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Solar Energy Lights Up Tibetans' Life
Solar energy lamps and other facilities are widely used in the Tibet Autonomous Region in southwest China.
Xiongpa Township in Ge'gyai County, Ali Prefecture is a good example, with more than 80 percent of local herdsmen using solar energy lamps.
Guisang, a Tibetan herdsman in his 60s, said, "Lighting solar energy lamps can save my family some 50 kilograms of ghee (a special cream used in Temples for lighting), annually. It's brighter than in the past."
Ali, 4,500 meters above the sea level, is rich in solar energy resources. Since 1984, Ali has built more than 700,000 square meters of heating shelters for various purposes.
The prefecture also has 100 plus greenhouses for growing vegetables, covering 10,000 square meters, more than 30 solar energy power stations with a combined capacity of 200 kilowatts and over 100 wells, which use solar energy to pump water for 3,000 local families and 340,000 head of livestock.
Moreover, the solar energy has also been used in lighting and cooking, and transmitting TV programs in the region.
Tibet, located on the "roof of the world", has the most sunshine in China with over 3,000 hours annually.
The regional government plans to make the development of solar energy a pillar industry in the region. By early next century, the industry is expected to provide electricity for more than 1.6 million herdsmen, two-thirds of Tibet's total population.
Statistics show that various solar energy facilities now in operation in Tibet can save conventional energy resources equaling 120,000 tons of standard coal annually.
Tibet to Develop Solar Energy
The Tibet Autonomous Region, known as the Roof of the World, is tending vigorously to construct and develop a new source of energy - solar energy. And now it is making efforts to solve the problem of electricity supply for lighting up its 1.6 million farmers and herdsmen accounting for two thirds of the region's population. To achieve this goal a rough investment of three to five billion yuan is required to put in.
The retardation in the development of power industry proves a bottleneck greatly restricting the region's economic development. Tibet, a region with the least power coverage in China, sees an installed capacity of 340,000 kw only, and the annual usage of electricity per capita is not up to one third that of the average in the whole country.
Due to its vast territory sparsely inhabited, the population density finds only two persons per square kilometers. And again owing to the low electricity loading, it obviously is not a realistic way to construct large or medium-sized power stations by resorting to extended network for power transmission to the areas of no or shortage of electricity in a conventional way.
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