On May 11th, 2024, the 2024 PV Green Supply Chain Forum was successfully held in Suzhou, hosted by Alashan SEE Dongwu Project Center, SIP Lvse Jiangnan Public Environment Concerned Centre (hereinafter referred to as “Lvse Jiangnan”), and the Public Environmental Research Center, and co-sponsored by Jiangsu Photovoltaic Industry Association (PVIA) and Suzhou Photovoltaic Industry Association (SPIA). The forum was attended by experts from the PV industry, PV companies, NGOs, the public and other important guests.

Photo of the Forum

The forum began with speeches by Mr. Jia Feng, former Director of the Mission and Education Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and Adjunct Professor of Peking University; Dr. Qu Xiaohua, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Atlas Solar Power Group and Academician of the Canadian Academy of Engineering; and Zhou Zhou Zhou, President of the Alashan SEE Ecological Association.

Mr. Jia Feng said that the rapid growth of China's installed renewable energy power gener ation capacity has led the global renewable energy sector, with a record growth rate of production capacity, benefiting China and the world, and becoming a model for the world. Mr. Jia further analyzed the complex game played by the international community on the issue of climate change, and at the same time expressed his high respect to those pioneers who have been working tirelessly at the forefront of environmental protection, and urgently called on all mankind to join hands to take action and jointly guard the earth's homeland that we rely on for our survival.

Mr. Jia Feng, former Director of the Mission and Education Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and Adjunct Professor of Peking University, delivered a speech on the spot.

Dr. Qu Xiaohua said Atlas, as a member of Alashan SEE Ecological Association, Jiangsu Photovoltaic Industry Association and Suzhou Photovoltaic Industry Association, has been committed to the sustainable development of the PV industry chain. As a leader in the new energy industry, PV contributes 40% of the country's incremental GDP in 2023, and the global installed capacity is expected to achieve 1TW in 2030, requiring 45 million tons of PV modules. Therefore, the green transformation of the photovoltaic industry chain is of utmost importance, not only for the development of the industry, but also for the development of the national and global economy, and the realization of the “dual-carbon” goal. The green development of the PV industry chain needs to be realized from three perspectives: technology, energy and production, and it is necessary to improve the efficiency of the process and the utilization of energy. At the same time, the carbon emissions of components, auxiliary materials and other materials in the industry chain should not be ignored, and the brand is needed to enhance the use of green energy, while putting forward requirements for suppliers to realize a green industry chain from a small target to 100%. Open up the zero-carbon industrial chain, produce zero-carbon components, realize low carbon and high price, break trade barriers, and help PV enterprises break the pattern of low price competition and realize the sustainable development of the industrial chain.

Dr. Qu Xiaohua, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Atlas Solar Power Group and member of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, delivered a speech on the spot

President Zhou Zhou said that the high-quality development and green development of the PV industry chain is the direction of joint efforts of PV stakeholders. For more than 20 years since its establishment, SEE Alxa has been focusing on environmental issues such as desertification prevention and control, climate change and business sustainability, ecological protection, green supply chain and so on. Up to now, there are nearly 600 entrepreneur members of Alashan SEE, and 31 environmental protection project centers have been set up to promote the deep participation of entrepreneurs, environmental protection public welfare organizations and the public in local environmental protection undertakings, and a series of actions have been carried out in the photovoltaic industry chain at the same time. The PV Green Supply Chain Initiative is funded by Alashan SEE Dongwu Project Center and executed by Lvse Jiangnan, which conducted industry research on 79 listed PV companies and their affiliates nationwide. At the same time, 43 listed companies in the PV industry and their supply chains were evaluated using Azure Map's big data and public information, with the aim of promoting enterprises to pay attention to environmental protection, driving national PV brands to carry out green supply chain actions, and helping to realize the dual-carbon goal.

Zhou Zhou, President of Alashan SEE Ecological Society Zhou Zhou, President of Alashan SEE Ecological Society, delivered a speech on the spot.

