China to build world’s biggest solar plant in Dunhuang, Gansu province
Excerpts from the article of Clifford Coonan “The greening of China” published in
The New Zealand Herald
http://subs.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10412308
The Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association (CREIA) was set up in 2000 to promote the industrialisation of the use of green energy in China. “Using renewable energy can promote economic development in an environment-friendly way, which would be the key method to balance China’s economic development and its environment protection,” says CREIA secretary-general Li Junfeng. China still has vast coal reserves, but officials are examining the potential of renewable energy to resolve a potential bottleneck to faster economic growth. Experts say the challenges facing China’s environment require a multi-faceted response – wind power in particular is especially suitable for remote, economically underdeveloped regions in China, such as Xinjiang and other barren provinces such as Inner Mongolia.
Meanwhile, CREIA is developing solar energy and biomass energy in several other provinces including Hebei and Jiangsu. Local government in Dunhuang in Gansu province said they would build the world’s biggest solar plant there, a 100-megawatt project costing £400 million. Dunhuang has 3362 hours of sunshine every year, making it a prime spot for solar energy development. The world’s biggest solar plant is at Arnstein near Wuerzburg in southern Germany, with a 12-megawatt capacity.