Tianjin Zhonghuan Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (CMC), a leading enterprise in the industry, revealed that the world's first G12 silicon wafer smart factory will reach a design capacity of 25GW in June, marking the arrival of the era of intelligent production in the photovoltaic industry.

At the conference, Jin Lei, director of the Electronic Foundation Division of the Electronic Information Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, judged that China's photovoltaic industry has basically completed the transformation from manual production to automation and intelligence, and from manual operation and maintenance to digital operation and maintenance. The era of intelligent photovoltaic also provides new impetus for China to achieve the "double carbon" goal. Industry insiders believe that the photovoltaic industry will usher in high-speed development in the future, and with the deep integration of information technology and advanced manufacturing, and continue to improve the level of intelligence. As one of China's leading industrial fields in the world, what are the challenges facing smart photovoltaic? The reporter did the research.

The photovoltaic industry has entered the era of intelligence

In recent years, China's photovoltaic industry has developed rapidly. According to data released by China Photovoltaic Industry Association, 48.2GW of new photovoltaic installed capacity will be installed nationwide in 2020, ranking first in the world in new installed capacity for eight consecutive years and first in cumulative installed capacity for six consecutive years.

"With the integration of the photovoltaic industry with emerging technologies such as 5G communications, artificial intelligence, industrial Internet and big data, the era of smart energy has arrived." Jin lei said.

As early as 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other six departments jointly issued the "Action Plan for the Development of the Smart PV Industry" to guide the entire industry to the transformation of the smart PV industry. Over the past three years, the intelligent level of the whole industry has been continuously improved.

Take the industry leader CMC Magnetics as an example. In 2016, the company established Industry 3.0 factory in Wuxi to realize the integration of logistics automation and operation informatization. In 2018, CMC Magnetics built a smart factory -- Tianjin Huanzhi G12 Factory, which will be put into operation in 2020, becoming the only G12 silicon wafer smart factory in the world.

"Smart factories have big data and cloud computing capabilities, and are capable of intelligent analysis and decision making. This plant is currently at the level of Industry 4.0 Smart Plant." Wei Chen, deputy general manager of CMC Magnetics' new energy chip BU, said the per capita labor productivity has tripled and the per capita annual output value has reached 10 million yuan.

American should material automation chief architect Liao Shuyang also believes that the production of G12 silicon wafer in line with the requirements of modern unmanned chemical plant, through the equipment sensor and automatic control of the machine, unmanned handling, intelligent dispatched workers, etc., to build a new intelligent automation plant with awareness.

The photovoltaic industry chain is also developing to intelligence as a whole. In the field of photovoltaic power stations, Zhang Yanhu, the person in charge of Sunshine New Energy Development Co., Ltd. believes that the digitization of power stations in China has gone through the hardware stage and the data stage, and will enter the 3.0 stage of the digitization of the whole life cycle of power stations in 2020. In this stage, the whole process flexible design software application scenarios are more, the design cycle is shorter, such as 200MW power station design time only 20 minutes, and the power generation is more.

In the field of photovoltaic cells, the battery chip company Robertco completed the first fully automated cell production plant in 2014. Over the past 7 years, the production efficiency has grown from 4000 pieces/hour to 15000 pieces/hour. "At present we have 27 intelligent factory projects." "Said Dai Jun, chairman and CEO of Robert Tech Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd.

Smart photovoltaic power in China to achieve the "double carbon" goal

China announced last year that it aims to reach a carbon peak by 2030 and be carbon neutral by 2060. "Under the guidance of the 'double carbon' goal, the photovoltaic industry has been given a new historical mission and ushered in a new spring." "Said Shen Haoping, general manager of Tianjin Zhonghuan Semiconductor Co., Ltd.

Zhao Ying, vice chairman of the Chinese Renewable Energy Society and director of the photovoltaic committee, said that coal currently accounts for about 60% of the country's electricity generation, but the proportion will be reduced to 10% by 2060, leaving the space to be filled by photovoltaic and wind power. In the future, the total installed capacity of photoelectricity will be greatly increased.

"If photovoltaic is used as the main energy source, the cost per kilowatt-hour will be reduced by another 30 to 50 percent." Zhang Yingbin, head of global product strategy and market of Trina Solar, said that intelligence will be the only choice. For example, the production of batteries and modules required more than 2,000 people per GW in 2010, and only about 200 people by 2020, saving about 90% of the labor cost.

Chen Zhilei, assistant director of the New Energy Research Institute of the China Electric Power Research Institute, also believes that in order to achieve the "double carbon" goal, comprehensive energy parks, comprehensive energy towns, comprehensive energy cities and other ways can be adopted. "Multi-energy utilization needs intelligent brain to control, and this is where intelligence plays its role."

In reality, intelligent photovoltaic application gradually into life. Recently, the reporter in the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city Real Estate Registration Service Center saw rows and rows of clean and tidy solar photovoltaic panels bathing in the sun on the roof. Photovoltaic seats, photovoltaic trash cans, photovoltaic pavement, photovoltaic glass and so on are gathered in the small courtyard.

"This is the first practical zero-energy building in Tianjin." State Grid (Tianjin) Integrated Energy Service Co., Ltd. Project leader Yu Bo said that on May 18, for example, the registration service center generated more than 1,200 kWh of electricity, used more than 500 kWh of electricity, stored more than 100 kWh of electricity, sold to the grid more than 600 kWh of electricity, "to achieve its own generation is more than the power supply."

The era of photovoltaic intelligence still faces multiple challenges

The photovoltaic industry is a sunrise industry based on the integration of semiconductor technology and new energy demand, and it is also the brand and name card of China in the world.

Li Dongsheng, chairman of TCL Group, who participated in the mixed reform of CMC, believes that CMC will strengthen the advantages of mono-crystalline silicon and wafers, strengthen the capacity construction of photovoltaic industry chain, and enhance the ability of global operation, so as to achieve the goal of leading the photovoltaic industry in the world and the semiconductor wafer industry in China.

But that does not mean the road ahead will be smooth. Industry experts pointed out that China's photovoltaic industry still faces multiple challenges to maintain its leading position.

First, information security risks. Gao Runfei, digital director of CMC Crystal BU, said the background display of the system will still be attacked by hackers. Therefore, every enterprise should do a good job in information security system, do a good job in offensive and defensive exercises, so that the information system is more stable and secure.

Dai Jun also believes that if the massive data generated in the manufacturing process is guaranteed by firewalls and anti-virus software alone, the exchange frequency will be affected and new ways of information security need to be explored.

Second, the shortage of relevant talents. Xu Wentian, general manager of IBM Greater China Consulting Services, said that the intelligent era involves cloud, big data, the Internet of Things and other technologies, and the competition and training of talents will be a problem that enterprises must focus on solving. However, talent training can not be completed in a short period of time. With the arrival of the intelligent era, the phenomenon of talent shortage will become more and more prominent, which may affect the transformation and development of enterprises.

Third, the traditional enterprise organizational structure is not suitable for the new digital operation mode. Many experts reflect that intelligent factory is not only the intelligent and data-oriented production environment, but also the redefinition of enterprise organizational structure. How to carry out intelligent transformation of enterprise organizational structure is still a new issue and new challenge for the whole industry. In particular, the photovoltaic enterprise data management and data application ability is weak, some enterprises lack of low-level data management, resulting in data blocked in the chimney type of organization, can not produce application value.