First Solar|China 2 Gigawatt Solar Plant
US-Based, First Solar and the Chinese government have proposed a massive 2 Gigawatt photovoltaic solar panel plant making this the biggest project of its type.
The planned solar power plant will be huge, ultimately covering an area of 25 square miles. The power output will be enough to power around three million homes when completed and will have the generating capacity of two large coal power station but without all the nasty pollution and dangers associated with mining coal.
The solar power station will be built north of Beijing in the outer Mongolian desert with panels produce in China by a newly build First Solar plant.
China has taken steps to aggressively promote solar energy along with other renewable as sources of electricity. A single plant on this scale would cost around US$6 billion if it were build in the USA, With reduced labour costs in China along with the governments feed in tariffs the final cost will be much lower.
Solar Array
Completion of the solar plant is expected in 2019 with phases of the plant coming online as they are completed. The first phase is expected to be a 30 Megawatt demonstration project early in 2010. This will be followed by a second facility capable of producing 100 Megawatt of clean energy.
China is ideally placed to take advantage of solar energy, with large tracts of land unsuitable for agriculture. Along with large scale solar energy, China has implemented a policy of increasing the amount of electrical production by renewable energy and it seems to have started on a large scale.
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