That's impressive! It's like building the basis of 10 nuclear reactors every year, from just one factory! The UK and USA have a lot to learn from the Chinese.
Great explanation. Is AI given too much credit? How much is just traditional IT with well thought out manufacturing processes? I recall with my first panels each one had a piece of A4 paper with the test results. With new panels, can they print a QR code (on the frame), which can be scanned and go direct to the product specs and the test results for that specific solar panel, as well as any paper work needed for shipping and import duties? The main cost in solar - especially roof top - is the installation and all the "paper work" and metering associated with it.
By AI I think these industrial engineers mean computer vision paired with a classification algorithm (could be neural net based) and a well designed stack around that to handle all the requests and integration with the robotic automation tools. Unless they've trained another AI system (ie neural net) to do the whole thing end-to-end which would be even more impressive. It's amazing either way!!
There's about 8 other companies in China (aiko, jinko, Trina, JA, DAS, etc) all pushing 23-25% panel efficiency all with 10-50GW annual production. So a few more generalisations. It's not just Longi.
Great video showing inside solar panels production. Really love the high tech manufacturing and the whole factory looks so modern. Brilliant video Elliot keep it up 🤟💪❤
Good final assembly info, but do a show showing the actual cell manufacturing not just final assembly. Would be great to see from sand to cell, thats where the real magic is.
Very cool! In the intro you hinted at what could be a compelling subject: Would there be a way to adjust the recipe of a solar panel to optimize it for different latitudes? (and/or climate zones.) What works well in Austin, Texas won't work as well in Portland Oregon of course. But the formula for the panel itself, not strictly the hours of daylight, may also be compromizing its full potential.
Solar panels require daylight. The more efficient the better. That's about it. The best optimisation I recommend is looking at bifacial panels. These will do better if mounted above the ground. All panels have a dropoff as they get hotter. About 0.3% per 1C above 25C benchmark
'Encapsulated from the environment' works pretty well for keeping out both water and dust. Different panels for different latitudes would need a large advantage to be worth the faff and cost of having to make/stock/ship/buy 'north' panels, or 'wet' panels, or 'desert' panels. or 'cloudy' panels for different places. I'm not sure there is enough difference to be had, and just making them 'environment-proof(30 years)' and 'good at collecting light' probably works better overall and is definitely cheaper. There may be real tradeoffs optimising for cloudy places and bright-sunshine places - I think that's the only axis that might be worth differentiation, in which case someone probably already does that. It's the same photons, but at much more random angles and fewer of them.
Ok, this is great! China makes great products, break the myth that it’s all rubbish. It’s just not true. Now get your guys out to Saule Technologies in Poland to see how they will be made going forward… The next gen panels are going to be cheaper and more efficient.
See efficient It's not the size of the solar panel. If the panel is only 20% efficient . Then it will produce 550 watts. Also installing 30kg solar panels is normal in China and Southeast Asia and South Asia.
I would say around 425-450W right now a Panel with 22.3% from TCL reaches 435Wp, the same sized panel with 24,43% would reach ~476Wp, they are 172 cm x 114 cm in size, I have TCL Panels on my relatively flat, easily accessible roof as well, but bigger ones with around 228cm x 114cm and they are pretty difficult to handle because they are so big and bulky. It's a 2 man job really if you want to minimize the risk damaging them, but you usually got a lift to get them up on the roof, if you install PV panels commercially. The biggest ones I could find from them are 725Wp but weigh 38.4kg and are 241cm x130cm in size so really only for ground-mounted systems they reach 23.1% efficiency claimed.
@@mspalmboy Different panel sizes have different power. The largest panel has 72 cells. Weight 30-35kg.Used by electric companies and people in Asia. I'm serious . Westerners like smaller panels. From 200- 450 Watts.20cell- 60cell solar
Reduced "headcount by 75%". Or 3/4 of the humans got sacked. No problem whatsoever with the efficiency gains, but let's call a spade a spade. I think this will happen more and more, so maybe we should rethink the obligations of companies to retrain or offer some sort of development package before the big "bye bye".
