The official tone is set! The photovoltaic sector is about to explode

In the past two days, a new term has quietly become popular in the AI circle - "word element economy".

I. The underlying logic of the word element economy data center is being rewritten

What is a lexical element?

From the most fundamental definition, a Token is merely the smallest unit by which large models process information. For instance, when humans read in units of characters, AI, when understanding the world, breaks down text, images, and even speech into individual word units, and then calculates and generates them one by one.

But the meaning of a word element goes far beyond the technical level. At this year's China Development Forum, Liu Liehong, director of the National Data Administration, made a very crucial statement: "Word elements are not only the value anchor points in the intelligent era, but also the settlement units connecting technological supply and commercial demand." In other words, in the future, AI services will no longer be subject to ambiguous pricing but can be precisely measured and directly traded.

At the 2026 GTC conference, Huang Rengxun, the founder of NVIDIA, even stated straightforwardly, "Word elements are the new commodities."

To illustrate this point, he presented a highly impactful formula: Income = number of words per watt × number of available gigawatts. He explained that data centers have now become 24/7 "word factories", taking in electricity and data and outputting words. The revenue of a "factory" depends on the product of the efficiency and scale of word production.

Once this logic holds true, the identity of the data center changes. It is no longer merely a computing power hub but more like a manufacturing system highly dependent on energy.

The impact of this change can be clearly felt from the figures.

Take ChatGPT as an example. Foreign research reports show that it needs to handle about 200 million requests every day, and the corresponding power consumption exceeds 500,000 kilowatt-hours. This figure is almost equivalent to the daily electricity consumption of 17,000 American households.

According to data from the International Energy Agency, the global electricity consumption of data centers reached 415 terawatt-hours in 2024, approaching the scale of a national electricity consumption. By 2030, this figure is expected to rise further to 945 terawatt-hours, approaching Japan's total annual electricity consumption.

The heavier part is yet to come. A single training session of a large model often consumes an amount of electricity equivalent to that of a medium or small-sized city throughout the year. As AI moves from training to large-scale application, the demand for inference has exploded, and the invocation of computing power is growing exponentially.

The latest data from the National Data Bureau also confirms this point: As of March this year, the average daily volume of word element calls in China has exceeded 140 trillion, an increase of more than a thousand times compared to the 100 billion level at the beginning of 2024.

In fact, behind this is a very direct equation: Every AI interaction is consuming word units; Behind each word element lies the simultaneous consumption of computing power and electricity.

II. When the "word element factory" starts to calculate, why has photovoltaic become the best solution?

If you understand the logic of the word element economy, you will find that the competition among data centers, on the surface, is about computing power, but in essence, it is about electricity costs.

In a system priced by word units, every kilowatt-hour of electricity directly affects profits.

It is precisely against this backdrop that the role of photovoltaic power has begun to change. It is no longer just one of the energy options but has gradually become part of the cost model.

Let's first look at the most intuitive point, the price. Over the past few years, the cost of photovoltaic power generation has continued to decline, and in many regions, it has already fallen below that of traditional thermal power. This change has been magnified under the word-element economy.

For data centers that need to operate 24 hours a day, electricity is no longer an auxiliary cost but a core expense. Whoever can lock in a lower and more stable electricity price will be able to gain a higher profit margin in the production of word elements. In other words, photovoltaic power is a low-cost electricity that can be locked in for a long time.

But merely being cheap is not enough. With the advancement of the global "dual carbon" goals, the computing power industry is also being incorporated into the framework of green transformation. This year's "Government Work Report" for the first time included "computing and power integration" in the new infrastructure system. A very clear signal is that in the future, data centers will not only be fast in computing but also environmentally friendly in use.

Moreover, hard constraints have already been imposed at the policy level. Previously, the "Special Action Plan for Green and Low-Carbon Development of Data Centers" issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments clearly stipulated that by the end of 2025, the proportion of green electricity in newly built data centers at national hub nodes should reach over 80%. This means that the zero-carbon attribute of photovoltaic power is no longer an added bonus but is becoming an entry threshold.

