China

China's modern utilisation of solar energy began in the mid-1970's: following the first national solar conference in 1975, research into solar technologies and their promotion was increasingly undertaken. The development of solar energy was incorporated into some government programmes but it was not until after the Rio Conference of 1992 that the Government drew up "Agenda of 21st Century in China", concentrating on the renewable energies.

In 1995 the State Development and Planning Commission (SDPC), the State Economic and Trade Commission (SETC) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) formulated a "Program on New and Renewable Energy from 1996-2010".

SDPC, SETC and MOST have launched the "Sunlight Program", also running until 2010 but covering PV systems. It is designed to upgrade the country抯 manufacturing capability of solar technologies, to establish large-scale PV and PV/hybrid village demonstration schemes, home PV projects for remote areas and to initiate grid-connected PV projects. The "Brightness Project" first launched in 1996 and coming to fruition in 2000 is aimed at providing electricity from solar and wind energy in a number of remote regions.

China is well-endowed with solar energy resources, two-thirds of the territory receiving in excess of 4.6 kWh/m2/day solar radiation. With a large number of remote communities (including many hundreds of islands) without electricity, photovoltaic power generation could play an effective role in serving these areas.

During the 1980's China introduced a solar-cell production capacity and in 1996, 1.5 MW solar panels were produced.

In 1996 there were the following installations utilising solar energy:

• 720 million m2 solar green houses;
• 390 000 ha of polyethylene film-covered green houses;
• 62 million m2 solar heated pigsties;
• >8 million m2 (aperture area) of solar water heaters (of which 5.24 million m2 were in rural areas);
• 7.4 million m2 passive solar residential houses (of which 4.56 million m2 were in rural areas);
• 7 MW PV panels;
• 195 000 solar cooker units.

In mid-2000 China announced that it planned to increase its use of renewable energy by 10% per annum, according to its five-year development plan. At the end of 2000, it was announced that, according to a timetable set by the SETC, renewable resources will account for 0.7% of the total commercial energy consumption by end-2005 and for 2% by 2015