I do believe that companies essentially cannibalise the wages of those who are fired into increasing the salaries of those who remain, while also reaping some cost improvement from the smaller number of employees. This does increase efficiency. In the Chinese system, it is viewed as a proletariat control over resources of production. How that translates into a state capitalist system means "freeing" up labour from efficiency-boosting improvements into other jobs/roles that still need to be done in other companies or in new companies/projects. The Chinese system is to redivert labour away from tasks that AI systems do, but also release funds to go into social security payments, healthcare and housing. In China everyone is provided the basic standard of living. Either they work/retrain into an available job, get social security or make their own business venture.
Solar panels seem fairly easy to make and easy to get high yield. By contrast large flat panel TVs are almost impossible to get right and very expensive to make. Yet TVs cost less than solar panels. Why?
The backside gain off a bifacial panel you say is 15-20%. This varies between almost zero (black shingle roof) and 20% high above white sand. So in real world testing is dependent on what's behind it. You can't just state 15-20%!
It’s getting high time that people realize we might end up in the opium wars again but this time it’s not them who are technologically behind. I saw yesterday a video of a drone spraying an American field. It was DJI. Most batteries are Chinese too. We’re seriously behind and it’s high time to catch up
EV to grid plus home solar will be the winner because it doesn't put large extra strain on the existing grid it simply swaps the generation from power station to homes.
This shows half of the resistance to solar in the US: Automation = no union workers. The other half: fossil energy incumbents. China will gain future strategic advantages because finite fossil energy eventually loses to unlimited solar.
What's scary about this video about Chinese Solar PV manufacture is not the hordes of Chinese workers on low wages undercutting the west's jobs. It's that there are no workers to be seen in most of the video - it's all cutting edge technology and machines. Finally he talks about how AI has led to 75% reduction in workforce. The workforce are skilled computer technologists and engineers. We have been caught napping in the west.
Recently I've been thinking about the various countries around the world and their varying levels of tariffs on Chinese made goods. I can understand why this might be so, but often feel those tariffs are overdone. When I say overdone, I mean in terms of the world's urgently needed actions to reduce our greenhouse emissions. Scientists and environmental activists are constantly reminding the world of the need to you much faster if we want to avoid environmental disaster and at our current rate of emissions reductions, we're going blow way past our emissions budgets within the the next 5 or so years. I do feel for the world's governments given that they all have to keep many plates spinning simultaneously - not an easy task. But I have come to the conclusion that if we want everything to keep ticking along as tickety-boo normal, perhaps we have to make the extremely difficult choice to prioritise environmental protection over economic protection in order that we're able to protect economic stability. Without a stable climate, nothing else is really going to matter. The many extreme weather events of 2024 serve as an ample demonstration and most likely a harbinger, of the financial, social, and societal costs & instabilities to come without a radical readjustment in thinking regarding climate change prevention & mitigation policies at the highest levels of governments worldwide.
Nice soon my 2100mm prediction of 4 panels getting to 3kW is getting closer glad I got the DNO approval, Aiko were in the lead now surpassed not by much but in solar every little helps, but what I would like to know is that a standard size ie 1700 or 2100 and that quote for efficiency is that for the all black version?
9:22 > _All modules will be intelligently automatically divided into different power bins._ Sounds like a poorly translated marketing brochure, written by a chinese factory, doesn't it. What a strange text to see in a video that WASN'T produced by a chinese factory 🤔
Fractions of a % are everything in solar. So standing in front of a poster claiming 24.5% efficiency. Then a minute later say they've achieved 25.5% efficiency. That's a bad factual error!
We need to start building panels in the UK. We’re far too reliant on china and if where looking at energy usage, it doesn’t make sense to sense goods around the world. Needs local solutions.
