"At Tongwei, there are two 'no-limit' policies — no cap on talent development expenses, and no cap on R&D investment." In the height of summer, at Tongwei International Center in Chengdu High-Tech Zone, Xing Guoqiang, Chief Technology Officer of Photovoltaic Business at Tongwei Co., Ltd., told reporters from Economic Information Daily that prioritizing scientific and technological innovation is the company's top consensus.

The ups and downs of successive cycles have forged the unique resilience and underlying strength of the photovoltaic industry. In the past two years, the PV sector has once again entered a period of cyclical adjustment. Taking technological innovation as its sharp edge, industrial responsibility as its cornerstone, and strategic resolve as its support, Tongwei has deeply rooted its presence across the entire industrial chain. It has redefined itself amid industry-wide uncertainties, broken through at the cyclical trough, and blazed a distinctive path of progress against the trend and value regeneration.

Tongwei Global Innovation R&D Center

1

Consolidating the Foundation through Real Economy

Deep Industry Shakeout in PV Sector, Industrial Integration Restores Market Ecology

Experts point out that the current profitability pressure in the photovoltaic industry stems from the across-the-board price decline along the whole value chain, caused by the mismatch between earlier capacity expansion and demand growth, rather than operational decision-making issues of individual enterprises.

According to public industry data, in the first quarter of 2026, China's new installed PV capacity dropped by 31% year-on-year. The price of polysilicon has remained at a persistently low level, and enterprises at all links of the industrial chain are generally facing performance pressure. Multiple listed companies have disclosed quarterly losses, highlighting the obvious industry-wide deficit characteristics.

Against the backdrop of overall industry pressure, Tongwei's leading position has instead been consolidated. Data shows that in the high-purity polysilicon segment, leveraging long-term technological accumulation and refined management, the company's silicon material production consumption indicators continue to lead the industry, with distinct advantages in cost control.

In the solar cell segment, Tongwei has ranked first in global shipments for 9 consecutive years. In 2025, its cell sales reached 103.03 GW, capturing a global market share of approximately 15%. Among this figure, overseas cell sales surged 73% year-on-year to 16.73 GW. For the module business, the company's 2025 shipments ranked among the top five globally, with particularly remarkable growth in overseas markets. Module exports jumped 164% year-on-year, delivering 370%, 279% and 129% year-on-year growth in the Middle East & Africa, Asia-Pacific and European markets respectively. It has landed more than 10 hundred-megawatt benchmark projects in Romania, Ireland, Spain, Australia and other regions, marking notably fruitful global market expansion.

2

Breaking Through via Innovation

Global Innovation R&D Center at the Helm, Selected as One of the First National Pilot Platforms

Genuine breakthrough through cycles is rooted in long-term innovation investment and the in-depth support of a top-tier innovation infrastructure.

According to Xing Guoqiang, in 2025, Tongwei's photovoltaic segment invested over 2.2 billion yuan in R&D, accounting for 3.75% of the photovoltaic business revenue. This high-intensity R&D investment firmly places the company in the industry's leading tier. Up to now, Tongwei's photovoltaic segment has accumulated a total R&D investment of over 11 billion yuan in recent years, with 4,070 authorized patents in total. Through sustained and steadfast scientific research efforts, it has built a set of hard-to-replicate technological barriers, generating continuous endogenous momentum for technological iteration.

"The delivery of hardcore innovation achievements relies on the strong empowerment of top-tier R&D platforms," Xing Guoqiang noted. In June 2024, Tongwei Global Innovation R&D Center was officially completed and put into operation. Positioned as the core technological driving force for the enterprise's long-term development, it will continue to help the company accurately anchor technological directions, mitigate industrial risks, tap into market opportunities, and iterate mainstream technologies in the next five, ten years and even longer cycles. Meanwhile, it will lead the innovation of cutting-edge PV technologies, foster new productive forces in the photovoltaic industry, and act as a critical engine for technological breakthroughs across the entire sector.

In December 2025, amid a rigorous selection process with an admission rate of only 8.5‰, Tongwei stood out and was approved as one of China's first "National-level Manufacturing Pilot Platforms" — the only one in the photovoltaic industry. Leveraging this national platform and the company's own national-level technology center, Tongwei is comprehensively advancing parallel R&D and pilot verification for multiple cutting-edge technology routes including TOPCon, HJT, BC, and perovskite/crystalline silicon tandem, accelerating the transformation of laboratory technologies into industrialized outcomes. With its solid technological accumulation and scientific research strength, Tongwei has become the lead responsible entity for China's 15th Five-Year Plan key R&D programs, contributing high-standard R&D innovation to the development of China's photovoltaic industry.

