A Giant in the Photovoltaic Industry Faces Change!

From the only college graduate in his village to a tycoon with a net worth of 82 billion, then down to 28 billion, the former "Richest Man in Shaanxi," #Li Zhenguo, can no longer sit idly by.

 

At a critical juncture as the multi-billion dollar photovoltaic giant, #Longi Green Energy, enters its 25th year, he suddenly announced his resignation from the positions of director, general manager, and legal representative, with the company's chairman, Zhong Baoshen, taking over these roles.

 

● Longi Green Energy Announcement

 

Of course, this is not Li Zhenguo's intention to give up. As the founder of Longi Green Energy, Li Zhenguo has been deeply involved in the front lines for many years, and this time he will devote all his energy to technological breakthroughs.

 

After his resignation, he will continue to serve as the director of the company's central research institute and chief technology officer of the technology management center, leading the team to focus on breakthroughs in cutting-edge photovoltaic technologies.

 

Looking back at the growth of Longi Green Energy, it is precisely Li Zhenguo's persistent focus on core technology research and development, and his accurate judgment of industry trends, that have led the company to achieve rapid development.

 

 

Lanzhou University's "Little Admirer"

 

In the 1980s, Lanzhou University was renowned. In China's first organized physics study abroad examination to the United States, the first winner was Hu Qing from Lanzhou University's Physics Department.

 

After that, Ni Feng, Hu Lan, and Tian Zongqiang from the Chemistry Department successively "won first place" in the national study abroad examination to the United States. Thus, the reputation of "Why are there so many top students from Lanzhou University" became widely circulated.

 

In 1986, Li Zhenguo, a diligent and intelligent young man from a rural family in Xuchang, Henan, and the only college student in his village, was admitted to the Semiconductor Materials major in the Physics Department of Lanzhou University.

 

● Young Li Zhenguo

 

Li Zhenguo was very pleased, "At that time, the learning atmosphere at Lanzhou University was very good, and various activities flourished. Students could study with peace of mind and also explore areas they were interested in."

 

Li Zhenguo most admired the former president of Lanzhou University—Jiang Longji.

 

In January 1959, Jiang Longji was transferred from vice president of Peking University to president of Lanzhou University.

 

● Jiang Longji

 

He took improving the quality of teaching and talent cultivation as the central task of the university, and attached great importance to the university's scientific research work and knowledge innovation. This style still influences Lanzhou University today.

 

Unfortunately, Jiang Longji was persecuted to death at the beginning of the "Cultural Revolution" in June 1966. However, his deeds are still widely circulated at Lanzhou University.

 

In 1986, to commemorate Jiang Longji's outstanding contributions, Lanzhou University erected a statue of him in a Zhongshan suit, looking vigorous and energetic.

 

That same year, in front of President Jiang's statue, Li Zhenguo, Zhong Baoshen, and others received their enrollment education, listened to President Jiang's story, and planted the seeds of their dreams in their youthful hearts:

 

"If we start a business in the future, the company will be called Longi!"

 

Li Zhenguo once said: "At that time, on the one hand, we wanted to commemorate the old president, and on the other hand, it was to encourage ourselves. We hoped that our business could be like the old president's running of the school, respecting education and technology."

 

After the seeds of the dream were planted, it led to a successful entrepreneurial story of the "Lanzhou University partners" version of Longi.

 

The Best Partners

 

In 1990, Li Zhenguo graduated from Lanzhou University and was assigned to work at the Xi'an Huashan Semiconductor Materials Factory, responsible for pulling single-crystal silicon rods, securing an enviable "iron rice bowl" job.

 

But just two years later, Li Zhenguo gave up this enviable job. In the following years, he tried to start accessory factories, took over the single-crystal base of Xi'an University of Technology's factory, and even worked as a general manager for others.

 

It wasn't until 2000, when Li Zhenguo established Xi'an Xinmeng Electronic Technology, the predecessor of Longi Green Energy, that he made a name for himself in the business world.

 

At that time, he was still doing the semiconductor single-crystal silicon materials he was familiar with. Relying on his previous technical accumulation, the company developed well, and in just a few years, its annual revenue exceeded tens of millions of yuan.

 

However, due to excessive self-confidence, Li Zhenguo's expansion in 2003 met with a Waterloo, with all the projects launched that year failing.

 

He deeply reflected on the defects in the decision-making mechanism, "At that time, the company was basically run by me alone, which meant that correct decisions would be implemented quickly, and wrong decisions would also be implemented quickly."

 

To avoid making wrong decisions again, Li Zhenguo began to look for excellent partners to join, hoping to improve the accuracy of decision-making through collective discussion and analysis.

 

The first person he thought of was his classmate from Lanzhou University—Zhong Baoshen.

 

● Zhong Baoshen

 

One day in 2005, Li Zhenguo called Zhong Baoshen and talked enthusiastically about the photovoltaic industry, inviting him to join him in starting a business.

