this year, playing cards and fishing have become recreational activities for villagers in a village under Kunshan, Jiangsu Province. The second-hand photovoltaic export trade used to be an important livelihood for the village. This year, the market has suffered a cold winter. Cheng Wu (not his real name), a second-hand PV trader
in Kunshan, has been engaged in second-hand PV work for more than six years. In the past few years, a large number of second-hand PV modules have been exported to the Middle East through traders like Cheng Wu. When the market is good, the company's annual profit is at least several million yuan . "At that time, we earned 30000 yuan for a container, and hundreds of millions of yuan a year."
"Photovoltaic module market has been buying up and not buying down, when the price rises, customers raise their own prices, begging us to sell, when the price falls, they are watching," he concluded to reporters. In
2023, the price of first-hand photovoltaic modules dropped from 2 yuan/watt at the beginning of the year to about 1.3 yuan/watt, and the market price of second-hand photovoltaic modules began to plummet. "Big brands can still sell to 1.2 yuan/watt, second-line basically 1.1 yuan/watt, Longji slightly expensive may reach 1.2 yuan/watt." Other brands are basically 1. "Cheng Wu told reporters.". Under the pressure of
price, some second-hand traders began to sell components to specialized processing manufacturers as raw materials. "New components are very cheap now, no one buys second-hand components, instead of piling up in the warehouse, it is better to dismantle them into raw materials.". Since last year, some people have been looking for equipment to turn photovoltaic modules into raw materials, and we started doing it at that time, "a salesman of photovoltaic recycling equipment told reporters.". The life of
photovoltaic modules is generally 25 years, and even the earliest photovoltaic power plants laid in China may not have reached the end of their lives. "The number of retired photovoltaic power plants is very small," an energy-saving solar energy worker told reporters. The aforementioned energy-saving personages told reporters that they expected to usher in a wave of photovoltaic retirement in five years.
On August 17, the State Development and Reform Commission, the State Energy Administration, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Ministry of Commerce and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission jointly issued the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Recycling of Retired Wind Power and Photovoltaic Equipment, making policy preparations for the future retirement peak period, and predicting the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2025). China will usher in the first batch of large-scale wind power and photovoltaic decommissioning, of which the scale of wind power decommissioning will exceed 1 million kilowatts and the scale of photovoltaic decommissioning will exceed 800000 kilowatts.
But before the arrival of the peak, the leading role of the second-hand photovoltaic market is still the second-hand photovoltaic traders and their rivers and lakes. The source of
second-hand photovoltaic modules in Jianghu
mainly comes from photovoltaic manufacturing plants, photovoltaic power plant construction sites and various dismantled photovoltaic modules .
A second-hand photovoltaic trader in Kunshan told reporters that photovoltaic manufacturing enterprises will take out their defective products for bidding, including various grades of components, and A-level factories will also provide quality assurance. After the construction of the
photovoltaic power plant site, if there are surplus components, they will also be sold. "I bought the remaining parts of the project from the construction site. There are many photovoltaic power stations in Xinjiang, all of which are double-sided components. After we buy them, we pack them and sell them to Jiangsu ," said another second-hand photovoltaic trader in Xinjiang. The situation of
dismantling components is different, some are demolished because of rural demolition, some owners do not want, and more because of the progress of domestic photovoltaic manufacturing in recent years, the income of old components is not as good as that of new components in just a few years. "In the past few years, the best components were 400 watts, but now no one wants them below 500 watts in China." Cheng Wu told reporters.
Another second-hand photovoltaic trader told reporters that disassembly components mainly come from distributed photovoltaic power plants , domestic centralized power plants are mainly operated by state-owned enterprises, disassembly components need to go through the process of disposal of state-owned assets, "it is more troublesome to buy".
