Yingli Solar helping light up FIFA venues

Many solar companies are turning to the emerging solar markets in South America and Asia, where Japan and China take up the slack from the European solar market.

Yingli has also sponsored US MLS soccer, German football club team FC Bayern Munchen AG and the New York Jets US football team.

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"We are looking to bring global attention to not just Yingli but Yingli Solar, a message carrying clean energy to every place of the world," Tzeng said.

As part of its work in Brazil, over 1,500 Yingli Solar PV modules will be placed on a metal ring encircling the top of the Estadio do Maracana, in Rio de Janeiro. South America's largest stadium holds over 70,000 spectators and will host seven matches in 2014, more than any other venue.

"Sustainability is one of the key tenets in our vision for the 2014 FIFA World Cup," said Federico Addiechi, head of Corporate Social Responsibility at FIFA, the world-governing body for soccer. "We hope this landmark project will be the catalyst to spur other football stadiums to install solar PV systems across Brazil."

Yingli Solar, the world's largest manufacturer and supplier of solar panels, plans to increase its shipment volumes to about 4 GW of installed solar panels in 2014, an increase of 27 percent over the previous year. It forecasts gross margins will triple to between 15.5 percent to 16.5 percent in the first quarter compared with a year earlier.

People in Europe are fascinated with soccer. One of the reasons that we chose to sponsor a soccer event is because Europe has been a traditional market for solar makers and we plan to use football sponsorship to win the consumers there as well as people in emerging markets such as Brazil and South Africa. "