The 15th Annual Meeting of New Leaders of the World Economic Forum (Summer Davos Forum) with the theme of "New Frontiers of Future Growth" was held in Dalian from June 25th to 27th.
The development of the photovoltaic industry is crucial for China and even the global carbon neutrality process. As one of the "new three types" that are popular overseas, China's photovoltaic production capacity, application, technology, equipment, etc. are currently leading the world. According to data from the National Energy Administration, as of the end of March this year, the installed capacity of photovoltaic power generation in China reached 659 million kilowatts, including 379 million kilowatts of centralized photovoltaic and 280 million kilowatts of distributed photovoltaic. In the first quarter of this year, the national photovoltaic power generation reached 161.8 billion kilowatt hours, a year-on-year increase of 42%.
So, what is the current status of digitalization in the photovoltaic industry? What is the new frontier of future growth in the photovoltaic industry? How can enterprises cope with the complex and severe international trade situation? China Net Finance interviewed Qian Jing, Global Vice President of Jingke Energy.
China Net Finance: This summer's Davos hot topic focuses on the new momentum brought by artificial intelligence to industrial transformation. Can you talk about the current status of digitalization in the photovoltaic industry, as well as the opportunities and challenges that new technologies bring to the industry?
Qian Jing: In the photovoltaic industry, the application of AI is mainly reflected in two key areas. Firstly, on the manufacturing side, AI can assist in achieving higher levels of intelligence in the manufacturing process, not only improving production efficiency but also effectively enhancing energy efficiency. Secondly, I believe that the greater application prospects of AI in the field of new energy lie in downstream applications. Traditional energy sources such as thermal power, nuclear power, hydropower, wind power, etc. mostly adopt a centralized production and distribution model, which greatly limits the effective utilization of data. However, photovoltaic energy has distributed characteristics, allowing every building and even every residential household to become a producer and consumer of electricity. This distributed structure generates massive amounts of power generation and consumption data, providing a wide range of scenarios for the application of AI.
Looking ahead to the future, the development of new energy vehicles, optical storage and charging technologies will further expand the application scope of AI in the energy field. The millions of new energy vehicles driving on the road are themselves a mobile power grid, and this innovative application scenario is exciting. The application prospects of AI in this field are broad, as it can not only incubate more technologies but also promote the development of energy service-oriented industries.
However, the widespread application of AI has also brought challenges to enterprises. Firstly, companies need to recognize that AI is an irreversible trend, and whether they are willing or not, they need to be prepared. Secondly, enterprises need to quickly learn and master AI technology in order to apply it to industrial progress and manufacturing upgrading. For most enterprises, AI is still a relatively unfamiliar field, so how to quickly learn and apply AI technology, transform it into the driving force for enterprise development, will be the biggest challenge faced by enterprises.
China Net Finance: This year's Davos focuses on "new frontiers of future growth". What technologies do you think are cutting-edge potential technologies?
Qian Jing: Actually, I believe that photovoltaic technology is at the forefront of future development, and we believe it will occupy a crucial position in future development. AI is a new cutting-edge technology for future development, but the end of AI is optical storage. AI technology highly relies on power supply and consumes a huge amount of electricity. Specifically, the power consumption of any AI data center during operation is quite astonishing. Taking searching for problems on search engines as an example, each query may consume more than ten kilowatt hours of electricity, which demonstrates the huge energy demand behind AI technology.
This high energy consumption characteristic makes AI data centers a huge unit of electricity consumption, which may be equivalent to a medium-sized power plant. This high energy consumption is not only reflected in electricity bills, but also in the pressure it causes on the environment. Therefore, in order to achieve sustainable development of AI technology, it is necessary to find clean and low-carbon energy supply methods.
In this context, the importance of photovoltaic technology is undoubtedly highlighted. Photovoltaic technology, as a clean energy source, can not only provide stable power supply for AI data centers, but also help reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. By utilizing solar energy, photovoltaic technology can achieve low energy consumption and low-carbon data centers, thereby meeting the high demand for electricity supply from AI technology.
