CHINA BUILDS CONCENTRATOR PHOTOVOLTAIC SOLAR POWER STATION

Construction of China's largest concentrator photovoltaic solar power station is in full swing at Xichang, Sichuan Province.

With scheduled capacity of 10 megawatts, the station will go into operation by the end of 2009. It will be the largest solar power station using concentrating photovoltaic modules in China compared with the current largest one in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, with a one megawatt capacity.

Total investment will be 60 million yuan (US$7.9 million).

China is boosting its clean fuel ratio to 16 per cent by 2020.

A policy issued by the State Council, China's cabinet, which requires power grid operators to buy solar power, wind power, marine power and hydropower first before coal-fired power, came into effect this month.

Concentrating photovoltaic modules is a new solar technology, which could covert over 35 per cent of solar energy into electricity, compared with 22 per cent for the best conventional commercial silicon photovoltaic panels, experts say.