Golden Sun Engineering Turns

The golden sun project that once brought infinite hope to China's photovoltaic industry took a four-year period and invested 10 billion yuan. It has come to an end in controversy and regret.

According to the requirements of the Ministry of Finance, before June 30th, the Golden Sun demonstration project that was started but has not yet been connected to the grid for power generation will be disqualified from demonstration, leaving few days for the industry.

Disputed power station

46-year-old Yang Yanbo was angry. When the construction of the photovoltaic power plant was about to be completed, he was ready to leave the industry.

On May 25, the day of acceptance of the completion of an optoelectronic building demonstration project in Jiangsu Province, Yang Yanbo, who was responsible for the on-site construction manager, did not participate, because he “knows too much”.

According to the construction requirements, the battery assembly used in the power station should be 245W. In fact, the power station uses more than 190W, 220W, 230W components, "all 245W to replenish." And the reason for this is that the use of The materials are the company's own products, and it is a "clearance and return" product.

Yang Yanbo, a project manager who has been responsible for on-site construction, was pushed aside. "The main reason is that I am afraid to tell the truth. There are too many problems with this project."

In fact, in the construction of photovoltaic power plants, similar situations are not uncommon. Around the Golden Sun demonstration project, rumors such as running projects, subsidizing subsidies, delays in the construction period, and shoddy goods are heard. Only this time, it is really for Yang. Yan Bo can not stand it.

“There is indeed a problem in the construction of the power station. This is a well-known 'secret',” Wang Yiming, an energy manager, told a new financial reporter. “The probability of a problem in the Golden Sun project in Henan is 99.999%.”

"In the middle of the Golden Sun demonstration project construction, there are indeed some phenomena of shoddy and subsidy, but not every one of them. Large enterprises have much better projects and can generally withstand inspections." China Renewable Energy Zhao Yuwen, director of the Institute of Photovoltaic Special Committee, believes that this is also why the Golden Sun project is gradually weakened.

Since 2003, he has paid attention to the photovoltaic industry, and finally invested in this industry. Yang Yanbo has witnessed the entire demonstration project of the Golden Sun. His helplessness, joy, success and failure have become its lingering knots. Its source of unpleasant.

“Initially, Vice-President of LDK Zhu Liangbao asked me to go to Hefei to set up LDK Photovoltaic Technology (Hefei) Engineering Co., Ltd., which was only an electric construction assistant engineer.” Yang Yanbo recalled to the new financial reporter, and since then he has been interested in contacting the profession. Together, at the time of his opinion, photovoltaics was an industry that could be committed. "You don't understand anything at all, but they all accumulate experience."

Since entering the photovoltaic industry, Yang Yanbo has been engaged in the construction of related power stations in Saiwei. From the construction of the mechanical and electrical installation site for the 2MW PV power station at Seville Xinyu College, the on-site construction of the Hefei Grand Theatre to the project manager presided over the final acceptance, and the experience of the Saifei Hefei plant area (including 1MW of Hefei Sungrow) was 7.728 MW. Make it a senior practitioner in the industry. "When I left Seville to come to the company, I promised 12,000 yuan per month."

“Yangzhong project, stents, combiner boxes, inverters, 10KV step-up transformers and other photovoltaic power station equipment are all produced by their own group companies. Such a project is not quite right. This shows that the quality of the power station will sooner or later cause problems. ."

Experience tells him that this is bad for the future and hope of the entire industry. The phenomenon of poor currency driving away good money in the field of photovoltaics is something nobody wants to see.

Short-term transition

Speculators and short-sighted people simply do not want PV to be on the right track. As a result, PV is a dead end, but also the inevitable law of the development of the industry.

“The photovoltaic industry is just how much money it can cost. It's simply not playing with the money. This is a common problem in the industry.” Yang Yanbo told the new financial reporter. “Some companies try to cheat the state financial subsidies and bank loans, especially the roof. Golden Sun Project."

Since the day of its birth, Golden Sun has been placed in "high hopes", and at that time it shouldered the burden of finding a way out for the fast-growing Chinese photovoltaic industry.

In the aftermath of the global financial crisis in 2008, countries in Europe, which have always been the first buyers of photovoltaics, have cut subsidies for photovoltaics and drastically tightened industrial investment. At that time, China’s photovoltaic-oriented enterprises, mainly export-oriented, faced difficulties in export and product slow-moving. The start is imminent. In this context, the Golden Sun project, which boosted the confidence of the industry, was considered at the time.

