· Many industry heavyweights spoke on best operating practice and new business models in the photovoltaic (PV) industry.

· The winners of the “All Quality Matters” Award, the industry’s most authoritative platform for competition, were announced.

   · Focusing on potential applications in new sectors, the 2018 TÜV Rheinland Energy Storage System White Paper was officially unveiled. 

On 22-23 March 2018, the 2018 “All Quality Matters” Solar Congress hosted by TÜV Rheinland took place in Wuxi, Jiangsu. Over four years, the “All Quality Matters” Solar Congress has become a shining event brand of TÜV Rheinland’s success and a leading indicator of trends in the PV industry. This year’s event was attended by VIPs such as Xu Dingming, former consultant to the State Council, Deputy Director of the Advisory Committee of the National Energy Administration and member of the China National Expert Committee on Climate Change; Wang Sicheng, researcher for the NDRC’s Energy Research Institute; Zhang Jing, Secretary General of the China Energy Storage Alliance (CNESA) and the Energy Storage Specialised Committee of the China Energy Research Society; and more than 350 enterprise representatives, scholars and other experts from the PV industry. Attendance reached a new high this year.

Demand and Supply Remain Robust in the PV Industry

The PV industry is one of the most important industries promoting international and domestic energy transformation. Over more than a decade, the Chinese PV industry has developed into an internationally competitive emerging strategic industry. Our market has grown steadily as the industry’s overall technology level has increased. Chinese PV enterprises have gone global, becoming the country’s third most important calling card, after high-speed rail and nuclear power. However, several problems have arisen as a result of the industry’s rapid development, such as a growing imbalance between supply and demand, a single product structure, the abandonment of PV power, restrictions on PV power transmission, inadequate funding and barriers to international trade.

The sustained development of the PV industry relies on the support and guidance of national policies, and demands the cooperation of all players in the industrial chain and a complete system of standards to regulate the industry. TÜV Rheinland has hosted the “All Quality Matters” Solar Congress and Award Ceremony, an authoritative platform for exchange within the industry, for four consecutive years. This year’s ceremony focused on three main topics: adhering to quality while cutting costs, building brands using authoritative data and improving effectiveness and obtaining benefits by enhancing brand quality. At the ceremony, the attendees discussed current practice and potential development trends in the industry and shared news on cutting-edge technological innovation, standard certification and best operating practice. In-depth dialogue was also carried out on “hot” issues such as distributed PV power generation, customer-side operation and energy storage. The attendees provided a detailed account of the opportunities and challenges faced by the industry in emerging markets such as South America, with attention to the financing and insurance of PV power stations and the realisation of industry concentration and convergence.

“All Quality Matters” Award

In addition to seminars and forums, the annual TÜV Rheinland “All Quality Matters” Award Ceremony was held as a highlight moment of the event. The purpose of this award is to regulate and establish a benmark for product quality. It is well respected within the PV industry for its authoritative, professional and equitable selection process. Products manufactured by the following companies underwent rigorous testing to be recognised as excellent PV products: Ningbo Minghe New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., Suzhou UKT New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., Zhejiang Chuangyuan Photovoltaic Technology Co., Ltd., Lucky Film Co., Ltd., Zhongtian PV Materials Co., Ltd., LONGi Solar Technology Co., Ltd., Jinko Solar Co., Ltd., Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Sungrow Power Supply Co., Ltd., Goodwe Power Supply Co., Ltd., Guangzhou Sanjing Electric Co., Ltd. and SMA New Energy Technology (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd..

The “All Quality Matters” Solar Congress stresses the importance of standardising and regulating product quality to the sustainable development of the industry. The “All Quality Matters” Award provides excellent companies with a platform to showcase their products, and therefore plays a very significant role in improving the quality and competitiveness of PV products, regulating the industry’s growth, promoting transformation and upgrading and ultimately helping the Chinese PV industry to remain at the mid- to high end of the global value chain.

Unveiling of Energy Storage White Paper

With the rapid development of new-energy technologies such as PV power, the demand for power storage is growing. The large-scale development of new energy requires the corresponding provision of effective energy storage technologies. It is safe to say that energy storage represents the future of the energy industries. To help companies in the PV industry to gain a comprehensive understanding of the latest developments in energy storage and seize opportunities in the market, TÜV Rheinland joined hands with CNESA to draft the 2018 TÜV Rheinland Energy Storage System White Paper, based on comprehensive and systematic research. At the Congress, TÜV Rheinland officially unveiled this eagerly anticipated white paper.

The preface to the white paper was written by Zhang Jing, Secretary General of CNESA and the Energy Storage Specialised Committee of the China Energy Research Society. The paper provides invaluable and authoritative insights into the current state of the energy storage industry. It describes in detail the development of the global energy storage sector, the energy storage policies of different countries, energy storage technology applications and business models, energy storage quality and safety, national market access standards for the industry, etc. The paper also gathers the opinions of more than 200 professionals on the future development of the industry, drawn from interviews conducted by TÜV Rheinland. According to the data in this white paper, the accumulative installed capacity of operational energy storage projects worldwide reached 175.4 GW in 2017, with an annual increase of 3.9%. The paper outlines the huge space and potential available for the development of the energy storage sector. Price is the key to its commercial application. With improved subsidies and reduced LCOE, the mass commercialisation of energy storage is expected to begin in 2020 .

TÜV Rheinland is a global leader in professional testing and certification, with more than 35 years’ experience of testing and certifying PV products. TÜV Rheinland has tested the PV components of more than 80% of the world’s manufacturers. In recent years, the energy storage sector has burgeoned. At this critical stage in the industrialisation of energy storage, TÜV Rheinland will contribute to the sound development of the sector with its many years of professional experience in the PV industry, advanced laboratory facilities and continuously enhanced testing and certification systems.