In the session of PV Industry Outlook and Green Supply Chain Challenges, Dr. Shen Hui, Director of PV Committee of China Green Supply Chain Alliance and Director of Yangtze River Delta Solar Photovoltaic Technology Innovation Center, and Mr. Ahmed Mustafa, Director of the League of Arab States Representative Office in China, introduced the development outlook of PV industry and the challenges to realize green supply chain respectively. Mr. Ahmad Mustafa, Director of the Representative Office of the League of Arab States in China, introduced the development prospects of the PV industry and the challenges faced in realizing a green supply chain.

Dr. Shen Hui gave us an in-depth analysis of the historical origins and industrial development of photovoltaic technology from his unique perspective. He first reviewed the history of the evolution of PV technology from ancient solar technology and culture to modern science, explained the core elements of photovoltaic theory and crystalline silicon solar cell technology, and highlighted the outstanding contribution of batteries in space technology. He further discussed the development of PV buildings, emphasizing their green efficiency and aesthetic value. In addition, he looked into the future of the PV industry and introduced the development path of the Yangtze River Delta Solar Photovoltaic Technology Innovation Center (YRDSPTCIC), aiming to contribute to the international discourse of Chinese PV.

Dr. Shen Hui, Director of China Green Supply Chain Alliance Photovoltaic Specialized Committee and Director of Yangtze River Delta Solar Photovoltaic Technology Innovation Center, shared his views on the scene.

Director Ahmed Mustafa shared the prospects of China-Arab countries cooperation in the PV energy market. He emphasized the importance of clean energy and introduced the development of PV industry in Arab countries. He said that China, as a global leader in the field of photovoltaics, has achieved remarkable results in clean energy cooperation with Arab countries. The Middle East countries seek technology invocation to accelerate the development of the PV industry, while China sees the Middle East as the key to broadening the international market, and the two sides have great potential to cooperate and paint a green energy future together.

Mr. Ahmed Mustafa, Director of the Representative Office of the League of Arab States in China, shared his views.

In the session of PV Pollution Reduction and Carbon Reduction and Green Chain Initiative, firstly, Yingjun Fang of Lvse Jiangnan and Jun Ma, Director of Public Environmental Research Center jointly released the “2024 PV Enterprises Green and Low Carbon Supply Chain Evaluation Report”. Starting from the example of PV power generation project, Mr. Fang Yingjun emphasized that manufacturing green should also be green manufacturing, and said that supply chain environmental management is the focus and difficulty, and that information disclosure provides data infrastructure for supply chain green and low-carbon transformation. Director Ma Jun introduced the Corporate Climate Action CATI Index and officially released the 2024 PV Enterprise Green Low Carbon Supply Chain Evaluation Report.  The report details the progress and results achieved by PV industry enterprises in building green and low-carbon supply chains. In addition, they also introduced the Toward Zero Carbon Supply Chain Initiative that will be officially released soon, and invited more PV enterprises to join in and build it hand in hand. Finally, the forum held an award ceremony for the top ten PV companies in terms of corporate climate action.

Lvse Jiangnan Mr. Fang Yingjun delivered a speech.

Director Ma Jun of the Center for Public Environmental Research shared the scene

2024 PV Climate Action Top10 Award Ceremony

Dr. Pingjian Yang, Chief Scientist of the Management Center of the China Academy of Environmental Sciences, shared the Guidelines for Corporate Greenhouse Gas Information Disclosure (hereinafter referred to as “the Guidelines”), and conducted a seminar and interactive discussion and solicitation of opinions on the Guidelines. Dr. Yang firstly introduced the importance and significance of corporate GHG disclosure, detailed the background and purpose of the preparation of the Guidelines, the scope of application, the relationship with the existing laws, regulations and standards, as well as the main contents of the compilation, showed the summary table of corporate GHG emissions disclosure, and shared good cases of voluntary disclosure by enterprises. In addition, Dr. Yang led a lively on-site seminar and engaged in a close and constructive interactive dialogue with the participants, helping Chinese enterprises to efficiently carry out climate change actions and alleviate the pressure of international cooperation.

