Darers & Doers: Making Solar Power Work Smarter

Program description:

Darers & Doers showcases groundbreaking innovations from China and features company founders and CEOs who are turning cool, bold ideas into reality. Produced by Caixin Global.

Episode intro:

Solar is one of China's most crowded renewable-energy sectors, if not the most. But a new generation of entrepreneurs is looking beyond manufacturing and capacity, finding new ways to turn solar into an investable and profitable business.

In this episode of Darers & Doers, Li Wenxuan, founder, chairman and CEO of PCG Power Technology, explains how he has built a business around making distributed solar work for commercial and industrial users — helping factories and industrial parks cut energy costs, improve efficiency and secure a more reliable supply of green power.

PCG Power turned a profit just two years after its founding. It has since grown into one of China's largest distributed-energy companies, operating 2 gigawatts of grid connected capacity and serving hundreds of customers. The company has also attracted backing from Singapore's state-owned investor Temasek and Saudi's Aramco, and has partnered with the U.K.'s Octopus Energy on power trading.

Speaking with host Kelsey Cheng, Li explains how China's vast industrial power market has created a unique testing ground for new energy business models, and how PCG Power plans to take that experience overseas. He also addresses concerns about overcapacity and dumping in China's renewable-energy industry, and how technologies such as storage, virtual power plants and artificial intelligence can help address shortfalls of renewable generation.

Chapters:

(02:11) From real estate and tech investor to distributed solar entrepreneur

(05:04) Solving the "energy trilemma"

(08:14) Why PCG's business model works

(12:55) How distributed solar took off in China