Shenzhen, China, a fast-paced city, the famous "Shenzhen speed" highlights the distinctive urban temperament here。China's photovoltaic, a big leap forward, the newly installed capacity for five consecutive years ranked first in the world's performance indicates the "photovoltaic power" industry status。When photovoltaic meets Shenzhen, the two pronoun of "rapid development" has also turned into a manufacturing enterprise that is galloping steadily。

　　Entering the new energy industry for nearly 9 years, with an annual income of more than 900 million, Shenzhen Kesida Technology Co., Ltd. has handed over a bright report card。What is the secret of the company's rapid growth?Aiming at the future trend of "affordable Internet access", how will Kesta follow the trend?Fan Tao, secretary of the board of directors of Shenzhen Kesida Technology Co., Ltd. accepted an exclusive interview with our reporter。

　　China Energy News: In 2009, Costar entered the field of new energy, and now it has been 9 years。What is the overall revenue situation of the company's new energy sector at present?This pace of development is in line with the company's expectations when it entered the photovoltaic field?

　　范涛：When entering the field of new energy in 2009, China's position in the international photovoltaic market has become stronger and stronger, and the domestic requirements for environmental protection are also constantly improving, and new energy has become a trend to replace traditional energy。In such an environment, it is logical to rely on the company's original power electronics conversion technology to intervene in the photovoltaic business。At that time, China's PV has experienced a big wave, and the market environment is increasingly optimized。

　　In 2017, the company's overall operating income exceeded 2.7 billion yuan。Among them, the new energy sector contributed more than 900 million yuan, an increase of more than double。In the domestic PV inverter peers, our growth rate should be the fastest。

　　China Energy News: What do you think is the reason for achieving the "fastest growth rate"?

　　范涛：When Kesta entered the photovoltaic field, it chose the technology it is familiar with and mainly attacked the photovoltaic inverter market。At the technical level, Costar has a solid industry foundation in the field of UPS(uninterruptible power supply) and has accumulated 25 years of power electronics technology。Inverters and UPS belong to the same technology。Therefore, although the company is in contact with new energy late, the accumulation of relevant technologies is still a long time。

　　The core of UPS technology is inverter, AC/DC conversion, and the same is true of photovoltaic inverters。Therefore, it is very simple to extend the technology on this basis。In addition, in the product layout of the entire company, Kostar has always not separated from the core of power electronic conversion technology, UPS, inverters, and electric vehicle charging pile built-in modules are so。

　　On the one hand, there is no need to find another research and development path, saving a lot of research and development costs。On the other hand, when the core technology is unified, the supply chain is also consistent。The company's three core products include data center critical infrastructure products, new energy photovoltaic and energy storage system products and electric vehicle charging pile products. Due to the same technology, most of the core devices and front-end production processes are the same, and the supply chain platform can be fully shared。With rich product types, the scale effect of raw material procurement and product production will gradually expand, and the cost advantage will be highlighted。At the same time, because different products have similar production processes, the company can flexibly deploy capacity across production lines to cope with cyclical production peaks and quickly respond to market demand。This is also an important reason why the company can maintain a high level of gross profit over the years。

　　China Energy News: With the overall decline in the cost of the photovoltaic industry, how much pressure do you think the inverter is facing on the cost?

　　范涛：That's a question many investors are asking。

　　First of all, the proportion of the inverter in the cost of the entire photovoltaic system is not very high, so it is not the biggest part of the cost squeeze, but the inverter also has to contribute to the cost reduction of the system。Past few years，We've seen inverters come down from very high price points to where they are now，This trend will not change any time soon，Because the trend of the entire photovoltaic industry and even the new energy industry must be "to subsidize" and "affordable Internet access".，The upstream and downstream of the industry chain have a clear demand for reducing system costs and equipment costs。Through technical means to reduce the cost so as to reduce the price, so that the product can also maintain a reasonable profit margin, this is the long-term development of the way。

　　China Energy News: What do you mean by "technical means"?

　　范涛：First of all, the equipment to adapt to the complex operating environment, but also the need for higher overload capacity, the product to withstand greater voltage, these are from a technical point of view to reduce costs, improve the downstream customer benefits。

　　Secondly, the investment of photovoltaic power stations is not only in the early construction, but also in the subsequent operation and maintenance。Inverter products should also consider the needs of late operation and maintenance in the process of design and manufacturing。Therefore, our products have done a lot of work in monitoring, fault diagnosis and identification and other performance, hoping to help customers reduce the cost and difficulty of operation and maintenance。

　　China Energy News: For distributed power stations, the demand for operation and maintenance should be greater?

　　范涛：Indeed, compared with ground power stations, the most typical feature of distributed power stations, especially the household market, is decentralization, small project scale, and difficult management。At present, there are some enterprises engaged in large-scale operation and maintenance, which is a very smart approach to reduce the operating cost of a single unit。

　　In the context of the rapid development of distributed, the current main revenue growth of Costal also comes from distributed, especially in the field of poverty alleviation, the company has done a lot of projects since 2016, and accumulated a lot of experience。Although the company's revenue in 2015-2016 was still concentrated in the ground power station, at that time we were already developing series inverters, and we also re-formed the operation and monitoring team, insisting on walking on two legs。

　　China Energy News: Affected by the policy, it is predicted that the domestic photovoltaic market will shrink this year。The next step is whether the company will strengthen overseas market expansion?

　　范涛：The domestic photovoltaic industry is the fastest growing and largest in the world。In recent years, ground-based power stations and distributed power stations have grown rapidly。

　　But looking at the world, different countries and regions of the market is still very different。For example, in Southeast Asia, the land utilization rate is not high, the ground power station has a large market space, and the cost of household power stations is relatively high, and there are fewer in Southeast Asian countries。In countries such as Australia, the photovoltaic market is fully developed, and the demand for household photovoltaic is greater。

　　Currently, the company ships in Southeast Asia, Australia and Africa。Moreover, in the field of UPS, the company has been operating abroad for many years and has a certain market foundation, so the next few years will also strengthen the overseas market development of photovoltaic inverters, and related work is being promoted。(Yao Jinnan)