According to the statistics of the National Energy Administration, in 2023, the installed capacity of solar power generation in the country will be about 60949GW, up 55% year-on-year2%。This means that the number of new installations in 2023 alone will reach 21688GW, which is about equal to the total number of new installations in the four years from 2019 to 2022 (2206gw）。
In the field of photovoltaic equipment manufacturers, there is a company called Laplace New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., hereinafter referred to as Laplace, which has continued to "eye-catching" in recent years, like a dark horse standing out of the encirclement, with strong R&D strength and innovation capabilities.
Founded in 2016, Laplace is the world's leading provider of high-efficiency photovoltaic cell core process equipment and solutions, and its main business includes the R&D, production and sales of high-performance thermal processes, coatings and supporting automation equipment required for photovoltaic cell manufacturing, according to the IPO prospectus. At the same time, Laplace is also forward-looking in the layout of semiconductor discrete devices to seize the development opportunity of the third generation of semiconductors.
At present, Laplace has developed equipment that can be applied to oxidation, annealing, coating and packaging in corresponding fields to help domestic substitution of semiconductor equipment. At present, the relevant equipment has been introduced to BYD and other customers. Both high-efficiency photovoltaic cells TOPCon and XBC need to use boron diffusion equipment and LPCVD equipment required for the core process. In addition, it is also necessary to use phosphorus diffusion, PECVD, oxidative annealing and supporting automation equipment required for other process links.
Since its establishment, Laplace has been committed to in-depth research on the underlying technology, solving the pain points of the industry's development, and continuing to focus on key core process equipment such as high-performance thermal process and coating of high-efficiency photovoltaic cells.
In terms of core process equipment for photovoltaic cells, Laplace uses core technology applications to continuously meet the needs of downstream customers through continuous innovation, such as using gaseous boron sources, combining low-pressure atmosphere, high temperature and other characteristics to overcome process problems, taking the lead in realizing large-scale mass production and application of boron diffusion equipment, and breaking through the bottleneck of mass production process of n-type cells. Laplace is also the first in the industry to achieve large-scale mass production of photovoltaic-grade large-capacity LPCVD, which can meet the process requirements of high-efficiency photovoltaic cell tunneling oxidation and doped polycrystalline silicon layer preparation with high quality. In addition, Laplace has also developed its own horizontal wafer release process, which effectively increases production capacity, meets the production needs of large silicon wafers and thin silicon wafers, and reduces costs. It independently designs and produces the thermal field of core components, creatively carries out asymmetric design, realizes precise temperature control, improves the efficiency and yield of photovoltaic cells, and improves equipment reliability.
Laplace attaches great importance to R&D and technology investment, and the R&D expenses from 2020 to 2022 are 2731780,000 yuan, 3906860,000 yuan and 1100 million yuan, accounting for 12 percent of the cumulative operating income52%。As of November 2023, the company has applied for a total of 758 patents (179 invention patents) and has 464 authorized patents (47 invention patents). Standing on the tuyere of industrial technology iteration, in the past three years, Laplace's revenue has increased year by year, reaching 0400 million yuan, 10.4 billion and 126.6 billion yuan. Laplace's photovoltaic cell process equipment has entered many leading enterprises in the photovoltaic industry, including LONGi Green Energy, JinkoSolar, Aiko Solar, Junda, Jolywood, Hengdian DMC, Chint New Energy, etc., forming a large-scale delivery volume and operating income. As of the end of June 2023, Laplace's orders in hand were worth 1115.8 billion yuan.
With the IPO of Laplace, the company will expand its influence in the photovoltaic and semiconductor discrete device industry, bringing new impetus to the future development of photovoltaic and semiconductor discrete device technology. Looking ahead, Laplace's technological innovation and market performance deserve continued attention.