The 2023 UN Water Conference was held on March 22-24 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, USA. JA Solar, a leading manufacturer of high-performance solar power products, was invited to attend the conference and delivered a speech on the topic of “Water for Sustainable Development”.
The conference was the highest profile and most influential water-related conference at the United Nations level in the past 50 years. It was a comprehensive review of the mid-term implementation of the United Nations “International Decade for Action – Water for Sustainable Development” and promoted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development “Goal 6” and other water-related goals.
Cayla Li, Head of JA Solar Carbon Management and Sustainable Development Department, presented at the conference, and said that water is the core of sustainable development and is the source of impact on biodiversity and climate. Poor water management, improper use of water resources, and excessive discharge of wastewater by enterprises will exacerbate water stress and lead to the degradation of water-related ecosystems, threatening the sustainable development worldwide.
JA Solar attaches great importance to water resource management and has established a wastewater treatment and discharge management system, such as the Wastewater Discharge Control Procedure, to monitor and manage the main water uses in the production process and key links that affect water resources. In its manufacturing bases, JA Solar adopts the leading wastewater treatment process. In its manufacturing base in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, for example, the COD emission concentration reaches 1/3 of the limit value. Ammonia nitrogen emission and total nitrogen emission concentration reach 1/2 of the limit value respectively.
At the same time, JA Solar actively explores the recycling of water resources and continuously improves the efficiency of water utilization while striving to reduce water consumption. JA Solar’s manufacturing base in Qujing, Yunnan Province achieved a reuse rate of over 85% in November 2022, and the machine shop achieved a full utilization of wastewater. The condensate water reuse project implemented in the Yiwu manufacturing base collects condensate water from air conditioners and supplies it to cooling towers by water pumps and pipes, which can save 74,000 tons of water and 180,000 kWh of electricity per year.
Photovoltaics (PV) can be developed together with aquaculture. The application of PV reduces water evaporation, increase income from fisheries, and effectively the reduce temperature loss of PV modules due to the cooling effect of water, which can generate 10%-15% more power than ground and rooftop systems under the same conditions.
JA Solar modules are used in the world’s largest hydro-solar complementary power plant, the Kela hydro-solar complementary project. Because of the seasonal difference in PV power generation, it is complementary to hydroelectric power generation, which is characterized by a “high water period in summer and low water period in winter”. Kela PV power plant is connected to two river mouth hydropower stations, and the water and PV bundling output stable power, which can be sent out centrally for consumption. After commissioning, the average annual power generation capacity has reached 2 billion kWh, which can reduce CO2 emissions by more than 1.6 million tons.