Germany and Spain may be the leaders in solar photovoltaics, but China comes from behind and amazes everyone with an enormous power station just above the Beijing-Shanghai railway station. The plant is able to produce 6.3 MWh (megawatt-hours) of electricity and can provide the needs of 12,000 households in Shanghai.
By cutting coal consumption by 2,254 tons and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 6,600 tons, it’s fair to say that it’s really a green kudo for China to open it.
Since Sunday, when it was inaugurated, the photovoltaic sent 300,000 kWh of electricity to the grid. The overall price of the project was $23.5 million (160 million yuan).
“The project is another manifestation of China’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions to fight climate change. It comes after the country set a voluntary target of cutting carbon intensity per unit of GDP by 40 to 45 percent by 2020,” said Yu Hailong, general manager of the Beijing-based China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group (CECEP), the project’s developer.
The Chinese government has a busy schedule with planning this year’s renewable energy development. By 2020 they expect to have around 20 GW of solar power and 100 GW wind power installed. The next step is to develop 13 projects totaling 280 MW in western China.
Outlining the benefits of solar power, Song Aizhen, of the solar energy branch of CECEP said “Take solar energy for instance – its cost is already three times that of thermal power, and BIPV technologies are even more expensive.”
