Yunnan rises to become China's hub for aluminum, photovoltaic industries

Weiqiao Group's Yunnan Honghe New Materials Co., Ltd., which is located in Luxi Industrial Park, is building up a new 600kA plus electrolyzer that saves more than 500 kWh/ton of aluminum. Both are typical cases of green practice in aluminum production. 

In 2021, Yunnan province proposed to be the "Chinese Valley of Green Aluminum". Starting in 2022, the province has kicked off a number of aluminum projects in Wenshan, Zhaotong, Qujing, Honghe and Kunming, and because the projects called for using hydro-power instead of coal, the leading aluminum makers like Chinalco Group, Sichuan Qiya and Henan Shenhuo chose to settle down.

After the completion of the key industrial parks that integrate hydro-power into aluminum making in southeast Yunnan’s Wenshan and Honghe, the province's production capacity will reach more than 8 million tons per year, close to one-fifth of the Chinese production in electrolytic aluminum.

"Both our company and Yunnan need development, and the needs are complementary. This provides us with the possibility in regional cooperation," said Miao Yongbo, deputy general manager of Yunnan Hongtai Company in the Yanshan industrial park.

After returning from the 7th China-South Asia Expo, Ma Yunlu, the general manager of Yunnan Innovation Alloy Co., Ltd., received countless consultation calls from customers all over the world.

"As part of Yanshan Industrial Park, we displayed our aluminum products at the expo’s fifth exhibition hall. Aluminum-alloy bars, aluminum-alloy wires and aluminum spare-parts for new energy vehicles were appealing to numerous customers," Ma Yunlu said.

By 2030, Yunnan will be the Chinese hub of green aluminum, with its aluminum production leading the world in energy sufficiency and others. To achieve this goal, the province needs more AI application and regional cooperation.

Ma Yunlu said, "Aluminum products are increasingly used in more fields. In building Yunnan into the Chinese pivot of opening-up to south-southeast Asia, we will seize the development opportunities to tap the regional markets for greater development."

Photovoltaic industry enters 100-billion-yuan era

In 2016, LONGi Green Energy Technology began to cooperate with Yunnan in photovoltaic industry. Up to now, the leading energy company has invested in the silicon photovoltaics manufacturing in Lijiang, Baoshan, Chuxiong and Qujing, with the province emerging as LONGi's largest production base of silicon rods and wafers.

Following rounds of negotiations in September 2017, the Solargiga Energy Holdings Limited based in northeast China’s Jinzhou city signed a contract with east Yunnan’s Qujing city on making the 1GW single-crystal silicon rods and wafers.

"If the previous investments were drawn by the low costs, our current investments in capacity increase are based on the industrial-cluster effect and the improved business environment," said Huo Xuewei, director of the administrative department of Solargiga Energy’s Qujing branch.

In 2022, Yunnan province set the goal of being Chinese capital of photovoltaics, formulating policies and measures to bolster the industrial chains and explore the international market. In the same year, provincial output of the whole photovoltaic chain reached 107.3 billion yuan, making photovoltaics a 100-billion-yuan industry in Yunnan.

At the Qilin Industrial Park in east Yunnan’s Qujing, construction of a Xinyi project that aims to annually produce 200,000 tons of polysilicon and 20,000 tons of white carbon black is in full swing. "Now we’re installing upper parts of the structures, striving to finish the installation within the year," said Sun Xiaohui, marketing manager of the Xinyi Solar Holdings Limited based in east China’s Anhui province.

Given the industrial foundation and resource advantages, Yunnan takes Qujing as its core area of photovoltaics production, with satellite hubs being Baoshan, Chuxiong, Lijiang and Zhaotong. As of June this year, the province's silicon production capacity reached 1.15 million tons, and the installation capacity of its photovoltaic glasses added up to 7GW.

Yunnan photovoltaic clean-energy also benefits neighboring countries. From 2004 to 2022, the Yunnan International Company of China Southern Power Grid traded 65.5 billion kWh of electricity with the neighboring countries like Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar, of which clean energy accounted for over 90%. This optimized allocation of clean energy in the region.

Reporting by Wang Dan; translating by Wang Shixue; editing by Wang Jingzhong (Yunnan Daily)