The vigorous development of new energy industry in China has laid a solid foundation for promoting energy transformation and building a new power system. However, the shadow under the sunshine is that although China’s new energy industry is highly competitive, the wind power, photovoltaic and energy storage industries are seriously plunged into the abyss of irrational competition, and the pace of commercialization of hydrogen energy industry needs to be accelerated.
On the afternoon of November 19th, the 7th China International Photovoltaic and Energy Storage Industry Conference in 2024 and the 21st Century Green Energy Development Forum with "New Energy and New Quality" were held in Chengdu under the guidance of Southern Finance and Economics All Media Group, sponsored by 21st century business herald, supported by the Organizing Committee of China International Photovoltaic and Energy Storage Industry Conference, and supported by the Yangtze River Delta Solar Photovoltaic Technology Innovation Center and 21st century business herald New Energy Research Group as think tanks.
Experts and senior executives from New Energy Chamber of Commerce of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, China Photovoltaic Industry Association, Public Meteorological Service Center of China Meteorological Administration, Solar Technology Innovation Center of Yangtze River Delta, China Photovoltaic Standardization Committee of International SEMIconductor Industry Association (Semi), Sichuan Energy Internet Research Institute of Tsinghua, and more than 100 industry organizations and enterprises, including Tongwei, GCL, CIMC, Haibo Sichuang and Xiqing Energy, attended to talk about the high-quality development of scenery hydrogen storage industry.
Industrial development ushered in a new time.
On November 8, 2024, the Energy Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) (hereinafter referred to as the Energy Law) was officially passed and came into force on January 1, 2025. The Energy Law stipulates that the state promotes the development and utilization of wind energy and solar energy, adheres to centralized and distributed development, accelerates the construction of wind power and photovoltaic power generation bases, supports the development and utilization of distributed wind power and photovoltaic power generation nearby, rationally and orderly develops offshore wind power, and actively develops photothermal power generation; The state rationally arranges, actively and orderly develops and builds pumped storage power stations, promotes the high-quality development of new energy storage, and gives play to the regulatory role of various energy storage in the power system; The state actively and orderly promotes the development and utilization of hydrogen energy and promotes the high-quality development of hydrogen energy industry.
This "Basic Law", which is regarded as the legal system in the energy field, is of great significance to the development of new energy industry. According to Lu Jinbiao, co-secretary general of China Photovoltaic Standards Committee of the International SEMIconductor Industry Association (Semi), "Energy Law is to legalize the policy of developing renewable energy in our country for so many years. Over the years, we have been engaged in the renewable energy industry, which is more about thinking in the industrial chain and manufacturing chain, and the appearance of the Energy Law clearly tells everyone that wind power, photovoltaic, energy storage and hydrogen energy are the attributes of energy. "
Shen Hui, director of the Yangtze River Delta Solar Photovoltaic Technology Innovation Center and professor of Sun Yat-sen University, is a well-known scholar in the photovoltaic field in China. When talking about the significance of the birth of the Energy Law, he did not hesitate to think: "This is undoubtedly a good affirmation and promotion for the development of photovoltaics." In his view, photovoltaic has become an important energy source in the world this year, which is a great contribution made by crystalline silicon photovoltaic. "Photovoltaic has just begun from the perspective of power generation."
Wu Dan, Assistant Secretary-General of the New Energy Chamber of Commerce of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, said at this forum: "The Energy Law clearly puts forward the priority to support the development of renewable energy, including the consumption of new energy power and the establishment of market mechanism, which is both encouragement and spur for the development of new energy industries, and hopes that the industries in the field of renewable energy will develop in a higher quality direction."
Taking photovoltaic as an example, the development of this industry ultimately needs to be based on the system consideration of new power systems. "The new power system needs to be guaranteed under the premise of power and energy security, with meeting economic and social needs as the primary goal, maximizing the absorption of new energy as the main task, taking a strong smart grid as the main hub platform, and complementing or supporting the source network." Chen xingyu, President of Photovoltaic Division of Tongwei Shares and Executive Director of Energy Management Committee, said.
Business people from new energy fields such as photovoltaic and energy storage are also full of expectations for the formal implementation of the Energy Law in the future.
Hao Song, assistant vice president of GCL Technology, said that the Energy Law provides goals and directions for the development of new energy enterprises. Steve Yu, the solution director of Haibo Sitron, believes that the implementation of the Energy Law provides a clear path for the development of new energy industry, and also indicates that the new energy industry will surely usher in broad prospects. He also particularly emphasized the Energy Law’s concern for technological innovation in the energy field. "The Energy Law mentions that energy science and technology innovation should be included in the key support areas of national science and technology development and high-tech industry development." Zhou Kui, chief engineer of Xiqing Energy R&D Center, said: "The promulgation of the Energy Law is actually to fix the way of dealing with existing interests in the energy field through legal means and take it as a criterion."
