China plans to install 10 photovoltaic power plants across various locations of Southwest China’s Tibet autonomous region by end of this year. This will have the capacity to generate more than 100 MW of electricity to support China’s ever-increasing power demand. The above plan is part of China’s ambition to increase the PV power plants and attain about 5 million kilowatts installation capacity by 2015 and 20 million kilowatts by 2020.
With a total investment of 2 billion Yuan ($ 308 million), Tibet is now said to be China’s leading solar power base and highest power plant station in world. According to a report from National Energy administration (NEA), China’s domestic solar power demand is around 5,00,000 KW a year. The rapid increasing of demand will be well supported by the PV solar plants in Tibet making it the leading hub to reach for clean energy. It is believed that from the existing 9 MW PV power plant in this region, 13 percent of China’s power demand is met.
Anyhow, the spiritual land of Tibet is well blessed with abundance of solar energy resources with an average of 3000 hours of solar radiation annually or 6000 to 8000 mega joules per square meter. Almost 2,00,000 Tibetan homes now have free solar electricity and nearly 4,00,000 kitchens have solar stoves. Ensuring clean energy, Tibet has saved about 162,800 tons of coal last year alone as per the regional government report.
Via: ChinaDaily