Nobody would pay £100 for something when he can buy a similar, or even better with £50. Why do you think that there are no UK car manufacturers anymore? Only factories that make cars for companies outside of UK. Sorry pal we lost the train since 1960's when we talk about production, quality and efficiency in the same sentence in UK.
@ So don’t complain when cost of living goes up and wages go down. Welcome to labours new low standard of living and highest taxes ever. Hell they’ve stolen the money from the old and now they are going to take upto 80% of your worth on death too
Because like most other western countries, they decimated their manufacturing capability in the name of cheaper prices and higher profits. When you are willing to pay a 20% or more premium to buy locally manufactured goods (plus a bit more to get that capability back up and running again) then you'll be able to buy from the UK again. Also, you'll have to get some of the materials from china anyway likely, as that's the only place that has some of the elements in high enough concentrations, unless you're willing to add some more premium.
Invented in the USA .. But thanks to the Oil Companies killing the inventors and early Solar Companies (Solarex , Arco Solar, BP Solar etc) ... the US lost the Lead!!
It's interesting to see how a solar panel is made, but the guy's over-enthusiasm at normal factory automation systems, and constant repetition of the company name, just reeks of propaganda.
They get pay. This not propaganda. But sponsors. If they want to be fair, they should bring in Jingko.And compare between longi & jingko who can build the cheapest solar panels in the industry
They are not "Creating efficiencies" We can strive for efficiency We can value efficiency We can invest in seeking efficiency But nobody is creating efficiencies
Great to see the Chinese working on something productive/helpful to the world and that contributes to the reduction of greenhouse gases. I just wish there were a little bit busier and they might have less time to think about invading Taiwan!
@@adrianaspalinky1986 it's exciting because it removes the need to pay those pesky humans for their labour. Who's going to buy this stuff when there's no workers? I'm sure they'll think of something.
Another blinder from Elliott. So lar so good.
😂
Thank you Elliott - brilliant and easy to understand. The scale is unbelievable.
That's impressive! It's like building the basis of 10 nuclear reactors every year, from just one factory! The UK and USA have a lot to learn from the Chinese.
Leave it to chinese
Great explanation. Is AI given too much credit? How much is just traditional IT with well thought out manufacturing processes?
I recall with my first panels each one had a piece of A4 paper with the test results. With new panels, can they print a QR code (on the frame), which can be scanned and go direct to the product specs and the test results for that specific solar panel, as well as any paper work needed for shipping and import duties?
The main cost in solar - especially roof top - is the installation and all the "paper work" and metering associated with it.
By AI I think these industrial engineers mean computer vision paired with a classification algorithm (could be neural net based) and a well designed stack around that to handle all the requests and integration with the robotic automation tools. Unless they've trained another AI system (ie neural net) to do the whole thing end-to-end which would be even more impressive. It's amazing either way!!
Absolutely incredible
Thanks for a great story
There's about 8 other companies in China (aiko, jinko, Trina, JA, DAS, etc) all pushing 23-25% panel efficiency all with 10-50GW annual production. So a few more generalisations. It's not just Longi.
Great to see this factory and how the panels are made, thank you Elliott.
Its been a while Elliott, so good to see you back in the factory environment!
Great video showing inside solar panels production. Really love the high tech manufacturing and the whole factory looks so modern.
Brilliant video Elliot keep it up 🤟💪❤
1:58 that Corridors giving me Star Trek Enterprise vibes
Good final assembly info, but do a show showing the actual cell manufacturing not just final assembly. Would be great to see from sand to cell, thats where the real magic is.
Excellent video agian and well presented.
Fantastic tour thanks guys!!
When are you joining BlueSky instead of showing us the bird in the intro?
Agreed
😂
And Mastodon. Matrix would be nice too.
Very cool! In the intro you hinted at what could be a compelling subject: Would there be a way to adjust the recipe of a solar panel to optimize it for different latitudes? (and/or climate zones.) What works well in Austin, Texas won't work as well in Portland Oregon of course. But the formula for the panel itself, not strictly the hours of daylight, may also be compromizing its full potential.
