On June 10th, 《Star Market Daily》(Reporter Qiu Siyu Zeng Le) reported: "The next 'photovoltaic' is still in photovoltaics, and it will not be a repetitive factory of production capacity, but a source of innovation, a technology accelerator, and an ecological integration of the tropical rainforest." Li Xiande, Chairman of JinkoSolar, said in an article before the opening of the 17th (2024) International Solar Photovoltaic and Smart Energy (Shanghai) Conference and Exhibition (hereinafter referred to as SNEC 2024), an annual event in the photovoltaic industry.

SNEC 2024 will be held from June 13th to June 15th at the National Convention and Exhibition Center (Shanghai). According to the official introduction of the conference, the SNEC exhibition this time is the largest in scale in history. The number of participating companies has reached a historical high, with more than 3,500 domestic and foreign exhibitors, an exhibition area of more than 400,000 square meters, an expected attendance of 500,000 viewers, with 5000 academic experts expected.

SNEC 2024 has also attracted overseas buyers from all over the world. Among the overseas procurement groups, countries such as Germany, Spain, South Korea, Japan, India, Malaysia, Argentina, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia have come to seek cooperation opportunities, adding more commercial opportunities to the exhibition.

The exhibition content includes photovoltaic production equipment, materials, photovoltaic cells, photovoltaic application products and components, as well as photovoltaic engineering and systems, energy storage, and mobile energy, covering various links in the photovoltaic industry chain. The conference forum topics cover the future market trend analysis of the photovoltaic industry, cooperation development strategies, and the most cutting-edge technologies in the industry.

▍N-type TOPCon VS BC: Two technical routes clash

The products of leading photovoltaic companies will be a hot topic of discussion at this exhibition.

It is learned from 《Star Market Daily》 that Trina Solar Co., Ltd. will show its supreme N-type 720W module, supreme N-type 625W series module and supreme N-type 455W module at SNEC.

JinkoSolar also focuses on N-type products. During the conference, the company will hold an N-type module product launch event and a dolphin commercial and industrial energy storage product launch event.

Longi Green Energy Technology's focus is on BC technology. It is reported that the company will conduct a BC all-scenario release on the morning of June 13th. It claims that it will bring more valuable new products and more forward-looking technological innovation achievements.

Shanghai Aiko Solar Energy will release a new generation of ABC components.

It can be seen that both TOPCon and BC are popular technical directions in the current photovoltaic industry. N-type TOPCon is one of the main development directions of the current cutting-edge photovoltaic technology. Due to its high theoretical conversion efficiency and the characteristics of being able to upgrade and transform the PERC production line, it occupies a certain degree of market dominance. The BC technology route has higher conversion efficiency than N-type and unique structural design, and is also gradually expanding its market share.

As PV is a capital-intensive industry, it requires high costs for the research and development and production of cutting-edge technology, but each company has different directions. Which is the best technology route? The major PV companies will shine at SNEC and it is worth looking forward to.

▍Companies from all links in the industry chain gather here

It is noted by the 《Star Market Daily》that at the SNEC 2024, companies from all links in the photovoltaic industry chain gathered here.

Currently, driven by the "dual carbon" strategy, China's photovoltaic market continues to develop, driving the demand for high-performance and low-energy-consuming power devices.

At SNEC 2024, Chip Integration Solutions as a one-stop system solution provider for power products will display power product solutions for wind, light storage, cars, home appliances, and industrial control fields.

From "storage" to "use", building is the core carrier of energy consumption. How to better land green energy in different construction scenarios and thus accelerate the realization of zero-carbon buildings is crucial.

Among them, at SNEC 2024, Midea Building Technology as a comprehensive smart building service provider will exhibit energy storage thermal management, zero-carbon commercial, zero-carbon industrial park, photovoltaic storage and heating solutions and other areas to show its comprehensive solutions that combine green energy with digitization and intelligence in different fields such as source network load storage.

▍AI may be one of the important topics of the exhibition.

In recent years, the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology has promoted the optimization and upgrading of multiple industries and driven the leap of productivity. So, what kind of sparks will be produced by the collision of AI and photovoltaics?

The reporter of Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily noticed that the forum of this conference will focus on the theme of "Artificial intelligence and new materials for solar energy", discussing super materials graphene application development, artificial intelligence prediction of new solar energy materials and composite materials.

The official of the conference said that solar power generation technology has developed from PERC to TOPCon, perovskite and other technologies, graphene has led to the depth of research and development of carbon-based materials and two-dimensional materials. At present, the industry urgently needs artificial intelligence to predict material innovation, predict material structure generation and intelligent efficiency improvement.

At the 7th SNEC Energy Internet Technology and Application Summit Forum, in the panel discussion of "Promoting Energy Digitalization to Empower the New Industrialization to Accelerate the Achievement of the Double Carbon Target", "How to apply artificial intelligence and industry big models to research new power systems, equipment, components and software?" was one of the topics.

"For the new energy industry that is currently in a period of rapid growth, AI's access is expected to help improve efficiency and replace manual operations in various links such as generation, transmission, transformation, distribution, and use, which all involve the demand for software such as prediction, scheduling, and management." said an industry insider.

For more research and discussion on the combination of artificial intelligence and photovoltaic industry, the relevant voices at this SNEC are worth looking forward to.