JinkoSolar, one of the largest and most innovative solar module manufacturers, today announced its global facilities are powered with 51.3% clean energy. JinkoSolar was the first solar company moving quickly on green initiatives and passing the 50% renewable-powered mark in 2022 and now is working toward 60% by the end of 2023. This achievement includes its 12 manufacturing factories in four countries — including China, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the United States, which run on a mix of hydro, solar, and wind energy it has developed or purchased.

The achievement is the culmination of a furious effort over the past three years that involved financing, building, or locating new renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, and hydro generation, near the company’s factories. JinkoSolar’s onsite rooftop solar installations at its factories in various areas offset the energy that they are using and directly contribute to the progress. Equipped with energy storage systems, power from the solar array on JinkoSolar’s factory rooftop can be stored in on-site batteries to help reduce costs from peak power consumption periods. In addition to its own operations green powered, JinkoSolar also convinced its suppliers and partners in its supply chain to sign a pledge to get to 100% renewable energy for the portion of their business relating to JinkoSolar’s products.

The bigger scale of its capacity, the more difficult to be closer to its 100% goal. Over the past years, the company has grown and increased production at an average rate of 40-50% each year, the highest almost double the capacity of 2022 compared to 2021. JinkoSolar has taken great effort on track towards the RE100 goal, for example, has been busy locating and signing power purchase agreements (PPAs) with renewable energy providers, now three facilities of Chuxiong, Leshan, Penang, have already run on 100% green power entirely, and the rest is on the ways towards the goal. Looking into the future, the hardest part was for those factories located with no suitable green energy source nearby, to find renewable energy sources enough to serve the power needs of operations and match the high speed of power-hungry capacity expansion.

“After years of hard work we’re proud to have reached this significant milestone,” said Dany Qian, VP of JinkoSolar, “it is proving the business case that well-managed companies can reduce the greenhouse gases that are causing the climate crisis while simultaneously reducing their energy costs. Now that renewable energies are more mainstream and the cost of the energy is far lower, ecological responsibility can be good business” she added.