Dr. Yang Pingjian, Chief Scientist of the Management Center of the Chinese Academy of Environmental Sciences, sharing the scene

Next, the PV Green Supply Chain Initiative kick-off ceremony officially began, with Alashan SEE Dongwu Project Center Chairman Ling Songtian, Lvse Jiangnan Fang Yingjun, Jiangsu PV Industry Association Executive Director Du Guanglin, Atlas Sun Power Group Supply Chain Senior Vice President Mr. Xie Qihong, General Manager of LONGi Green Energy's Strategic Management Center Dr. Xie Tian, Director of Sustainable Development at Tongwei, Dr. Zhu Zihan, Director of Environmental Protection at Trina Solar, Mr. Zhao Zhenxiang, and Director of Strategic Development at Maivee Co. Mr. Zhao Zhenxiang, Director of Environmental Protection, and Mr. Qi Xuejun, Director of Strategic Development of Maiwei Co. jointly launched the PV Industry Green Supply Chain Action Initiative. It is hoped that the leading brands in the domestic PV industry can set a good example of green supply chain, take the lead in green supply chain management, tell the story of China's PV green supply chain, and write a new chapter for the sustainable future of the earth.

PV Green Chain Initiative Launching Ceremony

In the session of Multi-dimensional Cooperation and Enterprise Good Practice Sharing, Dr. Yang Li, expert consultant of McKinsey New Energy, shared the topic of PV Supply Chain Situation and Green Transformation. Dr. Li Yang provides an in-depth analysis of the current status quo and future trends of the PV supply chain, discusses the latest developments of trade protection policies in the PV sector globally and their impact on industry development, and shares how Chinese PV enterprises can actively respond to the challenges of international trade and develop international markets through strategic globalization layout in order to maintain their leading position in the global PV industry.

Speech by Dr. Yang Li, McKinsey's new energy expert consultant

Dr. Xie Tian, General Manager of LONGi Green Energy's Strategic Management Center, introduced LONGi Green Energy's sustainable development and green supply chain practices. Dr. Xie Tian said that LONGi Green Energy has deeply integrated the concept of sustainable development in its development process, joining the RE100, EV100 and EP100 initiatives in 2020 and becoming the first PV company in China to pass the scientific carbon target SBTi. Not only has LONGi Green Energy set up a perfect greenhouse gas emission accounting system along the whole value chain, but also insisted on the disclosure of ESG information in accordance with international standards and participated in the guidelines for the construction of ESG. It has also insisted on disclosing ESG information in accordance with international standards and participated in the construction of guidelines, and won a number of internationally recognized awards for sustainable development and ESG. In addition, he introduced LONGi Green Energy's green supply chain management model, including the strict environmental and social standards adopted for supplier screening, the use of third-party platforms such as IPE to monitor suppliers' environmental performance, the green and low-carbon management requirements implemented for suppliers, and the measures to carry out the Green Partner Empowerment Program to help suppliers reduce carbon emissions. Finally, the achievements, cases and plans of LONGi Green Energy in promoting the construction of sustainable supply chain were demonstrated.

Speech by Dr. Xie Tian, General Manager of LONGi Green Energy's Strategic Management Center

Mr. Zhou Yuan, Director of Product Testing and Certification Department of AT&S Sunny Power Group, shared his views on low-carbon green supply chain to help ESG sustainable development. After a brief introduction of Atlas Group, he analyzed the opportunities and challenges that Atlas has encountered in the ESG field. It shares in detail how AT&S promotes its ESG sustainable development through this strategic pillar in building a low-carbon green supply chain, and analyzes in detail the challenges and difficulties faced on the way to pursuing low-carbon green development, as well as the corresponding strategies to cope with them.

Speech by Mr. Zhou Yuan, Director of Product Testing and Certification Department, Atlas Solar Power Group Ltd.

Dr. Zhu Zihan, Director of Sustainable Development of Tongwei Company, shared the theme of “Join hands in practicing green and low carbon to create a sustainable future”. Dr. Zhu Zihan said that green has always been the background color of Tongwei's development, and Tongwei has taken “world-class safe food supplier” and “world-class clean energy operator” as its long-term strategic plan, and put forward the sustainable development strategy of “Together to win” this year. This year, Tongwei put forward the sustainable development strategy of “Together to win”, which encourages, supports and cooperates with suppliers and partners to build and govern the road of sustainable development. He explained Tongwei's climate action strategy and goals, and shared the company's practical wisdom and fruitful results in the technical path of climate action and the construction of energy and carbon management system.

