Yingli Solar helping light up FIFA venues

Chief Financial Officer Wang Yiyu said that for that reason, it is worth every penny spent on sponsorship.

"We are not a toothpaste maker or any consumer goods company, so it is hard to predict the immediate benefit from sponsorship," Wang, a former senior auditor at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, said. "But we are sure about one thing - the power of our brand is improving, and we are close to our target of becoming a household name."

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China plans to install 14.5 gigawatts of solar generating capacity, of which 8 GW would be from distributed solar energy. It means more people will be able to turn their roofs into a solar module using these solar cells, according to the National Agency of Energy.

Yingli is betting on the fact that out of more than 700 million viewers of the World Cup, some will remember its brand. The company will place its logo on digital billboards lining the World Cup pitch. It isn't clear whether this creates enough awareness to justify the cost, but Yingli said orders for solar panels tripled in 2011. During the South African World Cup, shares of the US-listed company surged nearly 50 percent, adding $600 million.

Judy Tzeng, vice-president of global marketing at Yingli Solar, said the industry has not achieved full mainstream penetration or become a household name at home.

"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," she said. "At the same time, football is a universal game, loved in many other places, such as the US and Japan."

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