2022 Wood Mackenzie’s Power & Renewables APAC Conference brought together the leading solar groups from core APAC markets to shed light on recent global changes and addresses the biggest questions arising in Asia Pacific power markets.
Todd Li, President of Trina Solar’s APAC region, joined the conference with the topic of “Fireside Chat: New Era of Global Carbon Neutrality” on 27 July 2022. As Trina Solar has been steadily contributing renewable energy to achieve PV market’s target of carbon neutrality by 2050, Todd Li discussed the opportunities, challenges and future holds for Trina Solar as a key player globally.
Below are the Q&As with Todd Li at the conference.
Q: As a renewable energy company, what role does Trina Solar play under the global energy transition and carbon neutrality goals?
A: Trina Solar was founded in 1997, inspired by the Kyoto Protocol and the Million Solar Roofs Initiative announced by the then US president, and now is one of the 2nd largest solar equipment manufacturers in China and leading the way in smart solar energy solutions for a net-zero future. Trina Solar has put in place a 1+3+N multi-tiered business ecosystem that provides vertical solutions including products, systems and smart energy to help achieve carbon neutrality and the development of clean energy worldwide.
Since its establishment 25 years ago, Trina Solar attached great importance to technological innovation to actively promoted the establishment of a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system. So far, Trina Solar’s SKL has set or broken 24 world records in terms of PV cell conversion efficiency and module output power.
The scientific research and development have led to remarkable performance environmentally. In May, Trina Solar was awarded the LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) certificate for its 210mm Vertex modules by TÜV Rheinland, becoming the first solar company proved for 210mm modules. With the advantage of 210mm wafers, Vertex modules’ carbon emissions are at least 30% lower than the industry average in China. Taking the 30-year product life cycle as an example, Trina Solar Vertex modules have an electricity emission factor of less than 0.01. Carbon emissions of thermal power are higher than 100 times. The Vertex modules achieve industry leading low carbon emissions.
Trina Solar also diversifies and deepens the ways to low carbonization. It has joined the global Science-Based Targets initiative in 2021 to help limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C and contribute to the progress of the PV industry. Trina Solar has also worked with WWF China to initiate the “Clean Energy for Earth” campaign, a non-profit sub-project of Earth Hour. It calls on all sectors of society to use clean energy and aims to raise public awareness of clean energy to contribute to a net-zero future.
Q: We can see from your introduction the key role that technology innovation has played in the success of Trina Solar as well as the overall industry. What innovative photovoltaic technologies will lead the global PV growth momentum in the next 3-5 years?
A: Solar energy is a powerful force in achieving carbon neutrality. Gao Jifan, Chairman of Trina Solar stated PV power generation, energy storage, ultra-high-voltage power and energy digitization are the four pillars in achieving carbon neutrality.
”Power" and "efficiency" have been two crucial factors to support above four pillars by providing higher product value for customer, which should be realized by technology and industrialization. We believe that the superposition of advanced 210 technology platform and N-type will open up new opportunities for higher value and lower LCOE. In July, Trina Solar just realized breakthrough that its proprietary industrial larger-area 210mm×210mm high-efficiency PERC solar cell, has achieved the efficiency of 24.5%, setting a new world record, which also reaches the limit.
Therefore, accelerating the technology upgrade as 210 plus N-type are becoming the first choice for further improving the conversion efficiency, reducing the system cost, also strengthen the company’s competitiveness. 210 technology platform can superpose any advanced technology thanks to its openness and extensive compatibility. Trina Solar has announced that it is building a plant in Xining that will focus on the new N-type and 210 technologies. This will ensure that the company can create increased value upon the next generation high-efficiency N-type technology as a major. In adopting 210mm cells and N-type technology, the module power will achieve 700W+, and such technical advances point the way to the future in technology and products for the PV industry.
The collocation of large-sized products and advanced technology has opened up additional space for improved efficiency and points held out the hope for reducing costs. 210 plus N-type continue to optimize cost per watt and may contribute to improving quality in the PV industry.
Q: Now moving to one of the major solar markets in the region, Australia. We have seen that the amount of new rooftop solar capacity in Australia in the first half of the year is down year-on-year. This has been the slowest start since 2019, while the full year forecast by the Australian Clean Energy regulator reflects a similar reduction in new rooftop solar capacity (2022F: 2.3GW vs. 2021A: 3.2GW). Why is there such a decline?
A: The year 2020 and 2021 were boom years for rooftop solar because COVID travel restrictions meant there was more household spending on home improvement, including installation of solar panels, rather than overseas or interstate trips.
