Remote villages in Gansu lit up by the 'sun'

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, November 22, 2003

Remote villages in Gansu lit up by the 'sun'

Nights, as well as days, in Oulaxiuma, a township in the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Gannan in northwest China's Gansu Province, are being illuminated by the sun.

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Nights, as well as days, in Oulaxiuma, a township in the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Gannan in northwest China's Gansu Province, are being illuminated by the sun.

"Our nights were once lit up by ghee or candles. But since the solar power station went into operation last year, nights are as bright as days," said Zhoima, a herdsman in Oulaxiuma.

Until the end of 1999 more than seven million families of villagers and herdsmen in over 20,000 out-of-the-way villages in West China that the electrical network did not cover had been living a life without electricity.

In 2000, the Chinese Government started "Light Project," planning to supply power for the 20 million people in about 10 years by new energy technology such as photovoltaic and wind powergeneration.

Photovoltaic power generation is a technology to change solar energy into electric power through conversion appliances. As most of western China is of high altitude and gets sufficient sunlight,photovoltaic power generation by using solar energy is effective in these remote villages.

Oulaxiuma is one of the earliest to benefit from this technology. In October 2002, two 56-kilowatt photovoltaic power stations went into operation in Oulaxiuma and 120 families began anew life with electricity.

"I bought a TV set two years ago, but it had been an ornament until electricity was sent to my home. Now we can watch TV every day and a new world is opened before us," said Zhaxi, a herdsman living in Oulaxiuma.

Beishan township in inner Tengger Desert is another once "dark"region of Gansu Province lit up by solar energy.

"Days are easier since three photovoltaic power stations were put into use in 2002. Every night, when I come home tired from work, I can have dinner in the daylight lamp, watching TV or listening to the radio," said Hanjun, a villager in Beishan.

More than 9,000 families from nine townships in the remote areaof Gansu Province have benefited from the Light Project since it was put into effect two years ago, said Yuanbin, an engineer participating in the project.

"By the end of 2002, more than 400 photovoltaic power stations,80 photovoltaic power generation systems for village schools and over 150,000 home photovoltaic electric power systems had been setup, mostly in western regions such as the Tibet Autonomous Region,Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Gansu and Qinghai provinces," said Xi Wenhua, director of the China Solar Energy and Wind Force Information Center, who is also the director of the Natural Resources Institute of Gansu Academy of Sciences.

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