Longji Xie Tian: Sustainable Development Goals and technological progress have become driving factors in reshaping the value chain
In 2024, at COP28, the goal of tripling global renewable energy installed capacity by 2030 has become one of the most eye-catching achievements. With the rapid growth of renewable energy production and installed capacity, the environmental footprint brought by the value chain of renewable energy companies and accelerated emission reductions have become increasingly important. Sustainable development goals and technological progress have become driving factors in reshaping the structure and function of the value chain.
At the recently held 15th Annual Meeting of the New Champions of the World Economic Forum, Xie Tian, general manager of the LONGi Green Energy Strategic Management Center, said that LONGi is deeply aware of its own emission reduction responsibilities and has successively joined the RE100, EP100, EV100 Initiative and the Science-Based Carbon Targets initiative (SBTi) in 2020, and gradually established a greenhouse gas emission accounting system for the entire value chain, and formulated emission reduction targets that are in line with the development trend of the photovoltaic industry and its own operating conditions. In 2023, LONGi passed the certification of the Science-Based Carbon Targets initiative (SBTi), becoming the first company in China's photovoltaic industry to obtain the official SBTi target audit certification.
It is reported that LONGi takes technical cooperation as its core, focuses on scientific and technological innovation, builds a full value chain collaborative innovation operation system, and promotes high-quality coordinated development of upstream and downstream industries. As early as 2021, LONGi launched a carbon reduction initiative with suppliers, and will continue to advance and deepen it every year in the future, gradually increasing requirements and rules. The company actively empowers upstream suppliers, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, to assume corporate social responsibilities. In addition, LONGi focuses on the systematic integration of carbon reduction goals, starting from its own scientific carbon goals (SBTi) and the realization of green and low-carbon products, promotes low-carbon actions and green construction in the value chain, and steadily forms a sustainable procurement system.
The risks posed by climate change to ecosystems and people's livelihood are becoming increasingly obvious. Although some progress has been made in the transition to renewable energy, more practical actions and close cooperation are needed to achieve the climate goals of countries around the world. Xie Tian believes that renewable energy companies building their own green, zero-carbon and sustainable value chains will also be an important factor in making sustainable climate contributions in the future.
As the world's leading solar technology company, LONGi is committed to becoming an advocate, practitioner and leader of sustainable development in the global clean energy field. Through continuous technology research and development and innovation iteration, the company improves photovoltaic cell conversion efficiency, reduces photovoltaic power generation costs, achieves cost reduction and efficiency improvement in the photovoltaic industry, and helps achieve global energy transformation and carbon neutrality goals. From 2012 to the end of 2023, the cumulative shipments of LONGi green energy photovoltaic wafers exceeded 414.24GW, accounting for 27% of the global cumulative photovoltaic installed capacity. It can generate 1.7361 billion kWh of green electricity, equivalent to avoiding 812 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
In December 2023, the World Economic Forum (WEF) released the latest batch of "Lighthouse Networks" lists, and LONGi Jiaxing Base became the first "Lighthouse Factory" in the global photovoltaic industry. This marks that LONGi's achievements in the fields of intelligent manufacturing and digitalization have led the world and become a representative of advanced manufacturing. The first world's "Lighthouse Factory" in the photovoltaic industry has also attracted attention from all parties.
It is understood that LONGi's "Lighthouse Factory" has built more than 30 digital use cases, achieving a 43% improvement in product quality and reliability, a 84% reduction in product production and delivery cycles, and a 20% reduction in the overall unit energy consumption of the base. This achievement fully demonstrates that with the help of digital and intelligent means, emerging industries can quickly achieve agile manufacturing, improve product quality, and reduce energy consumption, thereby promoting the realization of sustainable development goals through technological progress.
