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Solar Energy Made First Energy Supply Demanded in China
China should step up its effort to develop clean, renewable solar energy and ensure a 5 million kilowatts solar energy generating capacity to make solar energy the biggest renewable energy supply of the country's by 2020, urged Huang Yicheng, chairman of Energy Sources Research Institute of China.
At present, man's application of solar energy mainly lies in photovoltaic power generation and thermal energy utilizing. Zhao Yuwen, research fellow of Beijing Solar Energy Research Institute, described the present situation and prospects of solar energy development in China as "Fine prospects are offered as direct benefits have been achieved".
China has at present a solar energy generating capacity of 15 thousand kilowatts and this has laid a solid foundation for developing photovoltaic industry in the country. In Tibet Autonomous Region, there are already 7 counties that have solved the problem to make use of solar energy replacing coal fuel. In addition, a flourishing industry for manufacturing an increased number of solar water heaters has been developed, with a production capacity ranking first in the world and a sales amount worth 3.5 billion yuan having been reaped in 1998.
As things stand with exploiting solar energy use in the country today, China is still on the way to have a wealth of solar energy resources to be tapped and used. It is estimated that solar radiation gives the Chinese land an annual equivalent amounting to 240 tons of standard coal and a total of over 2,000 hours of sunshine time over two thirds of the country's land. This is especially so in some western regions, to a time amount of more than 3,000 hours. Meanwhile, for speedy progress made in developing new photovoltaic technologies, solar energy will be obtained and used at a greatly cut cost in China. According to Huang's estimation, in less than ten years in the future, the cost will be at a low level as using of coal and this will bring the possibility for China to develop use of solar energy on a large scale.
Experts suggest necessary rules, regulations and policies are worked out and issued to speed up development and use of solar energy in China.
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