Securities Times reporter Liu Canbang

As an early domestic company planning a large-scale deployment of HJT batteries, Shanxi Coal International has earned enough market attention, and the company's HJT project progress has always been the focus of market inquiries. Recently, the company responded to market concerns in a low-key way.

In response to the inquiries on the interactive platform, Shanxi Coal International replied that the company's HJT Phase I project has completed the environmental impact assessment, pile foundation treatment and other work. In line with the prudent and responsible attitude towards investors, the company will organize relevant experts to re-argument the technical route of the project in 2021, and has not made large-scale investment in the main body of the project.

The background of Shanxi Coal International's deployment of HJT and the transformation to the photovoltaic industry is the energy transformation revolution initiated by Shanxi Province in the past two years, but the current results are embarrassing. The confusion of Shanmei International also exists between the old photovoltaic overlords and the new forces, especially at the moment when photovoltaic cell technology is iterating to the N-type, a delay of half a beat may make the company miss the opportunity, and the wrong treasure may be "shattered" .

This year is the first year of commercialization of N-type photovoltaics, but it has shown diametrically opposed attitudes between the old hegemony and the new power. The former is more conservative, and the latter is more radical.

In the process of photovoltaic technology changing from P-type to N-type, most leading companies choose the smoother TOPCon technology, such as Jinko and JA Solar. Similarly, LONGi, although it has rejected the TOPCon plan to a certain extent, showed a little hesitation in the decision of battery iteration, instead of leading the single crystal revolution before.

Li Zhenguo, President of LONGi Green Energy, once explained this. He believes that the investment amount of photovoltaic cell production line is very large, and the company is betting on a technical route. If it succeeds, the company will achieve great success; but if the bet is wrong Therefore, enterprises may lose their competitiveness. For large-scale leading companies such as LONGi, the risks of betting are greater than the benefits, and they are more willing to choose a stable method.

Different from the established players, new players are more willing to take risks in the stage of switching the battery track. Most of them think that TOPCon is only a transitional N-type technology, and HJT is the ultimate solution. More willing to try it. Even if HJT is not chosen as a new player, the pace of N-type product expansion will be faster. For example, Yidao New Energy will increase its N-type production capacity to 6GW by the end of 2022, leading most companies.

The changes led by N-type battery technology have also changed the downstream pattern of photovoltaics. Since the beginning of this year, a new energy company, which mainly focuses on TOPCon, has been aggressive in the module bidding, and has successively won many large orders; Huasheng New Energy, which has only been established for 2 years, not only bet on the core HJT cells and modules, but also builds its own silicon wafers. Production capacity, the prototype of the vertical integration layout has emerged, and such a speed was unimaginable in the past.

A similar situation has actually happened in the past two years. Although it has not yet triggered the change of the leader, it is already challenging the existing pattern. For example, the "duopoly" pattern of silicon wafers formed by LONGi and Zhonghuan has been broken, and more and more new forces have joined the battle of silicon materials.

From this extension, almost every iteration of photovoltaic technology in the past was accompanied by the fall of the old overlord and the rise of the new overlord. The transformation of battery technology is likely to trigger a new round of reshuffle in the photovoltaic industry. Different forces have chosen different plans and offensive and defensive strategies in the competition. The industry pattern is far from being finalized. What the result will be, we will wait and see.