 

At that time, with the rise of global demand for clean energy, the photovoltaic industry ushered in a wave of wealth creation myths. The leading figure, Shi Zhengrong, founder of Suntech Power, once became the "Richest Man in China." Li Zhenguo keenly sensed the opportunity:

 

The silicon wafers needed for photovoltaic power generation have unlimited potential.

 

Zhong Baoshen also strongly agreed.

 

At that time, he had already founded Shenyang Longi and, in 2004, led Shenyang Longi to become a leading company in the magnetic electric equipment sub-sector, with annual sales reaching 500 million yuan.

 

However, Zhong Baoshen always felt that the ceiling of the magnetic electric equipment industry was too low and lacked room for growth, so after receiving Li Zhenguo's invitation, he quickly resigned from his position at Shenyang Longi and came to Xi'an to start a business with Li Zhenguo.

 

Of course, simply talking about ideals would not have been enough to persuade the successful Zhong Baoshen to give up his existing achievements and follow an entrepreneur whose business was not as successful as his own at the time. What truly moved him was Li Zhenguo's unique personal charm.

 

In Zhong Baoshen's eyes, Li Zhenguo always prioritized career development over personal gain, was adept at listening to different opinions, and was tolerant and generous. Working with someone like him would be a pleasure.

 

Li Zhenguo responded to this trust with concrete actions.

 

Based on their respective strengths, he proactively ceded the chairman's position to Zhong Baoshen, who was more adept at strategic planning, while he himself took on the role of president, focusing on the company's core business and market development.

 

This complementary cooperation model led many Longi employees to exclaim that Li Zhenguo and Zhong Baoshen were a golden pair, and their complementary strengths and mutual benefit became an important driving force for the company's continued development.

 

In addition, to commemorate the former principal, they also specially visited the daughter of Principal Jiang Longji, obtaining her consent to rename Xi'an Xinmeng to Longi.

 

● Longi Green Energy. Image source: Longi official website

 

The convergence of these "two carriages," a strong alliance, enabled the company to make many correct decisions in its business operations, thus ushering in a new chapter in the photovoltaic industry.

 

The "Counterattack" of Monocrystalline Silicon

 

In 2006, shortly after Li Zhenguo and Zhong Baoshen joined forces, they made a decision regarding the "technical route" that changed the photovoltaic industry.

 

In the photovoltaic industry, silicon wafers, as core materials, are mainly divided into monocrystalline silicon wafers and polycrystalline silicon wafers. The quality of their performance directly affects the power generation efficiency of the entire photovoltaic system.

 

● Photovoltaic industry chain. Image source: Baidu Encyclopedia

 

However, the silicon wafer market was previously dominated by polycrystalline silicon, which had low production costs and low technical difficulty but also contained more impurities and had lower efficiency.

 

High production costs and high technical barriers greatly limited the development of monocrystalline silicon, which has higher light energy conversion efficiency.

 

For a long time, Li Zhenguo had been researching and producing monocrystalline silicon. The booming market situation made him hesitant, and he asked Zhong Baoshen:

 

Everyone else is making polycrystalline silicon; should we switch?

 

Fortunately, after market research and careful consideration, they chose the then-unpopular monocrystalline silicon route.

 

They firmly believed that although monocrystalline silicon had a higher technical threshold and more complex production processes than polycrystalline silicon, its efficiency was higher. As long as they could reduce costs through technological innovation, it would definitely have a greater advantage than polycrystalline silicon.

 

After that, while many photovoltaic companies flourished, Longi remained a quiet company, deeply cultivating this niche field of monocrystalline silicon.

 

It was only after they made another breakthrough in the choice of cutting technology that Longi began to shine in the market.

 

Previously, slurry wire and diamond wire played important roles in silicon wafer cutting, but their performance differed significantly.

 

The traditional slurry cutting method is mature and low-cost, but it produces a lot of waste and has low efficiency; diamond wire cutting is the opposite—the technology is immature and expensive, but it has lower silicon consumption and higher efficiency.

 

In 2009, determined to enter the downstream slicing field, Li Zhenguo and Zhong Baoshen resolutely chose the more difficult diamond wire cutting.

 

Similar to their choice of monocrystalline silicon, they believed that although diamond wire cutting was currently expensive, once the technology matured, it would immediately demonstrate "unstoppable power."

 

The results gradually developed in the direction they expected. With technological breakthroughs, the costs of diamond wire cutting and monocrystalline silicon continued to decline, and Longi began to lead the entire industry toward the higher-efficiency monocrystalline market.

 

● Monocrystalline Efficiency Enhancement Roadmap

 

In October 2013, Longi's annual silicon wafer shipments exceeded 1 GW. In that year, Longi's monocrystalline silicon wafer shipments ranked first globally.

 

Zhong Baoshen proudly pointed out, "In terms of scale, profitability, and technical level, the performance of monocrystalline silicon wafers surpasses that of polycrystalline silicon."

