The polysilicon industry still lacks technology **Technical bottlenecks are imminent

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In recent years, China’s photovoltaic industry has developed rapidly. Currently, there are over 3,000 enterprises in China involved in solar energy production. Among them are over 500 photovoltaic enterprises and R&D institutions, nearly 30 polysilicon material companies, with more than 100,000 employees in this sector. There are 11 photovoltaic enterprises listed abroad and 12 listed domestically. The domestic photovoltaic industry is experiencing rapid development, but due to a severe lack of core technologies, domestic photovoltaic companies remain confined to playing the role of those who only earn processing fees. In particular, the polysilicon industry continues to suffer as a result of this lack of core technologies. 　　The financial crisis caused losses. The outbreak of the previous financial crisis severely disrupted the rapid development of the domestic photovoltaic industry; demand from foreign markets shrank dramatically, leading to the immediate collapse of most domestic photovoltaic companies. During this period, hundreds of billions of yuan in funds flowed into the photovoltaic industry in China, and Chinese companies paid a heavy price for it. Behind the huge investments made by domestic companies and the resulting losses, what is most concerning is the pain caused by a lack of core technologies. 　　During the financial crisis, foreign companies that firmly held the core technologies for polysilicon production were the least affected; they were also the biggest beneficiaries of the previous period of high profits. Chinese companies have always played the role of earning a \"processing fee\" at the lower end of the global photovoltaic industry chain, and throughout the development of photovoltaics, they have remained in a position where they could only get the leftovers while unable to benefit from the main profits. Not only that, even \"drinking soup\" is subject to external constraints; after the financial crisis, the seven major international polysilicon manufacturers announced plans to expand their production, in an attempt to use low prices to slow down the development of China’s silicon materials industry. Industry experts urge that China should focus on enhancing the overall research capabilities of enterprises, and it is imperative to introduce preferential policies to support fundamental research and development. 　　"The situation of being dependent on imports for both ends has not improved significantly. At present, some polysilicon raw materials can be obtained domestically, but the condition of the photovoltaic industry, where it relies on imports for both upstream raw materials and downstream end-use products, has not seen any notable improvement. In recent years, China’s photovoltaic industry has developed at a rapid pace. Although some companies have gained a certain level of competitiveness and have made significant advancements in technology, most of their efforts still involve integrating and adapting foreign technologies and equipment; original technologies remain extremely rare. Domestic companies have never mastered the truly core polysilicon production technology. Especially in the process of converting silicon raw materials into polysilicon, the lack of technology is even more severe. 　　"The production cost is three times higher than theirs, but the quality is less than one-third of theirs. "Yang Minglun, vice president of Shanghai JA Solar Holding Co., Ltd., commented on the overall production situation of polysilicon in China in this way. He said, \"This extremely uneven distribution of investment in the industrial chain needs to be improved by strengthening technological research and development.\" " 　　Yang Fang, deputy general manager of Nanjing CE PV, explained that one of the main reasons why domestic photovoltaic companies use imported polysilicon is that the purity of some domestic polysilicon materials is insufficient. The purity requirement for solar-grade polysilicon is 6N (99.9999%), whereas the purity of products manufactured by some small and medium-sized domestic producers is only 4N-5N (99.99%). Due to the low level of polysilicon purification technology in our country, enterprises can only produce industrial-grade crude silicon with a purity of 98%-99%, which is sold abroad at extremely low prices. It is then purified into high-quality polysilicon overseas before being imported back, resulting in extremely high costs. The industrial technology for crude silicon is extremely simple, but it requires a large amount of electrical energy and also causes severe environmental pollution. 　　"500,000 yuan per ton of iron – all the profits flow to foreign countries. "The example of Jiangxi Sunwoda can be regarded as a reflection of the reality of China’s photovoltaic industry. 　　This company is dedicated to the research, development, and manufacturing of silicon thin-film solar panels. Compared to crystalline silicon cells, silicon thin-film cells offer advantages such as fewer manufacturing steps, a shorter production cycle, lower material consumption, reduced energy use, and being non-toxic and pollution-free. However, the equipment required is expensive, with investment costs exceeding 100 million dollars per production line. The person in charge of Jiangxi Sunwoda said, “Most of the company’s equipment comes from Applied Materials in the United States. The core equipment used for depositing silicon thin films is a microcrystalline reactor; it’s actually just a 300-ton iron structure, but it costs 20 million dollars. That works out to 500,000 yuan per ton of iron, and four such reactors are needed for one production line.” If these devices can be produced domestically, a significant amount of money can be saved. " 　　**Technical bottlenecks are imminent. Relevant experts in the industry are calling for policies to be directed toward basic theoretical research as soon as possible, so that research efforts can be pooled to overcome these challenges, and to prevent Chinese photovoltaic companies from becoming merely \"manufacturing factories\" in the global solar industry. Zhou Lang, dean of the School of Materials at Nanchang University, said, “More funding can be allocated to the photovoltaic industry through research programs such as ‘973’ and ‘863’, in order to rapidly establish a **photovoltaic R&D system that integrates industry, academia, and research closely.**” At present, cities such as Tianjin and Shaanxi in China, along with the military industry, already have a certain foundation in areas such as equipment manufacturing and research and development in the photovoltaic industry; with proper integration, they hold great potential for further research. " 　　It is also an urgent task to properly guide social capital toward investing in the research, development, and manufacturing of photovoltaic equipment. Zhang Guoping, assistant to the general manager of Jiangxi Gemi, which is involved in the production of monocrystalline silicon solar cells, said, “The enthusiasm of private capital for the prospects of the photovoltaic industry should be protected and guided, so that some of this capital can be directed toward the research, development, and manufacturing of equipment for this industry.” "It is understood that at present, a number of key photovoltaic enterprises in Jiangsu Province have begun to work on advancing the technical equipment used in the photovoltaic industry; equipment such as PECVD machines, plasma etching machines, laser machines, laminating machines, as well as devices for testing solar cells and modules, has seen initial localization. However, since these efforts yield slow results, **funds should be allocated to subsidize companies’ research and development efforts. 　　Furthermore, the current situation in our country, where production lines rely mainly on imports and various industries operate in isolation, needs to be changed urgently. Xu Yuan, director of the Wuxi Suntech Research Institute, said, \"International collaboration should be strengthened to achieve improvement through introduction, integration, and assimilation.\" While strengthening independent innovation, it is also necessary to enhance international cooperation and encourage enterprises to go global by acquiring foreign equipment manufacturing firms through capital mergers and acquisitions. In the context of economic globalization, innovative enterprises can only seize the advantages in emerging industries by making full use of and integrating capital, technology, and human resources on a global scale. "To date, Suntech has established 6 R&D centers around the world and hired dozens of foreign experts. 　　It is understood that domestic research institutions focused on polysilicon have begun to form an alliance of domestic photovoltaic companies in order to achieve open sharing of production equipment and technologies. It can be said that China has taken steps toward mastering the core technologies in photovoltaics, but the actual results remain to be seen.