On March 3rd 2021, the annual "Solarbe Awards" 2020 and the 14th Distributed Dealers Forum was held in Suzhou, Jiangsu province. Zhu Gongshan, Chairman of the GCL Group, was invited to deliver an insightful speech with the theme "Aiming at Carbon Neutral and Accelerating Carbon Peak" to shed light on the reconstruction and evolution of the photovoltaic industry in the zero-carbon era. GCL’s black technique granular Silicon won the only prize of "Annual Photovoltaic Product" of this event, sponsored by Solarbe.

 

A flowery cheer in the splendid spring, plucks a decade of photovoltaic industry string. As photovoltaic industry is developing a brand-new market pattern, Zhu Gongshan, always shrewd and insightful about general trends, predicted at the very beginning of his speech: "Zero-carbon is no longer a global political consensus but a policy goal for every country. The zero-carbon industry centered on new energy is at the threshold of accelerated development. President Xi Jinping's seven important speeches and announcements on carbon peak and carbon neutral have officially ushered China into the low carbon era in 2021. The future energy world will face unprecedented changes in technology breakthroughs, mechanism innovations, and business and industrial model reforms. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the energy and power sector will switch from high-carbon mode to low-carbon mode, from fossil energy dominance to clean energy dominance, and new energy sources such as wind, solar, and hydrogen storage will experience rapid development. This period will feature clean energy supply, electrified end user energy consumption, and utilization of clean energy. Mobile energy, electric vehicles, distributed energy, energy storage, diverse new clean energy forms, and green power generation will jointly promote the achievement of carbon peak in advance.

 

Zhu Gongshan, with many years' expertise in the industry, has concisely brought to light the key point in realizing the "carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutral by 2060" goal: to achieve carbon peak and carbon neutral is to control and to reduce emission; to control and to reduce is to replace fossil energy with clean energy; to replace is to accelerate the development of non-fossil energy, such as wind, solar, and hydrogen storage. The development of these new energy sources calls for technology improvements and lower costs. New energy has to be more cost effective than traditional energy and will eventually take place of traditional forms of energy, such as coal, oil, natural gas, and diesel both in energy supply and energy consumption.

 

"Manufacturing brings prosperity and growth. Innovation empowers us to be autonomous and strong." In line with the theme of this event, Zhu Gongshan has listed energy transformation and clean energy replacement as the key measures to achieve the "carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutral by 2060" goal. Huge benefits can be generated: more effective responses to climate changes, more eco-friendly environment, and even the feasibility to convert the Gobi Desert into the Oasis Beyond the Great Wall. Plans and actions will be implemented covering the following five aspects. First, promote electricity-centered integrated development, supplemented by multiple energy sources of wind, solar, and hydrogen storage. Second, make electric energy substitution in key industries, electricity for coal and electricity for oil in main sectors, especially in industry, construction, and transportation. Third, construct ultra-high voltage backbone power grids and large-scale new energy bases for easy clean energy access and efficient long-distance transmission across regions. Fourth, widely apply large-capacity, high-density, high-security, and low-cost energy storage technologies and equipment, and adopt the new energy and energy storage mode to realize fair-price or even low-price internet access. When the cost of photovoltaic power generation per kilowatt-hour falls into the range of 1 corner to 1.5 corners, and that of storage energy reaches the critical point of 3 cents, there will be a significant change in the energy transformation pattern. And this is likely to happen during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period. Last, utilize hydrogen energy. In the next few years, electrolysis of water with renewable energy will become the primary effective method for hydrogen production and supply. Photohydrogen storage and hydrogen energy storage will bring out big changes in energy structure and pattern.

The market breeds new opportunities and GCL embraces the new situation. Zhu Gongshan pictured GCL’s roadmap of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. In the zero-carbon age, GCL Group will mainly focus its technological innovations on granular Silicon, further improving and refining its FBR technology. GCL will also strive in high-efficiency N-type monocrystalline Silicon (ingots and Czochralski Silicon), heterojunctions, perovskites, shingled components, and N-type contact passivation battery technology and other key technology fields. GCL is determined to form a diverse technology portfolio and a dynamic implementation route by taking strategic priorities, leading or cooperating alike. Its business will be extended downstream to the application ends of power station, wind and solar and hydrogen storage, wind and solar storage + UHV mode, in order to create key competitiveness and to contribute in carbon neutrality. GCL will advance mainly along two business lines. One is toward the integration of wind and solar and hydrogen storage，specializing in innovating and manufacturing photovoltaic materials. The other line is on the integration of gas, electricity and hydrogen, with hydrogen energy as the focus.

 

At the starting point of the new decade of photovoltaic industry, Zhu Gongshan sincerely stated that aiming at "carbon peak" and achieving "carbon neutrality" requires joint efforts, internally and externally. GCL will join to witness the benchmarking power of China's photovoltaic industry. It’s Zhu Gongshan’s hope that all the participants in this commission find their own positions and play significant roles in the green energy business of mankind. GCL Group is willing to build a broader ecological alliance, to collaborate, to co-innovate, and to contribute green wisdom to the realization of President Xi Jinping’s goal of carbon neutrality by 3060!