Leading photovoltaic enterprises are transforming and eagerly embracing the Internet

China Energy Storage Network News : "Compared with the technical difficulty and product diversity of other energy industries, objectively speaking, photovoltaics belongs to a relatively single energy industry in terms of technical routes and product types." During the SNEC (2016 10th International Solar Photovoltaic Conference and Shanghai Exhibition) exhibition, a person who has been paying close attention to photovoltaics for a long time expressed this to the reporter.

"Any industry that does not incorporate the Internet will inevitably face elimination." In order to maintain the sustainable development vitality of new energy, the photovoltaic industry is actively seeking breakthroughs in many ways. On the basis of improving quality and efficiency, embracing "Internet +" has become the most eager choice and the most effective path for photovoltaic companies to seize current opportunities and meet challenges.

Photovoltaic enterprises are actively embracing Internet+, which can be seen at the booths of various photovoltaic enterprises at the 2016 Photovoltaic SNEC event. Many enterprises have launched photovoltaic products that are closely integrated with "Internet+", which not only makes their booths look fashionable and bright, but also depicts the vision of energy Internet for the development of the photovoltaic industry for industry insiders. The reporter observed that among these enterprises leading the energy Internet, there are many leading enterprises in the photovoltaic industry chain, which further verifies the transformation trend of mainstream photovoltaic enterprises - accelerating the close integration with the Internet.

Nowadays, with "Internet +" already becoming a national strategy, all walks of life are actively seeking ways to connect with the Internet, and the photovoltaic industry is no exception. This emerging industry is trying to connect to the Internet from multiple ends of the industrial chain, and the basic prototype unit of "Internet + photovoltaic" is also being established simultaneously.

BYD

Three green dreams leveraging energy internet

At this exhibition, BYD's booth was not as prominent as other photovoltaic companies, but this did not affect the attention of exhibitors to BYD. BYD's photovoltaic division launched its own technology "BYD EVA FREE" components, which perfectly solved the PID problem in the photovoltaic industry.

According to Zhao Tong, general manager of BYD's overseas solar cell sales department, BYD will focus on three major business sectors in the new energy field in the future: electric vehicles, photovoltaic power generation, and energy storage, which are also the three green dreams that BYD is pursuing. BYD is no longer considering a single product or a single market. These three businesses will be linked to each other to provide a complete energy solution.

Zhao Tong introduced that the liberalization of the electricity trading market is an inevitable trend, and electricity trading through the Internet will also become the norm. Relying solely on photovoltaics is not enough, and energy storage is also needed to enable self-distribution of electricity. In the actual market environment of electricity trading, the energy Internet can better balance supply and demand.

In the interview, Zhao Tong introduced that BYD attaches great importance to promoting integrated photovoltaic and storage equipment, mainly based on two very harsh practical considerations: first, photovoltaic projects in some developing countries all rely on bidding to access the grid, which is also the future development trend in China. The bidding for access to the grid is based on the principle of "the bidder with the lowest electricity price wins the bid". In this case, the result of bidding for access to the grid will lead to a decline in the return on investment of many power station investors, which may cause capital to lose confidence in this market; secondly, no matter how low the electricity price is, in the supply and demand relationship of the entire energy market, many developing countries such as India are still short of electricity, and although developed countries in Europe and the United States have sufficient electricity supply, there will always be times when there is a shortage of electricity. Because of the mismatch of peaks and the imbalance between supply and demand, there is still a lot of room for the development of integrated photovoltaic and storage in the future.

GCL Group

Internet thinking promotes the integration of industry and finance

In each development stage of the photovoltaic industry, financial integration has always been the most popular link in the industry. Various financing models have been constantly innovated, but there has never been a financial and Internet integration model that has been unanimously recognized by all parties in the market. At this exhibition, Guoxin Internet Finance, a subsidiary of GCL Group, is committed to building a green and safe financial Internet platform, clearing the vacuum of this financing model.

