Hanergy's top China tycoon boss Li Hejun promises more miracles
China's new top tycoon Li Hejun believes in miracles, do you?
Li Hejun, the man behind Hanergy Holding Group, is media-shy but not reserved when it comes to voicing his vision about the future of thin-film solar power as a solution to the world's need for more but cleaner energy.
"Hanergy is a miracle maker and Jinanqiao hydropower station was the first miracle we made," the chairman says on the company website. "I believe that together we can continue to make many more miracles."
In the book he wrote and published early last year, New Energy Revolution - the Power to Change China and the World, he said the "solar revolution" would be a key support for the country in realising the "China dream".
Frank Haugwitz, the founder of consulting firm Asia Europe Clean Energy (Solar) Advisory who has met Li a few times, described him as "outspoken, smart, visionary and ambitious".
In terms of bullishness on the prospect of solar energy relative to other solar-panel maker bosses on the mainland, "he tops them all", he said.
Li made his money from hydropower and invested in a small number of wind farms, but soon switched his focus to the solar sector, he added.
He invested in the amorphous silicon thin-film technology, which was low in efficiency and uncompetitive, before going on a shopping spree in the past few years for overseas technology firms that tried but failed to bring the copper-indium-gallium- selenide thin-film technology to economically viable mass production.