On July 9th (local time), the 9th China-Germany Economic and Technical Cooperation Forum kicked off in Berlin, Germany. Jointly hosted by the National Development and Reform Commission of China and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy of Germany, the forum included distinguished guests and speakers such as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. As a representative of renewable energy companies, LONGi Solar President Li Zhenguo was invited and to share his opinions on “Energy Transformation and Energy Conservation”.
Gerlind Heckmann, Deputy Department Chief of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy of Germany, hosted the panel session. Panel members from a broad spectrum of the industry, including Li Zhenguo, President of LONGi Green Energy Technology Co., Ltd., Ulrich Grillo, CEO of Grillo-Werke AG of Germany, Hans-Georg Krabbe, CEO of ABB AG in Germany, Li Zhi, Executive Director General of Regulation of National Energy Administration of China, and Ling Wen, General Manager of CHN Energy, held lively discussions on the topic of future energy transformation.
Mr. Li Zhenguo said, “In recent years, PV technology has developed rapidly and cost has dropped quickly. In the past decade, continuous breakthroughs in technology, in both the speed of enhancing conversion efficiency and lowering costs have exceeded everybody’s imagination. In the next 2-3 years, PV will become the cheapest power source in most parts of the world. And, within 10 years, PV + energy storage will become the cheapest energy solution. Once the economic efficiency of the PV and energy storage is realized, traditional fossil fuels will be quickly replaced.”
“Photovoltaic power – when it achieves grid parity worldwide - can contribute to our social responsibility of restoring the earth's ecology.” Painting a scenario, Mr. Li added, “large-scale desalination of seawater can be powered with photovoltaic energy; the desalinated seawater can be transported to dry desert, creating arable land. When vegetation is formed, green plants absorb carbon dioxide in the air, reducing its concentration in the atmosphere and repairing the damage of human development to Earth.”
“Upholding the mission of ‘producing clean energy with clean energy’, LONGi Solar has been accelerating the deployment of its high-efficiency production capacities in Yunnan and Malaysia since 2015, using almost 100% hydropower to produce PV products. This has benefited the local population with green production. With large-scale deployment of Photovoltaic + Energy Storage, we believe it will realize the manufacturing goal of "Solar for Solar". Leaving future generation with green mountains and clean waters, and benefiting the global community with clean energy are our bound duty and responsibility!”
More than 500 senior representatives of central and local government departments, enterprises, institutions, research institutes and industry associations from the economic and technological fields in China and Germany attended the forum, positively promoting China-German cooperation in economic and technological fields.