These components flow to second-hand photovoltaic traders gathered in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, and then they are resold to domestic and foreign markets, especially overseas markets. According to the above-mentioned second-hand photovoltaic traders, most of the dismantled modules are sold abroad, because there is basically no domestic market for photovoltaic modules such as 400 watts, 108 or 120 (cells). Foreign customers mainly come from Afghanistan, Pakistan and other Middle East regions as well as South Africa. "Foreigners want cheap components." He told reporters.
"About 70% of the people in our village are doing this business. If they can do trade, they will do trade. If they can't, they will work as workers." Cheng Wu told reporters.
Under the influence of villagers, his first job is second-hand photovoltaic trade, which has been working until now, during which he has experienced a sharp fall in component prices after the "531 New Photovoltaic Policy", as well as a sharp rise in component prices. "At the time of the 531 New Deal, the state abolished "When we make money, we earn 30000 yuan for a container, and we run hundreds of millions of yuan a year." Installing photovoltaic panels in the Middle East Five years ago, Chen Zhihui (not his real name) came to Afghanistan to do business, and now he is eyeing the business of installing photovoltaic panels for telecom base stations. He told reporters that Afghanistan has a population of about 40 million, and the number of photovoltaic panels purchased every year is 2. He explained to reporters: "Electricity here is very expensive, and it is not easy to use. Commercial electricity costs two yuan at one time.". But the light is very abundant, and a lot of electricity can be generated with poor photovoltaic panels. Telecom base stations here all use this photovoltaic power supply station, and there is a total of about 70 million yuan of business to do. The roofs of local rural houses are flat. Standing on a roof equipped with household photovoltaics, you can see that there are buildings built on the desert nearby, and there are rolling hills in the distance. Photovoltaic panels are an old sight from any angle: the front of the cell has obvious chromatic aberration, and the back of the bracket is the most common steel. Chen Zhihui is looking for a domestic photovoltaic construction team. His account is calculated like this: you can go to Kunshan to buy second-hand photovoltaic panels, purchase domestic air machines, go to Iran to buy copper wires, recruit local workers in Afghanistan every month, only 600-1000 yuan per person, buy lead-acid batteries to store electricity, and go to the local to cut photovoltaic brackets. In this way, the photovoltaic power plants of 37 telecom base stations need a total investment of about 2 million. "Profits will be discussed when the construction team comes, which is certainly better than domestic." He told reporters. Cheng Wu told reporters about his dealings with Afghan customers, "Afghan customers come to China, go to our warehouse to see the goods, pack them in containers and ship them away, cash delivery, one hand to pay and one hand to deliver the goods." Afghanistan is only one of the destinations of China's photovoltaic industry. In fact, many countries in the Middle East are promoting the transformation of energy and industry, which also provides space for China's photovoltaic industry to go to sea, especially second-hand photovoltaic modules. Since 2022, the demand for photovoltaic panels in the Middle East has increased sharply. According to InfoLink data, the total number of imports in the Middle East in 2022 is 11. Unlike the traditional photovoltaic markets in Europe and the United States, local installers can afford lower initial investment in photovoltaic power plants. A salesman of a domestic second-tier component factory told the reporter that the specification is 550 watts, double glass, 72 version of the component is about 0.155 dollars/watt (FOB price, about 1.08 yuan), which is 0.2-0 lower than domestic price. He told the reporter, "The Middle East side mainly uses degraded components, and it is difficult for brand factories to make low prices. There are a lot of inquiries, but none of them are bought." Degraded components refer to second-hand components with insufficient power, which have certain defects, such as missing corners or color difference. Cheng Wu told reporters that degraded components are 0 cheaper than normal second-hand components. "Foreigners need cheap components." He told reporters, "The degraded components can't be sold in China, the first-line factories are still bought, the second-line factories are almost untouched in China, and the cheap installers won't touch them, after all, the brand-new ones are only 1." From resale to recycling