The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) on Tuesday announced that a north China company has become the first Chinese company and also the first photovoltaic (PV) manufacturer to join the WWF’s Climate Savers program.
Yingli Green Energy Holding Co., Ltd., a leading solar energy company based in the city of Baoding in north China’s Hebei province, is the first Chinese company to set a specific renewable electricity consumption target., the WWF said.
Yingli has agreed to reduce the intensity of its greenhouse gas emissions per megawatt (MW) of PV module production by 13 percent by the end of 2015 in comparison to 2010 levels.
Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited (NYSE: YGE) (‘Yingli Green Energy’ or the ‘Company’) is a leading solar energy company and one of the world’s largest vertically integrated photovoltaic manufacturers, which markets its products under the brand ‘Yingli Solar’.
In a statement released jointly with World Wide Fund for Nature (‘WWF’), the Company today announced that it had become the first Chinese company and the first PV manufacturer to join the Climate Savers program initiated by WWF.
Climate Savers is a global leadership platform which positions multinational corporations at the forefront of the low-carbon economy. The member companies set sector-leading targets for greenhouse gas (‘GHG’) reduction in their own emissions and work with other companies, suppliers and partners to implement innovative solutions for a clean, low carbon economy. Initiated by WWF in 1999, the Climate Savers program now counts 30 member companies, including Johnson & Johnson, IBM, Nike, Hewlett Packard, The Collins Companies, Xanterra Parks and Resorts, Sagawa, Sony, Tetra Pak, Lafarge, Catalyst, Novo Nordisk, and Nokia Siemens Networks. All of these companies have pledged to reduce their GHG emissions considerably.
Yingli Green Energy’s major Climate Savers commitments include:
By the end of 2015, to reduce GHG emissions per MW of PV module production by 13% compared with that in 2010, including direct emissions and indirect emissions from the consumption of electricity and heat
to reduce GHG emissions from purchased goods and services per MW of PV module production by 7% compared with that in 2010
to reduce GHG emissions from upstream transportation by 10% compared with that in 2010
‘At Yingli, we work on the mission of providing affordable green energy to the world every day,’ said Mr. Liansheng Miao, Chairman and CEO of Yingli Green Energy. ‘We have also been dedicatedly carrying out our corporate social and environmental responsibilities through constantly reducing our energy consumption and GHG emissions in our production and operations. In addition, we aspire to leverage our industry leadership to lead the PV industry’s transition to low-carbon production. By 2015, we hope to launch a Global Green Solar PV Manufacturing Standard, which aims at promoting energy consumption reduction, increasing utilization percentage of renewable energy and reducing GHG emissions. We look forward to working more broadly with WWF and joining hands with other Climate Savers to lead the world’s transition to a low carbon economy.’
‘As an industry leader, Yingli has been committed to transforming cutting-edge technologies into high-performance products,’ said Mr. Jingfeng Xiong, Vice President and Chief Climate Officer of Yingli Green Energy. ‘While pursuing this target, we have been constantly reducing energy consumption and GHG emissions in our production and operation in order to provide greener and cleaner PV products to our customers. We know that cutting carbon emissions and spurring economic growth can go hand in hand. Through conducting a series of activities to accomplish our Climate Savers commitments, we will also be able to effectively reduce our energy consumption and further enhance our cost advantage.’
By the end of 2012, Yingli Green Energy has provided nearly 6,000 MW of high-quality PV modules to customers worldwide, powering approximately 800,000 households with green electricity every year. Compared with conventional thermal power generation, these modules can reduce approximately 200 million tons of GHG emissions during the 25-year life cycle.
‘The Climate Savers program is a very exclusive club,’ said Peter Beaudoin, CEO of WWF-China. ‘Only companies agreeing to be industry leaders in cutting CO2 emissions and supporting growth of clean, renewable energy are accepted as members. China has global manufacturing leaders, is beginning to have global innovation leaders, and now is beginning to have global leaders in the fight against climate change as well.’
Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited (NYSE: YGE), which markets its products under the brand ‘Yingli Solar’, is a leading solar energy company and one of the world’s largest vertically integrated photovoltaic manufacturers. Yingli Green Energy’s manufacturing covers the entire photovoltaic value chain, from the production of polysilicon through ingot casting and wafering, to solar cell production and module assembly. In August 2012, Yingli Green Energy reached a balanced vertically integrated production capacity of 2,450 MW per year, from facilities located in Baoding, Haikou, Tianjin and Hengshui, respectively. Yingli Green Energy distributes its photovoltaic modules to a wide range of markets, including Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece, France, South Korea, China, Japan and the United States. Headquartered in Baoding, China, Yingli Green Energy has more than 20 subsidiaries and branch offices worldwide. Yingli Green Energy is publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: YGE).
WWF is one of the world’s largest and most respected independent conservation organizations, with over 5 million supporters and a global network active in over 100 countries. WWF’s mission is to stop the degradation of the Earth’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world’s biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.
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