 

However, while visiting cell factories, he and Li Zhenguo discovered a new problem: many downstream component companies, because they owned their own polycrystalline silicon factories, were unwilling to actively replace them, making promotion difficult.

 

Therefore, they made another major decision: to enter the component field.

 

This important strategic move yielded significant results. Only two years after entering the component business, Longi broke into the top ten in global component shipments, surpassing the "four-time champion" JinkoSolar in 2020 to become the global champion of photovoltaic components.

 

● Ranking of Photovoltaic Component Shipments from 2011 to 2020

 

Longi's market share of monocrystalline silicon wafers continued to expand, reaching 42% in 2020, more than double that of the second-place Zhonghuan Semiconductor (18%), firmly securing its position as the leader in monocrystalline silicon wafers.

 

Driven by companies like Longi, the status of monocrystalline silicon in the photovoltaic market rapidly increased, reaching 90% market share in 2020, essentially completing the replacement of polycrystalline silicon and becoming the dominant technological route.

 

Longi's performance took off completely. In the subsequent photovoltaic boom, the company's revenue and profit in 2022 reached 128.998 billion and 14.812 billion respectively, and its market value once exceeded 500 billion yuan, earning it the nickname "Photovoltaic Moutai."

 

At the same time, Li Zhenguo and Li Xiyan couple, with a net worth of 82 billion yuan, appeared on the Hurun Global Rich List, becoming the "richest people in Shaanxi."

 

 

Facing Challenges

 

However, the "richest" in the photovoltaic industry is always unstable, changing frequently. In the eyes of many, the title of "photovoltaic richest" is a "curse."

 

Shi Zhengrong of Suntech Power, Peng Xiaofeng of JA Solar, and Li Hejun of Hanergy Holding, none could escape the "curse of the photovoltaic richest," often rising to the top and then falling from grace.

 

The main reason is that after a period of prosperous development, the photovoltaic industry always inevitably enters a situation of high involution, overcapacity, and price decline.

 

● Photovoltaic products. Image source: Shetuwang

 

Even seasoned veteran Li Zhenguo couldn't escape the vortex.

 

In May 2023, during the SNEC, the world's largest PV exhibition, Li Zhenguo issued a warning about the industry's overcapacity problem, predicting that "more than half of the companies will be eliminated in the next two or three years."

 

The industry chill is approaching.

 

In 2024, during the industry reshuffle, the prices of LONGi Green Energy's main products, silicon wafers and components, fell by 61% and 39% year-on-year respectively, and the company once lost 8.618 billion yuan, setting a record for its largest loss ever.

 

LONGi Green Energy's stock price plummeted, and its total market value evaporated to about 100 billion yuan, while the net worth of Li Zhenguo and Li Xiyan couple shrank to 28 billion yuan.

 

● 2025 Hurun Global Rich List. Image source: Hurun Report

 

How to win this "involution" war?

 

In February this year, on the 25th anniversary of LONGi Green Energy's founding, Li Zhenguo delivered a speech themed "Enduring Vitality".

 

In Li Zhenguo's speech, most of the focus was on the transformative significance of LONGi's technological changes to the photovoltaic industry. In his view, only technological iteration can break through the current predicament and usher in a turning point for industry development.

 

This time, Li Zhenguo placed his bet on BC technology, namely back contact battery technology, which places both positive and negative electrodes on the back of the battery. The front has no metal electrode blocking, reducing the shadow loss caused by the electrode reflecting part of the incident light on the front.

 

Among the many links in the photovoltaic industry chain, batteries are the core of technological progress and determine the efficiency limit of photovoltaic products.

 

And ‌ TOPCon (Tunnel Oxide Passivated Contact battery technology) is currently the mainstream battery technology in the global photovoltaic market, occupying more than 90% of the market share with its advantages of high efficiency, low cost, and mature technology.

 

But in Li Zhenguo's team's view, BC technology is the future. Last June, Zhong Baoshen was betting with partners during the Shanghai PV Expo:

 

In 5 years, BC technology will become the mainstream in the photovoltaic industry, with a market share exceeding 50%.

 

Li Zhenguo and other LONGi executives believe that TOPCon has a short life cycle and serious homogeneity, while BC technology has higher efficiency potential and differentiated advantages.

 

For example, for the same panel, BC can generate 35 watts more than TOPCon, and can generate 40 more degrees of electricity in Guangdong Province per year. At present, only LONGi Green Energy and JA Solar are the companies that mainly use this technology.

 

"Our second-generation BC products have achieved a yield rate of over 98%, which is no less than, and even higher than, TOPCon. In terms of cost, please give LONGi a little more time." Li Zhenguo once said.

 

Now, having relinquished management "responsibilities" and devoting all his energy to technological breakthroughs, Li Zhenguo has also raised expectations:

 

Can he break free from the "curse of the photovoltaic richest man" and rise again?