Jimmy didn’t wait long after graduation to make his mark. Using the technical skills in energy systems and power electronics developed at the University of Edinburgh, he founded a company that has become a global powerhouse in solar and energy storage, currently employing more than 5,000 people.

Name: Jimmy Wang

Degree course: MSc Engineering and Electronics

Year of graduation: 2004

At the moment

What is your current role, and how did you get there?

My name is Jimmy Wang. I’m the founder and CEO of Ginlong Technologies, which operates globally under the brand ‘Solis’.

I serve as CEO of Ginlong Technologies. In this capacity I am responsible for overall corporate strategy, global operations, and maintaining our technological edge in the renewable energy space.

My path began during my studies in the UK, when I started a Research and Development (R&D) venture focused on applying advanced power electronics to real-world energy problems. That early work — rooted in university research and practical engineering — laid the foundation for innovations in both solar and small-wind inverters* and ultimately became the inspiration for Ginlong.

At the time, distributed generation in Europe and the UK was just beginning to take shape, and I was determined to apply what I had learned directly into industry. Convinced that high-performance, cost-effective inverters were the missing link for large-scale solar adoption, I founded Ginlong Technologies in 2005. What began as a small research-driven effort inspired by an emerging opportunity ended up becoming the world’s third-largest inverter manufacturer, employing more than 5,000 people and shipping hundreds of gigawatts of technology worldwide.

Today, Solis plays a central role in the clean-energy transition: our inverters act as the “brains” of solar and storage systems, enabling homes, businesses, and utilities to convert, manage, and optimise clean electricity with safety, reliability, and long-term performance. My role remains a blend of high-level strategic oversight and close involvement with engineering roadmaps, to ensure we continue delivering solutions that are technically excellent and deployable at scale.

What inspired your interest in this field?

On the technical side, I fell completely into power electronics – suddenly seeing how a well-designed inverter could solve real grid-integration headaches and push renewable efficiency further than most people thought possible. At the same time, the rise of distributed generation in Europe and the UK made it clear that renewable energy wasn’t just a trend – it would become a main pillar of future global energy systems. Every trip home to China reinforced that urgency: energy demand was exploding, and yet huge solar potential sat unused because the hardware either cost too much or simply wasn’t tough enough for real operating conditions. I think that it resonated so strongly with me because it aligned perfectly with my academic studies.

What made the University of Edinburgh experience different was the people around me. Classmates came from every continent; between lectures we’d end up talking about policy distortions in one country, financing barriers in another, cultural resistance somewhere else. It became obvious that the shift to renewables isn’t just an engineering exercise – it’s entangled with economics, regulation, and everyday realities that vary wildly from place to place. At that time, the market was dominated by a handful of established, traditional brands, which made the opportunity for new, more agile innovations impossible to ignore.

Those two threads – the technical fascination and the global, human complexity – came together and left me with one clear thought: the missing link was hardware that was genuinely reliable, genuinely scalable, and genuinely affordable in the real world, not just on a test bench. That conviction, and the confidence and broader outlook the University of Edinburgh gave me, are what pushed me to start Ginlong. Twenty years later, that same mix of analytical rigour and boldness still shapes every major decision we take.

Career journey

What were some key milestones in your career journey?

I think that the milestones that stand out are deeply personal as much as they are professional.

The first has to be founding Ginlong Technologies in 2005. I genuinely believed that a small team with the right vision could make a difference in the way we generate energy. We started with little more than conviction, some savings, and a clear goal to build technology that was reliable enough, and affordable enough to accelerate the global shift to clean energy. That leap of faith remains the foundation of everything that followed.

We originally worked on both wind generation technology and solar, but by 2013 we felt solar was where the greatest opportunity lay. The market was expanding rapidly, costs were falling, and inverters offered a chance to deliver real innovation in efficiency and accessibility. Choosing to focus entirely on solar inverters at that moment turned out to be a pivotal for us.

In 2019 we listed on the Shenzhen A-share market, a huge moment. The whole IPO process** was tough – every part of the business came under intense scrutiny – but passing that test and gaining access to public capital allowed us to scale production and R&D in ways we simply couldn’t have done privately. It was the springboard we needed: within a few years Solis was the world’s third-largest manufacturer of inverters. Earning that kind of global recognition, backed by real shipment data and industry respect, meant more to me than almost any other accolade.

This year, we marked Ginlong’s 20th anniversary. Looking back at my humble beginnings – a man with a vision (and, for a while, a van loaded with prototype inverters driving between customers) – it’s humbling to see how far we’ve come.