Speech by Dr. Zhu Zihan, Director of Sustainability, Tongwei Co.

Mr. Zhao Zhenxiang, Trina Solar's Director of Environmental Protection, shared the topic of Trina Solar's green supply chain practices. After briefly reviewing the company's development history, Mr. Zhao showed Trina Solar's global business layout and business coverage, focusing on the practical path of building a zero-carbon system and the concrete achievements and progress in realizing the sustainable development goals, as well as depicting the green vision for the future.

Speech by Mr. Zhao Zhenxiang, Director of Environmental Protection of Trina Solar

Mr. Qi Xuejun, Director of Strategic Development of Maiwei Co., Ltd. shared from the perspective of heterojunction technology to help PV green supply chain. Mr. Xuejun Qi firstly introduced the strong strength of Mavis as a pan-semiconductor high-end equipment manufacturer, and then introduced in detail the superiority of heterojunction technology and its outstanding performance in high conversion efficiency and low carbon footprint, explored the sustainable development trend of heterojunction technology, especially the strategy to reduce the amount of silver and indium, and lastly, he shared the practice and effectiveness of the construction of green supply chain.

Mr. Qi Xuejun, Director of Strategic Development of Maiwei Co.

Ms. Ye Lian, Sales Director of Suzhou Ulexa Group, shared her views on the application and development of recyclable packaging in the supply chain of PV industry, elaborating on the current scale of logistics and transportation in the PV industry and its status quo. In addition, she introduced in detail the actual application cases of recyclable packaging in the PV industry and gave a forward-looking outlook on its future development potential, aiming to provide a sustainable packaging and logistics strategy framework for enterprises.

Ms. Ye Lian, Sales Director of Suzhou Unisys Group, sharing the scene

The roundtable discussion was moderated by Zhang Xiaobin, Secretary General of Alashan SEE Dongwu Project Center, with Dr. Yang Pingjian, Chief Scientist of the Management Center of China Academy of Environmental Sciences, Mr. Fang Yingjun, Director of Lvse Jiangnan, Mr. Zhou Yuan, Director of Product Testing and Certification Department of Atlas Solar, Dr. Xie Tian, General Manager of Strategic Management Center of LONGi Green Energy, Dr. Zhu Zihan, Director of Sustainable Development of Tongwei, and Dr. Li Yang, Specialist Consultant of McKinsey & Company New Energy as guests. Dr. Li Yang, expert consultant of McKinsey New Energy, were the guests of honor, sharing and discussing around the theme of “Diversified Participation in PV Green Chain Action”.

Roundtable discussion session

Finally, Mr. Ling Songting, Chairman of Alashan SEE Dongwu Project Center, summarized the forum and expressed his gratitude to all the participants, saying that building an efficient, environmentally friendly and low-carbon green supply chain system is not only a positive response to the national goal of “dual-carbon”, but also the unshirkable responsibility and mission of every photovoltaic industry participant. He emphasized that the launching ceremony of the PV Green Chain Action is a great opportunity for the PV industry to make a positive response to the national “double carbon” goal. He emphasized that the launching ceremony of the PV Green Chain Action is just the beginning, and that the PV industry will make greater contributions to the realization of China's dual-carbon goal in the future.

Chairman Ling Songting of Alxa SEE Dongwu Project Center gives a summary

With the growing global concern about climate change, building a green and low-carbon supply chain helps PV enterprises comply with international trends, fulfill their corporate social responsibility, actively respond to international agreements such as the Paris Agreement, and contribute to global climate change mitigation. Through green supply chain management, photovoltaic enterprises can not only maximize their own economic benefits, but also promote the sustainable development of the environment, realize the harmonious unity of economic benefits and environmental protection, and contribute to the overall sustainable development of society.