Therefore, we firmly believe that in the future world economy, if AI technology becomes the forefront of development, then photovoltaic technology will be at the forefront, providing solid energy security for the sustainable development of AI technology.
China Net Finance: Climate change, geopolitical conflicts, trade frictions, and other factors have triggered a series of risks and impacts, and international trade cooperation is facing a complex and severe situation. How has Jingke Energy responded?
Qian Jing: As a leading global photovoltaic energy manufacturer, one of our core strategies is to diversify market risks, ensure that our products are spread across more than 190 countries, cover eight major regions, achieve balanced distribution of production capacity, and avoid excessive reliance on a particular market. Due to excessive reliance on a single market, companies will face extremely high risks in the event of policy changes.
In addition, our other long-term strategy is to achieve global marketing and manufacturing. From "Made in China, Global Sales" to "Global Manufacturing", we are accelerating our overseas layout of production capacity. At present, we have established 14 factories worldwide, three of which are located in Malaysia, Vietnam, and the United States, with overseas production capacity accounting for 10% to 20% of the overall production capacity. The total number of employees worldwide is 56000, of which approximately 13000 are overseas employees. We look forward to working with global partners to promote industrial development, but at the same time, we remain vigilant against potential trade barriers, do not take chances, and have prepared for the worst.
China Net Finance: What are your suggestions for small and medium-sized enterprises going abroad?
Qian Jing: Based on our experience, I would like to propose the following suggestions for small and medium-sized enterprises to expand overseas:
Firstly, caution is necessary when going out to sea. Although each enterprise has its unique advantages, if it is difficult to maintain competitiveness in the domestic market, entering overseas markets will be more challenging. Therefore, when making decisions, it is necessary to carefully consider and ensure that the enterprise has sufficient strength and preparation.
Secondly, technological leadership is crucial. Before going abroad, enterprises should evaluate whether they have leading technologies in the industry. If it only represents backward production capacity, it will be difficult to compete with local enterprises in overseas markets. Therefore, enterprises need to ensure that they master valuable technologies in the industry.
Furthermore, the importance of corporate culture cannot be ignored. Building a factory is simple, managing a factory is difficult. Although Chinese companies have advantages in technology, manufacturing capabilities, and management levels, corporate culture is crucial for overseas employees to identify with and pursue common goals. Small and medium-sized enterprises often do not attach enough importance to this aspect and need to strengthen the construction and dissemination of corporate culture.
Managing overseas employees is a huge challenge. Employees from different countries have different cultural backgrounds and spiritual values, which brings great difficulties to management. Although risks can be avoided through professional service companies in terms of laws and regulations, the management of corporate culture still needs to be undertaken by the enterprise itself.
China Net Finance: What challenges and opportunities do you think the photovoltaic industry is currently facing? What is the impact of carbon tariffs on enterprises?
Qian Jing: The development opportunities of the photovoltaic industry are undoubtedly enormous, and its market potential has not yet been fully explored. One of the challenges we are currently facing is that the development of energy storage technology must match the development of the photovoltaic industry. This explains why Jingke regards its energy storage business as its second growth curve and is committed to independently developing its energy storage business. We firmly believe that developing energy storage business through our own efforts can achieve the same level of excellence as photovoltaic business.
In addition, geopolitical factors also pose important challenges for our future development. Although we started early in terms of global layout, this field is still full of risks. Especially, the sustainable development and stable operation of our overseas factories face enormous challenges.
Regarding carbon tariffs, I believe they have played a role in forcing industries to engage in green manufacturing to a certain extent. From a positive perspective, carbon tariffs have promoted the green transformation of industries; However, from a negative perspective, it is indeed intended to weaken the competitiveness of our enterprise. From another perspective, without such a coercive mechanism, companies may lack the motivation to promote green manufacturing. It is imperative to promote green manufacturing, despite facing many difficulties, we must take action as soon as possible. Only in this way can we gain an advantage in global competition.