Waiting for the break
At this forum, the guests deeply analyzed the development dilemma faced by the current wind power, photovoltaic, energy storage and hydrogen energy industries, and tried to give a "good prescription".
Wu Dan pointed out that the current challenges encountered in the development of new energy industry include that increasing the installed capacity ratio of new energy makes the grid more adjustable and controllable, and the stability of power generation needs to be strengthened; Industrial development is also facing the problem of homogenization competition, which brings greater pressure to the future industrial technological progress, and the new energy industry urgently needs to find new growth opportunities. In this regard, Wu Dan pointed out that green and intelligent new quality productivity has become an important focus to promote the high-quality development of new energy, and scientific and technological innovation is the core element to accelerate energy transformation and develop new quality productivity.
Shen Hui also believes that the key to breaking the game lies in technology. "China Photovoltaic has made a major breakthrough in technology. I hope that young people can spark some sparks at the forefront of technology. I am still confident that the efficiency will exceed 30% or even higher in the future." Taking the photovoltaic industry as an example, Lu Jinbiao reminded: "Our photovoltaic industry still stays in the thinking of manufacturing industry. Although we continue to improve technology and reduce costs, we still have to change our thinking. It does not mean that products with reduced costs can be supplied indefinitely."
In Hao Song’s view, the development of photovoltaic industry can not be separated from market-oriented adjustment. After this round of adjustment, "the photovoltaic industry can reach a low-level balanced state in the first half of next year. Although not all companies can make money, they are no longer losing cash as they are now. "
In the long run, photovoltaic development does face a series of complex challenges. Among them, the domestic market resources are increasingly tight, and the problem of consumption is difficult to solve. Wang Qing, director of the Development Department of China Photovoltaic Industry Association, said that in the short term, many measures will effectively support the development of photovoltaic industry, including releasing the red line to 90%, speeding up the power grid construction, accelerating the construction of large-scale base projects, and supporting distributed development through various measures. Wang Qing suggested speeding up the construction of the main network and distribution network, strengthening the grid structure and optimizing the network connection process. Secondly, with the explosion of the installed capacity of photovoltaic power generation, the situation of photovoltaic power generation consumption is becoming more and more severe, and it is necessary to continuously expand the application scenarios of photovoltaic power generation. "Such as photovoltaic hydrogen production, ammonia production, alcohol production, etc., while providing a new path for large-scale consumption of green electricity, it also provides green hydrogen solutions for chemical industry, steel, construction and other fields."
In fact, not only the photovoltaic industry, but also the hydrogen energy storage industry needs to overcome many problems. Zheng Xianling, strategic adviser to the president of CIMC, said that the industrialization of hydrogen energy is a complicated and long process, because there is almost no experience that can be imitated in the hydrogen energy industry, so it is necessary to explore the road to the future from practice. "Due to the lack of guiding policies from demonstration to industrialization, there is no closed loop in the industrial chain; The overall planning of green hydrogen industry and new power system is lacking, and the incentive mechanism is not in place. Hydrogen energy is a cross-industry and cross-sectoral complex industry, which needs an influential coordination department. "
The large-scale development of new energy must be supported by energy storage. Chen Yongxian, director of the Green Energy Storage Research Institute of Sichuan Energy Internet Research Institute in Tsinghua, found that there are potential safety hazards in the whole industrial chain of energy storage, such as production, transportation, application and recycling, and finding solutions is an important issue in the development of the industry. "Through innovative technology to further solve the problems of safety, longevity and recycling, the era of large-scale development of new energy storage is coming."
From a cross-border perspective, the high-quality development of new energy industry is expected to be supported by meteorological services. Then, how to help the high-quality development of new energy with high-quality meteorological services? Ye Dong, the senior engineer of the Public Meteorological Service Center of China Meteorological Administration and the secretary-general of the Special Committee on Energy Meteorology of China Meteorological Society, believes that, first, energy production is supported by fine landscape resource assessment; The second is to integrate energy supply and consumption with accurate multi-time and space-scale new energy forecasting; The third is to ensure energy security by accurate risk assessment and early warning of energy, electricity and meteorological disasters.
The forum also released two reports, namely, Green Low-carbon Technology and Application of New Energy and New Quality in the 21st Century (hereinafter referred to as the Application Report) and Breaking the Prisoner’s Dilemma: China’s New Energy Industry Crossing the Most Difficult Cycle (hereinafter referred to as the Industry Report). Among them, the Application Report was jointly released by the Yangtze River Delta Solar Photovoltaic Technology Innovation Center and the 21st century business herald New Energy Research Group, and analyzed the energy technology innovation and the application of green and low-carbon technologies in the current energy field; The Industry Report was written by 21st century business herald New Energy Research Group, and the report analyzed the current development situation and trend in the field of scenery hydrogen storage. (21st century business herald reporter Fu Yi and Lin Dianchi also contributed to this article)