The new energy industry is catching up with the hidden secrets of the emerging light and heat industry

Photovoltaic power generation in the new energy industry was once neglected and is now trying to catch up. However, the beginning of the light and heat industry has hidden mystery.

When domestic wind power and photovoltaic power generation are surging, CSP is almost forgotten. But when the pointer of history goes to 2011, everything starts to change. With the opening of the 50-megawatt trough solar project in Inner Mongolia at the beginning of the year, the CSP industry began to gain momentum.

At the same time, on June 1st, the National Development and Reform Commission formally implemented the “Guidance Catalogue for the Adjustment of Industrial Structures (2011 Edition)”, among which solar thermal power generation was placed at the top of the new energy categories encouraged. At this point, the enthusiasm of the solar thermal companies to catch up with the photovoltaic companies was ignited again.

Although CSP still faces the obstacles of both cost and technology, it still has great confidence in the industry. Wang Xiaoning, general manager of CCID Consulting’s New Energy Consulting Division, convinced in an interview: “Future CSP will have better prospects than PV in the future.”

Regardless of business, policy, or market expectations, a vigorous wave of CSP seems to be coming.

Just around the corner

Solar water heaters have long been regarded as synonymous with solar thermal companies. Mr. Wang Huiyu, chairman of Jiangsu Rilita Solar Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Lida) once expressed his feelings at the New Energy Forum in March this year that there are not more than 2,000 companies in China that are light-heated but do not have a real listed company.

Compared with Wang Huiyu's pessimism, Huang Xiang, chief scientist of the 973 Solar Thermal Power Project, has painted a big "cake" for the domestic solar thermal companies. According to his prediction, if China reaches 30,000 square kilometers of solar thermal power generation by 2020, it will be able to solve 30% to 35% of the total electricity consumption in the country, and the scale of the solar thermal power market can reach 22.5 to 30 trillion yuan.

In fact, solar thermal power generation started late in China, but in Europe and the United States in Spain and the United States, solar thermal power generation has already reached a certain scale. Solar thermal power generation is becoming a hot spot for investment in renewable energy in the world.

Photovoltaic power generation seems to have received priority from the country in comparison with CSP. Currently, the total capacity of solar photovoltaic power generation currently under construction and contracted has reached 1.4 million kilowatts, and solar thermal power generation has not yet formed a market. .

Under the huge stimulus, the light and heat project is moving from behind the scenes to the stage. On June 1, 2010, the first 70-kilowatt solar tower solar thermal power generation system in China passed the appraisal and acceptance in Nanjing. On July 1, the same year, Asia's first tower solar thermal power station was built in Yanqing, Beijing. On January 20 of this year, the 50 megawatt solar thermal power generation concession demonstration project began tendering.

Companies that have missed the opportunity of the photovoltaic industry are also looking to the light and heat. At present, Huangming Solar, Longyuan Power [7.81-2.86%], Linuo Reiter, Xiangni Electric Co., Ltd. [25.75-1.27% shares], Zhonghai Yang and other companies have all increased investment in the field of CSP.

Huangming Solar is closely tracking a 1,000 MW light and heat power generation project in Golmud, Qinghai Province; Haiyang is investing in a solar concentrating thermal power generation mirror project in Chengdu with a total investment of 500 million yuan for the first phase; and on May 21, Qinghai Newly-built 100-megawatt new projects have appeared in CPI.

According to Wang Xiaoning, the scale of photovoltaic power generation can vary from several kilowatts to hundreds of megawatts, but solar thermal power generation is a typical scale economy. With the increase in scale, the cost of power generation is lower. In the northwestern region where the terrain is open in China, the large-scale construction will greatly reduce the investment cost of equipment.

Private enterprises retreat

As the largest solar thermal power project in China, Inner Mongolia Erdos [18.04-0.39% shares] 50MW solar thermal power generation project (hereinafter referred to as Ordos project) is expected to open the door of China's solar thermal power generation. However, this landmark project has caused many private enterprises to retreat when bidding.

As early as 2005, German Solar Millennium Company had found the National Energy Administration and hoped for cooperation. In the following year, the two parties reached a cooperation intention. However, it was not until the opening of the bid on January 20 this year that why the project was set aside so long?

According to informed sources, the main reason for this is that foreign parties are not familiar with the mechanism for investing in China. After the unsuccessful operation of independent operations, German Sun Millennium Company has also sought to cooperate with Inner Mongolia Green Energy New Energy Co., Ltd. and established a joint venture company. - Inner Mongolia Shidepu Solar Energy Development Co., Ltd. specializes in the feasibility study and implementation of the project.

