Reported by Jeanny H. Lim (swied@infothe.com)

Could you tell us some of the competitive advantages that differentiate you from your competitors?

The high efficiency flexible/bendable PV module, Sacred Solar billboard, and the high-efficiency solar street light, are the main products that differentiate us from our competitors.

The high-efficiency flexible/bendable PV module can be used in all solar applications except for solar power station. Its bendable angle can reach up to 60°. It is especially suitable and important to limited or small areas, for its application on electric golf cars, patrol cars, tourism cars, backpacks, tents and roof power generation. What’s more, its weight is only about 1/3 of traditional-frame solar PV modules and it is easy to carry.

Sacred Solar Billboard is the new self-researching product of Sacred Company, combined with the solar power, LED lamp lighting, outdoor advertising and the lamp pole into one body, which can effectively solve the difficulty of outdoor advertising without utility power. Its market is still a new area, so we actively promote our solar billboard.

Looking back on 2011, what kind of happenings and activities went on in Sacred Solar? What does your 2011 performance look like?

First, we attended the China Hi-Tech Fair held in Shenzhen, a fair aiming at promoting the communications and experience exchanges among hi-tech companies. Our Guangxi Branch did well in Guangxi Exhibition zone, praised by the government. The president of Guangxi Zhuang Automous Region even came to visit the factory.

Second, over a hundred students from neighboring schools paid a visit to the factory and learned about solar products and energy-saving and low-carbon life.

Third, we made a great progress in the 8th China-ASEAN Expo, Premier Wen Jiabao said hello to us, the premier paid great attention to our solar energy system, and the products were introduced to ASEAN countries.

In summary, our 2011 performance is better than we expected. I am really happy with it. And this is progress stemming from our efforts to promote sales and popularity.

Where do you put your focus this year, in terms of both business and technology development?

To any businessman, profit is always the final pursuit; we want to get a good profit at the base of a mature marketing and a lowest cost. So this year, for business development, we will focus on developing and opening new markets, enhancing our popularity. Therefore, we plan to attend some famous solar energy or PV exhibitions. So far this year, we have attended exhibitions held in Korea and Japan─these provided us with a good source to know the new markets. And we will continue to take part in exhibitions in Guangzhou, Nanning of China, Germany and America. As to technology development, learned from the experience of Korea and Japan, our products have advantages, but also there is something we need to do, for example, we need to improve our products to satisfy the customers’ needs for exquisite products. And we would also continue to develop new technology to make new products, and our products would be full of humanity.

What’s your production volume and sales target this year?

Wherever there is sunlight, there is Sacred Solar. So the production volume is no limited, and the sales target actually, also, is the more the better.

Taking a high-technology, high-efficiency solar cell and mass-producing it at low cost is key to mainstream adoption of solar. How are you innovating your way down the cost curve?

To make a high- technology, high-efficiency solar cell, we cannot ignore our research & development team. Skilled researchers and elites are necessary to introduce high-quality products. Only when we get the best quality of product, we control the business negotiation. Technology innovation also leads to low cost, but then on the other hand, we should cooperate with suppliers of raw materials as well. We work with them and look for chances, but don’t rely on imports from outside.

What do you think is the next challenge facing you for further growth?

As we are now working on opening new markets, the first challenge we meet should be the quality certification required by new markets. Some certifications may take a longer period to get, so our steps may slow down. Second, some products need improvements in appearance and design to satisfy the need for esthetics. Our quality is best, but we should pursue higher level.

What does your global presence look like? Which geographical market is the biggest for Sacred Solar in terms of sales?

Our global presence is not complete now, we still need to work hard to improve and change our ways of global presence; for example, we have to have our professional and technical agencies in different areas, and I think global presence is quite necessary for the solar business becuase solar products can protect the environment and save energy ─global issues─so everywhere is the market.

China is considered the leading PV manufacturing hub in the world. What will the PV manufacturing landscape look like in China this year?

The comprehensive competitive force of China PV enterprises has developed very fast in recent years, and the whole PV industrial chain also presents a fast-growing trend. Only in 2011, China’s volume of PV module production was 11 GW, it is almost half of the world’s solar cell production of 23 GW. Under the situations of global PV market downturn, the debt crisis in Europe, high anti-dumping duty and anti-subsidy duty in America to China PV products, it can be the pride of the PV industry. So the PV manufacturing of this year will be brighter than before under the government support and the bright future of solar energy. But at the same time, we should realize that our technology innovation has not caught up with other developed countries; there is still a long way to go.

Please introduce some of the recent and successful projects you’ve carried out.

Now we have lots of projects, the first one is Mexico’s roof PV off-grid power generation system (project profile: 16 kW solar PV module), the second one is solar and wind hybrid street lights in Shenzhen, China, the third one is the project of solar pumping system in Guangxi Province, China, and the BIPV project and so on. There are so many projects that we cannot list them all, but our projects were really welcomed by the beneficiary and widely praised. We thank our R&D team for the innovations with which we can make suitable plans for every project.

Jeanny H. Lim is Editor-in-Chief of InterPV. Send your comments to swied@infothe.com.