In July 2009, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the National Energy Administration jointly issued the "Notice on Implementing the Golden Sun Demonstration Project" and decided to adopt comprehensive financial subsidies, scientific and technological support, and market pulling methods to accelerate the industrialization and scale-up of domestic photovoltaic power generation. development of.

At the time of the introduction of the Golden Sun subsidy, the then-photovoltaic giant Wuxi Suntech's share price rose on the second day and closed at $17.80 on that day. For PV listed companies, this is undoubtedly their "difficult time, out of a helping hand", the industry insiders commented on the Golden Sun project at that time.

Among these policies, the financial subsidy is considered to be the most direct, effective, and practical method. Under its glory, other policies have been diluted and ignored, and “subsidies” have become synonymous with the Golden Sun project. In its attraction, many manufacturers have invested their energy in this project. "In essence, it is to drive the market with investment subsidies," Zhao Yuwen explained. "What's needed is to build the power station and digest the battery components."

According to the data, 329 projects were included in the first demonstration project of Golden Sun in 2009, with a total installed capacity of 642 MW. According to the regulations, these projects will be granted state subsidies at 50% of the project investment (about 29 yuan/W), and 70% of the investment will be given to subsidies for remote PV systems in remote, non-powered areas.

"The previous 2 megawatts were large projects, and later 10 megawatts and 20 megawatts are nothing," Yang Yanbo introduced. At that time, the general procedure was to make a report before they were able to get some of the funds and then bid for the construction. Among them, a well-connected company can get 70% of the subsidy funds, plus delayed payment for component products. This means that the implementation of the Golden Sun project can achieve the effect of exchanging funds with each other. Enterprises do not need to invest a lot of money.

"The main problem is not to encourage the development of the industry through market mechanisms. The Golden Sun project will be subsidized after it is completed. The company's energy will be more focused on construction rather than long-term maintenance and use." Zhao Yuwen said, "Project construction When it is completed, the subsidies have been ignored or exist, and are destined to be a short-term transitional policy."

Constantly

In fact, the demonstration effect after the introduction of the Golden Sun policy even surpassed the original boldest expectation. In 4 years, the total design installed capacity of the four phases of the Golden Sun demonstration project totaled nearly 6 GW, and only the policy was introduced in 2009. There are more than 100 megawatts of Golden Sun demonstration projects through the start of construction, the actual 2009 approved installed capacity of about 300 MW.

In the following years, the installed capacity of Golden Sun has increased year by year, with an installed capacity of 600 megawatts in 2011. In 2012, the total installed capacity of “Golden Sun” reached 4,544 megawatts, which is the sum of domestic PV installations before and accounts for half of the domestic PV application market.

The rapid launch of the Golden Sun project has become an indispensable stimulus for companies to enter. In the first year of policy implementation, the Ministry of Finance has provided nearly 5 billion yuan in subsidies for this purpose.

"It can be said that the Golden Sun Policy has helped China's PV companies to spend the most dim moments, cultivate a batch of photovoltaic power plant design, planning, and operation teams, and has also formed a complete set of photovoltaic power plant industry chain and operating model in China." A photovoltaic company executives said so.

While the construction of the power station is making rapid progress, the defects go hand in hand. Project subcontracting, random trading of roads, component shoddy, heavy construction and light management emerged. In 2010, the Ministry of Finance announced the abolition of 39 "environmentally built, shoddy" projects with a total installed capacity of 54 megawatts. This includes projects for domestic and foreign photovoltaic companies such as Wuxi Suntech, Artes and BP as their owners. . In 2012, 15 companies such as Shanxi International Power PV, ZTE, and Baoli Photovoltaic were added to this list.

In fact, after the problems are gradually exposed, the remedial measures are quickly put forward. In the procurement of components, the process of decentralization-centralization-distribution is experienced. It is only difficult to make up for small-scale failures in the event of major problems. Get satisfactory results. "The direction is wrong, then how to change it is to turn around in the field."

“The Golden Sun Project was originally a project that was vigorously promoted by the government to support PV companies. After some companies obtained financial subsidies, they used poor quality materials to carry out the construction. This completely violated the original intention of the policy.” Wang Yeming told the New Finance Journal, “ Eventually something went wrong. The project itself was not constructed, but it was sold to a third party, using downgraded components to complete the project, and then discounting the power. It was hard to say what the final real cost was."

"Every user who wishes to make data fraud when Jin Sun and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development Projects are accepted, please don't contact us. We will not accept this service." Lu Jianzhou, the president of Taoke Energy, once expressed his indignation at the falsification of the Golden Sun project.

