Song Dengyuan, Chief Technology Officer of Yixineng: It is urgent to establish carbon footprint accounting rules and standards for the photovoltaic industry

The ecological environment department recently issued the "Implementation Plan on Establishing a Carbon Footprint Management System" together with multiple departments (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Plan"), requiring key products such as photovoltaics to issue carbon footprint accounting rules and standards.

Song Dengyuan, chief technology officer of Yidongyi New Energy Technology Co., Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as Yidongyi New Energy), said: The country's introduction of the "Implementation Plan" is very timely, because it is also an urgent problem that needs to be solved in the photovoltaic industry.

Song Dengyuan believes that my country is actively guiding the green development of enterprises, and one of the most important symbols of green development is the management of carbon emissions. Therefore, the introduction of the "Implementation Plan" is very necessary to guide the green and healthy development of my country's emerging strategic industries.

When our reporter conducted an exclusive interview with Song Dengyuan, he conducted a detailed and in-depth analysis based on his years of experience.

Silicon material production consumes the highest energy, and carbon emissions account for more than 50% of the entire photovoltaic module

China Environment News: Please talk about why it is urgent for the photovoltaic industry to establish a carbon footprint management system?

Song Dengyuan:Today, my country's photovoltaic industry has become a very bright business card for manufacturing in China. In 2023, the average proportion of silicon materials, silicon wafers, batteries, and module products will reach about 91% of the global market share. However, now the carbon barriers set up by countries such as Europe and the United States have an increasingly serious impact on the export of my country's photovoltaic products. Because photovoltaic is an international industry that can bring clean energy transformation to the world and contribute to the global response to climate change, it is inevitable that it will go global. Therefore, the photovoltaic industry's need to establish carbon footprint system standards may be more urgent.

In particular, countries such as the European Union are relatively strict in calculating the carbon footprint of my country's export products, and we need to provide sufficient evidence to prove how much green electricity we use in manufacturing. Due to different standards, we do not recognize the data we provide. In fact, photovoltaic companies have installed solar power generation facilities on the roofs of their factories, and the actual green electricity accounts for a large proportion. However, the data used in carbon certification databases in the European Union, for example, France and Italy are still calculated based on a fixed electricity carbon emission factor, which is much higher than our current actual situation. my country vigorously develops renewable energy, and the proportion of green electricity in the power grid continues to increase. In addition, photovoltaic companies generally install a large number of photovoltaic panels on factory roofs, and the proportion of green electricity used will be higher. However, the actual foreign carbon certification uses a high carbon emission factor for electricity. This kind of carbon evaluation data is not fair to my country's photovoltaic products.

Faced with these green barriers abroad, it is an urgent matter for us to establish carbon footprint accounting rules and standards. If we delay it for a few more years, other countries may develop. It took us more than 20 years of hard work to achieve this. Zhang's national business card will soon be caught up. At the same time, we must also lead or actively participate in the formulation of international standards for the carbon footprint of photovoltaic products and have more say in the international carbon market.

China Environment News: In terms of the entire life cycle of photovoltaic modules, which link has the highest carbon emissions?

Song Dengyuan:The most energy-consuming link for photovoltaic is the production of polysilicon materials. The production process of polysilicon is to first extract silicon from silicon ore containing silicon dioxide to form industrial silicon. Among the production costs of industrial silicon, electricity energy consumption costs account for about 35% of the production costs. The purity of industrial silicon at this time is between 98% and 99%. Polysilicon is then prepared by the Siemens method, chlorine gas is combined with hydrogen gas to produce hydrogen chloride, which is then reacted with silicon powder after crushing and grinding industrial silicon to produce trichlorosilane, which is further reduced by hydrogen gas to produce polysilicon. The purity of polysilicon can reach 6 "9s" to 9 "9s. Polysilicon is the raw material of photovoltaic modules. Polysilicon is then made into silicon rods through a crystal pulling process. The silicon rods are then cut into slices, silicon wafers are used to prepare battery chips, and finally packaged into photovoltaic modules. Therefore, these steps from silicon dioxide to polysilicon are the most energy-intensive during the entire life cycle of photovoltaic modules, accounting for more than 50% of carbon emissions.

Enterprises in the industrial chain have uneven levels, and green development needs to be strengthened

China Environment News: You also serve as deputy director of the Photovoltaic Special Committee of the China Green Supply Chain Alliance. You know a lot about companies in the photovoltaic industry chain. What is the current understanding of the carbon footprint of relevant companies?

Song Dengyuan:Photovoltaic carbon footprint refers to the carbon footprint of the entire industrial chain, which is relatively complex. The photovoltaic industry chain is actually very long. In the vertical direction, it includes silicon materials, silicon wafers, batteries, components, systems, etc.; in the horizontal direction, the industrial chain is even longer, including various materials, such as aluminum frames, backplates, glass, adhesive films and auxiliary materials such as junction boxes.

Companies in the industrial chain first have different understandings of green and low-carbon, and the green processes in different fields are also different. It can only be said that some are not "green" yet, some are slightly "green", some are "light green", and some are "dark green". Overall, the level is uneven. The establishment of carbon footprint accounting rules and standards is to increase the attention paid by enterprises in the entire chain, and enterprises in the entire industry chain will jointly develop towards "deep" green development.

China Environment News: At present, how do photovoltaic module product manufacturers drive the green and low-carbon development of upstream enterprises?

Song Dengyuan:From the perspective of the entire supply chain, because the carbon footprint evaluates the entire supply chain. Although some industry associations have taken the lead in issuing some green evaluation standards, relatively speaking, green suppliers do not have a unified standard, and the relevant evaluation mechanism is not yet complete. We can only evaluate suppliers based on their carbon value management, for example, Whether the annual carbon emission value is decreasing, whether there are measures to reduce the low carbon value, etc.

Taking a new N-type product as an example, the company itself has formulated a "Green Supply Chain Management Strategic Plan" to continuously develop green suppliers. Because there are many suppliers, only truly green companies, such as companies that also produce one kilogram of polysilicon and use less electricity, or companies that have passed third-party green evaluations, such as zero-carbon factories, green factories, etc., will have high green scores. Only then will they be selected into the supplier management directory, and now our green suppliers account for more than 60%.

In addition, Kindeng has introduced an advanced ESG digital management platform in its own management, joined the Chinese Enterprise Climate Action and the United Nations Global Compact, and was awarded the "PV Tech ESG Best Performance" company, and has successively won international certification such as carbon footprint in France, Italy and other countries.

At the same time, the company is also exploring the development of N-type technology lightweight components. It does not use glass on the surface, but uses polymer materials instead of glass. In addition, it does not have aluminum frames, which can greatly reduce carbon emissions. Because glass and aluminum frames (electrolytic aluminum production) have high carbon emissions, according to calculations, the carbon value per kilowatt module is about 320kg/kW, while the current carbon value of conventional photovoltaic modules is about 400-470kg/kW.

In 2023, Yongyi Xinneng will join hands with nearly 50 upstream and downstream companies in the photovoltaic industry to establish the "Green Supply Chain Industry Alliance", giving full play to the demonstration and leading role of leading companies, aiming to promote enterprises in the entire chain to raise awareness and achieve a win-win and green development in the chain. Due to its outstanding achievements in building a green supply chain, Yi Xinneng was selected as the only photovoltaic cell and module company into the national-level "Green Supply Chain Management Enterprises" list.

In the future, we also hope that the state will introduce corresponding policies to help enterprises in the entire industrial chain develop green, such as incentive policies such as green credit, green finance and tax incentives.