Trina Solar Co Ltd, one of the world's largest suppliers of solar equipment, is sponsoring a major digital media art exhibition being held in Beijing, to raise public awareness of the environmental benefits of using photovoltaic panels.

Organizers of the event, Photosynthesis, say the company's most advanced solar units will be on display to underline just how important a role the technology plays in global environmental protection.

After shipping more than 3.66 gigawatts-worth of equipment last year, Trina Solar is now expanding into the development and operation of power plants.

It is also developing a household smart-energy system called Sunbox, which is claimed as easy to use as simply connecting to the national power grid.

Earlier this month, Trina Solar announced it had connected two-thirds of a 300-megawatt, ground-mounted solar project in Yunnan province to the grid.

Once fully operational, the project will become the largest single utility-scale solar power plant in the province and one of the largest in China. The electricity generated from the project is being provided to a local industrial park and to farms located in the surrounding area.

"Our strategic goal is to play a leading role in energy system integration," said Yang Xiaozhong, Trina Solar's vice-president.

The Jiangsu province-based company has established an energy-storage company, which will be able to supply energy to industrial and commercial users as well as households and even solar-powered car users, it said.

"As solar energy depends greatly on sunlight, if we can make progress on storing that energy then it would be a breakthrough for the whole industry," said Yang.

Qi Fujun, the company's energy storage sector manager, said the world's energy storage market will grow fast while the development of chemical batteries will also cut energy costs.

Qi said the company's well-established overseas distribution channel, its system integration technology and its operating costs that are lower than in Japan or the United States have put Trina Solar in a prime position to grow its global market share.

It is estimated that in future, 80 percent of the company's storage business revenue will come from overseas.

"We have set our sights on 1 percent of the global energy-storage market by 2016, but our eventual ambition is to be among the world's top five energy storage solution providers," said Qi.

Zhang Han contributed to this story

(China Daily 10/29/2015 page22)