China 1GW Solar Farm Cropping Up

January 5, 2009 | By Kevin | Filed in: Solar Energy.

Two companies in China have announced that they intend to build a 1 GW solar power plant in the northwest region. Initially the solar farm will be built as a 30 megawatt station with an initial investment of $150 million.

The Chinese solar panels will combine crystalline silicon-based and thin film technology. This will rival another 1 GW solar installation that was announced about a month ago. Amelio Solar stated this they will be building a 1 GW solar farm in Jordan using thin-film photovoltaic technology.

In China, the Qinghai New Energy Group and China Technology Development Group Corporation will start building the giga-scale solar farm in the Qaidam Basin later this year. The basin was established as an Economic Experimental Zone for renewable energy by the Chinese government in 2005.

Currently, every 7 to 10 days another coal-fired power plant goes up in China. Over the past two years, coal consumption has jumped 14-percent per year. Quick and decisive action needs to be taken in China to reduce coal dependence and switch to renewables and the 1 GW solar power plant will be a jumpstart in the right direction.


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