Trinasolar

MILESTONES

HISTORY

Trina Solar Limited was established in December of 1997 by Chairman Jifan Gao with a small group of scientists during the infancy of the solar PV industry in China. Inspired by the growth of solar PV industry abroad and particularly the Clinton administration's 'Million Solar Roofs' initiative in the United States, Mr. Gao identified a trend in the market that he believed could benefit to China. Mr. Gao's initial plan was to create a solar PV system installation company focused on providing solar energy to different regions in China.

The company made modest strides with its core team of scientists and researchers in the early years and successfully obtained its ISO 9002 Certificate in October 1999, showing a strong commitment to quality and adherence to international standards. Additionally, in the same year, the company founded the Trina Solar Research Center.

After much hard work and dedication, the team successfully launched the first solar PV house in China in August, 2000.  With this accomplishment Trina Solar established itself as a leader in the field of solar PV. In cooperation with the Chinese government, Trina Solar helped to establish the first "China National Stand-alone PV System Technology Standard". In order to promote this important milestone, Trina Solar hosted the First International Solar Power Technology and Marketing Forum in Changzhou in September, 2000. This forum symbolized Trina Solar's ambition to develop the China market and to promote innovation in the solar power industry.

Given the success of Trina Solar's initial efforts in helping to develop the solar PV industry, the company hosted the Second and Third International Solar Power Technology and Marketing Forums in 2001 and 2002 respectively. In addition to hosting these events, the Chinese government selected Trina Solar as the first privately-held company to participate in the Western Brightness Program, an initiative aimed at bringing electricity to remote regions in China. Shortly thereafter, in mid-2003, Trina Solar successfully implemented its first system installation project by installing 39 solar power generation stations in Tibet. This achievement represented over five years of hard work by the original Trina Solar team and brought the company closer to Mr. Gao's vision of bringing solar PV to China.

Due to the strong endorsement by the Chinese government, Trina Solar obtained more recognition and influence in the solar PV industry and participated in the drafting of the first Renewable Energy Law in China in 2004. Furthermore, Trina Solar received other projects and completed the "Solar Energy Power Generation Commercialization" Project that same year. The company went on to invest heavily in research and development and founded the Changzhou Solar Association to further extend the company's research efforts. As a result of these successful projects, Mr. Gao was appointed the Vice Director of China Solar Architecture Committee and received the distinguished Private Entrepreneur Award from the Changzhou City Government in December, 2004.

During the fall of 2004, Trina Solar recognized the need to scale up operations and began an aggressive expansion plan to become a fully vertically integrated company. The first step towards vertical integration was to initiate module production, and in early 2005 Trina Solar opened a module production facility. Soon thereafter, Trina Solar expanded its operations back up the PV value chain with the production of its first monocrystalline ingot in August of 2005. The ingot facility became fully operational in October of that same year. The operations team continued to execute on its ambitious expansion plan and began manufacturing wafers in February or 2006, reaching 28MW of output by year end.

As production capacity rapidly expanded, Trina Solar also began to promote its brand aggressively overseas and secured its first group of customers in Germany. These customer relationships expanded rapidly and soon Trina Solar began working with industry leaders who sought long-term partnerships with the company, enabling Trina Solar to extend sales to other countries including Italy, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Korea, Australia, USA and many other European, and Asian countries.

In 2006, Trina Solar received investment from a number of internationally recognized investors including Milestone Capital, Good Energies, and Merrill Lynch. These investments served as the starting point for the company's internationalization and were vital to ensure capacity and brand expansion

The listing in the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in December 2006 and the subsequent capital infusion in June of 2007 allowed Trina Solar to successfully continue its expansion plans, guarantee a rapid increase of production capacity and ensure procurement of raw materials. At the same time, the listing on the NYSE and support of international investors allowed the company to attract talent from around the world and today Trina Solar has an international team from more than a dozen nations with significant PV industry experience, who contribute each day to the success of the company.

Trina Solar's increasingly global presence includes offices in China, Germany, Spain and the United States, as well as a team of local sales managers in every key country in Europe to provide our customers with prompt and professional service and support. In addition to this, Trina Solar also offers after sales technical service support to its Asian, European and North American customers.

Now Trina Solar produces and commercializes a wide variety of PV modules, both monocrystalline and multicrystalline, with power output ranging from 165W to 230W. Adapting our product range to meet market demands allows us to provide our customers with a broader range of clean and reliable solar solutions.

When Trina's New Building opened its doors in February, 2008, it was not only a symbol of Trina's great success, but also a showcase of PV energy, with a facade of beautifully integrated glass-on-glass PV modules. Trina Solar is planning to grow its installed capacity from 150MW at the end of 2007 to 350MW by the end of 2008 and 700MW by the end of 2009. The achievements of the last decade have laid a solid foundation for Trina's accelerated growth, and the global alternative energy development potential ensures Trina Solar an even brighter future. The company will continue to be dedicated to innovation, quality and improved efficiencies as it pursues grid parity to expand the global solar PV industry.