The grand narrative of space photovoltaics has given a "shot in the arm" to the photovoltaic industry, which is deeply mired in difficulties.

In recent times, although the performance disclosed by listed photovoltaic companies still shows widespread losses, the stock prices of most listed photovoltaic companies have already stopped falling and started to rise.

Among them, Shuangliang Eco-Energy's performance is particularly outstanding. According to statistics, since hitting a phase low of 5.36 yuan per share in mid-December last year, Shuangliang Eco-Energy's stock price has begun a volatile upward trend. Although the stock price has recently retreated, the increase for the year still exceeds 5%.

The core reason why Shuangliang Eco-Energy is favored by investors is that it is a rare pure space photovoltaic concept stock in the market.

From the perspective of its main business, in the first half of 2025, Shuangliang Eco-Energy's "photovoltaic products" achieved revenue of 2.942 billion yuan, accounting for 67.05% of total revenue, making the photovoltaic business the company's core main business; within the photovoltaic sector, Shuangliang Eco-Energy is involved in the manufacturing of photovoltaic equipment such as polysilicon reduction furnaces, while also engaging in silicon wafer production, and its diversified business layout provides greater market imagination space.

More critically, in mid-February, Shuangliang Eco-Energy announced that the company had secured three overseas orders, totaling 12 units of high-efficiency heat exchanger equipment, which will be used for the fuel production system supporting the expansion of the SpaceX Starship launch base. Throughout the photovoltaic industry, Shuangliang Eco-Energy is the first company to publicly obtain orders related to space photovoltaics. However, the order amount is only 13.923 million yuan, accounting for about 0.11% of its audited revenue for the 2024 fiscal year, which has a limited impact on the company's overall operations but endows it with a more grand long-term narrative logic.

However, even with the momentum of space photovoltaics, according to Kan Jian Finance Observation, Shuangliang Eco-Energy's own operating conditions are continuing to deteriorate.

Entering 2026, Shuangliang Eco-Energy achieved revenue of 1.32 billion yuan in the first quarter, a year-on-year decrease of 36.49%; net loss of 394 million yuan, a year-on-year decline of 144.6%; and non-recurring net loss of 443 million yuan, a year-on-year decline of 168.55%. As of the end of the first quarter of 2026, Shuangliang Eco-Energy's asset-liability ratio reached 80.67%, with short-term liabilities amounting to 6.551 billion yuan, while cash and cash equivalents during the same period were only 2.755 billion yuan, indicating that the cash scale cannot cover short-term debts.

From Water-saving Giant to Photovoltaic "Dark Horse"

The development history of Shuangliang Eco-Energy can be traced back to 1982.

At that time, the company's founder, Miao Shuangda, established the predecessor of Shuangliang Eco-Energy—the Jiangyin Lithium Bromide Refrigeration Machine Factory—in Jiangyin Ligang Town.

In its early days, Shuangliang Eco-Energy targeted the lithium bromide central air conditioning sector, which was monopolized by foreign capital at the time. This equipment could utilize industrial waste heat and residual heat to achieve energy-saving effects. In an era when energy-saving concepts were not yet popularized in China, Shuangliang Eco-Energy broke the foreign monopoly with its lithium bromide absorption chillers and successfully established a foothold in the HVAC field In 2003, Shuangliang Eco-Energy was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. At the time of its listing, its lithium bromide chillers held a 60% market share in China, placing it among the leading central air conditioning manufacturers in the country. For many years thereafter, Shuangliang Eco-Energy focused on energy-saving development, until it reached an important turning point in 2015: the company acquired an 85% stake in Jiangsu Shuangliang New Energy Equipment Co., Ltd. through asset swaps, officially entering the photovoltaic industry.

Data shows that Shuangliang Eco-Energy had already laid out its new energy-related business as early as 2007, with its subsidiary Jiangsu Shuangliang Boiler Co., Ltd. jointly establishing Shuangliang New Energy with China Metallurgical Group Corporation's Engineering Technology Co., Ltd. This enterprise also became one of the earliest in China to achieve mass production of polysilicon reduction furnaces. In 2015, Shuangliang Eco-Energy obtained an 85% stake in Shuangliang New Energy through asset swaps, integrating the polysilicon reduction furnace business into the listed company and officially completing its photovoltaic industry chain layout.

Polysilicon reduction furnaces are the core equipment for producing polysilicon, with high technical barriers. Relying on decades of manufacturing experience in heat exchange and pressure vessels, Shuangliang Eco-Energy quickly became a domestic leader in the polysilicon reduction furnace segment, supplying about 70% of the global polysilicon rods produced by its reduction furnace equipment. From 2021 to 2022, the photovoltaic industry experienced massive capacity expansion, and with the upstream silicon material companies ramping up production, Shuangliang Eco-Energy's polysilicon reduction furnace business saw significant growth, achieving sales of 357 sets and 1,127 sets of reduction furnaces in two years.

