ESG and Sustainability have evolved beyond mere industry buzzwords to become essential pillars of the photovoltaic (PV) sector. While PV technology, when compared with other renewable energy solutions, offers a quick and scalable path to clean energy deployment, the responsibility extends beyond just generating green power. The sourcing of raw material, the manufacturing, and deployment must also meet high ESG and sustainability standards.
With energy-intensive processes, a multi-tier supply chain, varied working conditions, multiple stakeholders, and, most importantly, the dynamic regulatory updates, meeting these standards can be a complex task. That is where dialogue and collaboration become significant.
TaiyangNews is hosting its 3rd Sustainability event on October 9, 2025, from 09:30 to 13:00 CEST. This online event brings together manufacturers, certification & assessment agencies, industry associations, and developers to present and exchange insights. Their perspectives will provide a clearer picture of how ESG performance and sustainability practices in the PV industry have evolved and where further improvements lie ahead.
Registrations are free and can be done here.
HJT cell and module producer Golden Solar has unveiled a draft restructuring plan, proposing a capital reserve-to-equity conversion of 15 new shares for every 10 existing shares, resulting in a total of 324 million new shares. The restructuring has attracted its controlling shareholder, Ouhao Group, along with 17 financial investors, bringing in about RMB 1.804 billion ($251.7 million), which will be used to settle debts. Post-restructuring, Golden Solar aims to focus on HJT PV manufacturing and green computing, building what it calls an ‘integrated computing and power’ business model to restore sustainable operations. The plan is pending approval by creditors and shareholders, as well as final court confirmation.
Construction has started on a large-scale wind-solar base in the central-northern Kubuqi Desert of Inner Mongolia, the region’s first desert-Gobi-wasteland renewable energy mega-base. The project, with a total investment of RMB 98.8 billion ($13.8 billion), will comprise 8 GW of solar PV, 4 GW of wind power, 4 GW of supporting coal-fired power, and 5 GWh of new-type energy storage. Scheduled for completion and operation by the end of 2027, it will deliver 36 billion kWh of electricity annually to the North China Grid, centered on the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, via UHV transmission. Of this, 60% will come from renewables, resulting in a reduction of approximately 6.4 million tons of standard coal consumption and 16 million tons of CO2 emissions annually.
China’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) has released its 2025 Handbook of Central SOE Pilot Testing Platforms, opening 134 platforms to the public to support technology transfer and commercialization. 2 PV-related platforms have been included in the handbook:
SPIC’s silicon solar PV module recycling platform, capable of separating and recovering materials including junction boxes, aluminum frames, fluorine backsheets, PV glass, ribbons, and silicon wafers, followed by cleaning and purification.
CNBM’s liquid-phase roll-coating platform for PV glass deposition, which includes 11 coating lines and provides solutions to process scalability, maturity, and stability issues before mass production.