South Korea, China to Start Joint Solar Energy Project

South Korea, China to Start Joint Solar Energy Project

Dec 28 - BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

Text of report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap

Seoul, 28 December: South Korea will cooperate with China in developing ways to harness new and renewable energy resources, beginning with a joint solar energy project, officials said Tuesday [28 December].

According to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy, the neighbouring countries have agreed to establish a 1.4m-US-dollar, 100-kilowatt solar panel farm at a location in the Tibetan desert in western China for feasibility testing over three years.

"The cost of the study will be met by each partner putting up 0.7m dollars each, with South Korea to be responsible for the supply and installation of the photo-voltaic solar panels and China to take charge of building and managing the complex," said Yoon Jong-yeon, a director general at the ministry.

China's generation of electricity from solar energy is expected to increase from 50 megaW in 2003 to 400 megaW in 2010 and 10 gigaW in 2020.

South Korea, which provided 300 homes with photo-voltaic solar panels this year, aims to have 100,000 homes supplied with solar powered electricity by 2012.

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