December 5th, 2020 by Zachary Shahan
In 2010, 17,151 megawatts (17.151 gigawatts) of solar modules were deployed worldwide. A decade later, one company, LONGi, has shipped more solar PV modules worldwide in the first 11 months of the year. LONGi is the first solar brand to ship more than 20 gigawatts (GW) of solar PV modules in 2020.
Perhaps accentuating the impressive news, LONGi is just 20 years old, being founded in 2000. How does LONGi sell so many solar panels? I assume it comes down to the solar panels being super cheap, but the company highlights other matters when highlighting the news, saying that it is “continuously developing high-efficiency, high-reliability and high-quality solar products and PV solutions in order to provide customers with value-added services.” It adds:
“Thanks to high-quality wafers, high-efficiency PERC cells and strict requirements regarding module materials and processes, LONGi modules consistently demonstrate excellent performance in third-party reliability tests, energy yield evaluations and client applications. LONGi works with B&V, TÜV SÜD, TÜV Rheinland, RETC and other institutions to build global pilot projects to evaluate the energy yield performance of its modules.
“In the PV Tech Bankability rankings, LONGi remains the only AAA-Rated module supplier for the fourth consecutive quarter in 2020.”
Naturally, at such a large scale, LONGi has focused on standardized solutions throughout the business, but it prioritizes “Customer Focus” in its news release more than anything else. “LONGi has established global unified systems for customer complaint handling, service standards, quality monitoring and management processes. Customers can therefore be confident that any problems will be resolved in a timely manner.”
The company’s second (and only other) focal point is “Commitment to Innovation.” It again writers about reliability, high-efficiency modules (Hi-MO 1 to Hi-MO 5), and R&D and innovation. The company also references attractive levelized cost of energy (LCOE) and balance of system (BOS) costs. Again, I presume this is really what makes the company the 2020 record holder — good tech and very competitive pricing.
Though, the company does also seem to be on the cutting edge of new solar tech. LONGi noted that it launched a bifacial module in 2020, the Hi-MO 5 solar module, particularly focused on developing utility-scale solar PV plants with more electricity output.
All images courtesy of LONGi Corp.
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About the Author
Zachary Shahan is tryin’ to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao.
Zach has long-term investments in NIO [NIO], Tesla [TSLA], and Xpeng [XPEV]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.