协鑫能科的“反内卷”利器：虚拟电厂、人工智能和RWA

Core Viewpoint - The growth of GCL-Poly Energy (协鑫能科) is a response to the widespread anxiety in the renewable energy industry regarding "involution," as the focus has been heavily concentrated on upstream manufacturing in fields like photovoltaics and energy storage, leading to homogenized business models. The company seeks differentiated growth paths in this context [1][3]. Financial Performance - In the first half of 2025, GCL-Poly Energy reported a revenue of 5.422 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.29%, and a net profit attributable to shareholders of 519 million yuan, up 26.42% year-on-year [2]. - A critical metric, "net profit excluding non-recurring gains and losses," reached 464 million yuan, reflecting a significant year-on-year growth of 67.91%, indicating strong profitability from core operations [2]. Business Structure - GCL-Poly Energy's operations are divided into two main segments: traditional combined heat and power generation and a new segment focused on renewable energy applications, including investment, construction, and operation of photovoltaic and energy storage plants [2]. New Business Growth - The company's growth is primarily driven by a new business segment called "energy services," which generated 1.079 billion yuan in revenue, a staggering year-on-year increase of 378.81%, and its share of total revenue rose from 4.79% to 19.9% [5]. - Despite rapid revenue growth, the gross margin for the energy services segment decreased by 17.49 percentage points to 31.23%, raising questions about sustainability [6]. Virtual Power Plant (VPP) - The core of the new energy services business is the "virtual power plant" (VPP), which aggregates decentralized energy resources to participate in the electricity market, allowing for more efficient energy management [7][8]. - As of June 30, 2025, GCL-Poly Energy's VPP had an adjustable load capacity of approximately 690 MW, with expansion into various regions including Jiangsu, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Sichuan, and Shenzhen [9]. Market and Policy Drivers - The rapid growth of the VPP business is attributed to the increasing installation of distributed photovoltaics, charging stations, and commercial energy storage, alongside supportive policies that recognize VPPs as independent market entities [10][11]. Competitive Advantage - GCL-Poly Energy's competitive edge lies in its dual-driven model of "energy assets" and "energy services," leveraging existing energy assets to identify and meet deeper customer needs for green electricity consumption and efficiency optimization [12][13]. Future Growth Potential - The sustainability of growth in the energy services sector depends on the ability to expand the resource pool managed by the VPP, with plans to enhance operational efficiency through artificial intelligence and explore asset tokenization (RWA) for scaling [15][16]. - The collaboration with Ant Group aims to utilize AI for load forecasting and trading strategies, enhancing decision-making accuracy in electricity trading [16]. - Asset tokenization seeks to improve liquidity and break down geographical barriers for renewable energy assets, although it faces regulatory uncertainties and operational challenges [17][19][21].