In Delingha City, Haixi Prefecture, Qinghai Province, stands a magnificent and awe-inspiring installation. Across an area of 2.47 square kilometers, a heliostat field composed of 27,135 mirrors, each covering 20 square meters, precisely focuses sunlight onto a central heat absorption tower standing 200 meters tall. This achieves an annual power generation capacity of 146 million kWh, sufficient to meet the electricity needs of over 80,000 households for a year. This spectacular sight is the Qinghai Supcon Delingha 50MW tower-type molten salt thermal energy storage CSP project, showcasing the magical fusion of technology and nature. This CSP project can save 46,000 tons of standard coal annually while reducing carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 121,000 tons. The company that undertook this Qinghai Supcon Delingha 50MW tower-type molten salt thermal energy storage power station project has recently embarked on a new IPO journey.

Zhejiang Kesheng Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Kesheng Technology") submitted its main board listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for the first time on September 24, with CITIC Securities International as the sole sponsor. As one of the earliest pioneers in China's CSP industry, Kesheng Technology has grown to become a leading enterprise in the sector. Among the 26 CSP projects in China that substantially commenced construction and confirmed heliostat field system suppliers between 2021 and 2024, Kesheng Technology ranked first with a combined designed installed capacity of 1,250MW, capturing a market share of 47.2%. To date, Kesheng Technology is also the world's only heliostat field system supplier with cumulative service performance exceeding 1GW for molten salt tower-type CSP plants. This demonstrates Kesheng Technology's strong technical capabilities in the CSP field. As Kesheng Technology begins its assault on the capital markets, a key question faces investors: how to value this enterprise that has become a CSP industry leader?

**Performance Explosion Under Policy Stimulus**

Solar power generation mainly includes two methods: photovoltaic (PV) power generation and concentrated solar power (CSP) generation. While PV power generation is well-known to the public, CSP refers to technology that converts solar energy into thermal energy, then converts thermal energy into electrical energy. Compared to PV power generation, CSP has unique advantages, namely built-in energy storage systems that enable stable and controllable power output. However, its disadvantages are also obvious: initial investment costs are higher than PV plants, and site requirements are stringent, requiring large areas of flat land, so construction projects are usually located in remote desert areas.

Based on different technical forms, CSP is divided into four major categories: tower-type CSP plants, trough-type CSP plants, linear Fresnel CSP plants, and dish-type CSP plants. Among these, tower-type CSP plants have become the mainstream technical route in China's CSP market since 2016, thanks to stronger heat storage capacity, higher concentration ratios, higher operating temperatures, and lower power generation costs. Between 2022 and 2024, tower-type CSP plants accounted for 83.7% of China's CSP projects.

Founded in May 2010, Kesheng Technology has continuously focused on tower-type CSP and has become an industry leader. As early as 2013, Kesheng Technology developed, constructed, and connected China's first commercial tower-type CSP plant through its wholly-owned subsidiary Qinghai Supcon—the Qinghai Supcon Delingha 10MW project. In the first batch of CSP demonstration projects launched in 2016, Kesheng Technology successfully implemented and completed two projects, with power plants operating well and various operational indicators repeatedly setting new records.

Compared to peer companies, Kesheng Technology is among the few enterprises with core capabilities covering the entire process from project development and construction to operation. The Qinghai Supcon Delingha 50MW project it serves is the world's first and only tower-type CSP plant with actual power generation exceeding design values. In November 2024, Kesheng Technology's Qinghai Yichu Golmud 350MW CSP project was successfully selected for Qinghai Province's 2024 CSP demonstration (pilot) projects. This project is currently the world's largest single-unit CSP plant and adopts the industry-first "three towers, one turbine" solution as a new benchmark power station, further consolidating Kesheng Technology's leading position in the industry.

From an industry perspective, 2023 was a key year when China's CSP projects experienced significant acceleration. In April, the "Notice on Promoting Large-scale Development of CSP" clearly proposed combining new energy base construction in desert, gobi, and wasteland areas to quickly implement a batch of CSP projects, striving to achieve approximately 3 million kW of newly started CSP installations annually nationwide during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period.

With policy support and encouragement, China's CSP plant construction experienced an explosion. Data shows that from 2021 to 2024, a total of 20 domestic tower-type CSP projects substantially commenced construction, with a total designed capacity of 2,160MW.

