World's top solar module firm riding global PV wave, eyes hydrogen synergy

Major Chinese solar power company LONGi Green Energy Technology Co Ltd aims to double its sales of photovoltaic modules and largely expand those of silicon wafers this year to tap the fast-growing PV market, said a top executive.

Zhong Baoshen, chairman of LONGi, said the company is projected to achieve a sales volume of 85 gigawatts of modules and 130 GW of silicon wafers in 2023.

Such equipment can help reduce carbon emissions by 120 million metric tons globally, said Zhong.

LONGi's robust sales target for this year has been backed by the continuously improving business environment for the private sector.

On Monday, the National Development and Reform Commission held a symposium that invited private companies from various industries, with LONGi among them. Executives shared current situations related to production, operations and problems hindering development, and gave feedback on the implementation of macroeconomic policies.

The symposium comes after the top economic regulator pledged efforts to tackle problems faced by companies and foster a better development environment for the private sector.

Zheng Shanjie, head of the NDRC, said the feedback from private players on macroeconomic policies and their recommendations based on practical experience serve as an important reference for the research and formulation of macro policies.

Zheng said the NDRC will actively coordinate with relevant departments to come up with solutions to address problems facing companies.

Last year, LONGi's sales volume of modules and silicon wafers hit 46.76 GW and 85.06 GW, respectively. Its sales volume of modules has ranked tops globally for three consecutive years. LONGi's profit grew 63.02 percent year-on-year to 14.8 billion yuan ($2.05 billion) during the same period.

Zhong said further efforts will be made to foster synergistic development between the PV industry and other sectors such as hydrogen to promote green transition of energy-intensive industries.

Behind LONGi's robust performance was China's rapidly developing solar power sector. As of May, the country's total installed capacity for PV power reached 450 million kilowatts, up 38.4 percent year-on-year.

Jiang Yali, a solar analyst at energy research provider BloombergNEF, said that as a major PV facility manufacturing country, China is home to more than 75 percent of the global supply chain for the industry, and its export volume has increased significantly in line with global growth.

Last year, China exported about 36.3 GW of solar wafers and 23.8 GW of solar cells, up 60.8 percent and 130.7 percent year-on-year, respectively. Exports of solar modules last year grew by 55.8 percent and reached over 153.6 GW, both record highs, said the China Photovoltaic Industry Association.

The CPIA estimates that the country is likely to add 95 GW to 120 GW of solar power capacity this year, or up to 30.5 percent more — a record annual rise.

Li Zhenguo, founder and president of LONGi, said recently that solar power plays a significant role in promoting energy transition and the cost of PV facilities will further fall. He said that at present, total installed capacity of solar power has exceeded 1 terawatt globally, and China will hit this number by 2030.

In response to the risk of overcapacity, Li said that such a scenario may occur periodically and that innovation is the key to addressing such problems and realizing the industry's sustainable development.

Zhong said that the integration of solar power in various scenarios is a direction of innovation for LONGi. He said an example is the integration of PV with water irrigation systems to improve soil quality in arid areas.

In 2021, the company set up a net zero carbon factory in Yunnan province at which 99 percent of its electricity is generated from green power.

Going forward, LONGi said it will step up efforts to promote the integrated development of PV and hydrogen production.

"Green hydrogen, whose production process is powered entirely by renewable energy, is important for decarbonization in the non-electric field," said Li.

"We have optimized unit cost measures of hydrogen production, and created safe, reliable and large-scale green hydrogen equipment and solutions, and actively promoted the application and development of green hydrogen," he added.