With the theme “Rebuilding Trust,” the five-day World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2024 got underway in Davos, Switzerland, on January 15.
Zhong Baoshen, President of the world’s top renewable energy company LONGi, stressed in an interview conducted during the forum that “we must make our voice heard on this global platform, WEF – to let the world know that the innovation of Chinese companies can promote the global energy transformation process and help the decarbonization transformation.”
To fulfill all of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for a more sustainable future, affordable and clean energy (SDG 7) is essential. As Dennis She, Vice President of LONGi, noted during the Davos Summit, “the very foundation for energy equity at the global scale, especially to the underdeveloped regions, is the decrease in solar power costs.”
LONGi recently pledged to supply Pakistan with photovoltaic systems and solutions beginning in 2024, supplying safe, dependable, and clean energy for refugee and host community public facilities so that these locations might work, study, run enterprises, and engage in other activities.
Around 780 million people, or 10% of the global population, are estimated to live off the grid; the majority of these individuals reside in parts of the Sub-Saharan Desert. Simultaneously, China’s solar industry has sustained a momentum of continuous growth, surpassing Germany in 2013 to become the world’s largest photovoltaic application market. The installed renewable energy capacity worldwide is expected to rise to over 440GW in 2023, a year-over-year growth of 107GW, making it the greatest increase in history, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
The World Economic Forum (WEF) designated LONGi’s Jiaxing Production Base in East Zhejiang Province, China, as a Global Lighthouse Factory in December 2023. With this accreditation, WEF’s Global Lighthouse Network (GLN) welcomed the first solar module manufacturing base in the globe. Jiaxing Factory of LONGi was designated as one of the 21 new Global Lighthouse Factories in 2023.
The WEF stated that several of LONGi’s technological advancements are independent patented inventions that set industry standards and may cut unit production costs by 28% and unit energy usage by 20% in just a year.
Despite the numerous obstacles the photovoltaic industry will encounter in 2024—such as overcapacity brought on by excessive investment—Zhong is optimistic about the industry’s future. “There is broad agreement on the global decarbonization trend, and there is no question that the trend toward sustainable renewable energy production is irreversible. A significant problem that affects every region of the planet is climate change. Given such an assumption, I am convinced that all nations might set aside their differences and biases in order to come together and meet challenges as a single entity. The times demand that we change since the photovoltaic sector is essential to the low- and zero-carbon environments.
