Tag:

Jinko Solar

Jinko Solar Surpasses Trina Solar As World’s Leading Solar PV Module Supplier In 2016

by Joshua S Hill February 19, 2017

Originally published on CleanTechnica
by Joshua S Hill

China-based solar PV manufacturer Trina Solar can no longer call itself the world’s leading solar PV supplier, having been overtaken by Chinese competitor Jinko Solar, according to new figures by research and consulting firm GlobalData.

A year ago, GlobalData confirmed that Chinese solar PV manufacturer Trina Solar had held onto its top spot as the world’s leading solar PV module producer in 2015, producing 4.55 gigawatts (GW) of crystalline modules, ahead of Canadian Solar and Jinko Solar. A year later and the tables have turned somewhat, with Jinko Solar shipping 6.6 to 6.7 GW of solar PV modules compared to Trina Solar’s 6.3 to 6.5 GW. Canadian Solar was relegated to third place, with shipments in the range of 5 to 5.1 GW.

“JinkoSolar has witnessed impressive results over 2016, with the company’s PV modules securing China Quality Certification Center’s Top Runner Program level-one energy efficiency certification that showcases its technological strength,” explained Ankit Mathur, GlobalData’s Practice Head covering Power. Specifically, GlobalData highlighted “JinkoSolar’s efforts to expand across a large and geographically diversified customer base” as allowing “it to leverage its innovative, high-quality solar products, brand recognition and robust sales network to win several opportunities.”

We saw repeated strong growth throughout 2016 from Jinko Solar, with an impressive start to the year and strong mid-year quarterly earnings allowing the company to revise its full-year shipping guidance in November. Trina Solar by no means had a bad year, but there were several lackluster results throughout the year which definitely impeded the company retaining its title as the world’s leading solar PV module supplier.

The remaining solar PV manufacturers came in as follows: JA Solar in fourth place with 4.9 to 5 GW, Hanwha Q CELLS in fifth with 4.8 to 5 GW, GCL System Integration Technology at sixth with 4.6 to 5 GW, and First Solar stood in seventh place with 2.8-2.9 GW. However, most disappointing through 2016 was the performance of Yingli Solar, which only continued to slip further down the rankings. This was highlighted in December, when the company was forced to report a poor third quarter and lower 2016 shipping guidance.

“Yingli, which was responsible for a shipment of around 2.1-2.2 GW in 2016, has not benefited from solar power’s growing popularity in the same way as its counterparts,” explained Mathur. “The company’s liquidity issues and debt repayments caused it to fall from seventh to eighth position in the global rankings.

“The company witnessed a drop in net revenues from Q2 2016 to Q3 2016 primarily because the company’s external PV module shipments lowered along with the average selling price of its PV modules as a consequence of reduced demand in China in Q3 2016.”

February 19, 2017 0 comment

Jobs PV Solar Modules Solar Policy Solar PV Manufacturing

1st China Photovoltaic Industry Association President Is Trina Solar CEO

by James Ayre July 6, 2014

written by James Ayre

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.

July 6, 2014 0 comment

Market Research PV Solar Modules Solar PV Manufacturing Solar Records Solar Research Thin Film Solar

Top Solar Module Manufacturers of 2013

by James Ayre May 14, 2014

written by James Ayre

The top 15 solar PV module manufacturers of 2013 have been revealed thanks to a new report from the market research firm IHS.

As many would no doubt guess, the list is dominated — yet again — by firms based in China. But, interestingly, the Japanese firms Sharp and Kyocera saw a bit of a resurgence — up a fair bit from previous years. Japan’s strong feed-in tariffs for solar and Japanese preference for Japan-made products was clearly part of this upswing.

Some other things to note — Yingli Green Energy (aka Yingli Solar) once again took the top spot; 7 out of the top 10 companies were based in China; and the total Chinese share of the market fell 1% to 58% — down from a 59% market share in 2012.

“The year 2013 marked the turnaround of global PV markets and the recovery of leading players in the photovoltaic industry,” stated Jessica Jin, an analyst for solar supply chains at IHS. “Chinese and Japanese PV module suppliers benefited from the surge in demand in their domestic markets, with China in particular accounting for more than a quarter of global installations in 2013 and becoming the leading region in the process.”

IHS provides more:

The Chinese as a group continued to be the star players of the global PV market, but there were also signs pointing to slower growth. While they continue to lead by far, 2013 also marks the second time their overall market share has not risen significantly. Chinese suppliers held a 57% share in 2011, 59% in 2012 and 58% last year.

European companies also maintained stable share in 2013 at 13% — nearly unchanged from 2011 and 2012. In contrast, the Japanese module industry enjoyed an increase to 15%, up from 12% in 2011. Meanwhile, US suppliers fell behind as their portion dropped to 9%, down from 13% in 2011.

While Sharp and Kyocera saw the most substantial rises, a third Japanese firm managed to rank in the top 15 as well, CIS thin-film producer Solar Frontier. Solar Frontier saw shipment growth of more than 60% in 2013.

The IHS report also noted that total global solar PV shipments hit 38.7 GW in 2013 — roughly a 24% increase over the previous year. Interestingly, much of the growth appeared to be from the top players — showing clearly the consolidation of the industry. The top 15 manufacturers held a 59% market share in 2013, up from 51% in 2012.

With regard to the continued consolidation of the solar PV manufacturing industry, that’s something that’s likely going to continue for some time — with the dropping of state-support, in many cases, being one of the main drivers.

That’s exactly what’s happening right now in China, with a recent order by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology doing a lot to “clean up” the industry — likely finishing off over 75% of the country’s solar panel and related component manufacturers.

