【Shanghai, China, Nov. 8, 2022】On November 8, the 2022 Third International Carbon Neutrality and Green Investment Conference was held in Shanghai with the theme “Leading the New Development of Science and Technology, Opening up a New Double Carbon Track”. George Huo, General Manager of Brand Department, LONGi, attended the meeting online and delivered a speech entitled “Photovoltaic Enterprises Help Achieve Double Carbon Goals”. During the conference, LONGi was also honored with the 2022 “Zero Carbon China” Top 10 Innovative Technologies with its “Heterojunction High Efficiency Cell Innovation Technology” award.
Driven by the cost of photovoltaic technology of “a cent per kilowatt hour”, an energy revolution is raging at present. The transformation of the energy structure will bring about profound social and economic change. Non-fossil energy is as vital to the future as the steam engine and electricity were to the first and second industrial revolutions, respectively.
“In recent years, the photovoltaic market has developed at an accelerated pace but the preparation of the industrial chain has not kept pace with it and the price of polysilicon raw materials has risen significantly with the cost of photovoltaic power generation rebounding. This, however, does not affect the general trend of cost reduction and efficiency improvement of photovoltaic power generation,” George Huo said in his video speech.
LONGi has broken the world record for the conversion efficiency of various solar cells 11 consecutive times since 2021. In the first half of 2022, LONGi has invested 3.67 billion yuan in R&D, accounting for 7.28% of its operating revenue, and the cost will continue to expand. Since 2012, LONGi has invested more than 16 billion yuan in R&D. At the beginning of this month, LONGi’s new Hi-MO 6 module with HPBC technology was released worldwide. The conversion efficiency of the standard version for mass production exceeded 25.0%, and the conversion efficiency of the PRO version exceeded 25.3%. This is the result of the comprehensive layout of LONGi's PV technology as well as the horse race among several technical routes within the company.
In 2020, China's carbon dioxide emissions has reached 11.35 billion tons, including 10.03 billion tons of energy consumption emissions and 1.32 billion tons of industrial process emissions. Except for the offset of agricultural and forestry carbon sinks, the grand total carbon dioxide emissions has reached 9.894 billion tons. Under the requirements of the double carbon goals, China's energy consumption carbon emissions will have to be reduced by about 90%, and the proportion of non-fossil energy in the primary energy structure needs to be increased from the current 15% to more than 85%.
Speaking about the realization of China's carbon neutrality goal, George Huo said LONGi has conducted extensive research on the carbon neutrality roadmap and is committed to promoting the achievement of the goal in four stages, namely, introducing the power demand side response mechanism, developing pumped storage, improving the economy of chemical energy storage, and introducing green hydrogen. Going ahead, photovoltaic power generation will be the dominant source of clean energy in China, which will be regulated through pumped storage and chemical energy storage, thereby, forming a comprehensive clean energy system through hydrogen production.
Today, an increasing number of countries and regions around the world have reached the consensus that hydrogen energy is an important link in the transformation of the global energy structure to a clean and low-carbon one. Citing LONGi's calculations, George Huo said at present, the hydrogen produced by the electrolysis of water requires 4.5-kilowatt hours of electricity per standard square meter of hydrogen. If the cost of electricity is controlled at the level of 0.9 yuan per square meter of hydrogen, along with the depreciation, operation and maintenance of equipment and the relatively necessary rate of return on assets, it would be entirely possible to control hydrogen to the level of 1.5 yuan per square meter. Green hydrogen generated by photovoltaics serves as a secondary energy source, with applications in transportation, daily life, construction, the chemical industry, and other areas, all of which contribute to more comprehensive decarbonization and the realization of a green energy society.
Over the years, LONGi has continued to pay attention to the main channel of solar cell efficiency as it firmly believes that the essence of scientific and technological innovation is to improve solar cell efficiency. Since June 2021, the LONGi R&D team has broken the world record in the relevant field seven times in a row, creating and maintaining the world records for all silicon wafer large-area n-type silicon heterojunction solar cell (26.50%) and p-type silicon solar cell (26.12%).
The objective of this conference was to grasp the critical period of the global energy transformation and the strategic window of opportunity for China's renewable energy development, bolster the innovation capability of energy technology, build a new development pattern of domestic and international dual cycle mutual promotion, and ensure that the carbon peak and carbon neutral goals are achieved as scheduled.
About LONGi
Founded in 2000, LONGi is committed to being the world’s leading solar technology company, focusing on customer-driven value creation for full scenario energy transformation.
Under its mission of 'making the best of solar energy to build a green world', LONGi has dedicated itself to technology innovation and established five business sectors, covering mono silicon wafers cells and modules, commercial & industrial distributed solar solutions, green energy solutions and hydrogen equipment. The company has honed its capabilities to provide green energy and has more recently, also embraced green hydrogen products and solutions to support global zero carbon development. www.longi.com