The China Photovoltaic Industry Association (CPIA) just elected its first president, and it’s a name many in the industry are already familiar with — Jifan Gao, the chief executive of Trina Solar.
Image Credit: Jifan Gao, by World Economic Forum (CC BY-NC-SA license)
For those who haven’t heard of the CPIA and are wondering what it is, don’t worry, it isn’t because you aren’t up-to-date, it’s just because the organization is brand new. In fact, it just held its inaugural ceremony last week in Beijing.
The timing of the organization’s creation is expedient considering all of the recent issues to come up in the Chinese solar industry, perhaps most notable of which is the rising number of international trade disputes — the US, the EU, and Australia have all recently accused China of illegal practices such as dumping illegal subsidies.
With Gao’s five-year term appointment it appears that he’ll be dealing with these issues for awhile.
Image Credit: Trina Solar
In an allusion (or is it a deflection?) to these issues, Gao stated: “With China emerging as one of the major players driving the growth of the global PV industry, it has become home to leading PV enterprises dedicated to a shared goal of providing high-quality PV products and solutions to customers around the world.”
“Through the founding of CPIA as the largest non-profit PV association in China committed to the principles of free and fair trade, we will unify PV enterprises across China to achieve a common goal of bringing affordable solar energy to the world.”
The CPIA has stated that it intends to work with groups like the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products (CCCME) in order to achieve mutual goals.
Nearly all of China’s major players are represented in the CPIA, including Yingli Solar, Trina Solar, Canadian Solar, Jinko Solar, etc.
It’ll be interesting to see what becomes of this — more bureaucracy or increased action?
In related news (not so related actually, but humorous), an angry Chinese Model S buyer apparently decided to publicly smash his car up with a wrench as a form of “protest” at not being the first person in the country to own one.
Wait, what? Yes, you heard that right, someone actually bought and ruined a Model S for no reason other than not having bragging rights to being one of the very first owners in China.
Ridiculous, right? I guess it’s certainly no longer only the US and Europe that can make a claim to possessing some of the most spoiled and childish people in the world. China has certainly caught up over the last few decades.