If cost and policy address whether it can be used or not, then the next issue to be addressed is how to use it more efficiently. This is precisely another advantage of photovoltaics: flexibility.

Compared with traditional energy sources, photovoltaic power has a natural distributed attribute and can be deployed nearby around data centers to achieve "electricity generation is electricity consumption". This model brings about not only a reduction in transmission losses, but more importantly, it eases the pressure on the power grid and enhances the certainty of electricity usage.

Of course, the problem is also very realistic: photovoltaic power is not stable. But this precisely gave rise to another key combination, photovoltaic + energy storage. Through the regulation of the energy storage system, the electricity generated during the day can be stored and released at night or during peak electricity consumption periods, thereby supporting the all-weather operation of the data center. This combination, essentially, is about converting fluctuating energy into a stable and dispatchable supply, thereby ensuring the continuity of word element production.

These elements, when combined, are forming a new closed loop: green power generation → grid transmission → computing power consumption → word element monetization. In this closed loop, the position of photovoltaic power has gradually moved forward from the energy supply end to the production end.

Looking deeper, this change is not an accidental choice of the market, but rather the result of the resonance between policies and industries. As the integration of computing and power enters the implementation stage, the two originally independent systems of power and computing power are being reassembled.

III. Not only is the opportunity photovoltaic industry facing a highly challenging upgrade

But if we only focus on the benefits of photovoltaic power, then this matter is being viewed too simply. The word economy has indeed opened a new door for photovoltaic power, but on the other side of the door, it is not a smooth path.

The first to be brought to the forefront are the contradictions in reality. The power consumption characteristics of data centers are all-weather operation, high load, and no interruption. The characteristics of photovoltaic power are equally distinct: it generates electricity during the day and drops to zero at night, and it fluctuates significantly due to weather conditions.

When the word element factory begins to have a rigid dependence on electricity, this mismatch is infinitely magnified. The power grid must make more precise dispatching between peak power generation and peak power consumption; otherwise, either the electricity generated cannot be consumed or it cannot be supplied when needed. This means that if photovoltaic power is to truly enter the computing power system, it must cross a threshold: from being able to generate electricity to being able to provide stable power supply.

Once stability is involved, the problem extends from the technical level to the economic level. To meet the power demands of data centers, photovoltaic projects often need to integrate energy storage, intelligent dispatching systems, and even participate in the collaborative optimization of regional power grids. These capabilities can indeed solve problems, but they mean higher initial investment, more complex system structures, and longer payback periods.

In other words, under the word element economy, what photovoltaic enterprises need to calculate is no longer just the cost of power generation, but the comprehensive account of the entire power supply capacity.

Further down, there is the pressure on the technical level. When electricity begins to directly affect the output of word elements, the requirements for electricity in data centers also increase. It is not only necessary to be stable, but also to have a fast response, small fluctuations, and high quality. This poses new challenges to photovoltaic power itself, such as higher conversion efficiency, lower attenuation, and stronger system coordination capabilities.

Meanwhile, the old problems still exist. When "photovoltaic + computing power" becomes the new narrative, capital will soon pour in. However, the photovoltaic industry itself has not yet fully emerged from the shadow of overcapacity. Once supply expands again, a price war is likely to return.

More complex variables also come from the rules themselves. The word element economy is still a system in the process of taking shape. Whether it is the green electricity trading mechanism or the specific path of computing and electricity coordination, many rules are still being constantly adjusted. For enterprises, this means making plans while adapting and taking on the risks brought by uncertainties.

When all these factors are taken together, the word element economy brings to photovoltaic not only new growth but also a comprehensive upgrade.

Opportunities do exist, but whether one can seize them does not depend on whether there is production capacity or not, but on whether one has the ability to become an irreplaceable part of that new system.