For mainstream N-type technologies, Tongwei has fully deployed the three major routes of TOPCon, HJT and BC, achieving full technology coverage and high iteration in mass production. The company's self-developed TNC 3.0 module integrates four core technologies, with a maximum mass production power of 750W+, a mass production efficiency of 24.14%+, and a bifacial rate as high as 90%. Relying on its core advantages of low temperature coefficient and high power generation efficiency, the company has achieved significantly higher energy output in various complex application scenarios worldwide, delivering tangible value and returns for downstream customers. In the HJT technology field, Tongwei pioneered the 1/3-cut cell manufacturing technology, overcoming multiple challenges in silver reduction, efficiency improvement and cost cutting. It has brought silver consumption down to below 3.7mg/W, and its THC HJT copper-interconnected module has exceeded 802.43W in power, setting a new industry record and achieving dual breakthroughs in efficiency and cost.

Supported by a complete innovation R&D system, Tongwei continues to proactively lay out next-generation photovoltaic technologies, firmly securing the initiative in future industrial competition. The company has built the industry's first fully automatic 5MW-level perovskite-crystalline silicon tandem cell pilot line, with the small-area tandem cell efficiency reaching 34.94%. It keeps breaking through technological bottlenecks and seizes the commanding heights of the new-generation photovoltaic technology track.

3

Elevating Intelligent Manufacturing

Taking "Lighthouse" as the Benchmark, Building a Closed-Loop Innovative Intelligent Manufacturing System

The cutting-edge technological breakthroughs at the R&D end have borne fruit in the intelligent manufacturing sector. In September 2025, Tongwei Solar Meishan Factory was selected into the World Economic Forum's "Lighthouse Factories", becoming the world's first Lighthouse Factory in the photovoltaic cell manufacturing field, and setting a top benchmark for the intelligent and digital transformation of global manufacturing.

Leveraging more than 50 core technologies, Tongwei's Lighthouse Factory has built a 1-billion-level big data intelligent analysis system, which fully covers the entire process of production and manufacturing, energy consumption management, quality inspection, supply chain collaboration and risk control. Through full-link digital and intelligent upgrading, the factory has effectively solved the long-standing industry pain points of traditional manufacturing, such as high loss, low precision, uneven efficiency and high energy consumption. It has significantly reduced production losses, maximized product precision and mass production efficiency, and realized multi-dimensional optimization of photovoltaic products in terms of quality, production capacity and cost.

Xing Guoqiang stated that with the intelligent manufacturing capabilities of the Lighthouse Factory, Tongwei has successfully opened up the full closed-loop innovative intelligent manufacturing system of "R&D innovation — pilot verification — intelligent manufacturing". This allows cutting-edge laboratory technologies and national-level pilot achievements to be rapidly transformed into large-scale, high-quality market-oriented production capacity, realizing the seamless connection between technological innovation and industrial mass production. It provides solid intelligent manufacturing support for the enterprise to navigate industry cycles, resist low-price "involution" and consolidate its position as a global leader.

It is understood that in Tongwei's Lighthouse Factory, the AI coverage rate exceeds 64%. It has deployed core technologies including 1-billion-level big data efficiency optimization, deep learning self-adjustment for screen printing, CNN/DNN intelligent coating closed-loop control, ResNet and XGBoost-driven closed-loop quality management, as well as RAG-enhanced GenAI for equipment maintenance and OEE management, constructing an intelligent closed-loop of "perception — analysis — decision-making — execution".

"This 'Lighthouse' not only proves that traditional manufacturing can embrace AI in a low-cost and high-quality manner, but also forms a set of replicable and promotable 'Tongwei Path' for intelligent manufacturing, setting a benchmark for China's photovoltaic industry to move from scale leadership to intelligent leadership," Xing Guoqiang said.

At present, China's photovoltaic industry is bidding farewell to the era of unregulated rapid growth and entering a stage of high-quality development. "Adhering to the principle of 'competing on technology instead of price, competing on value instead of scale', the company has completed all-round upgrading from leading in scale and cost to leading in technology and value," Xing Guoqiang said. Supported by hardcore technologies and high-quality products, Tongwei has consolidated its leading position in the domestic market. It has also expanded its global market against the trend, opening up new growth space through global layout and firmly holding the core say in the global industrial chain.