People are now travelling again, which is using up some of their income, but now we also have greater economic uncertainty and a rising cost of living, so that is impacting purchasing decisions. But I would like to highlight that 2.3GW of additional rooftop solar is still the third highest annual increase in rooftop solar. Not as high as 2021 and 2020, but still very good.
We are also seeing that the growth of rooftop solar is not even across all states. The states of New South Wales and Queensland are experiencing the strongest growth. These two states, and others, have been introducing higher electricity charges from the grid, which is driving households and businesses to turn to rooftop solar as an alternative.
We are very familiar with the Australian rooftop market. Data from Sunwiz , an independent Australian market research company that specializes in data and analysis of the Australian solar market, indicates Trina Solar is the top selling brand of solar panel in Australia. We also see that new high power and high efficiency modules coming onto the market will stimulate more demand for rooftop solar. For example, we have just launched our new generation of Vertex S residential modules that deliver maximum power output up to 430W.
Higher power and higher efficiency modules are proving popular because the average system size for Australian households is now more than 8kW whereas in the past households typically installed a 6.6kW system.
Q: APAC region has some of the world’s largest producers of coal and coal power generation still represents a sizeable share of the energy mix, which is also the case in Australia. Is it really possible for the country to wean itself off fossil fuels? considering coal is such a major industry and so many other domestic industries - such as the cement, fertiliser production, etc. – rely on cheap coal-generated power.
A: Utility-scale solar in Australia has achieved grid parity meaning that it is now cheaper to generate electricity from solar farms than it is to generate from coal-fired power stations. Solar farms are also much quicker to deploy. A coal-fired power station takes years to build whereas a solar farm can be built in months.
Everyone is grappling with the impact of climate change and wanting to reduce one’s carbon footprint. There is a huge opportunity for Australian industry to transition away from electricity generated from coal to electricity generated from solar.
You mentioned how the cement and fertiliser industry use huge amounts of electricity in the production process. Farmers around the world are grappling with climate change. Imagine if they could use ‘green fertiliser’ – fertiliser that is made using solar energy in the production process. Or construction companies could use cement that was only produced using electricity from solar. As mentioned, electricity from solar is cheaper. And you would have a competitive product advantage in the case of fertilisers and cements. As said, everyone now has an impetus to reduce their carbon footprint.
Q: Let’s turn towards the end of the lifecycle. With many early solar projects reaching the end of their economic life, recycling is becoming a hot issue. What is Trina Solar doing in the area of solar module recycling?
A: Disposal of scrapped PV modules at the end product life cycle is an important issue. As a responsible company, Trina Solar strictly abides by the e-waste management laws and regulations of the countries in which we operate. For example, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE, 2012/19/EU) specifies that manufacturers of electrical and electronic equipment must guarantee that waste products created in any EU member states must be recycled and reused, in order to ensure that electrical and electronic equipment, including PV modules, is properly managed by means of recycling, reusing, reclamation and regeneration. We strictly abide by that. A key benefit of solar modules, made from silicon, is that it’s a technology that is recyclable. Materials from the PV modules, such as: silicon, silver, copper and aluminum can be recycled. The recycling of the materials saves resources and reduces energy consumption.
As a leader in the PV industry, Trina Solar firmly believes that the recycling of scrapped PV modules has significant economic and environmental value.
Q: Where do you see the greatest growth in Asia Pacific?
A: Our two biggest markets in Asia Pacific, outside of China, have been Australia and India. Those two continue to be very strong markets for us.
Data compiled by Sunwiz, in its 2021 Australian PV Panel MarketView report indicates Trina Solar was number one in market share in Australia.
In India, Trina Solar shipment volume in the first quarter of 2022 is at historic highs. Trina Solar’s cumulative shipments has achieved 8GW in India from consistent sales performance since the company was established in India in 2010.
Some parts of India have been experiencing power outages, especially during the heat wave. Diesel-powered generators are now proving to be even more costly due to rising oil prices.
Turning to solar energy helps companies to reduce electricity bills, their carbon footprint and is in line with India’s pledge to achieve a target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2070.
We have seen southeast countries such as the Philippines, Malaysia, Pakistan, Thailand make a big push towards adoption of solar energy. For instance, the growth in the Philippines’ solar market in the coming years is forecast to largely be driven by utility-scale projects. This has been proven by our great sales performance and market acceptance of our high power and high efficiency Vertex modules.
We also see some new markets emerge recently, namely Indonesia. The Indonesian government announced in May that the country plans to install 361GW of solar power capacity by 2060. Indonesia is one of the world’s largest producers of coal and has traditionally relied heavily on coal-fired power stations, so to announce this move toward solar is significant. We have already seen the change in policy result in most solar projects being proposed in Indonesia.