At the launch conference of the platform, Guoxin Law Firm signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Ping An Bank and Minsheng Bank, opening up comprehensive cooperation between Guoxin Law Firm and financial institutions. In addition, Guoxin Law Firm will also reach a resource sharing cooperation with Suzhou Financial Assets Trading Center. In the future, both parties will share high-quality asset projects and high-quality funding channels. The endorsement of GCL Group also builds a stable financial foundation for it.

"GCL Group has currently formed two cores: one is the industrial core; the other is the financial core. We have made a lot of follow-up financial development plans. In the future, we will also expand, strengthen and refine our photovoltaic business and integrated smart energy business through the development of the new energy industry and the strong support of the financial sector." Shu Hua, Vice Chairman of GCL Group and Chairman of GCL Integration, told reporters.

Shu Hua further stated that Guoxin will be positioned as a "one-stop comprehensive energy financial service platform" in the future, deeply cultivating supply chain finance in the energy field, and becoming an extension of the "energy + Internet + finance" business of GCL Group. Up to now, Guoxin has been operating safely for two months, with a total business volume of over 200 million yuan, and the platform has attracted the attention of more than 100,000 users in 28 provinces and cities across the country.

Vision

Risk rating products gain support from financial institutions

Risk rating is gaining traction among financial institutions.

During the exhibition, Envision Energy, a world-leading smart energy management company, amazed the SNEC exhibition with Apollo Photovoltaic Cloud, the largest distributed photovoltaic power station management platform in China, and Apollo Rating, the first photovoltaic power station risk rating product in China. It is understood that Apollo risk rating products have been favored by several major financial institutions, and strategic cooperation agreements have been signed with Jiangsu Bank, Wuxi Financial Holdings, Ping An Property & Casualty Insurance, and Zhujiang Financial Leasing.

In an interview, Sun Jie, general manager of Envision Energy's photovoltaic product business, said that since its launch in August 2015, Apollo Rating has evaluated more than 2GW of centralized power stations and 2GW of distributed power stations, and has carried out in-depth cooperation with more than 50 leading domestic banks, financial leasing, trusts, industrial funds, insurance and other financial institutions.

At the same time, Envision Energy and Ping An Property & Casualty Insurance jointly created a photovoltaic power station life cycle insurance product, which also became the industry's first real power generation insurance product: based on massive objective data mining and analysis, it achieved transparency, dataization, and financial quantification of photovoltaic power station risks throughout their life cycle. In the future, Envision Energy and Ping An Property & Casualty Insurance will jointly explore the risk factors of photovoltaic solar power generation cycles, and work closely with Zhujiang Financial Leasing, a financial institution that has been deeply involved in the field of photovoltaic power station investment and financing, to provide investors with comprehensive service solutions for pre-assessment, real-time monitoring, and insurance protection of power station assets.

The innovative products and technologies released this time, including Apollo OMTM, the Apollo meteorological solution, the Apollo meteorological irradiation data precision optimization, and the photovoltaic power station system efficiency (PR) correction algorithm, have further strengthened Envision Energy's industry-leading position in big data-driven asset management and risk rating.

Sungrow Power Supply

Let the manufacturing industry have "Internet +" thinking

"As of the end of 2015, Sungrow's inverters had a cumulative installed capacity of over 24GW worldwide. In 2015, with 8.9GW of inverter shipments, it became the world's largest supplier of photovoltaic inverters and system solutions." This is what Cao Renxian, chairman of Sungrow, said at the "Smart Sunshine, Helping You Sail Far - Sungrow's 2016 New Product Launch Conference" held on the first day of the exhibition.

"Internet +" has added wings to the development of the photovoltaic industry, and the domestic photovoltaic manufacturing industry is also having an Internet + mindset. According to Zhao Wei, senior vice president of Sungrow Power Supply, the several devices launched by Sungrow Power Supply this time are all very Internet + thinking. The household photovoltaic energy storage system PowCube 4.5 guarantees emergency electricity for households when off-grid all day long and stores sunlight; and the box-type energy storage system PowCube 550, known as the "Energy Cube-Limited Generation Terminator", is directly applied to the DC side of the photovoltaic power station inverter. It is one of the most efficient, most comprehensive and most technologically advanced industrial energy storage systems in the industry, and perfectly solves the problem of limited generation.