[photopress:zones_solar_energy.jpg,full,alignright]While there is considerable disagreement about the direction industry should travel in using clean and renewable energy solar power is certainly one of the directions.
An example is that the world’s largest semiconductor producer Applied Materials has tapped into its solar power generation capacity in Xi’an, capital city of northwest China’s Sha’anxi Province.
The newly-inaugurated installation guarantees an annual power capacity of over 65 megawatt hours, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions of more than 65 tons per year. It is the first of its kind at an existing corporate facility in Western China.
Now the rest of the industrial zone is following this lead.
An official of Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone of Xi’an City of Shaanxi Province said ‘The city has attached great importance to developing clean and renewable energy. We are now improving related policies to encourage its development. As for the industrial sector, we will not approve projects with high-energy consumption and bad pollution.’
China has abundant sunlight resources. The volume of solar radiation taken up by the land surface is equivalent to 4.9 trillion tons of standard coal. Two thirds of China’s land areas have over 2,200 hours of sunlight a year. With around 26 million people who have no access to electricity, there is great potential in China for the development of solar industry. But bear in mind that those are theoretical figures and actual results are likely to be quite different. There is also a considerable expenditure of energy in making the solar panels.
China has set a target for its domestic solar photovoltaic market to reach up to 400 megawatts by 2010 which would be about 10%.
The country also plans to have hydropower projects with an installed capacity of 190 million kilowatts, and wind power projects with installed capacity of 10 million kilowatts.
Source: CCTV.com
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