At Intersolar 2024, Solar & Storage Xtra met Lin Sun, Head of Sustainability for Jinko Solar.
Lin Sun filled us in on the exciting projects taking place at Jinko, the benefits of international trade shows, and her talk on ESG and Jinko’s sustainability journey.
Interview with Lin Sun, Head of Sustainability for Jinko Solar
“We recognise it’s important to attend Europe’s largest solar shows. For us, it’s a great opportunity to be here and get close with our European clients.”
Xtra: Are there any exciting projects or collaborations in the pipeline that you can share with us?
Lin Sun: This year we have our booth designed into two different areas. One is for PV as Jinko Solar is a well-known PV module manufacturer.
[Here] we have new products called New Breeze, which we call the “green modules”, and we also have our ESS booth. This is our commercial, residential, and also utility projects and ESS products.
Xtra: Are there any issues that you think Jinko provides solutions to within the solar field?
Lin Sun: We know many countries want to develop their own strategies for renewables. These energy transitions will give all of us a big target to achieve, meaning [that] Jinko, like all renewable players, wants to offer solutions for our partners.
These are not only for big utility projects but also for distributor and individual residential solutions which fit the bill.
For example, before we usually just provided our services as a PV module supplier, so for residential we can install modules for rooftops.
Right now, we consider this a really nice combination of storage solutions on top of solar solutions. That would be solar plus storage solutions, which should be considered a very promising business as well.
We are starting to build up our pipeline across the globe for our projects in China, Asia Pacific, and Europe as well; you may notice some of our big news and news releases on our big and exciting signing projects in Europe.
Xtra: Why is it important to attend international solar events, and what are the benefits?
Lin Sun: Going to solar events, we recognise it’s important to attend Europe’s largest solar shows. For us, it’s a great opportunity to be here and get close with our European clients.
For Jinko, we are really proud of our globalisation and networks, in Europe and in other regions as well.
I’m from [Jinko] headquarters (located in Shanghai, China), so [Intersolar] is a great show for people from China, for Chinese manufacturers to come back to the regions to see our friends – sometimes we call clients friends because we have already built close relationships with them – then we can celebrate the big milestones of our technology.
We can create new contracts and have big, exciting moments. This is the key element.
The second top element is being here to absorb and learn from other peers. We understand this is a booming industry, so you can observe many other good players coming to the market to showcase their products.
There will also be time for us to share some industry information exchange so we can always be the leader of the industry trying to make a solution for the world.
Xtra: What kind of people have you been meeting on your stand at Intersolar?
Lin Sun: My role is Head of Sustainability, and I also joined another panel where I gave a speech on ESG and our sustainability journey.
At this particular panel, I had a chance to talk about our company’s ESG practice where I met many potential buyers, which makes me very excited.
They wanted to come in and say: “I hear ESG, I hear Jinko, we wanted to buy your products”, – they want to know you. The first category [of people] are the potential buyers. I also invite some of our potential buyers to come to visit our booth.
The second group are actually our clients, who we have organised meetings with. We have always had long-term partnerships with our clients, [so here] they come and do updates and discuss some of the details of our ongoing contracts, and future pipeline.
The third category is multi-stakeholders and shareholders with whom we have contact and conversations with, such as European associations.
We also have the chance to have a conversation with the Global Solar Council, now that we are a member. We have conversations with international organizations, commercial banks, etc.
We also organise meetings with other industry players: we’ll have a one-on-one meeting to understand their technology and their new things as well.
Xtra: How do you see your company’s role in the energy sector evolving over the next decade?
Lin Sun: Jinko will always be the industry leader not only in technology and our globalisation service but also in our ESG and sustainability competitiveness.
That is my role, and why I’m always so excited to always be present at different regional fairs, including Intersolar.
So last week I was in SNEC in Shanghai: one of the world’s largest shows. Being with Jinko is a very exciting journey.
I believe that Jinko in the future will, not only in solar but also in ESS and many other topics around solar, will make sure to deliver a good solar experience for our lovely partners.
