Last week, the long-awaited market enthusiasm, accumulated over two years, finally erupted at the SNEC, the world's largest photovoltaic exhibition. The exhibition halls expanded, exhibitors lined up, hotel prices surged, the audience overflowed, and the signals were overwhelmed, all of which spoke to the current booming state of the photovoltaic and energy storage.

They competed in terms of design, strength, and creativity, doing their utmost to showcase their company's status and attract visitors. Among them, the most eye-catching were the module companies. Technological iteration, price wars, and industry consolidation have reached another crossroads. By sorting through the key information of the module exhibitors, we can uncover the current development trends and trends in the module market.

                                                                                          1. The Era of N-Type Modules Has Arrived

Compared to the sporadic display of n-type products at the 2021 SNEC exhibition, this year's module exhibition area was dominated by n-type products. All the module companies showcased their n-type module products. We has compiled the key production n-type products from the top 20 module companies and some emerging companies. TOPCon and its upgraded technologies have become mainstream, while HJT and XBC technologies also have their followers. In terms of module efficiency, TOPCon modules all exceed 22%, with Tongwei TNC modules reaching a conversion efficiency as high as 23.2%. HJT modules achieve 23%+, with Risen's modules having the highest conversion efficiency of 23.89%. XBC technology, led by AIKO and HHSD, achieves a maximum conversion efficiency of 23.7% with AIKO's ABC bifacial double-glass modules.

According to the forecast of leading companies, the market share of n-type products may reach 30% this year, and 60% next year is expected. It is not difficult to see from the above statistical information that among n-type technologies, TOPCon has become the preferred technology for more enterprise technology iterations due to its ecological compatibility. According to statistics, the nominal production capacity of TOPCon is expected to reach 477GW by the end of 2023, directly catching up with PERC. However, there are also feedbacks from enterprises that this year's n-type advancement is not as fast as expected, and the market supply will be tested, but 2024 will be the year of n-type product blowout.

2. The size dispute continues to follow the core demands of the photovoltaic industry to reduce costs and increase efficiency. Photovoltaic companies continue to study feasible solutions. Compared with the more difficult battery technology leap, size is also one of the solutions. Starting from the second half of 2019, the reform of large-size silicon wafers kicked off. In just three years, 182mm and 210mm have become the mainstream sizes in the market. But the size war is clearly far from over. In order to maximize module power, module efficiency and utilize container space, breaking the conventional square silicon wafer, rectangular silicon wafer solutions are coming. At this SENC exhibition, JA Solar, Tongwei, Chint New Energy, Canadian Solar, etc. exhibited module products based on rectangular silicon wafers. 186.8mm, 182*191mm, 182*199mm, 182*210mm, etc. According to a leading component company, compared with square silicon wafers, the power of rectangular silicon wafer components can be increased by more than 30W. However, the "variety" of rectangular silicon wafers will obviously bring great challenges to the coordination of upstream and downstream industrial chains and the stability of production line equipment. It is reported that some leading companies want to jointly launch new-size silicon wafers in order to guide the size to unify.

                                                                      3. The next-generation technology is gaining momentum

The efficiency of solar cells is known as the lighthouse of photovoltaic technology innovation. Outperforming the competition in the industry and quickly pursuing "next-generation technology" has also become the key to battery component companies. At the SNEC exhibition, Trina, Risen Energy, Tongwei, Zhongnan Optoelectronics and other companies exhibited HJT and IBC products in addition to TOPCon products. Longi and Yidao took the lead in disclosing the progress of next-generation battery technology to the industry. At the end of last year, LONGi announced that the conversion efficiency of its self-developed silicon heterojunction solar cells reached 26.81%, which is currently the highest efficiency record for silicon solar cells in the world. At the SNEC exhibition half a year later, LONGi unveiled the 2681 concept product, which is one step closer to mass production. At the same time, LONGi announced that the conversion efficiency of its perovskite tandem cells exceeded 31.8%. One has released a full series of technical routes, TOPCon3.0, TBC, SCPC, TSiX, SFOS, and the efficiency of solar cells will exceed 35%.

                                                                                                 4. More in Storage

The integration of photovoltaics and storage is necessary and inevitable, which has also given birth to a new battlefield for photovoltaic companies. After the army of photovoltaic inverters has entered the energy storage market in an all-round way, component companies have also entered the energy storage market one after another. In this exhibition, JinkoSolar, Trina, JA Solar, Canadian Solar, Risen Energy, Hitech New Energy and other component companies exhibited energy storage products, from the power supply side, grid side to user side, from energy storage It covers everything from battery to energy storage system integration. Some insiders pointed out that with the long-standing channel advantages and brand advantages, component companies may go further in the future solar storage competition.

                                                                                  5. There is an endless stream of new forces

"New opponents appear every day." This is a true portrayal of the current component market. At this year's SNEC exhibition, some new powers of modules also made their appearance together, such as Baoxin Technology, Liansu Banhao, King Kong Photovoltaic, Shuangliang, Sany, Mingyang, Hongyuan Green Energy, etc. As far as the technical route is concerned, the new forces do not have the burden of old production lines, and mostly start with n-type technology, TOPCon or HJT (see the product statistics table for details). From the perspective of established companies in the industry, the opportunity for new forces lies in differentiation. If you are only a follower, opportunities will be hard to find. With the sharp drop in the price of upstream raw materials, the competition for module prices in 2023 will also become more intense. In the centralized procurement of central enterprises, the lowest price per watt of PERC modules has fallen below 1.5CNY