Renewable Energy
Suntech Power
ket, from off-grid systems to homes to the world’s largest solar power plants. Its solar mod- ules are installed in over 80 countries. The com- pany was founded at a time when the solar energy sector, and the renewable energy sector in general, was little more than a token industry compared to the much larger fossil-fuel energy sector. Today, Suntech has become the world's largest manufacturer of photovoltaic (PV) modules in an industry that has ex- ceeded everybody's expectations. In an interview with New Euro- pean Economy, Vedat Guergeli, managing director of Suntech Europe, discusses the ascent of Suntech and the future of the solar-energy industry.
S 01. Vedat Guergeli.
New European Economy: What can you tell us about the reasons behind Suntech’s suc- cess, and how important has it been for Sun- tech to demonstrate its position as the leader within the PV supply chain?
Vedat Guergeli: Being the pioneer for new technologies large scale production has been both choice and obligation for us. It’s an honour to be a market leader but as the market leader you are also paving the way for others who can learn from your mistakes and in many parts fol- lowed your lead.
For many Europeans, Dr Shi was the first Chinese business partner they met. At some of the trade shows only three years ago he was the only person from China to participate. He was
48
also the first buyer who ordered large quantities of machines, and components such as junction boxes from European and US suppliers. Some of the business, customer and distributor rela- tionships are up to ten years old. However being the first mover in almost all markets has also had some upsides for us.
NEE: Suntech has recently opened a manu- facturing plant in Arizona, USA, which has helped to supply the demand for America's growing domestic market. How likely is it that Suntech will follow suit and construct a manufacturing plant in Europe?
VG: Since prices are falling, production will move closer to regional markets without a
untech is the world’s largest producer of solar panels. Founded in China in 2001 by Zhengrong Shi, Suntech offers clean power for every application and mar-
doubt.As the world’s largest producer it is our goal to be able to make solar energy affordable and reasonable from an economical point of view – for everybody everywhere.
NEE: How can companies adapt their struc- tures to incorporate solar technology into the workplace, and in your opinion would such a roll-out be effective for the long term?
VG: We will see a lot more of smart solutions in the future that will encourage more efficient use of energy. Heating HVAC, etc. and PV will be integrated into modern office buildings. Logis- tics centres for perishable goods or frozen food already are able to use their cooling/air-condi- tioning technology as an energy storage system by adapting the cooling cycles to times when cheap energy is available. Energy generation from PV is also always strongest, when energy consumption from air conditioning is strongest, so having building integrated PV helps in this regard. But the entire energy system will be a lot more decentralized with fleets of electric cars will serve as storage systems for instance.
NEE: With so much emphasis being put upon renewable energy sources these days, what are the advantages of investment into solar power over the other competing sus- tainable energy technologies?
VG:PV will not be the sole solution but we are certain that PV will deliver a large contribution to the energy mix of the future. PV is already competitive with retail energy and cheaper than off-shore wind energy. The intelligent and effi- cient combination of these complementary en- ergy sources together will be the solution with energy efficiency.
New European Economy
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124