Time-honored Brands Embrace Renewable Energy, Revitalizing Classic Flavors with New Vitality

As the Spring Festival approaches, preparations for New Year goods enter their peak period, with numerous authentic delicacies and time-honored brands garnering significant attention. DingFeng, a 160-year-old Chinese time-honored brand and a Shanghai intangible cultural heritage, is renowned for its fermented bean curd craftsmanship that has been passed down through generations. Its winter-limited white fermented bean curd is particularly popular, often in high demand. According to Pan Xuelian, deputy general manager of Shanghai DingFeng Fermentation Food CO., LTD, in response to issues such as high salt content and large packaging sizes of traditional fermented bean curd, DingFeng has developed low-salt and single-portion fermented bean curd based on traditional recipes, catering to modern tastes and attracting new consumer groups.

During festive seasons, with increased stockpiling and consumer demand, DingFeng enlarged its production and inventory, leading to a surge in electricity consumption. Meng Ying, account manager at State Grid Fengxian Power Supply Company, learned during an onsite service visit that DingFeng’s rooftops and bicycle sheds were underutilized, so she proposed the construction project of a distributed photovoltaic power generation and organized technical personnel for multiple site inspections, presenting an economical and practical grid-connection scheme for the PV project.

In May 2024, under the guidance of Meng Ying, DingFeng completed the grid connection and commissioning of Phase I of its rooftop PV project, installing 2,000 square meters of PV panels on the rooftops of fermentation workshops with a total installed capacity of 319 kW. Henceforth, the century-old DingFeng embraced renewable energy, benefiting economically and environmentally from the “self-consumption with surplus fed into the grid” model. Since the commissioning of Phase I, the rooftop PV project has generated over 210,000 kWh of electricity in total, with more than 60,000 kWh fed into the grid, enabling 100% green electricity production during daytime hours for the liquid vinegar fermentation process.

Phase II of the rooftop PV project, installed on the rooftops of production workshops and bicycle sheds, is under construction and expected to be operational in February 2025. By then, the factory’s green electricity production ratio will significantly increase.