Aerial photo taken on Oct. 21, 2021 shows a photovoltaic power station in Liuqiukou Village of Xinhe County in north China's Hebei Province. Xinhe County boosts rural vitalization by developing distinctive agricultural products, improving living environment and elevating governance capability.Photo:Xinhua

Chinese photovoltaic (PV) company LONGi is studying to set up production bases in overseas markets, including in India and the US, the head of the company said on Thursday, even as the US has been cracking down on the Chinese PV sector.

"Recently, we have been actively studying the idea of building plants in places that boast comparative advantages in production factors, such as India, Saudi Arabia and the US," Li Zhenguo, founder and president of LONGi, said during a group interview on Thursday. 

LONGi Solar, the largest PV company by market value and sales revenue in the world, shipped 24.5 gigawatts (GW) of solar panels in 2020. That amount surpassed the US' total installed solar capacity of 19.2 GW in the same year.

As major economies pledge to tackle climate change and announce carbon neutrality goals, LONGi's solar panels reach many places in the world with teams working in the US state of California, as well as Germany, India and Australia, according to Li. 

"We have mass manufacturing capability in Malaysia and Vietnam and provide around 10,000 people with jobs in the two countries in total," Li said in response to a question from the Global Times. 

The energy transition is not a task only for China, instead, it is a job for the Asia-Pacific region and the whole world, he stressed, noting that LONGi's main industrial chain and manufacturing will go global. 

However, the company's global plans are facing hurdles posed by the US' crackdown on Chinese solar companies. In June, the US government banned imports from five Chinese solar companies. 

Earlier this month, LONGi said that US customs detained a total of 40.31 megawatts of LONGi modules from October 28 to November 3, accounting for approximately 1.59 percent of the company's total export sales volume to the US in 2020.

It emphasized that the company's shipments to the US market are unaffected.

The high US import tariffs together mean a rate of about 150 percent on China-made solar products, which means that it's impossible to ship them to the US, Li said, adding that something positive in the green sector is likely to cheer the industry up.

China and the US on Wednesday released the China-US Joint Glasgow Declaration on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s, a significant move for bilateral cooperation on global climate issues.  

"I think the declaration is an inevitable result that adapts to social development. Even if China and the US have many disputes at present, the two countries share the same language and ideas on green development and climate change," Li told the Global Times. 

Also on Wednesday, the US Department of Commerce declined to initiate an anti-circumvention investigation requested by an anonymous group of petitioners against Chinese solar firms. The petition for the investigation had faced harsh criticism within the US.

"If this investigation had been initiated, it would have meant long-term damaging consequences for our nation's energy goals and the 230,000 Americans the solar industry currently employs. Solar energy is a major part of the clean energy future and the industry's health is critical to meeting our climate and emission reduction targets," American Clean Power Association CEO Heather Zichal said in a statement issued on Wednesday.