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

Three months later, the power system upgrade at the United Industrial Manufacturing Plant was successfully completed.

Looking out at the solar photovoltaic array built on the top floor of the building, Li Ran felt a little uncomfortable because it was so ugly!

To ensure safety, many solar photovoltaic arrays installed on factory rooftops are fixed within grounded reinforced frames.

From a distance, the factory buildings looked as if they were surrounded by iron cages.

Li Ran took out her phone, opened the calculator, and started calculating while muttering to herself:

「一天80万度电，用个30万，还剩50万，按照一度电一毛五计算就是7.5万元，15亿的成本需要2万天也就是54年8个月？！」

Lost in thought, the phone slipped from Li Ran's hand.

Attracted by the sound of the phone hitting the ground, everyone turned around and found Li Ran standing there, looking lost and bewildered.

"What's wrong?" Zhao Jing asked curiously, reaching out to poke Li Ran's arm.

"55 years! It will take me 55 years to recoup the costs! And that's assuming the factory's energy consumption remains constant. Is this how you treat costs without considering the consequences?!" Li Ran's expression was pained.

Wang Bing stepped forward, picked up the phone, glanced at it, and immediately understood:

"Mr. Li, that's not how you calculate costs."

Our factory will definitely have many large-scale projects going forward, which will lead to a surge in energy consumption and a sharp increase in electricity costs.

Such electricity bills are often public information, which can be collected by people with ulterior motives to deduce certain things.

Moreover, it would be very troublesome if we were dependent on others for energy.

Therefore, this investment is well worth it for stricter security measures and energy freedom.

Just think about our monthly electricity bill of 500 million!

"Won't you earn back the electricity bill in just 25 years?"

"Okay..." Li Ran looked pained. 25 years! That's almost 2035...

On the afternoon of the very day the power system was officially put into operation, people from the power company came to our door.

"Mr. Li, the power grid detected a sharp drop in our factory's electricity consumption and suspects there's some kind of malfunction. They've sent Engineer Peng over to check," Guo Shuyan reported to Li Ran after receiving a phone call.

"So soon? Let Supervisor Gao Jingming receive him." Li Ran stroked his chin. "If Engineer Peng is worried, take him on a tour of our power system."

It's the end of the month, with only one week left until Chinese New Year's Eve.

This time, provincial and municipal leaders visited the factory ahead of time to conduct research and offer their regards.

Leaders from the provincial power company and the State Grid Corporation of China also accompanied them.

Faced with their detailed inquiries about their solar power system, Li Ran sent Gao Jingming to explain the whole process and showed them the purchase contract signed by CNSA.

After learning about the employees' living and working conditions in detail, the leaders, following last year's tradition, took a group photo with all the employees.

February 3, 2011, Lunar New Year's Eve.

Unlike previous Spring Festivals, Li Ran was forced to have hot pot with Wang Bing, Su Qing, Lin Yu, and Gao Jingming in their dormitory during his second Spring Festival after his rebirth.

Looking at the bubbling red oil at the bottom of the pot, Li Ran unconsciously swallowed.

Looking at the four people beside him, chopsticks raised and glaring menacingly, Li Ran unconsciously donned a mask of pain:

"It's Lunar New Year's Eve today, and instead of reuniting with your families, you're crammed into my little dorm room and fighting with me for food. Isn't that a bit inhumane?"

No one answered; instead, everyone stared at the ingredients in the pot with increasing tension.

Until a meatball popped out.

In the blink of an eye, four pairs of chopsticks scooped up the bottom at the same time.

"Don't grab it, let the boss eat first!" Li Ran shouted.

"There are no distinctions of rank at the table, but rules must be followed under the table." Gao Jingming's chopsticks deftly scooped a roll of mutton from the pot. "First come, first served!"

Wang Bing and Su Qing remained silent, simply continuing to eat.

Lin Yu picked up a piece of tripe from the side and started cooking it himself.

