Caixin Website, November 6th (Reporter Liu Mengran) As a leading company in the XBC camp, Longi Green Energy (601012.SH) has been promoting its market share in this technology. After cooperating with Goldensolar (01121.HK) to develop HBC batteries, the company once again "partners" with Yingfa Deyao to build HPBC battery capacity, planning to reach a capacity of 16GW. Industry analysts believe that in the current mainstream dominated by TOPCon capacity, Longi, through an "alliance" approach with light asset operation, is building a development ecosystem.

According to the news from "Yibin Announcement" today, on November 5th, the strategic cooperation agreement signing ceremony for the 16GW HPBC solar cell project between Yibin Yingfa Deyao Technology Co., Ltd., Yibin High-tech Zone, and Longi Green Energy Technology Co., Ltd., was held.

According to the agreement, the three parties will strengthen cooperation in the photovoltaic industry, extensively collaborate on HPBC battery production, sales, and related technical fields, achieve complementarity of advantages and common development, and complete the first phase of 6GW capacity by 2025.

Regarding project details such as amounts and shareholding ratios, there is currently no further disclosure. According to Longi Green Energy's January 2023 announcement on the HPBC capacity investment plan, the scale of its original Xixianleye high-efficiency monocrystalline solar cell project has been expanded from an annual production of 15GW to 29GW, incorporating the company's independently developed HPBC high-efficiency battery technology. The total investment in this project is approximately 7.04 billion yuan.

Caixin Website reporters noted that this is the first time Longi Green Energy has cooperated with a third party to build HPBC capacity. Regarding why there was no public announcement, a company spokesperson responded to Caixin Website reporters that the amount of this collaborative project did not meet the disclosure standards. Another source close to the company revealed that by increasing efficient capacity, Longi is building a healthy development ecosystem for BC technology through technology licensing and equity cooperation.

As for whether the HPBC batteries produced by Yingfa Deyao can be sold to customers other than Longi (or designated), Longi Green Energy has not responded yet.

According to Infolink statistics, also under the Yingfa Group, Yingfa Ruineng ranked among the top three globally in TOPCon battery shipments in the first half of the year. Yingfa Deyao, a production company in the photovoltaic cell sector under the Yingfa Group, signed a contract to settle in Yibin in March 2022. By the end of 2023, its capacity had reached 27GW. According to the Yingfa Group's official website, Yingfa Deyao currently adopts the TOPCon 2.0+ route, with solar cell panel conversion efficiency reaching 27.02%.

Longi Green Energy Technology continues to increase its allies in the BC camp. In September of this year, Goldensolar Energy announced that its indirect wholly-owned subsidiary Goldensolar (Quanzhou) has signed a joint venture agreement with Fujian Jucheneng and Longi. The contracting parties will jointly establish a joint venture company to produce HBC solar cells. The registered capital of the joint venture company is RMB 0.659 billion, with Longi injecting assets into the company and holding a 20.18% stake.

HBC refers to Heterojunction Back Contact technology. According to the announcement from Goldensolar Energy, once the joint venture company meets all relevant contractual standards for efficiency, quality, etc., it will sell most of its produced HBC solar cells to Longi or its affiliated companies, which will then further package them into components for sale.

According to previous plans, by the end of 2025, Longi's green energy BC solar cell production capacity will reach 70GW. With the addition of the joint venture company's construction capacity, the scale of its BC products will further expand. However, some market analysts have told Caixin reporters that the current production capacity exceeds market demand. Even if relatively outdated capacities like PERC are excluded, existing capacities such as TOPCon can still meet market demands. In the coming years, the main competitive factors in the photovoltaic market will continue to revolve around the differentiation of battery technology.