Solar panels require daylight. The more efficient the better. That's about it. The best optimisation I recommend is looking at bifacial panels. These will do better if mounted above the ground. All panels have a dropoff as they get hotter. About 0.3% per 1C above 25C benchmark
'Encapsulated from the environment' works pretty well for keeping out both water and dust. Different panels for different latitudes would need a large advantage to be worth the faff and cost of having to make/stock/ship/buy 'north' panels, or 'wet' panels, or 'desert' panels. or 'cloudy' panels for different places. I'm not sure there is enough difference to be had, and just making them 'environment-proof(30 years)' and 'good at collecting light' probably works better overall and is definitely cheaper. There may be real tradeoffs optimising for cloudy places and bright-sunshine places - I think that's the only axis that might be worth differentiation, in which case someone probably already does that. It's the same photons, but at much more random angles and fewer of them.
THANKS 🙏 ELLOIT ,FOR A BRILLIANT 🤩 PRESENTATION 🌞🌞🌞
I have been enjoyed, so thank you for sharing.
Might be a job going at Inside the factory Elliot 😉
75% decrease in headcount, so I doubt it
Ok, this is great!
China makes great products, break the myth that it’s all rubbish. It’s just not true. Now get your guys out to Saule Technologies in Poland to see how they will be made going forward…
The next gen panels are going to be cheaper and more efficient.
Junction box, length of cable looks short, giving say 50cm of cable means ease of installation and less stress put on the connection.
I think they make them to different lengths depending on the application.
Wow, very impressive
Elliott you said panels are up to 660W - what is the maximum wattage of standard residential sized panels?
See efficient It's not the size of the solar panel. If the panel is only 20% efficient . Then it will produce 550 watts. Also installing 30kg solar panels is normal in China and Southeast Asia and South Asia.
@DeniSaputta that is not what I asked
I do not think there is a single standard size. They have a range of sizes to fit different applications.
I would say around 425-450W right now a Panel with 22.3% from TCL reaches 435Wp, the same sized panel with 24,43% would reach ~476Wp, they are 172 cm x 114 cm in size, I have TCL Panels on my relatively flat, easily accessible roof as well, but bigger ones with around 228cm x 114cm and they are pretty difficult to handle because they are so big and bulky.
It's a 2 man job really if you want to minimize the risk damaging them, but you usually got a lift to get them up on the roof, if you install PV panels commercially.
The biggest ones I could find from them are 725Wp but weigh 38.4kg and are 241cm x130cm in size so really only for ground-mounted systems they reach 23.1% efficiency claimed.
@@mspalmboy Different panel sizes have different power. The largest panel has 72 cells. Weight 30-35kg.Used by electric companies and people in Asia. I'm serious .
Westerners like smaller panels. From 200- 450 Watts.20cell- 60cell solar
06:25 let’s hope that with the manufacturing precision, they do not have too much waste 🧐
Reduced "headcount by 75%". Or 3/4 of the humans got sacked. No problem whatsoever with the efficiency gains, but let's call a spade a spade. I think this will happen more and more, so maybe we should rethink the obligations of companies to retrain or offer some sort of development package before the big "bye bye".
I do believe that companies essentially cannibalise the wages of those who are fired into increasing the salaries of those who remain, while also reaping some cost improvement from the smaller number of employees. This does increase efficiency.
In the Chinese system, it is viewed as a proletariat control over resources of production. How that translates into a state capitalist system means "freeing" up labour from efficiency-boosting improvements into other jobs/roles that still need to be done in other companies or in new companies/projects. The Chinese system is to redivert labour away from tasks that AI systems do, but also release funds to go into social security payments, healthcare and housing. In China everyone is provided the basic standard of living. Either they work/retrain into an available job, get social security or make their own business venture.
