Endy Qian (VP at Seraphim): Innovation Drive Chinese PV Lighting up the World

October 16th, at the “The Belt and Road” international green energy cooperation forum held in Yangzhong, Jiangsu, Endy Qian, vice president of Seraphim, said that innovation is the source of the company’s development. Cooperation is the catalyst for development. In the process of R&D, the brand power has been continuously improved, and the company has made considerable progress.

Trusted by many international organizations after 8 years of rapid development

At present, Seraphim has a global capacity of 5GW and more than 1500 employees worldwide. It is listed as TIER 1 module supplier by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) and is rated as the Top Performer by DNV GL. Seraphim, which is committed to independent research and development, now has more than 100 technology patents, Endy Qian said during the forum.

Seraphim R&D center has obtained five authoritative certifications from four international authoritative organizations, greatly saving the time and cost of new product development, and also has the ability to achieve professional and top class self and 3rd party inspection.

In the global module manufacturers’ bankable ranking updated by BNEF every year, Seraphim ranks up year by year. At present, Seraphim has been trusted and recognized by more than 50 well-known financial institutions around the world, Qian said.

Smart manufacturing brings industrial innovation to Africa

With the steady and rapid development, the advantages of Seraphim smart manufacturing and technological innovation have also been brought to South Africa, which has put forward a Chinese solution for the transformation and development of the local manufacturing industry.

In 2018, Seraphim and South Africa Industrial Development Company invested jointly to build a 300MW solar module factory. Thanks to the strong growth of business and efficient production and operation, at the end of the same year, the two sides increased investment to expand 200MW efficient half-cell module production line and 500MW solar cell plant. South Africa’s factory as an important section of Seraphim’s global capacity layout and actively hosting the national “The Belt and Road” Initiative, does good to go close to the local market and circumvent international trade disputes.

Factory in South Africa adopt leading automatic production technologies. By building smart workshops, information technologies such as Internet of things are integrated into the production and manufacturing process of solar modules to realize the transformation from “human brain analysis and judgment + machine production” to “machine analysis and judgment + machine production”. The automation level of production has been improved as well as the efficiency of production while the cost will also be reduced. Smart manufacturing will bring a large scale of production capacity improvement and intelligent industrial innovation to Africa.

Succeed in emerging market and the global market develops in a balanced way

With the continuous development and maturity of the industry, the solar market is changing from policy driven to demand driven. In 2019, the global GW-level market is expected to 18 countries. Emerging markets, such as Middle East Africa and Southeast Asia, are emerging rapidly, becoming the inevitable place for strategists.

In recent years, Seraphim has increased its technical investment in Middle East Africa and South ­­­east Asia, developed targeted high mechanical load and easy cleaning products for special application scenarios such as sand and dust in Middle East Africa, rain and typhoon in Southeast Asia. At the same time, set up a local sales team to provide customers with customized quick response services.

In 2018, Seraphim supplied 80MW high-efficiency modules to Vietnam, which is the first batch of Seraphim’s projects in Vietnam and has a benchmarking significance for the deep cultivation of Vietnam’s market. The project is jointly developed by AMI Renewables in Vietnam and AC Energy in the Philippines, and has been successfully connected to the grid for power generation.

Endy Qian said that Seraphim plans to build a 500MW cell plant and a 500MW module plant in Indonesia to supply Southeast Asia and the United States in the future.