CHINA BUILDING SOLAR MEGA-CITY

There is so much made of China’s enormous and growing greenhouse gas emissions (GhGs), it seems sort of a well-kept secret how aggressively China is developing New Energy.

China is rapidly emerging as a world leader in both solar energy and wind energy. Hardly more than an also-ran in 2005, China has come on strong in the last three years.

Unlike the “drill, baby, drill” crowd, China is very clear-eyed about its energy situation. It is serious about the development of New Energy as a means of expanding domestic energy supply and improving urban air quality.

The central government developed guidelines, laid out in "Advice on renewable energy development and utilization." (Link so far not found. If anybody has one, please forward.)

More importantly, China has added increased solar energy manufacturing and marketing development at its flagship urban development pilot project, the Kunming High-tech Zone.

The government had initially planned 3 square kilometers in Kunming for solar power plants, solar manufacturing facilites, solar battery production and support industries. Those plans are being ambitiously expanded, as detailed in this
Procurement Plan.

The detailed plans, however, only barely hint at the enormous range of marketable products and the 1.3 billion-person marketplace in China.

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The Kunming Project: Urban Development in China; A Dialogue

Kunming, ‘Spring City,’ to Build the Biggest Solar Energy Production Base in China
September 29, 2008 (Xinhua/PR Newswire via Yahoo Finance)

WHO
Dou Jinming, deputy director, Kunming Development and Reform Commission

WHAT
As part of an urban development pilot project, plans call for Kunming to aggressively develop solar energy manufacturing and marketing.

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WHEN
- 2010 goals: 50% penetration, with 70% utilization in the first demonstration zone and 90% in new urban building. Solar energy used in 60% of urban buildings, 20% of rural buildings, elimination of 200,000 tons of diesel oil, 150,000 tons of gasoline.
- 2015 goal: solar light/heat utilization over 6,000,000 square meters, 100 megawatt of solar photovoltaic (PV), elimination of 300,000 tons of diesel, 300,000 tons petrol.

WHERE
- Kunming is in Yunnan Province.
- The Kunming-centered plan calls on the development of solar electricity and solar heat products and resources in and around a 2920 square kilometer area of the Kunming Dianchi Lake basin.

WHY
- Kunming is an urban development pilot project.
- The central government intends for Kunming to be a solar energy use demonstration city and to become China’s leader in solar energy product manufacturing.
- The idea is for Kunming to be China’s solar energy industry base and to develop products it can make popular across China.
- The region in which Kunming is situated is rich in solar energy assets: 2250+ hours/year in average sunshine, 5400 MJ/m-per-year annual solar radiation.
- Kunming’s solar energy photo-thermal application is the best in China
- In Kunming, there 100+ solar energy techniques/enterprises to support production.
- China expects the Kunming plan to significantly increase China’s power capacity as well as reduce fossil fuel consumption.
- Investment: 17,900,000,000 yuan. ($2.6 billion)

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QUOTES
Xinhua/PR Newswire: “Dou Jinming said that Kunming is rich in solar energy resources: the average annual amount of sunshine is more than 2250 hours, and the average annual solar radiation is over 5400 MJ/m. Photo-thermal application of solar energy is also at the top of the whole country in Kunming…”