Looking Good! 😎
That AI lad sounds like a great fella. Done by AI…..chuckle…very impressive processes. Brings me back to my manufacturing circuit board past.
_"Never Trust The Auto-Router!"_ 🙏
Super cool
Solar panels seem fairly easy to make and easy to get high yield. By contrast large flat panel TVs are almost impossible to get right and very expensive to make. Yet TVs cost less than solar panels. Why?
"Yet TVs cost less than solar panels."
@@TheDanEdwards For 16k you can get about 80 TVs.
@@frankcoffeybecause tv also Made in China 🇨🇳
The backside gain off a bifacial panel you say is 15-20%. This varies between almost zero (black shingle roof) and 20% high above white sand. So in real world testing is dependent on what's behind it. You can't just state 15-20%!
_"bUh IT'S CHYNNNAH buhbuhbuh"_ 😭🙃
😅
It’s getting high time that people realize we might end up in the opium wars again but this time it’s not them who are technologically behind. I saw yesterday a video of a drone spraying an American field. It was DJI. Most batteries are Chinese too. We’re seriously behind and it’s high time to catch up
EV to grid plus home solar will be the winner because it doesn't put large extra strain on the existing grid it simply swaps the generation from power station to homes.
More efficient PV panels, fantastic! But did Elliot just say AI has reduced employees by 75%?!
Stunning
Thanks
This shows half of the resistance to solar in the US: Automation = no union workers. The other half: fossil energy incumbents. China will gain future strategic advantages because finite fossil energy eventually loses to unlimited solar.
What's scary about this video about Chinese Solar PV manufacture is not the hordes of Chinese workers on low wages undercutting the west's jobs. It's that there are no workers to be seen in most of the video - it's all cutting edge technology and machines. Finally he talks about how AI has led to 75% reduction in workforce. The workforce are skilled computer technologists and engineers. We have been caught napping in the west.
Recently I've been thinking about the various countries around the world and their varying levels of tariffs on Chinese made goods. I can understand why this might be so, but often feel those tariffs are overdone. When I say overdone, I mean in terms of the world's urgently needed actions to reduce our greenhouse emissions. Scientists and environmental activists are constantly reminding the world of the need to you much faster if we want to avoid environmental disaster and at our current rate of emissions reductions, we're going blow way past our emissions budgets within the the next 5 or so years.
I do feel for the world's governments given that they all have to keep many plates spinning simultaneously - not an easy task. But I have come to the conclusion that if we want everything to keep ticking along as tickety-boo normal, perhaps we have to make the extremely difficult choice to prioritise environmental protection over economic protection in order that we're able to protect economic stability. Without a stable climate, nothing else is really going to matter. The many extreme weather events of 2024 serve as an ample demonstration and most likely a harbinger, of the financial, social, and societal costs & instabilities to come without a radical readjustment in thinking regarding climate change prevention & mitigation policies at the highest levels of governments worldwide.
He keeps saying "AI" but what is shown is just the typical automation and testing done in any modern manufacturing.
Ai for Product testing and trials. And ai for shipping. That's why less than 100 people work in the factory.
"Obviously, we're not going to go into the oven." And you call yourself a serious journalist? LOL
🎼🎶 "Now the holy bears a berry as black as the: Solar Panel" - Because you can't have coal anymore!!
longi is the anti-northvolt, aka a successful company producing useful products at global scale
🌞👍
I’d love to work for a renewable company
Nice soon my 2100mm prediction of 4 panels getting to 3kW is getting closer glad I got the DNO approval, Aiko were in the lead now surpassed not by much but in solar every little helps, but what I would like to know is that a standard size ie 1700 or 2100 and that quote for efficiency is that for the all black version?
9:22 > _All modules will be intelligently automatically divided into different power bins._
Sounds like a poorly translated marketing brochure, written by a chinese factory, doesn't it.
