Huaxia Energy Network learned that recently, Daikin Heavy Industries (SZ: 002487), a leading wind power tower, announced that the company plans to invest in a 250MW photovoltaic project in Caofeidian, Tangshan, Hebei Province, with a total investment of no more than 1.2 billion yuan.
Data shows that in 2022, Daikin Heavy Industries will achieve a profit of 4500 million yuan, in the first half of last year, to achieve a net profit of 27.3 billion yuan. According to this calculation, the amount of Daikin Heavy Industries' investment in the construction of photovoltaic projects is about three times the annual profit.
It is worth mentioning that under the current overall sluggish performance of the wind power industry, enterprises in all links of the wind power industry chain are seeking the second performance growth curve, photovoltaic, which has become a new business developed by many equipment manufacturing enterprises. As the first listed company in the national wind power tower industry, why does Daikin Heavy Industries invest heavily in the photovoltaic field?
Actively respond to the EU's "carbon tariff".
According to the announcement, the Tangshan Caofeidian 250MW photovoltaic project invested and built by Daikin Heavy Industries is Daikin Heavy Industries Shilihai 125MW fishery-photovoltaic complementary guarantee photovoltaic project and Daikin Heavy Industries Shilihai 125MW fishery-photovoltaic complementary market-oriented photovoltaic project, and the investment, construction and operation of the project implementation body are respectively responsible for the two subsidiaries of Daikin Heavy Industries.
Daikin Heavy Industries said that 20% of the project's capital will be paid by the company with its own funds, and the rest of the funds will come from loans.
Daikin Heavy Industries is one of the leading tower industry leaders in China, with a market share of about 5%. In 2020, the company began to extend the industry to the downstream and lay out the investment and operation of wind farms. Up to now, Daikin Heavy Industries has invested in wind farms in Fuxin, Liaoning, Zhangjiakou, Hebei and Penglai, Shandong based on local production bases.
Daikin Heavy Industries said in its 2023 semi-annual report that the company also plans to build a grid-connected 2 million kilowatt new energy project within three years and reserve 5 million kilowatts of new energy development resources.
According to public information, the Tangshan Caofeidian 250MW photovoltaic project invested by Daikin Heavy Industries this time is the company's first layout in the photovoltaic field.
Daikin Heavy Industries said in the announcement that the 250MW photovoltaic project will have a positive impact on the company's operating performance and improve the company's overall profit margin after it is officially put into operation.
In addition to the expected increase in profits, the photovoltaic project invested in this construction also plays an important role.
Huaxia Energy Network noted that Daikin Heavy Industries is the first domestic enterprise to export wind power and offshore products to Europe, and is the only one outside Europe that can provide super-large monopiles, and tower related products have a high market share in Europe.
According to incomplete statistics, Daikin Heavy Industries will receive a total of 6 overseas tower orders in 2022, and its export business will increase by 13% year-on-year16%。In 2023, it will enter the "explosive period" of signing, and in May alone, Daikin Heavy Industries won two major orders in Europe, totaling 74.3 billion euros (equivalent to about 58.8 yuan.)7.4 billion yuan), about 115% of the annual revenue in 2022; In December, it signed the largest offshore wind farm project planned and constructed in Germany, with a total contract value of about 62.6 billion euros (equivalent to about 48.8 yuan.)4.8 billion yuan).
Compared with other wind power tower manufacturing peers, Daikin Heavy Industries can occupy a certain advantage in overseas markets, mainly because it enjoys the lowest anti-dumping duty rate of European towers, and at the same time has the advantages of "high quality and low price" of Chinese wind power products, so it occupies a certain market in Europe.
However, with the European Union's launch of "green barriers" on imported industrial products, so that products entering Europe have higher standards, Daikin Heavy Industries is also facing new challenges in the European market. The European Union's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM, referred to as "carbon tariff"), which came into effect in October 2023, covers energy-intensive industries such as steel and electricity, and the most important raw material for towers is steel.
Another important purpose of Daikin Heavy Industries' above-mentioned photovoltaic projects may be to cope with the "carbon tariff". Daikin Heavy Industries said that the company's investment in the construction of renewable energy projects in Caofeidian District, Tangshan, is based on the comprehensive layout and development of regional industries. Daikin Heavy Industries also said that the export offshore base built in Caofeidian District is positioned as a product with higher technical standards in the overseas wind power market in the future, so as to ensure the production and delivery of subsequent export orders.
Spontaneous green electricity: the best way to break the best barriers
Recently, Peng Peng, Secretary-General of the China New Energy Power Investment and Financing Alliance, said in an interview with Huaxia Energy Network that at present, the EU's "green barriers" really have an impact on China is not the "carbon tariff" policy, but regulations such as the European "New Battery", which have requirements for carbon emissions in the entire industrial chain of products exported to the EU.
When European importers and China negotiate cooperation, they do not talk about it first, but first talk about whether you have an ESG report, what work you have done to reduce carbon emissions, etc., and then talk about the supply and delivery time. Peng Peng said.
Huaxia Energy Network also noted that in March last year, the "EU Battery and Waste Battery Regulation" (also known as the "New Battery Law") was voted and passed by the European Parliament, which increased requirements such as carbon footprint compared with the original battery law, and changed from a "directive" to a "regulation". It is clearly stipulated that products such as lithium batteries that do not meet the relevant carbon footprint requirements will be prohibited from entering the EU market.
In addition to the European Union, South Korea, the United States and other countries have also put forward corresponding carbon footprint accounting and certification requirements for new energy products represented by batteries and photovoltaic modules.
Similarly, in the field of wind power, some countries and regions are based on life cycle carbon emissions, requiring wind turbine OEMs to provide carbon footprint information for inclusion in their procurement decisions, and the carbon footprint of wind turbines may become an evaluation standard for global exports in the future.
The carbon emissions of the new energy industry, including wind power, mainly come from upstream manufacturing. The newly released "Envision Technology Group Carbon Neutrality Report" also shows that in the whole life cycle of wind turbines, the carbon emissions of raw material production account for the largest proportion, accounting for 49% of the total carbon emissions in the whole life cycle of wind turbines3%。
The industry agrees that using green electricity production is the most direct way to reduce the carbon footprint. Some of the green electricity generated by the photovoltaic project invested by Daikin Heavy Industries will also be used for the production of towers.
Huaxia Energy Network has noticed that in recent years, many leading enterprises in the new energy industry have begun to produce green electricity by themselves.
CATL (SZ: 300750) invested in the construction of an offshore wind farm project in the Ningde sea area last year, which has been approved, with a total planned investment of up to 10 billion yuan. At the beginning of this year, it became a wind power company in Shandong, with the aim of investing in a wind power project in Zoucheng. It is worth mentioning that CATL's battery production plants are located at the sites of the two wind power projects, and the green electricity produced by the wind power plants will also be used for the production of local lithium batteries.
Envision Energy, a leading wind turbine manufacturer, has built the world's first zero-carbon industrial park in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, and has been put into operation. According to reports, the zero-carbon industrial park has a green energy system of "wind, solar and hydrogen storage", and the green electricity generated in the park has achieved 100% on-site consumption to ensure the supply of green and zero-carbon energy.
At present, on the one hand, the export of new energy products is becoming more and more vigorous, and on the other hand, there are increasingly stringent "green**" related regulations, or more and more enterprises will begin to build their own green power to meet the requirements of export.
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