Recently, another charging station in China has completed its "solid-state" upgrade.
On August 7, the Solid State Transformer (SST) (Coota) Guangzhou Huangpu Demonstration Base of Zhiguang Electric (002169) was officially put into operation. Meanwhile, Zhiguang Electric signed SST procurement agreements with 7 enterprises on-site.
As the first SST demonstration project in Guangdong Province with completely independent intellectual property rights, the commissioning ceremony was held with top-tier attendance, gathering multi-level competent leaders from the province, city, and district, along with representatives from industry associations and enterprises.
As an invited media outlet, Asak participated in this event. We believe that this high-specification commissioning ceremony clearly released three major industry signals:
Zhiguang Electric has established SST as its second growth curve;
Guangzhou is making all-out efforts to build a 10-billion-yuan-level SST industrial cluster;
SST is not only popular in AI data centers but also beginning to show accelerated momentum for deployment in the ultra-fast charging field.
Zhiguang Targets Second Growth Curve: Guangzhou Builds SST Industry Hub
On that day, Guangzhou Zhiguang Electric Co., Ltd. held the "Commissioning Ceremony of the Solid State Transformer (Coota) Guangzhou Huangpu Demonstration Base." Over 200 representatives from government units, research institutes, power grid companies, energy enterprises, China Telecom, China Unicom, data and informatization enterprises, and industrial chain enterprises jointly witnessed the commissioning of this SST demonstration project.
The commissioning ceremony of the "Solid State Transformer (Coota) Guangzhou Huangpu Demonstration Base" was jointly initiated on stage by Chen Jianhua, Deputy Secretary-General of the Guangzhou Municipal Government; Liu Tieming, Secondary Inspector of the Department of Industry and Information Technology of Guangdong Province; the Mayor of Huangpu District, Guangzhou and Executive Deputy Director of the Guangzhou Development District Management Committee, Xian Yinsong; Li Yongxi, Chairman of Zhiguang Electric; Jiang Xinyu, President of Zhiguang Electric; and Liu Yuming, President of the Guangzhou Electric Vehicle Charging and Swapping Facility Industry Association.
This high-profile lineup of government and enterprise representatives on the same stage intuitively demonstrates the heavy, two-way investment in the SST track by the city, the industry, and leading enterprises.
From the perspective of enterprise development, Zhiguang Electric has long elevated SST to the top-level strategic height of the "15th Five-Year Plan".
At the ceremony, Li Yongxi, Chairman of Zhiguang Electric, stated that driven by the dual forces of building a new type of power system in the country and the "dual carbon" goals, Zhiguang Electric has established SST as the core strategic product in the digital energy field for the "15th Five-Year Plan".
He further pointed out that the demonstration base officially put into operation in Guangzhou Huangpu on that day is exactly the landmark project for the implementation of this strategy. Relying on more than 20 years of profound accumulation in high-power power electronics technology, the base has built the first scaled SST platform in China that integrates R&D, manufacturing, and testing. They will use SST as the strategic pivot to build the second growth curve, connecting the full-scenario layout of "source, grid, load, energy storage, and computing".
At the city level, Guangzhou has introduced a systematic SST industry cultivation roadmap.
In his speech, Chen Jianhua, Deputy Secretary-General of the Guangzhou Municipal Government, stated that the Zhiguang Electric Solid State Transformer (Coota) Guangzhou Huangpu Demonstration Base project is not only the first SST demonstration project in Guangdong Province with completely independent intellectual property rights, but also another hardcore achievement of "new quality productive forces" nurtured locally in Guangzhou.
In addition to the Zhiguang Electric project, Guangzhou will also build a series of SST demonstration projects in the future, covering new energy storage, smart microgrids, ultra-fast charging stations, industrial parks, rail transit, and AI computing centers. At the same time, it will strengthen and supplement the industrial chain with chain-thinking to cultivate a 10-billion-yuan-level SST industrial cluster.
This commissioning ceremony is not only about the completion of a project, but also a crucial move solidly made by Zhiguang Electric and Guangzhou Municipality in the SST industry. The cultivation of the industry and technological breakthroughs ultimately rely on the promotion of specific projects one by one, and the future path must be taken step by step.
Supply-Demand Imbalance in High-Power Ultra-Fast Charging: SST to Become the Optimal Solution to Break the Deadlock
The core SST application scenario focused on by the Zhiguang Coota Huangpu demonstration project is high-power ultra-fast charging. The commissioning of this project marks that SST has officially entered a new stage of demonstration operation and external services in the ultra-fast charging field, and it also becomes another important milestone for SST moving towards engineering application.
Focusing on this core product, technical details are worth attention. Gao Shuai, a technical expert at Zhiguang Electric, introduced that the SST ultra-fast charging demonstration project put into operation this time is equipped with Zhiguang Electric's Coota SST. This product integrates three core technologies: SiC (Silicon Carbide), high-frequency power electronic conversion, and fully digital intelligent control. Relying on a 4.2MW large-capacity grid-forming SST, it can efficiently convert 10kV AC power into 800V DC power in one step, with an overall efficiency reaching 98.5%, effectively solving the problems of high multi-stage power distribution loss and large footprint in traditional ultra-fast charging stations. At the same time, with bidirectional energy flow and millisecond-level power regulation capabilities, the system builds a medium-voltage direct-hanging flexible ultra-fast charging network, which not only supports V2G (Vehicle-to-Grid) bidirectional interaction but also makes charging facilities flexible and adjustable resources for the power grid.