Since the beginning of 2009, more than 900 projects have been listed on the subsidy list, and the central government has subsidized these projects by more than 20 billion yuan. “This precious renewable energy fund, which was squeezed out of the mouth of the Ministry of Finance just like toothpaste, was scattered by the Golden Sun, and then quietly disappeared. Real hard workers couldn’t get subsidies, speculation. Those who have received the target trading program," said Ren Kai, a senior photovoltaic expert, said, "It's just a matter of difference, and it's been a thousand miles."

Photovoltaic power generation is characterized by low energy density and randomness. The most suitable method is the use of small-scale, decentralized, distributed roof development methods, power generation on-site consumption, and self-use. However, the threshold for the Golden Sun project is megawatts, and it has been questioned that the distributed mini-roof market with the most potential for photovoltaic applications, which is most respected in Europe and America, is completely excluded from policy subsidies.

Several happy families

With the 2013 Ministry of Finance no longer applying for approval of the newly added Golden Sun demonstration project, the Golden Sun Project has reached the final moment of life. How to complete the existing project has become an urgent task.

"Looking at many companies worrying about finding a roof, I sincerely think: Golden Sun hurry to stop! In the future, all users rely on electricity to support the profitability of photovoltaic power plant investment policy, please do not introduce." Lu Jianzhou reluctantly stated, "Golden Sun The initial application for the PV demonstration project was to promote the development of the industry in the initial stage of photovoltaic application. Now it has become a malformed policy. The government wants to support the enterprise, but it has found that the component manufacturers have been dragged by the triangle debt to the abyss!"

In fact, since the implementation of the Golden Sun project, many photovoltaic companies have participated in it. With the abrupt end of the policy, for those companies that once used Golden Sun as the focus of their corporate development, how to recover early-stage investments has become a consideration. problem.

"On the other hand, the project that Seville had not yet done last year was 55 megawatts," Yang Yanbo told the new financial reporter. Another photovoltaic company employee in Hebei Province said that before the “Golden Sun Project, we don’t know what to say”, the company once received the golden sun orders.

Compared to the above-mentioned manufacturers, companies that have invested less in the Golden Sun project can wait and see.

On the other hand, since the implementation of the Golden Sun Policy, we have had to face an embarrassing fact that the money has gone down without seeing the declared power generation. The relevant data shows that only the total installed capacity of the Golden Sun demonstration project approved since 2009 40% of the electricity generated is connected to the grid, and other projects are not completed or delayed due to various conditions.

In the initial stage of the release of the Golden Sun Policy, the price of photovoltaic modules was high, photovoltaic grid-connected was excluded from the grid, and the domestic environment for the lack of understanding of photovoltaic applications, Golden Solar's photovoltaic projects did play a role in the demonstration and exploration of the domestic PV market.

Supporters believe that Golden Sun has a profound impact on the development of China's photovoltaic industry, leaving an important step in the history of China's photovoltaic development. In order to promote industrial innovation, speed up industry and industry support, localization of materials and equipment, and drastically reduce the cost of applied products, beneficial explorations have been conducted. If there is no golden sun, the domestic roof photovoltaic market may still be a desert.

One photovoltaic company executive who did not want to disclose his identity stated that Golden Sun could not be implemented across the board. It is recommended that the country leave a three-year delay period for the Golden Sun demonstration project. During this period, it can adopt electricity price subsidy and Golden Sun’s “dual-track parallel” approach to formulate a more practical plan. China's PV subsidy policy complies with national conditions to further explore experience.

“This project itself is the first shot for China's photovoltaic industry. The first policy that has operability is obvious, but the situation has changed and the policy should change accordingly,” said Zhao Yuwen, “most importantly. The implementation of a good feed-in tariff policy will change the long-term subsidy of a construction project once it is subsidized to calculate the amount of power generation, thus reducing short-term behavior.”

After stepping into the photovoltaic industry, Yang Yanbo once thought that this was an industry that could be pursued for life. Only now, the departure has been put on the agenda.

Of course, there is also the Golden Sun project which is gradually moving away from the photovoltaic industry. This once brought glory and controversy, excitement and helpless transitional policies to the industry.

Among these policies, the financial subsidy is considered to be the most direct, effective, and practical method. Under its glory, other policies have been diluted and ignored, and “subsidies” have become synonymous with the Golden Sun project. In its attraction, many manufacturers have invested their energy in this project. "In essence, it is to invest in subsidies to stimulate the market," Zhao Yuwen explained.