You promised to build cars, so why did you go into the military industry?

Four days later, in the conference room on the second floor of the United Industrial Building in Gaolu Town.

"President Li, the space laboratory in Chang'an sent over the test results this morning." Director Qi Kaifeng said with a beaming smile. "We didn't expect that the solar photovoltaic panels you provided would not only have high photoelectric conversion efficiency, but also have much better high-temperature resistance than we imagined."

After Director Qi Kaifeng finished speaking, he paused and took a sip of water.

Li Ran was pleased, thinking that Director Qi Kaifeng had finished speaking, but Gao Jingming, sitting beside him, hadn't heard what he wanted to hear and impatiently spoke up:

"Director Qi, what about in a high-energy radiation environment? Although I am confident in my technology and products, our laboratory conditions are rudimentary, and we haven't conducted any specific tests..."

Director Qi Kaifeng waved his hand, signaling Gao Jingming to relax, and said:

"Even in a high-radiation environment, the stability of your products is still surprisingly good."

The conversion efficiency has not decreased significantly, which means we can use high-concentration photovoltaic technology to increase power generation.

This also means that using it on existing satellite platforms, with the same weight, could at least double the power generation.

Artificial satellite probes generally consist of two main parts: the satellite payload and the satellite platform.

The satellite payload mainly includes antennas (accounting for 75%), transponders, and functional payloads such as radar and cameras.

Depending on their operational functions, satellite payloads can vary considerably.

However, the functions of satellite platforms are almost identical, consisting of a combination of systems that ensure the satellite's normal orbital flight, battery power supply, and normal operation of the onboard computer.

Increased power generation on satellite platforms means that satellite payloads will have more abundant electrical energy to drive higher-power devices, which in turn means that the performance of artificial satellite probes will be greatly improved.

Upon hearing this, everyone relaxed completely. With such a high-performance and inexpensive product, their cooperation would likely become even closer in the future.

Just then, taking advantage of Director Qi Kaifeng's good mood, Lin Yu raised a question that had been bothering him for several days:

"Director Qi, I noticed that the launch sequence of the Long March 3C rocket doesn't match the publicly available information when we launched Chang'e. Could you please explain why?"

"You didn't know?" Director Qi Kaifeng asked, somewhat surprised. He looked at Wang Bing and Su Qing. "Didn't Comrades Wang Bing and Su Qing tell you?"

"Huh? What did you say?" Lin Yu was a little surprised, then looked at Wang Bing and Su Qing.

"Ahem, strictly speaking, the rocket we watched last time should be called the 'Long March 3C-Modified'," Su Qing said with a serious expression. "Back then, after we built the 250,000-ton die forging press, we discovered during the debugging process that the die-cast parts had an overall performance improvement of at least 60%, but a weight reduction of 40%. So..."

"So, after a quick evaluation and with Director Qi's approval, we trial-produced the outer shell of the first and second stages of the Long March 3C rocket," Wang Bing continued. "Tests revealed that the dead weight of the rocket body itself was reduced by 45%, but the structural strength actually increased."

After listening to their explanations, Lin Yu exclaimed, "It really is because of this monster pressure machine! No wonder the launch sequence changed!"

Because the dead weight of the rocket is greatly reduced, the thrust-to-weight ratio of the rocket will be greatly improved!

Therefore, with more thrust, the Chang'e probe can achieve a higher speed when it enters the Earth-Moon transfer orbit.

"You two..." Lin Yu looked at Wang Bing and Su Qing with a complicated expression, "Awesome..."

"It's thanks to Director Qi's decisiveness that things could have taken off next year." Wang Bing looked at Director Qi Kaifeng with deep respect in his eyes.

"If it weren't for the incredibly impressive performance of the press you two built, I wouldn't have been able to make the decision even if I wanted to," Director Qi Kaifeng waved his hand. "We engineers trust nothing but experimental data."

With everyone carrying the sedan chair, the atmosphere in the meeting room became increasingly harmonious.

Subsequently, Li Ran and Director Qi Kaifeng reached a preliminary agreement on the procurement of solar photovoltaic panels, and more professional personnel will follow up to confirm the details.

On the way to see Director Qi Kaifeng off, Li Ran looked at the factory where the power system renovation was already more than halfway complete and asked:

"Director Qi, I heard that at the Copenhagen Climate Conference at the end of last year, Europe and the United States demanded that we reduce carbon emissions?"

"That's true." Director Qi Kaifeng sighed.

Modern industry cannot function without energy; the transportation of materials requires oil and gas-powered vehicles, and the operation of machinery requires the assistance of electricity.

With the limitations of thermonuclear power plant technology, the two main ways to stably supply large quantities of electricity are hydroelectric power and thermal power.

Thermal power generation is essentially emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere around the clock.

Without alternative energy sources, reducing carbon emissions means reduced electricity supply and restricted material transportation.

It is clear that carbon emission rights are development rights, and reducing carbon emissions means a slowdown in development, which is obviously a form of implicit sanction.

"Let's not beat around the bush, Director Qi. Do you think it's possible that our factory's photovoltaic power station, which is currently under construction, could..."

"The products are quite good, but promotion might be difficult. At 3200 yuan per square meter, the total cost of your 40 square meters of photovoltaic panels would be 12.8 billion yuan?" Director Qi Kaifeng shook his head. "Spending nearly 13 billion yuan just for the freedom to use electricity? That's too extravagant."

"Then, what if the national power grid takes the lead in building a photovoltaic power station?" Li Ran rubbed his chin and outlined the framework of a project from the future, "For example, in places like the northwestern deserts and Gobi where solar energy is exceptionally abundant, build a solar photovoltaic array with an installed capacity of about 7GW?"

Hmm... the annual power generation is approximately 283 billion kilowatt-hours.

Then, the electricity is transmitted to many northern provinces via the West-to-East Power Transmission Project.

At the same time, this major power transmission corridor, as the main grid of the Northern Power Grid, tightly connects the power grids of major provinces and regions, and can also improve the grid's disaster resistance and mitigation capabilities.

Incidentally, we will also achieve our voluntary mitigation target of reducing carbon intensity per unit of GDP by 40%-45% by 2020 compared to 2005 levels.

Director Qi Kaifeng didn't reply, but gave Li Ran a deep look before getting into his car and leaving.

At the end of the month, United Industries Manufacturing and CNSA successfully signed a supply agreement for solar photovoltaic panels.

To celebrate the successful completion of the cooperation, Li Ran treated the staff to a meal at the factory canteen.

"Rocket debris?" Upon hearing Li Ran's request, the staff member paused, his chopsticks still munching on rice. "What do you need this for?"

"In the field of heavy industry, rockets are a very representative example, so I want to buy some debris, such as scrapped rocket shells, and then recast them into some unique accessories or parts to install on our Lingyun SU7, just as a gimmick."

"Now that you mention it, I'm actually considering buying it. But what if the material formula is leaked when we sell the arrow casing?" The staff member stared at Li Ran. "Only you guys could ask this question; if anyone else asked, I'd be calling the National Security Bureau."

Hearing the staff's refusal, Li Ran was somewhat surprised. Then he remembered that this was not the era of later generations when rockets could be reused, allowing powerful flying bricks and stainless steel to fill the sky.

Current rocket design philosophy leans towards using lighter special alloys to reduce the rocket's dead weight, thereby increasing its payload.

The formula and process for these special alloys are often kept highly confidential.

It seems that if they want to add some aerospace elements to the Lingyun SU7, they'll have to wait two years until they develop their own rockets.