According to the project feasibility study report of October 2008, the total cost of the project is about RMB 1.8 billion, and the average annual total generating capacity is about 120 million kWh. To achieve the 8% capital, the calculation is based on a 25-year operation period. The internal rate of return, after-tax power-on tariff, must reach 2.26 yuan/kWh.

It is understood that according to the constraints given in the tender specification, it is technically proposed that the condenser array must be driven by hydraulic pressure, and air-cooled technology must be used. However, for enterprises, the investment in air-cooled equipment alone is as high as 200 million yuan, while the bid invitation for the Ordos project requires the cost of power generation to be lower than 1.15 yuan per degree. While increasing the technical threshold, while limiting the cost of power generation, it can be said that it is a challenge for companies.

Wen Tao, director of the Beijing office of Rilita Solar Co., Ltd., told reporters that it is not the strength of private enterprises to fight with state-owned enterprises. In this unequal competition, private enterprises with low financial strength, weak ability, and weak anti-risk ability must be rejected.

According to public information, although 11 companies purchased tenders at the tender meeting, only three companies participated in the bidding. They were: Guodian Electric Power Development Co., Ltd., China Datang Group New Energy Co., Ltd., and China Guangdong Nuclear Power Co., Ltd. Development Co., Ltd.

In Wen Tao’s opinion, it is also a daunting task for private companies to look at similar bidding projects. According to different heat collection methods, the CSP technology consists of four types: trough type, tower type, dish type, and Fresnel focus. Among them, trough type power generation is the most widely used. In 2009, trough solar thermal power generation operating in the world accounted for 88% of the entire solar thermal power plant, accounting for 97.5% of the projects under construction.

In terms of the most mature trough type solar thermal power generation system for solar thermal power generation, it is mainly composed of components such as a heat collecting pipe, a heat collecting lens, a steam turbine, and a bracket. Unlike the photovoltaic power generation industry, which has basically achieved localization, the above-mentioned supporting component industrial chain for CSP has not yet been established, and its core component collector pipes are still monopolized by the German SCHOTT Company and Siemens.

Disc-type power generation was previously under test, but now it has entered the stage of commercial operation in the United States, and its floor space is smaller, requiring only 1.4 liters of water at a time, which is far less than the need for 3785.4 liters of water for troughs and towers.

Wang Xiaoning also admitted that no matter what kind of technology, the stability of CSP is not very good, and it will create some difficulties in the grid connection. But this is not the problem of CSP itself, but because our technology is still not enough, we need to improve the CSP technology.

Swing choice

For CSP, the original intention of the National Development and Reform Commission is to compare photovoltaic power generation practices, first approve one or two projects to start the market, and then find out the benchmark on-grid price through a concession tender, and to stimulate the industry towards scale development. This is also the reason why the Ordos project started to go through the approval process.

However, at present, the sudden drop in the on-grid tariff of photovoltaic power generation has left the National Development and Reform Commission in a difficult position. Wen Tao said: “At present, many of China’s light and heat equipment also rely on imports. At that time, the bidding project in Inner Mongolia was set at 2.6 yuan/kWh, which is more optimistic.” But according to the reporter’s knowledge, in July 2009, The tender for the 10 MW photovoltaic project in Dunhuang was priced at 1.09 yuan/kWh. There is a big difference between the two.

At present, Spain, the world's largest producer of solar thermal power, maintains a solar thermal price of 3.3 yuan/kWh. Even considering the degree of localization can reduce costs, China's solar thermal power price will remain at 2 yuan. about. According to the forecast of Huangming Solar, the on-grid tariff of China's CSP can reach 1.4-1.6 yuan/kWh in 2015 and 0.6-0.8 yuan/kWh in 2020.

Photovoltaic power generation has emerged in the monopoly of ultra-low-cost state-owned enterprises will appear to be staged in the field of CSP. If the low electricity price of thermoelectricity continues, it will not be able to increase the rate of return on investment, it will not be able to attract more social capital to participate, and it will also affect the introduction of a targeted subsidy policy.

At the same time, the relevant departments do not have enough awareness of solar thermal power projects and do not understand the market prospects. In order for the thermoelectric project to be able to improve steadily over a long period of time, targeted policy support must be obtained so that the bank’s government can follow suit accordingly.

Compared with the complete photovoltaic industry chain, the domestic CSP industry is still in a state of small scale and immature technology routes due to the imperfect industrial chain. At the same time, it is also controversial on the technical route. This will likely become a constraint on the development of light and heat.

Meng Xiangyi, deputy secretary-general of the China Solar Engineering Alliance, once stated that core technologies in the light and heat industry chain, such as system integration, heat collection tubes, and condensers, are still in the hands of foreign companies. Failure to resolve this will seriously hinder the scale of the light and heat market. development of.