this year, Cheng Wu spent more time playing cards and fishing with his brothers in the village. He bought a fishing rod for thousands of yuan. Even if customers want to buy components, Cheng Wu is reluctant to sell now, because "the high price at the beginning of the year, the current price is to lose money." "This year is the worst time for me to do photovoltaic for so many years. The goods are all in the warehouse. If I move, I will lose money. If I have no money, I will borrow from my good brother. Now we are all ready. How much we lose is how much we lose now. We will pay it back slowly later. If we can't, we will go to work with him." He told reporters. Domestic photovoltaic giants are expanding production capacity in various sectors, and price competition has spread to the second-hand market. Cheng Wu told reporters that domestic photovoltaic power plant installers go to the photovoltaic manufacturing plant to order, "buy more than a dozen MW, has nothing to do with our trade market, domestic new photovoltaic modules may be more expensive than second-hand modules 10 cents/watt, power generation is higher."." Cheng Wu hopes that the price of components may rise by the end of the year, but this is beyond his control as a second-hand photovoltaic trader.". "The end of the year is still like this, clearance, recognition of losses, not on the sale of houses and cars, no way, have been psychologically prepared." He told reporters that the largest local second-hand photovoltaic traders are expected to lose more than 10 million yuan, "tens of thousands of photovoltaic panels, each about 150 yuan." In addition to profit and loss, he is also worried about safety. He told reporters that many people now steal photovoltaic modules from construction sites to sell, "a steal is 1000 pieces, 2000 pieces, we do not know it is stolen, formal contracts, and finally the money is gone, there is criminal responsibility." Not long ago, he just met 1400 pieces of components in stock. "Less than two hours after the negotiation, the police station called. Fortunately, he did not sign the contract, remitted money, played with heartbeat, and lived by feeling.". We're afraid of this now. At the same time, another business of second-hand photovoltaic, recycling, is rising in Henan. There is no large-scale photovoltaic module manufacturing plant or photovoltaic production equipment manufacturing plant, but there is the only photovoltaic module recycling equipment manufacturing plant in the country. "Last year, our company developed the technology of manufacturing photovoltaic equipment, and now we have sold 4-5 production lines." A photovoltaic recycling equipment factory in Shangqiu told reporters. Another photovoltaic recycling equipment factory in Zhengzhou told reporters that their production line is now in short supply, and if they want to buy a production line, they need to wait 60 days to get the goods. The two salesmen told reporters different ways to deal with it. On the production line of Zhengzhou Company, the robot hand will first remove the junction box on the back of the photovoltaic panel. During the operation of the assembly line, the workers will throw the junction box into the box, then rotate the photovoltaic panel, remove the surrounding frame, and run to the production line of in Shangqiu Company". It will use the waste tire refiner to pyrolyze the photovoltaic film, and then enter the crusher and sorting machine. "This kind of machine is not approved in many cities, at least in Qingdao." He told reporters. This machine will produce waste water and smoke pollution, "chemical treatment will certainly have pollution, can only try to control to meet local environmental standards." He concluded to reporters. Such a production line costs about 2 million yuan. Shangqiu's equipment covers an area of about 2000 square meters, with a daily processing capacity of about 80 tons of photovoltaic panels, equivalent to 3200 photovoltaic panels, and a net profit of about 800 yuan after one ton of photovoltaic panels are dismantled into raw materials. The equipment in Zhengzhou can remove 9 tons of glass, 1.2 tons of aluminum, 0.36 tons of silicon and 0.12 tons of copper every 8 hours. "It mainly deals with two kinds of boards, one is the second-hand boards with poor quality, because the glass is broken and there is no way to reuse them; the other is the second-hand boards that are sold out without making money." Sales in Shangqiu told reporters. He also proposed to build a factory in Ningxia, "where the installed capacity of photovoltaic is large, photovoltaic panels are relatively old, and the supply of goods is large." He also told reporters that photovoltaic panel recycling is still in its infancy, "not many people do it, the competition is not fierce, now do the most profitable.".
浙公网安备33010802003254号