However, Shuangliang Eco-Energy was not satisfied with merely playing the role of an industry "shovel seller." In 2021, driven by the "dual carbon" goals, the photovoltaic industry experienced explosive growth, and Shuangliang Eco-Energy targeted the substantial profits in the downstream silicon wafer segment, decisively entering the silicon wafer manufacturing arena. In March of that year, the company announced plans to invest 7 billion yuan in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, to construct the first phase of a 20GW large-size monocrystalline silicon wafer project. At that time, Shuangliang Eco-Energy's total assets were just over 4 billion yuan, with annual revenue of 2.072 billion yuan, making this large-scale expansion akin to a gamble.

Fortunately, this gamble ultimately paid off. In October 2021, Shuangliang Silicon Materials (Baotou) Co., Ltd. was established, and the project factory quickly began construction. In 2022, Shuangliang Eco-Energy continued to ramp up, launching the second and third phases of the project with additional investments exceeding 16 billion yuan, aiming for a planned production capacity of 90GW for monocrystalline silicon. At the same time, the company extended downstream to layout efficient photovoltaic module production capacity. In just two years, Shuangliang Eco-Energy transformed from a single equipment manufacturer into a vertically integrated photovoltaic leader encompassing polysilicon reduction furnaces, silicon wafers, and modules.

With continuous capacity release, Shuangliang Eco-Energy secured long-term cooperation orders, signing contracts with leading battery manufacturers such as Tongwei Co., Ltd., Canadian Solar Inc., and Aiko Solar Co., Ltd. Data shows that as of 2023, the total amount of silicon wafer orders disclosed by Shuangliang Eco-Energy exceeded 100 billion yuan. On the financial report front, the company's revenue rapidly climbed from 2.072 billion yuan in 2020 to 23.15 billion yuan in 2023, achieving over tenfold revenue growth in three years Becoming the industry's biggest dark horse, the company's market value once approached 40 billion yuan at its peak.

Deeply Stuck in Losses and Debt

In 2024, the photovoltaic industry entered a downward cycle, and Shuangliang Eco-Energy began to bear the backlash from its aggressive expansion.

Financial reports show that in 2024, Shuangliang Eco-Energy suffered a net loss of 2.134 billion yuan, a significant year-on-year decline of 242.1%, with performance nearly "returning to square one overnight."

Behind the massive losses, there are external impacts from the industry's downward cycle, as well as weak competitiveness in its component business. Financial data indicates that in 2024, Shuangliang Eco-Energy's photovoltaic business gross profit margin was -11.6%. Excluding the 35.37% gross profit margin contribution from the new energy equipment business, the gross profit margin for pure photovoltaic products dropped to -16.63%, placing it at the bottom of the industry.

Entering 2025, although component prices showed some recovery, Shuangliang Eco-Energy continued to incur losses due to the persistently low gross profit margin of pure photovoltaic products.

In addition to losses, the company's debt pressure is even more severe. By the end of the first quarter of 2026, Shuangliang Eco-Energy's asset-liability ratio reached 80.67%, with short-term liabilities amounting to 6.551 billion yuan, while cash and cash equivalents were only 2.755 billion yuan, resulting in a significant funding gap.

With the support of the space photovoltaic concept, from December 2025 to February 2026, Shuangliang Eco-Energy's stock price surged over 105%, but then began to decline. Statistical data shows that from early February to now, the company's stock price has dropped over 35%.

So, why did Shuangliang Eco-Energy's stock price quickly fall after a rapid rise?

The core logic behind this is directly related to the recent hot space photovoltaic concept.

On February 13, Shuangliang Eco-Energy announced that it had secured three overseas orders, totaling 12 high-efficiency heat exchanger units, for the fuel production system supporting the expansion of SpaceX's Starship launch base. Shuangliang Eco-Energy is also the first company in the industry to publicly secure space photovoltaic-related orders. However, the order amount is only 13.923 million yuan, accounting for about 0.11% of its audited revenue for 2024, having limited substantive impact on the company's overall operations, merely bringing grand expectations for future narratives.

Currently, the space photovoltaic industry is still in its early development stage, and there is a long cycle before large-scale implementation. Shuangliang Eco-Energy clearly stated in the announcement that this order is for supplying heat exchangers for the fuel projects of international industrial gas companies, indirectly participating in related commercial space projects, and has not directly cooperated with SpaceX, nor is the company the exclusive indirect supplier for this project. This means that even if it successfully secures related orders, the company's future development still faces significant uncertainty due to the constraints of non-direct cooperation.

In summary, while the beautiful narrative of space photovoltaics has imaginative potential, facing continuous massive losses and rising debt pressure, the "distant water" of space photovoltaics ultimately cannot resolve the "near fire" of the company at present