Energy
Miao sees the sun shine on energy dream
By Zhang Qi and You Nuo (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-06-28 10:37
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Miao Liansheng, Yingli's founder, said that was a time when the industry was doubling its size every two years with good enough returns from just assembling semi-products. [Provided to China Daily] |
Flexible production lines enable entrepreneur's solar power business to harvest glowing success
BEIJING - Management consultants often say shorter production processes generate higher profits because less needs to be invested in machines and hiring. Making profits from owning no assets is even better.
So Yingli's way, or the strategy of Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited, in which intensive investment is committed to the building up of factory assets, was for a long time seen as unnecessarily expensive and, indeed, shunned by most other makers of photovoltaic solar panels.
"That was a time when the industry was doubling its size every two years with good enough returns from just assembling semi-products," recalled Miao Liansheng, Yingli's founder, chairman of board and chief executive officer, in a recent interview with China Business Weekly.
But that was a time when Miao was busy preparing for the future.
What if key suppliers raised their prices?
What if the government subsidies for alternative energy sources such as solar in user countries were scaled down?
What if the financial market experienced turmoil?
And what if the industry standards were pushed higher with the progress of technology?
Over the past 18 months or so, all these concerns have become realities, Miao is now reaping due reward for his precautions and what once seemed to be an old-fashioned practice in a new industry.
The Yingli production line ranges from the making of polysilicon (a key material) to that of silicon ingots and wafers (key semi-products) and then to solar cells and PV modules (for user installation). Yingli has become one of the world's largest vertically integrated photovoltaic manufacturers.
With that production line, Miao said, "Not only are we less affected by the change in material prices, it also allows us to adapt to new standards more quickly."
Yingli is one of the world's leading solar panel providers and an emerging but well-established brand name among markets in West Europe and North America. But despite the industry's green label and the company's trendy image (as the first renewable energy company and the first Chinese company in history to sponsor the 2010 FIFA World Cup tournament in South Africa), Yingli is essentially a manufacturing enterprise.
In manufacturing, as engineers often say, any breakthrough on the existing production line would require the adjustment of many operations and many components. And, as is often the case, there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution for all the machines. So the process of adaptation can be one of baffling details and tedious fine-tuning.