Veteran TV leader SKYWORTH increases investment in photovoltaics

SKYWORTH GROUP Executive Director and President Shi Chi

By Huang Yu

During the downturn of the photovoltaic industry, SKYWORTH remains optimistic about its future prospects and is actively stockpiling "ammunition" to prepare for the industry's recovery.

On August 28, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Shenzhen SKYWORTH Photovoltaic Smart Industry Park project was completed, officially entering the construction phase. Once completed, SKYWORTH's photovoltaic production base will increase to 4.

According to the plan, the photovoltaic module production base is divided into two phases. The first phase is expected to be completed and put into use by the end of 2026, and the second phase is expected to be put into use by mid-2027. After the project reaches full production, the annual production capacity is expected to be 5GW, with 25,000 modules produced per day.

SKYWORTH GROUP Executive Director and President Shi Chi stated that this project marks an important step for SKYWORTH GROUP in the field of photovoltaics.

As the TV industry enters a stage of stock competition, in order to find new performance growth points, SKYWORTH entered the photovoltaic industry in 2020, with distributed photovoltaics (residential photovoltaics) as its core business. At that time, the photovoltaic industry was in an upward cycle, with many new players entering the market.

Over the past four years, SKYWORTH Photovoltaic has continuously expanded its market track. Currently, its business covers residential, commercial, and other photovoltaic power station system integration solutions, as well as manufacturing businesses such as photovoltaic modules, brackets, inverters, and energy storage, as well as new energy businesses such as energy storage, operation and maintenance, and logistics.

The photovoltaic business has indeed helped SKYWORTH open up new growth space, achieving high-speed growth in the past few years.

SKYWORTH GROUP's financial report shows that from 2020 to 2023, SKYWORTH's new energy business revenue was 104 million yuan, 4.101 billion yuan, 11.934 billion yuan, and 23.396 billion yuan respectively.

In early 2024, SKYWORTH GROUP Chairman Lin Jin stated that SKYWORTH's new energy business ranks among the top three in the industry and has become the "second curve" of growth for the entire group.

However, against the background of grid constraints and intensified industry competition, SKYWORTH Photovoltaic has also encountered performance pains. In the first half of the year, SKYWORTH's new energy business revenue fell by 25.7% year-on-year to 9.015 billion yuan, accounting for approximately 30% of total revenue.

As of June 30, 2024, SKYWORTH has cumulatively completed and grid-connected over 528,000 residential photovoltaic power stations. SKYWORTH Photovoltaic stated that it will accelerate the expansion of the commercial distributed photovoltaic market in the future.

In response to industry challenges, in addition to continuously expanding its market track, SKYWORTH Photovoltaic also regards going global as an important task.

SKYWORTH mentioned to Wall Street News that currently, SKYWORTH Photovoltaic has business layouts in 27 countries overseas, including Serbia, Brazil, Thailand, Australia, France, and Germany. This is also an opportunity to seize the global photovoltaic market growth by expanding overseas markets.

SKYWORTH expects that in the short term, the market competition in the photovoltaic industry will become more intense, product prices may continue to be depressed, and enterprise survival will face challenges. However, it believes that with the continuous advancement of technology and the gradual maturity of the market, some enterprises with technological advantages and market competitiveness will stand out. This is the process of market integration and also an opportunity for brand breakthroughs In SKYWORTH's view, in the long term, the photovoltaic industry, as an important part of clean energy, still has broad development prospects. With the accelerating global trend towards a low-carbon economy, and the continuous strengthening of national policy support for new energy, the potential of the photovoltaic market remains enormous.

Seizing the opportunity of industry consolidation, SKYWORTH is expected to make a key leap in the photovoltaic field