On the morning of June 15, in the smart manufacturing base of Leapmotor Co., Ltd. in Jinhua New Energy Automobile Town, the automatic production line was busy assembling various car components. One after another, new energy vehicles (NEVs) are produced here to be sold to the market.

In the plant area, a special carport is particularly conspicuous. The photovoltaic panels erected on the roof gleamed in the sun. This is the only photovoltaic parking garage in Jinhua that can contain more than 400 vehicles. On the roofs of some other factory buildings, photovoltaic panels have also been erected to convert solar energy into electrical energy.

The photovoltaic project, a cooperative project between the State Grid Corporation of China and Zhejiang Comprehensive Energy Company, was established in 2019 and connected to the State Grid in June 2020, and the power generation has been integrated into the State Grid. The average annual power generation capacity of the project is about 10 million kWh, with a service life of 25 years.

“To date, 60% of the processes in the base are automated, and electricity consumption is 130,000~140,000 kWh per day. On sunny days, the parking garage photovoltaic panels and those on other roofs can generate 30,000 ~40,000 kWh of electricity a day,” said Jiang Xiongwei, the director of the Smart Manufacturing Base of Leapmotor. When the factory is in production, the electricity is used for production, but during the non-production period at noon, the photovoltaic power generated is applied to homes.

“We purchase photovoltaic power generation from the State Grid at a price of 0.02 RMB per kWh lower than the market price, which helps to save about 200,000 RMB a year,” said Jiang Xiongwei. During the one and a half hours of the non-production period at noon, the photovoltaic power generation is over 4000 kWh, which meets the electricity demand of 20 ordinary households for one month.

The photovoltaic power generation project will promote the reduction of carbon emissions. According to calculations, within the 25 years of its service life, the project will generate about 24.09 million kWh of electricity, which will save 71,707 tons of standard coal, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 191,375 tons, which is equivalent to planting 211,600 trees. In addition, the project will reduce sulfur oxides by 1,458 tons and nitrogen oxides by 495 tons, effectively lowering pollution. (By Liu Xiaogang, translated by Wei Han, edited by Kendra Fiddler)