63-year-old man builds photovoltaic power station in Fujian

Chen Xiang, 63, is an enthusiast of new energy who focuses on in photovoltaic (PV) technology research in Jianou city, east China's Fujian province. In 2014, he successfully built a family power station on the roof of his home and linked it to the national power grid. This was indeed a great breakthrough in Jianou city and made him famous.

This PV power station realized normal operation through connecting the photovoltaic solar panels on the roof with the household energy meter, inverter control box, remote intelligent data logger and computer. Workers could clearly see the real-time generating capacity, each household's electricity consumption and calculated the electricity purchased by the power grid and profit.

But Chen Xiang was not satisfied with the periodical achievements. After searching online, he found a company's new photovoltaic materials and related equipment. At the beginning of 2015, Chen and six neighbors invested 110,000 yuan to expand and renovate the photovoltaic power station. With the help of technicians from the local power supply company, some new polycrystalline silicon solar panels, inverter control box and connecting wires were installed. The data provided by the power company of Jianou city showed that the PV power station generated electricity of 12,489 kWh in 2015, which could meet the needs of six families with 24 people and generated profit of 8,612 yuan.

Chen and his neighbors now cook meals with electricity. "I will continue to focus on the technical progress of photovoltaic power generation and make some contribution to widespread application of new energy," said Cheng.