"Lin Yu! You're still stealing food!" Li Ran was heartbroken and grabbed a slotted spoon to sink it to the bottom.

Just as Li Ran's strainer was about to be full, Su Qing and Gao Jingming simultaneously reached out their chopsticks towards it...

Successfully intercepted.

What was left for Li Ran was a large amount of Sichuan peppercorns, chili peppers, and some small pieces of diced meat.

Before long, all the prepared ingredients were eaten.

Li Ran pulled out a pack of instant noodles from under the bed and started cooking it while the pot was still warm.

Seeing everyone looking down at their noses and inwardly focused, Li Ran asked while cooking instant noodles:

"You don't come here unless you need something. So, what brings you here during the New Year?"

Seeing that no one spoke, Li Ran didn't mind and remained silent for a while.

After serving the cooked noodles to everyone, Li Ran quickly finished eating.

"Hurry up, I need to finish so I can rest."

Seeing Li Ran about to get up and leave, the naturally impulsive Gao Jingming couldn't help but speak up:

"Mr. Li, I heard we're going to build a rocket?"

Li Ran turned around, hands on her hips:

"You guys stole my hotpot meal just for this?!"

But looking at the hopeful faces of the crowd, Li Ran felt helpless:

"Building rockets is a future endeavor, not an ongoing one."

I made that promise to Lin Yu privately before, and now I'm giving you a direct answer to put your minds at ease.

We'll spend two years biding our time and keeping a low profile.

"Improve cash flow, train skilled industrial workers, and prepare all necessary production equipment."

"Then march into space!" The crowd applauded and cheered.

Then, everyone discussed what else they would need to prepare if they wanted to build a rocket.

First, there's the issue of funding. As the reputation of the Lingyun SU7 grows, sales are steadily increasing, but the steadily expanding directly-operated 4S stores will eat up a large portion of the sales profits.

The remaining profits aren't even enough to cover salaries.

The collaboration with CNSA was merely to gain its endorsement; the number of solar photovoltaic panels sold was not large.

The only large sum of money that has recently arrived in the account is a loan of 50 billion yuan, which was originally to be disbursed over three years. This year is the final year, and the amount is 10 billion yuan.

As the saying goes, "Even a hero can be brought down by a penny," and just as they were about to take their first step, the lack of funds caught everyone off guard.

"I always thought our factory was very wealthy..." Gao Jingming regretted it when he thought about how his power system upgrade had almost drained the factory's cash flow. "If only Supervisor Zhang Chengyuan were here, he could help me optimize some processes and probably reduce manufacturing costs."

At this moment, Wang Bing spoke:

"Actually, from a purely technical point of view, building rockets doesn't put much pressure on our factory. Don't forget the 'Long March 3C-Gai' rocket that Su Qing and I were involved in."

Using it directly is definitely not suitable, but it is still possible to modify it based on it.

Our 120,000-ton die forging press makes forging such large components very easy.

The control system will be handed over to Su Qing, and the power system to Lin Yu. I think we can produce a qualified finished product within two years.

The main difficulty is still funding...

"There's no need to worry about funding," Li Ran said. "If possible, I hope you can work together soon to help Gao Jingming reduce the cost of solar photovoltaic panels."

Upon hearing Li Ran's words, everyone's eyes flickered as they quickly pondered and recalled.

The experiences of this period were quickly pieced together.

"Solar energy... photovoltaics..." the group murmured, as if they had grasped something, but were missing some crucial information.

But judging from Li Ran's mysterious appearance, it's unlikely that you'll get any information out of him.

In reality, Li Ran only knew from his memories of the future that the country attached great importance to green electricity.

The solar photovoltaic panel that our company has now launched, which can be mass-produced and has a photoelectric conversion rate of 40%, is a timely help for countries that are eager to transition their energy sources and break free from their heavy reliance on fossil fuels.

I reckon that the super-large photovoltaic power stations built in the desolate Gobi Desert of Northwest China in later generations will appear even earlier in this generation.