Yingli – the world’s largest supplier of modules last year – reached the landmark figure at the end of June, it said today.

The company has delivered more than 40 million modules to 50 countries, a combined fleet that it said could power some four million average homes.

Yingli has become one of the most recognisable as well as successful PV groups, not least thanks to its sponsorship of the recent football World Cup in Brazil, where its branding was a familiar sight on pitch-side hoardings.