd. reduced the production cost of silicon materials from 280,000 yuan tons to 120,000 tons through four technical transformations, and its competitiveness was significantly improved. At present, the company's core technology has been applied to the '8th generation Yongxiang method', and the R&D reserve has been transferred to the 9th generation, and after the '5th generation Yongxiang method' was rated as internationally advanced, the '6th generation Yongxiang method' has been rated as the world's leading level, and the production cost of polysilicon has been reduced to 40,000 tons. The company's employees put forward 10 reasonable suggestions on improving production every year, and suggestions, innovations and inventions from employees can bring more than 1 billion yuan of benefits to the company every year. Luo Zhou, executive deputy general manager of Sichuan Yongxiang New Energy, said.
Let's look at the technological innovation of Leshan's entire crystalline silicon photovoltaic industry. Led by Yongxiang, it has successively overcome the key common technologies for the development of many industries, such as improved Siemens tail gas, cold hydrogenation, anti-disproportionation, large-scale energy-saving distillation, etc., and has 500 scientific and technological innovations and 230 independent intellectual property rights. The production process and unit energy consumption of Leshan crystalline silicon photovoltaic industry have reached the world's leading level, and the energy consumption per ton of polysilicon has increased from the original 3083 tons of standard coal was reduced to 83 tons of standard coal, a decrease of 731%。The steam consumption has been reduced from nearly 100 tons to zero consumption, which has effectively solved the problem of "stuck neck" in the field of foreign crystalline silicon photovoltaics, and the "Yongxiang method" polysilicon production technology and GCL granular silicon technology have obvious original advantages, and have made a comprehensive breakthrough in the production technology of electronic-grade high-purity crystalline silicon.
The synergies brought about by industrial agglomeration are also very obvious. "Sichuan Yongxiang New Energy provides high-quality raw materials for enterprise production, and Leshan Gaoce New Energy Technology provides us with professional slicing services, and the silicon wafers we produce can be used for the solar cell projects of Tongwei Group, the parent company of Yongxiang Co., Ltd., in Meishan and Chengdu Jintang. Ye Xu, director of public relations of Leshan Jingyuntong New Material Technology, said. At present, Leshan has signed a total of 22 projects with a total investment of 120 billion yuan. Many "chain master" and "head" enterprises integrate and mobilize resources in the form of the market, and realize complementary advantages and strong alliances in the form of mutual strategic shares.
Based on the development advantages of the crystalline silicon photovoltaic industry, Leshan proposes to adhere to high-end development, and strive to achieve an output value of more than 200 billion yuan by 2025, and the production capacity of silicon materials accounts for about 20% of the global production capacity. (Economic ** reporter Zhong Hualin, Liu Chang).