The Chinese company, it quickly transpired, had clearly not become the world’s fastest-growing wind turbine manufacturer by doing things by the book.

On an immaculate sofa in a smart corner office, in a surprisingly leafy corner of west Shanghai, the 39-year-old company boss leans forward and looks Recharge in the eye. “We’re not really a wind company,” he says quietly. “We don’t think of ourselves — we don’t position ourselves — as a wind turbine manufacturer.”

Zhang