This technological strength has also attracted the attention of all parties in the industry. At the commissioning ceremony site, power grid companies, energy enterprises, China Telecom, China Unicom, data and informatization enterprises, and upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain flocked to the scene.
Meanwhile, Zhiguang Electric signed intentional procurement contracts for SSTs on-site with 7 enterprises, including Wanjiadenghuo Energy Group Co., Ltd., Singapore Tongda Energy Co., Ltd., Guangzhou Xinzhili Energy Technology Co., Ltd., Wanbang Digital Energy Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Guangchi Qiyuan Energy Technology Co., Ltd., Guangdong Xinjuneng Semiconductor Co., Ltd., and Runjian Co., Ltd., aiming to build long-term and stable industrial collaborative partnerships and accelerate the commercial market expansion of Zhiguang SST (Coota).
Notably, Zhou Xiaoyang, President of Xinjuneng, attended as a representative of SiC enterprises during this signing ceremony. Xinjuneng stated that through this strategic cooperation, both parties will leverage their respective technological and industrial advantages, focus on core fields such as SST and the integration of PV, energy storage, and charging, strengthen and supplement the industrial chain, and accelerate the industrialization and implementation of advanced power technologies. In the future, Xinjuneng will continue to deeply cultivate core SiC technologies, rely on the advantages of full-chain R&D and mass production, help the SST industry achieve scaled commercialization, and empower the high-quality implementation of the new power system construction and the "dual carbon" strategy.
The commissioning and signed cooperation of the Zhiguang Coota project demonstrate the practical implementation value of SST in ultra-fast charging scenarios and also reflect the industry's recognition of this technological path. More importantly, this direction is moving from individual projects to broader deployment.
According to incomplete statistics from Asak, there are currently about 14 ultra-fast charging stations in China that have adopted SST as the core equipment for grid connection. SST is not only popular in AI data centers but also beginning to show accelerated momentum for deployment in the ultra-fast charging field.
To understand the development momentum and true value of SST in the ultra-fast charging station field, it needs to be placed in the broader context of the ultra-fast charging industry.
First, at the national level, the construction and layout of the ultra-fast charging network are being accelerated. By the end of 2027, 28 million charging facilities are to be built nationwide, with high-power DC charging facilities reaching about 300,000.
However, the problem of an imbalanced vehicle-to-pile ratio for ultra-fast charging is becoming increasingly prominent. In terms of total volume, the domestic vehicle-to-pile ratio has approached 2:1 and is expected to reach 1:1 by 2030. However, the proportion of ultra-fast charging piles is only 2%, making the vehicle-to-pile ratio for ultra-fast charging 130:1.
As of July 2026, the cumulative number of ultra-fast charging vehicle models has exceeded 300. At the same time, the penetration rate of commercial vehicles such as heavy trucks is steadily increasing. The construction volume of ultra-fast charging piles cannot keep up with the pace of vehicle model upgrades, which has become the core contradiction in the industry.
The traditional power-frequency transformer solution cannot effectively alleviate the imbalance of the vehicle-to-pile ratio because this solution involves a lengthy link requiring multi-stage conversion, with an efficiency loss of 7%—10%, as well as a large footprint, high construction costs, and long delivery cycles. Meanwhile, limited by grid capacity and power factor, capacity expansion is difficult, making it hard to support the rapid and high-density deployment of ultra-fast charging stations.
Against this backdrop, high-voltage direct-hanging fast charging has become the core trend in 2026. Currently, there are two mainstream technological routes: one is the phase-shifting transformer-based solution, and the other is the Solid State Transformer (SST) solution.
SST can just solve these problems—completing the conversion from 10kV AC to 800V DC in one step, eliminating the multi-stage link, achieving an efficiency of over 98.5%, reducing the footprint by more than 60%, and significantly lowering construction cycles and costs. At the same time, SST simplifies grid connection conditions, facilitates flexible capacity expansion for ultra-fast charging stations, and greatly reduces operating electricity costs through highly efficient conversion. In summary, SST is comprehensively superior to traditional solutions in terms of efficiency, footprint, delivery cycle, and grid compatibility, providing a more feasible technological path for the scaled deployment of ultra-fast charging stations.
However, SST's path to scaled commercialization still faces three challenges: the lack of a standard system, unverified long-term reliability, and relatively high unit costs. According to research by Asak, heavy truck ultra-fast charging stations will be the first breakthrough for SST. As policy standards are gradually improved, usage increases, and costs further decrease, SST will gradually penetrate into broader scenarios such as passenger car ultra-fast charging stations in the future.
Asak Summary:
In summary, the commissioning of the Zhiguang Huangpu demonstration base is a critical turning point for SST technology moving towards scaled commercial implementation. As Li Yongxi, Chairman of Zhiguang Electric, said on-site, SST is by no means a simple iterative extension of traditional power equipment. It is redefining the underlying architecture of transportation and energy hubs integrating multiple scenarios such as computing power, charging, and energy storage under the new power system.
Looking further ahead, SST is expected to become the standard power supply solution for "source, grid, load, energy storage, and computing," and the market space is worth imagining. For the SiC industry, the vast market increment of SST will also open up entirely new growth space for the SiC industry.