Jinko Solar was founded in 2006 and became the world’s largest solar panel manufacturer only a decade later, in 2016. The company has held the top stop for the last six years, with global shipments of 14.3 GW in 2019 alone. Based in China, Jinko Solar is a huge multi-national, vertically integrated company, employing over 15,000 people in 70 countries and establishing manufacturing facilities in China, Malaysia and the US.
Jinko Solar’s success seems primarily due to the focus on R&D, performance testing, quality control and rigorous durability testing. This is highlighted by the numerous record-breaking achievements over the years, with several efficiency records and consistent ‘top score’ results from several independent testing companies, including the well-known PVEL scorecards. Until recently, Jinko Solar was generally not at the forefront of innovation and usually played it safe by only deploying panels using proven cell architectures such as traditional P-type PERC and half-cut cells.