How did your time at the University shape your professional path?

What stayed with me from Edinburgh went far beyond the lectures and labs.

The MSc itself gave me a rock-solid technical foundation in energy systems and power electronics – no question about that. But almost equally valuable was being thrown into such an international, interdisciplinary setting. I would talk to people who had grown up with completely different grids, regulations, and funding realities. Those conversations, sometimes late in the library, drove home that a solution only counts if it works technically and can still be financed, permitted, installed, and accepted by the people who must live with it. That broader way of thinking about engineering problems has never left me.

I was always struck by the University’s entrepreneurial energy: I watched several spin-off companies emerge from the corridors and labs around me. It was proof that world-class research could turn into real businesses surprisingly quickly. Attending – and later presenting at – international conferences organised or supported by the University opened my eyes to collaborations and market gaps that simply weren’t visible from a textbook or a lecture hall. Those experiences planted the belief that a small, determined team could spot an opportunity and build something genuinely impactful.

Edinburgh – the city – left its own mark on me, separate from anything I studied.

You’re surrounded by buildings that have stood for centuries, yet the place is full of start-ups, festivals, and people who plainly expect big things to happen. By the time I finished the MSc I was noticeably more open-minded, more critical in my thinking, and far more willing to take a serious risk if I believed in it.

Can you share a standout achievement or moment you’re proud of?

The moment that stands out the most to me is the day I rang the bell and Ginlong officially became a public company in 2019. Going public was so much more than a financial event for me. It was the day the company grew up. Suddenly every process, every number, every promise we made was visible to thousands of new shareholders and to a regulator that doesn’t accept excuses.

I remember this huge weight of responsibility, but also an enormous sense of pride. We’d built something solid enough to withstand that level of scrutiny. That experience changed us in the best possible way. We now had to think and act like a global player, not just a successful local one. The governance we put in place, the openness we learned to live with, the higher bar we set for ourselves every morning; those weren’t just requirements, they became who we are.

Everything that came after – traces back to that moment. Reaching the top three wasn’t about size alone; it was about the trust we had earned through strong financials, consistent product performance, and a long track record of systems that simply work.

None of that would exist without the team who show up every day and refuse to cut corners. I’m deeply proud of every engineer and technician who’s poured years of quiet, meticulous work into earning the trust Solis enjoys today. They’re the reason we’re here.

Industry insights

What are the biggest challenges and opportunities in your field right now?

The biggest challenge is that the industry is expanding at incredible speed, and competition is intensifying just as grids face pressures they were never designed for. Grid codes now change yearly, cybersecurity demands are far stricter, and even small delays in compliance can block market access. The opportunity lies in the growing integration of energy storage: when photovoltaics, batteries, electric vehicle charging and loads all work together, the role of power electronics becomes far greater. Modern inverters don’t just convert power – they stabilise the grid, shift energy intelligently, and even generate revenue through flexibility services.

What trends or innovations are shaping the future of your industry?

The biggest product evolution we’re driving is the move to hybrid solutions. Just generating solar energy is no longer enough – the value lies in being able to generate, store and manage that energy in one ecosystem. With hybrid systems, owners capture every excess kilowatt produced during the day and use it when it’s needed. It multiplies savings and gives genuine energy independence. Add AI-powered energy management and the system becomes autonomous: it watches weather forecasts, learns household habits, tracks real-time pricing. Automatically deciding when to pull from the grid or when to use stored energy. This is the foundation for Virtual Power Plants. Thousands of these smart hybrid systems are linked, acting together as a single controllable power plant. They stabilise frequency, absorb surplus renewable generation, provide demand response and open entirely new revenue streams for homeowners and businesses.

Alumni wisdom

What advice would you give to students or alumni looking to enter your field?

This is a major industry with a very bright and prosperous future. As countries push harder on decarbonisation, solar and storage will keep growing for decades. At the same time, AI is being woven into everything we do – from optimising a single home to coordinating entire grids – and it will dramatically accelerate the energy transition.

Master the fundamentals but never treat them in isolation. Understand regulatory frameworks, project finance and the day-to-day realities of the people who have their hands on your product – be it an installer or end user. Seek out practical experience early and build networks that cross disciplines and geographies.

* An inverter is an electronic device that converts direct current (DC) into alternating current (AC).

** IPO stands for ‘initial public offering’ which is the process where a private company sells its shares to the public for the first time, becoming a public company listed on a stock exchange.

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