3.9 billion! LONGi Green Energy adds BC upgraded batteries
Officially to the publicDetermine the BC battery routeLater, LONGi Green Energy (601012.SH) quickly threw out a new expansion battery project.
On the evening of September 19, LONGi Green Energy announced that it plans to invest in the construction of a monocrystalline cell project with an annual output of 12 GW in Tongchuan New Material Industrial Park, Shaanxi Province, with an estimated total investment of 3.915 billion yuan.
The project is expected to be gradually put into production in November 2024 and reach production in November 2025, and the product adopts the HPBC pro high-efficiency battery technology developed by LONGi Green Energy.
"HPBC is the 'one-sided king'. On September 20, Zhong Baoshen, chairman of LONGi Green Energy, said in an interview with Jiemian News and other media that the HPBC pro version uses a bifacial battery, and the future efficiency will be 5% higher than the current HPBC version.
HPBC is a P-type based BC cell with a back-contact cell. At present, the most discussed next-generation battery high-efficiency technology routes in the industry mainly include TOPCon, heterojunction (HJT), BC technology, etc.
Jin Hao, CTO of JinkoSolar (688223.SH), once said that due to too much back shading, the bifaciality of BC cells will drop significantly, and the power generation effect is inferior to that of TOPCon products.
Zhong Baoshen said that the bifaciality of the HPBC pro version is not low, and the comprehensive efficiency after the final conversion is high, which is very competitive in the ground power station.
The bifaciality of photovoltaic modules refers to a manifestation of power generation efficiency, which refers to the ratio of the capacity of photovoltaic modules to the total area of electricity generated on both sides.
LONGi's HPBC products first appeared in the public eye in November last year, and it was also the first time that the company applied BC battery technology in its mass production capacity. However, at that time, LONGi did not have a clear conclusion on the future direction of the company's battery technology layout.
On September 5, at LONGi's 2023 semi-annual results briefing, Zhong Baoshen said that TOPCon technology is still a transitional product, and LONGi's future battery route will be dominated by BC technology, and in the next 5-6 years, BC cells will be the absolute mainstream of crystalline silicon cells, including bifacial and single-sided cells.
At the performance meeting, Zhong Baoshen mentioned that LONGi will launch the HPBC PRO version to further improve performance.
Zhong Baoshen told Jiemian News that after years of research, LONGi believes that the highest efficiency of a variety of technical routes currently points to BC batteries, including HPBC, HBC, TBC, etc.
"To achieve greater efficiency, all kinds of technical routes must rely on structural changes. Zhong Baoshen said, but in the past, the back contact structure process was complex and costly, which limited the development of BC batteries.
Zhong Baoshen pointed out that at present, there are not many companies that have really invested in the in-depth research of BC batteries, because the technology is difficult. Its structure is very different from that of traditional batteries, requiring high control accuracy, and the difficulty of doping on the back side is also high, which puts forward higher requirements for system control, debugging and equipment technology. This is also the main reason for the slow progress of mass production of LONGi's BC products.
"LONGi's BC technology has matured and its competitiveness has emerged. Zhong Baoshen believes that although the current price of BC batteries is slightly more expensive than TOPCon batteries, the gap is very small, and from the perspective of customers, the power generation performance is good, the reliability is high, and the cost performance is good.
According to him, LONGi's monthly production capacity of HPBC products is currently stable at more than 1.5 GW, which translates into an annualized production capacity of about 20 GW, and in December this year, the monthly production capacity can be increased to more than 2.2 GW, and 30 GW will be put into operation by the end of the year.
Zhong Baoshen said that one of the priorities of LONGi's work in the future is to improve the yield rate and efficiency of BC products.
At the previous performance meeting, Zhong Baoshen said that the expansion of LONGi's TOPCon will come to an end by the end of next year, and the next planned investment projects will all adopt BC technology.
LONGi Green Energy expects that its actual BC cell production capacity in 2024 will be about 33 GW, with other production capacity being PERC and TOPCon, and some HJT products will also be produced in the pilot line, and BC products will grow rapidly after 2025.