Expect to see more of that in the near-future. And just note, this isn’t bad — it’s a natural part of a maturing industry.

May 14, 2014 0 comment

BIPV Market Research PV Science Solar Modules Solar PV Manufacturing Solar Research Thin Film Solar

How Toxic Are Solar Panels? Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition Solar Scorecard 2013

by Zach August 13, 2013

written by Zach

The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC) moments ago released its annual Solar Scorecard. I had the opportunity to talk with Sheila Davis, Executive Director of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, last week in advance of the official release. Below are some key notes from the official release and from my chat with Sheila.

Unfortunately, one of the main general findings from the latest SVTC study is that “most of the solar industry’s environmental practices remain hidden from the public.” If you’re not familiar with the SVTC Solar Scorecard, that openness has been a major focus up until now.

Solar farm in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Photo Credit: Marika Krakowiak / Solar Love

2013 Solar Scorecard Results

“The SVTC Solar Scorecard ranks manufacturers of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules according to a range of environmental, sustainability and social justice factors. In its fourth year of requesting environmental information from solar companies, SVTC is concerned: only ten companies representing 34.6 percent of the PV module market share responded to the 2013 SVTC survey and more than 25 percent of the top 40 solar companies fail to make almost any environmental information publicly available on their websites.” (Emphasis added.)

Not a great response and not great openness from the solar PV industry. Sheila emphasized on that call that, even if the companies chose not to respond to the survey, they should have some basic information about their solar practices on their websites. I’d agree, and it’s disappointing to find out that many of them aren’t doing so, including some major players.

Here are some more interesting (if depressing) statistics from this year’s survey:

Three of the top 40 PV manufacturers (REC, SolarWorld, Yingli) share with the public extensive chemical emissions disclosure and reporting.
Twelve of the top 40 PV manufacturers post annual hazardous chemical reduction targets on their websites or in sustainability reports.
The number of companies with fully funded Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes in the PV industry dropped from one to zero. First Solar, the only major company with a fully-funded EPR program for the last three years, has eliminated its EPR program in most of its US-based sales.
Trina Solar (77), Yingli (75), and SunPower (69), earned overall top scores for 2013. SolarWorld and REC earned the highest scores for sharing information about their emissions with the public.

Additionally, Sheila noted that leading solar manufacturers JA Solar, Jinko Solar, and Hanwha SolarOne didn’t reveal any information regarding their environmental or social practices. Furthermore, these companies scored in single digits (from a possible 100 points). That means that SVTC’s researchers couldn’t find the answers on the companies’ websites to almost any of the environmental questions from its Scorecard questionnaire. Pretty lame….

Sheila was clear on the call that she sees solar as one of the key solutions to our various environmental crises (such as global warming). However, being “green companies” by nature, these solar manufacturers should also be leading in other environmental and social ways, and they should be open about the environmental and social effects they are having. Clearly, this isn’t the story.

August 13, 2013 1 comment

Market Research Solar Modules Solar PV Manufacturing Solar Research

10 Top Solar Module Manufacturers In 2012 (IHS Report)

by Zach April 13, 2013

written by Zach

Market research firm IHS has released a report on the top solar module manufacturers of 2012. Regular readers may think this sounds familiar. If so, it’s probably because you’re remembering the Solarbuzz report on the top solar module manufacturers of 2012 that we reported on in March. For the most part, the IHS report agrees with the Solarbuzz report’s top 10 list. However, there are some differences.

As with Solarbuzz, IHS reports that the top 2 solar module manufacturers of 2012 were Yingli (#1) and First Solar (#2). However, in the Solarbuzz report, Suntech came in at #3, while it came in at #5 in the IHS one. Compared to the Solarbuzz report, Trina Solar climbs from #4 to #3, while Canadian Solar climbs from #5 to #4.

Sharp Solar is #6 on both lists, Jinko Solar is #7, and Hanwha SolarOne is #10. However, Solarbuzz had JA Solar at #8 and SunPower at #9, while IHS has SunPower at #8 and REC Solar at #9.

For the rest of this article, I’ll just delve further into the IHS report.

Solar Power World had a good summary of the key movements in the top 10:

“In a year that proved very challenging for the entire PV industry, Yingli managed to increase its merchant shipment volumes by 43 percent year-over-year to leapfrog Suntech as well as U.S.-based First Solar, the two largest suppliers of 2011. First Solar managed to defend its position as the No. 2 module manufacturer, while Suntech lost significant ground and was displaced to fifth position behind Trina Solar and Canadian Solar. REC, the only Top 10 supplier headquartered in Europe, grew faster than most of its Chinese competitors in 2012. Increasing its module shipments by 31 percent year-over-year to 757 megawatts (MW), REC strengthened its position as a leading player in a highly competitive environment.”

I would think that more of the manufacturers not in the top 10 would have fallen by the wayside in 2012, but according to IHS, the top 10 in 2012 accounted for 40% of market share, while the top 10 in 2011 accounted for 46% of market share. IHS reports that the companies that took market share from the top 10 were other large manufacturers that had scaled up operations despite the global solar module oversupply and diving solar module prices.

Also, Japanese module manufacturers benefited from the solar boom resulting from the country’s aggressive feed-in tariffs, as well as the country’s strong preference for Japanese-made products (especially when it comes to technology).

“Japanese suppliers Solar Frontier and Kyocera expanded output and shipments massively in 2012, and both benefited from the current boom in Japan,” Stefan de Haan, principal analyst for solar at IHS, said. “Solar Frontier climbed from No. 14 in 2011 to 11th place in 2012, while Kyocera rose from No. 17 to No. 12.”

April 13, 2013 3 comments