On September 29, Ai Luo Energy announced that it plans to purchase land use rights in Tonglu Economic Development Zone for investing in the construction of a large-scale energy storage system and smart energy system research and production project, and has signed an "Investment Agreement" with the Tonglu Economic Development Zone Management Committee for this project.

The total planned investment in the above project is not less than 1.05 billion yuan, with fixed asset total investment in the project not less than 0.755 billion yuan.

The construction of this project includes: a large-scale energy storage system manufacturing center, an air-source heat pump manufacturing center, a "solar-thermal-charging" smart energy system manufacturing center, research and testing laboratories, office buildings, and employee living areas, with a total construction area of approximately 170,750 square meters.

Since January this year, Ai Luo Energy has been listed on the STAR Market. It mainly provides photovoltaic energy storage inverters, energy storage batteries, and grid-connected inverters to overseas customers for use in the distributed photovoltaic energy storage and grid connection fields.

However, due to factors such as high overseas inventory, Ai Luo Energy's performance has declined. In the first half of this year, Ailuo Energy achieved revenue of 1.584 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 53.41%; net income attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 0.103 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 89.44%.

Ai Luo Energy disclosed in its announcement that the investment amount for this project is relatively large, with the main source of funding being self-owned, self-raised funds, and the uncertainty of whether the funds will be in place on time. The interim report shows that the net cash flow from operating activities of the company was 0.423 billion yuan, with cash and cash equivalents balance of 3.296 billion yuan at the end of the period.

**This layout indicates that Ai Luo Energy is shifting its focus from household storage to covering multiple scenario applications.

**The reporter of Star Daily noticed that Elion Energy's current research projects include high-power grid-connected inverters suitable for ground power stations and large power stations, as well as layout including V2G charging stations, heat pumps and other new energy sectors. Among them, the company's 320-350kW high-power string inverter, with a total expected investment of 30.5 million yuan, has already accumulated an investment of 34.0004 million yuan, although it has exceeded the budget, it is still in the development stage.

This may explain its significant increase in research and development investment. In 2023, the company's research and development staff totaled 802 people, an increase of 180.42% from the previous year's 286 people, with the proportion of R&D personnel to total company employees rising from 13.52% to 35.76%. The 2024 interim report shows that the number of R&D personnel in the company has further expanded to 956.

In terms of expenses, Elion Energy's total research and development expenses for the full year of 2023 amounted to 0.275 billion yuan, an 82.25% year-on-year increase; the total research and development expenditure in the first half of 2024 was 0.238 billion yuan, an increase of 98.73% year-on-year.

From the current industry perspective, in the second quarter of this year, after more than a year of performance pressure, the inverter industry market has warmed up, with inverters such as Elion Energy, Jiangsu Goodwe Power Supply Technology Co., Ltd., Hemai Technology, Yuneng Technology and other inverters showing improved performance.

The reporter of Star Daily noticed that inverter-related companies are all seeking new growth points. However, using this project as an example, there may be many uncertainties during the process.

The above announcement mentioned that after the land is listed, construction will begin within 3 months after signing the land transfer contract, completion of the project is expected within 24 months after the start of construction, and production will start within 6 months after the completion of the project. Based on this calculation, the earliest time for this project to start production will be 2 years later.