What a strange text to see in a video that WASN'T produced by a chinese factory 🤔
Sheeit Overcapacity!😂
Fractions of a % are everything in solar. So standing in front of a poster claiming 24.5% efficiency. Then a minute later say they've achieved 25.5% efficiency. That's a bad factual error!
We need to start building panels in the UK. We’re far too reliant on china and if where looking at energy usage, it doesn’t make sense to sense goods around the world. Needs local solutions.
Nobody would pay £100 for something when he can buy a similar, or even better with £50. Why do you think that there are no UK car manufacturers anymore? Only factories that make cars for companies outside of UK. Sorry pal we lost the train since 1960's when we talk about production, quality and efficiency in the same sentence in UK.
@ So don’t complain when cost of living goes up and wages go down. Welcome to labours new low standard of living and highest taxes ever. Hell they’ve stolen the money from the old and now they are going to take upto 80% of your worth on death too
Just how dumb do you want to make this???
The script is even worse than the musac.
Please don't use horrible management jargon like "reduce head count." Just say what it is, sacked employees no longer getting a wage.
*seeking, to make the manufacturing process as efficient as possible
that's not the edit button
Geez, why can’t you do the same production in UK? I don’t want to buy from China.
But I bet you don't want to pay double price for UK made solar panels.
This is fully automated
Because like most other western countries, they decimated their manufacturing capability in the name of cheaper prices and higher profits.
When you are willing to pay a 20% or more premium to buy locally manufactured goods (plus a bit more to get that capability back up and running again) then you'll be able to buy from the UK again.
Also, you'll have to get some of the materials from china anyway likely, as that's the only place that has some of the elements in high enough concentrations, unless you're willing to add some more premium.
with your money, go start a company, nobody is stopping you. rember this, Beggar cant be Chooser
Economics.
It’s a shame that the earlier stages of the supply chain weren’t shown. Is forced labour involved in making wafers?
Too bad it's in China
Invented in the USA .. But thanks to the Oil Companies killing the inventors and early Solar Companies (Solarex , Arco Solar, BP Solar etc) ... the US lost the Lead!!
Maybe one day you'll be glad it is in China.
Too bad you can do nothing about it 😂 china makes more than 85% of the world's solar panels.
It's interesting to see how a solar panel is made, but the guy's over-enthusiasm at normal factory automation systems, and constant repetition of the company name, just reeks of propaganda.
They get pay. This not propaganda. But sponsors.
If they want to be fair, they should bring in Jingko.And compare between longi & jingko who can build the cheapest solar panels in the industry
They are not "Creating efficiencies"
We can strive for efficiency
We can value efficiency
We can invest in seeking efficiency
But nobody is creating efficiencies
what?
I am from an audience of potential 350,000,000 viewers and we have no idea what “stuck in” means. Maybe, sometimes, think of your viewers as a whole.
You didn't fully understand a video, which was recorded in a language you don't fully understand? Huh.
🤷♀
@@roidroidmaybe you are the one not understanding. I do have a fix, drop this site. Possibly a site you don’t visit.
:=
Yay, a world without workers. Welcome to the future.
UBI universal basic income
Great to see the Chinese working on something productive/helpful to the world and that contributes to the reduction of greenhouse gases. I just wish there were a little bit busier and they might have less time to think about invading Taiwan!
China haven’t invaded another country for 60 years, they’re not the ones you need to worry about.
I don't know if they could be any busier. They've added more solar capacity alone this year than the whole rest of the world combined.
@@lhoman8426Yes but Tibet is more like Ireland for UK
You should devote your time worrying about NATO expansion and the US warmongering around the world!! Grow up!!
You should devote your time worrying about NATO expansion and the US warmongering around the world!! Grow up!!
Super! PVT production? I need it for my home in Hungary..let me know if you can ship it to here.
If we say "Ai" people get really excited, yawn 🥱
@@adrianaspalinky1986 it's exciting because it removes the need to pay those pesky humans for their labour. Who's going to buy this stuff when there's no workers? I'm sure they'll think of something.