After more than three years of preparation, China is implementing a project designed to turn solar and wind energy into electricity for people living in remote areas, according to Monday's Chinadaily.
The Inner Mongolia and Tibet autonomous regions and Gansu Province will pioneer the use of renewable energy in the country.
The paper cited Wang Changgui, a leading member of the Brightness Project, as saying hat they plan to implement the project by having local planning commissions take charge of general operations and to establish special offices to carry out the work, including choosing products through public bidding.
But the households to have the solar panels and windmills will have to pay for the equipment.
The central government has invested over 20 million yuan to start the project. Most of the funds were used to establish necessary administrative services, scientific research and production.
The local governments of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Qinghai Province have taken the lead in subsidizing families willing to install solar equipment with 200 yuan and 300 yuan respectively. Other local governments are expected to adopt similar policies soon.
Each set of equipment costs around 1,800 yuan; families still have to pay the remaining 1,500 yuan to 1,600 yuan not covered by the subsidies. The solar cells must be replaced every five years, costing another 500 to 600 yuan each time.
"Although the prices are reasonable, they might still be an obstacle in popularizing solar equipment," Wang said.
"The progress of the work will depend tremendously on publicizing the benefits of the equipment."
The project is also seeking ways to reduce the cost of solar energy systems.
A large production base of solar cells, modules and application systems is being built in Baoding of Hebei Province. It will, for the first time in the country, produce polycrystalline silicon cells, the cost of which will be much lower due to large-scale production. When finished the yearly output volume of the new base is expected to double that of the other eight in China.
"But this scale is still dwarfed by some giants in developed countries, and the price should not be expected to come down dramatically," Wang said. "But of course, things might be different, the country is considering more favorable policies."
The solar energy systems designed for the regions are able to produce 20 watts each.
China's Brightness Project was launched by the Chinese Government in 1996 as an immediate response to the call of the World Solar Energy Conference. It vows to provide power for 8 million people by the year 2005, and 23 million by 2010 by harnessing solar and wind energy.
