Photovoltaic Agriculture Standard-Setting Launched, the Trillion-Yuan Blue Ocean Market Should Not Be Underestimated
According to a report by Beijing Business Today on the 9th, Zhang Yong, chairman of the China Photovoltaic Agriculture Working Committee, said in an exclusive interview at the 2015 China International Energy Summit that as photovoltaic agriculture projects multiply, the lack of standards has already begun to cause industry chaos, and work on setting photovoltaic agriculture standards has now officially begun.
In fact, because there is no unified standard, photovoltaic agriculture still has many problems. For example, some projects use photovoltaic agriculture as a cover to occupy agricultural and forestry land, seeking tax preferences and state financial subsidies in exchange for corporate or personal gain, and the phenomenon of “de-agriculturalization” is serious. Especially against the backdrop of a package of support policies such as the National Energy Administration's Notice on Further Implementing Policies Related to Distributed Photovoltaic Power Generation and the Notice on Issuing and Implementing the Work Plan for the Photovoltaic Poverty Alleviation Project, photovoltaic agriculture, which is about to enter a period of rapid development, urgently needs unified standards.
Industry insiders point out that in the long run, developing photovoltaic agriculture is of great significance to our country's agricultural transformation, while in the short run, photovoltaic agriculture is to a certain extent an effective measure to solve the current predicament of the photovoltaic industry. Since the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures by Europe and the United States, with the international photovoltaic market languishing, a large number of domestic photovoltaic enterprises have also fallen into difficulty, and the problem of overcapacity has taken a severe turn. Fundamentally speaking, for the domestic photovoltaic industry to break the crisis, the key lies in whether it can gradually achieve self-transformation and shake off its dependence on exports, which requires it to cultivate the domestic application market in depth. Compared with the restrictions of general large-scale ground-mounted projects, which require unused land such as barren hills and barren slopes, photovoltaic agriculture has more advantages to bring into play. To take the road of “encircling the cities from the countryside”, photovoltaic application enterprises need to transform and upgrade: intensify research and development of products for end use, and produce photovoltaic application products that can be widely used in agricultural production and farmers' lives, so as to resolve the market crisis, because the vast rural areas have huge market potential.
As another major breakthrough for our country in the field of photovoltaic application, and also a new model of modern agricultural development, photovoltaic agriculture will gradually become a new investment hotspot. Some experts calculate that if photovoltaic agriculture products are promoted across the country on a large scale and over a wide area, their market output value can reach a scale of 100 billion yuan, and within five years can reach a scale of one trillion yuan, which is almost a fission-style growth. The application of solar energy in the field of photovoltaic agriculture is not only an attractive concept, but also has broad industrialization prospects.
It is worth mentioning that the “13th Five-Year Plan” for the photovoltaic and other industries is currently being formulated. A number of industry insiders expect that the planning targets will be raised, and in addition, support for photovoltaic agriculture is also expected to increase. In this regard, analysts believe that because the “13th Five-Year Plan” raises the scale of photovoltaic installed capacity, it will lead to valuation increases and better-than-expected profitability. Against the backdrop of the state vigorously supporting the development of modern agriculture, among A-share listed companies, listed companies involved in photovoltaic agriculture are expected to usher in a good opportunity for positioning, and the related stocks deserve close attention.
Tongwei Co., Ltd. released a restructuring plan in May this year, intending to spend 2.05 billion yuan to purchase from related parties a 100% stake in Tongwei New Energy and a 99.9999% stake in Yongxiang Co., Ltd., and to raise no more than 2 billion yuan in funds, exploring the integration and development of agriculture and the photovoltaic industry, thereby changing the company's situation of relying solely on the feed business for many years. In addition, on July 10 the company signed a Framework Cooperation Agreement with Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., through which the two parties will cooperate closely, leveraging their respective advantages in smart photovoltaic power station solutions and key components, and jointly build a technology-leading smart fishery-photovoltaic integrated photovoltaic power station.
EGing Photovoltaic has a vertically integrated industrial chain covering ingot casting/rod pulling, wafer cutting, cell manufacturing and cell module packaging. As of the end of 2014, the company's annual production capacity for cells and modules was 1GW. The company took the lead in positioning itself in photovoltaic agriculture applications, investing a total of 860 million yuan to build a 100MW “fishery-photovoltaic integration” photovoltaic power generation project, forming a power generation model of “power generation above, fish farming below”, achieving an integrated organic combination of photovoltaic power generation and fishery aquaculture, and it is expected to achieve grid-connected operation in 2015. In addition, the company also signed a Framework Agreement on Photovoltaic Agriculture Investment Cooperation with the People's Government of Zhulin Town, Jintan City, Jiangsu Province, intending to invest 1.6 billion yuan to build a 10,000-mu vegetable base 200-megawatt modern agricultural photovoltaic power station project.
Tianlong Photoelectric's main business includes the production and sales of monocrystalline silicon crystal growth furnaces, polycrystalline silicon ingot furnaces and the like, as well as the construction, operation and management of photovoltaic power stations. On January 19, 2014, the company signed with Huazhong Electric Power and SDIC Zhongdian the Framework Agreement on Investment Cooperation for the Huixian Photovoltaic Agricultural Science and Technology Power Station Project, reaching a preliminary framework agreement on matters related to the preparation of the 120MW photovoltaic agricultural science and technology power station project in Huixian City. The project has a total investment of 1.25 billion yuan and will build 120 photovoltaic agricultural greenhouses, a 120MW ground-mounted photovoltaic power station and supporting park facilities.