In recent years, China's photovoltaic industry has achieved rapid growth, and solar cells are becoming a new calling card for China. Data shows that in April, China's production of solar cell products increased by 69.1% year-on-year. As one of the "New Three Exports" in foreign trade, in the first quarter, China's solar cell exports exceeded 90 billion yuan, a growth of 23.6%. 

Currently, the dual-carbon economy and green transformation are becoming global hot topics, accelerating the development of the solar cell industry from a blue ocean to a red ocean. In the view of Larry Lei, founder and CEO of Dual Helios Semiconductor Equipment Company Inc., there is still a great development opportunity for the solar cell industry in China. How to build core competitiveness in an increasingly competitive market is the key for enterprises to achieve sustainable and healthy development. 

"China still has great opportunities in the solar cell industry." 

In March 2021, Larry Lei and co-founder Chen Weilin led a core team of four engineers to establish Dual Helios, with the main business of manufacturing PECVD equipment for industries such as solar cells and semiconductors. 

"After identifying this trend, we convinced our investors to manufacture our ideal new products." Larry Lei believes that the solar cell industry will play an important role in achieving energy security and green transformation during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, and it is currently at the forefront of market growth. 

Clean and low-carbon, safe and efficient, are the core connotations of a modern energy system, and also the overall requirements for how the energy system achieves modernization. The "14th Five-Year Plan for the Modern Energy System," issued in January 2022, proposed that by 2025, the proportion of non-fossil energy electricity generation would reach around 39%, an increase of 5.8 percentage points during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period. In Larry Lei's view, accelerating the development of solar power generation will become an important layout for the country to strengthen the clean energy industry and promote the green and low-carbon transformation of energy. 

"Technological innovation is the key to winning in market competition." 

As the industry heads into a competitive red ocean, and competition intensifies, different equipment manufacturers are striving to reduce costs while continuously increasing efficiency requirements. 

"With decades of experience in the semiconductor industry, we have the ability to solve cost reduction and efficiency improvement issues. For example, for solar heterojunction cell equipment, traditional heterojunction products can be combined with perovskite technology. The combined battery products can improve efficiency by more than 30%." In Larry Lei's view, achieving cost reduction and efficiency improvement relies not only on traditional solutions but also on disruptive technological innovations, which are the key to winning in the market. 

"We are one of the very few companies on the market whose core equipment provided to customers is our own patented invention. Therefore, our motto is 'Invented in China, Made in China, World Leading.'" Larry Lei explained that since its establishment, the company has accumulated eight authorized invention patents in countries such as China and the United States, with an additional 13 invention patents pending. 

Currently, the Dual Helios research and design team has completed 400 megawatts of PECVD and PVD systems for heterojunction solar cell deposition coating processes. Two production systems will be delivered to frontline manufacturers with whom the company has reached cooperation agreements for pilot production lines in August and October of this year.