Key Highlights:
- We as Jinko have gone a notch higher to give more value to the market by providing new technologies (TopCon) which guarantees higher efficiency and value for investment.
- We would want to make ‘good quality’ a standard in the region and make more people build more trust in solar.
- We’ve for the past two years seen enormous acceptance of our energy storage solutions in the region and we’ve also managed to solve a number of community challenges by providing our ESS solutions in the region.
What are Jinko Solar’s offerings for the region and their specialties?
Jinko is no doubt the leading solar PV module supplier in the region and also globally. We’ve been the only module supplier to lead in global module shipments in four years in a row. We have also recently added PV+ solutions to our portfolio. These PV+ Solutions include; Energy storage systems (ESS), Solar water pumping, building integrated PV (BIPV), solar street lighting, and associated accessories. We so far delivered a couple of our energy storage solutions to a number of our clients in the residential and commercial & industrial space in Sub-Saharan Africa.
What do you have to say about the module pricing trends in the East African region?
For the past quarter, the module prices have been a bit stable as compared to the variability in 2021. In as much as in East Africa pricing is cut-throat making it a key component, we as Jinko have gone a notch higher to give more value to the market by providing new technologies (TopCon) which guarantees higher efficiency and value for investment.
What are some challenges you are facing currently and how do you overcome them?
Logistics has been one of the biggest challenges in the PV industry for the past year. As Jinko Solar, we’ve maneuvered by negotiating with major shipping lines for dedicated spaces allocated to us on monthly basis and also fair pricing which act as an advantage to our customers.
What is Jinko Solar’s strategy for the next year for the region?
Our strategy for the next year is not only to be a leading supplier of PV modules but also to be a leading solution supplier in the region. We’ve for the past two years seen enormous acceptance of our energy storage solutions in the region and we’ve also managed to solve a number of community challenges by providing our ESS solutions in the region. We would want to make ‘good quality’ a standard in the region and make more people build more trust in solar.
How do you see the growth of the solar sector in the next couple of years?
The solar sector has always been on an upward trend for the last 10 years. We expect the growth to be rapid in the next couple of years. In East Africa, Kenya has been leading in terms of adoption of solar PV. We’ve also witnessed the increased acceptance of solar in Tanzania and Uganda and we expect that the solar market share for the region is going to increase in the next couple of years. The main driver being the improvement in technology, Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) for solar has proved to be very competitive compared to LCOE from other renewable and non-renewable energy sources. Good to note also is that there is good awareness of the trends of PV technology in the EA market. Mono-PERC is now a mainstream technology for the past 4 years and we expect that for the next few years, TOPCON n- type modules would take over Mono-perc owing to its advantages with regards to enhanced warranty, temperature coefficient, good degradation and also higher efficiency.