Under the accelerated advancement of CSP project construction, Kesheng Technology, as an industry leader, benefited significantly. Among the 20 tower-type CSP projects mentioned above that substantially commenced construction, Kesheng Technology provided heliostat field systems for 11 power plants, driving the company's commercialization acceleration and leading to explosive performance growth.

According to Kesheng Technology's prospectus, benefiting from continuous contract awards for heliostat field systems, the company's revenue from 2022 to 2024 was 20.85 million yuan, 858 million yuan, and 2.189 billion yuan respectively, with net profits of -91.259 million yuan, 248 million yuan, and 540 million yuan respectively, achieving explosive growth. In the first half of 2025, Kesheng Technology's revenue was 980 million yuan, up 31.54% year-on-year, with net profit of 233 million yuan, up 13.11% year-on-year.

**Leading Market Share with Both Growth Benefits and Risks**

Although China's CSP project commencement has accelerated significantly since 2023, the industry is still in its early development stage. Affected by immature technology and incomplete industrial chains, project investment costs remain relatively high. However, from a long-term perspective, PV and wind power grid integration requires battery energy storage systems and synchronous condensers, and these technologies have relatively limited cost reduction potential. In contrast, CSP, with continuous technological progress and emerging scale effects, is expected to see steady decreases in per-kilowatt investment costs, demonstrating significant economic advantages in large-scale energy storage applications.

According to Frost & Sullivan, with 6-hour energy storage duration, the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for CSP (including molten salt thermal storage) is 0.6512 yuan/kWh, lower than PV + electrochemical storage + synchronous condenser at 0.761 yuan/kWh, and also lower than PV + compressed air energy storage at 0.9244 yuan/kWh. With 14-hour energy storage duration, CSP (including molten salt thermal storage) LCOE drops to 0.537 yuan/kWh, maintaining clear advantages over the other two modes.

China's CSP market cumulative installed capacity has grown from 538MW in 2020 to 838MW in 2024, representing a compound annual growth rate of 11.7%. Frost & Sullivan indicates that with continuous technological progress and rapid cost reductions, CSP, as a green and economically dispatchable energy form, will largely replace coal-fired power generation in large energy bases, potentially driving a CSP project development boom. It is projected that China's CSP market cumulative installed capacity will rise to 17,713MW by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 52.6% from 2025 to 2030, reaching 104,650MW by 2035, with a compound annual growth rate of 43.3% from 2031 to 2035.

From a market size perspective, China's CSP market size (by revenue) has grown from 1.9 billion yuan in 2022 to 16 billion yuan in 2024, representing a compound annual growth rate of 102.7%. Frost & Sullivan projects that with explosive construction scale growth, revenue scale will reach 77.5 billion yuan by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 35.9% from 2025-2030.

As a leader in tower-type CSP, Kesheng Technology will benefit from the industry's continued rapid growth. Data shows that among China's CSP heliostat field system suppliers from 2021 to 2024, Kesheng Technology had a designed installed capacity of 1,250MW, ranking first with a 47.2% market share, significantly leading over second and third-place market shares. It can be said that Kesheng Technology, which has mastered core tower-type CSP heliostat field system technology, has become the biggest beneficiary of China's CSP industry's rapid development through its leading technology.

However, it's worth noting that Kesheng Technology is not without potential operational risks. First, Kesheng Technology's performance growth is closely tied to the concentrated approval of national "wind-solar large base" projects. This policy-driven development model means the company's revenue may fluctuate significantly with the pace of project approvals. As the first batch of large base projects enters mid-to-late construction phases, if new project approval speeds slow, Kesheng Technology may face pressure from weak new order growth.

Second, price fluctuations in core raw materials such as molten salt and reflective glass directly impact production costs. In the CSP industry, fixed-price contracts are common. If molten salt and reflective glass prices experience significant volatility, Kesheng Technology faces considerable difficulty transferring increased costs to customers, potentially squeezing the company's profit margins.

Additionally, Kesheng Technology currently dominates market scale through leading technological advantages, but if second-ranked Shouhang Hi-Tech and third-ranked Lanzhou Dacheng achieve technological breakthroughs, Kesheng Technology's market share may gradually decline, further intensifying competition among leading enterprises and affecting the company's profitability levels.