Photovoltaic film development space is broad

According to the forecast data of the Global Energy Transition: Roadmap 2050 (2019 edition) released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the global photovoltaic installation will reach 8,519GW in 2050, and the generation cost of new photovoltaic projects will be more than 30% lower than that of new coal power plants by 2025.

Photovoltaic film clip on the photovoltaic cell piece, a cell piece will be matched with two photovoltaic film. There are three kinds of film, EVA, POE and EPE (EVA+POE mixture); Their biggest difference is that the former is cheaper than the latter, the performance of the former is worse than the latter, a good interpretation of the truth of goods for a penny. The current market is mainly EVA film.

The photovoltaic film can encapsulate and protect the solar cell module, improve the photoelectric conversion efficiency of the module, and prolong the service life of the module. Because the packaging process of photovoltaic modules is irreversible, and the operating life of battery modules is required to be more than 25 years, once the film of the battery module begins to yellow and crack, the battery is easy to fail and scrap, so even if the absolute value of the film is not high, it plays an important role in the quality and life of photovoltaic modules.

As an auxiliary material for photovoltaic modules, the technical route of adhesive film is relatively stable. No matter how the cell technology changes, the demand for adhesive film remains stable, and there will be no replacement in the foreseeable future. If there is a change, it should be an upgrade within the system, such as upgrading from ordinary transparent EVA to white EVA or POE or EPE.

The film is placed between the toughened glass or backplane of the module and the solar cell to encapsulate and protect the cell. It is mainly used to wrap the battery on both sides, and acts as a buffer between the battery and the glass (or back).

Because the photovoltaic cell itself is easily broken, and the packaging process is irreversible, and the operating life of the battery module is usually required to be more than 25 years, once the direct contact with rain, snow, sand and dust will seriously affect the photovoltaic cell photoelectric conversion efficiency. Therefore, although the proportion of film materials in the total cost of photovoltaic modules is not high, it is the key factor to determine the quality and life of photovoltaic modules.

From the perspective of pv film market size, pv film market space in 2020 is about 11.9 billion yuan. From 2021, pv film market space will grow rapidly, mainly due to the rapid growth of pv demand in the era of parity, upstream EVA particle price increase + gram weight increase, resulting in a corresponding rise in pv film price.

CPIA expects that the number of newly installed pv units is expected to reach 225GW in 2022. The rapid development of pv industry will drive the continuous high growth of module shipments and the demand for film.

Photovoltaic film upstream material

At present, the main packaging materials on the market are transparent EVA film, white EVA film, polyolefin (POE) film, co-extruded polyolefin POE (EVA-POE-EVA) film and other packaging film (including PDMS/Silicon film, PVB film, TPU film), etc.

EVA film is the main core packaging material needed in the production process of photovoltaic modules, and its main raw material EVA resin is ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer.

According to CPIA, in 2020, component packaging materials are still dominated by transparent EVA film, accounting for about 56.7% of the market share.

With the widespread use of high-efficiency batteries and dual-glass components, and the increasing power of components, anti-PID characteristics gradually become more and more important. The unit price and gross profit rate of POE and white EVA are higher than that of ordinary EVA. It is expected that the shipment of POE and white EVA will account for 40% in 20 years.