Jul 26 2010
Hongqiao railway station on the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway line has earned the distinction of featuring prime individual integrated photovoltaic system on its crown, has started supplying power to the power grid in Shanghai since last Sunday.
The new solar system designed to produce 6.68 MW built at a cost of $23.6 million is expected to produce around 6.3 million kWh of electric power every year, sufficient to power around 12,000 shanghai homes and cut down 2,254 tons of coal consumption and decrease carbon emissions by 6,600 tons.
Solar Energy High Speed Rail
According a Xinhuanet News reports, the160 million Yuan project consists of 20,000 solar panels installed over an area of 61,000 square meters and has already produced 300,000 kWh power.
Yu Hailong, who works as general manager for the Beijing-based China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group, articulated that the project which has been implemented is a standing example of the Chinese government’s voluntary commitment to reduce carbon emission levels per unit of GDP by 40% to 45%by the year 2020,and the project is expected to kindle the interest for more such projects in China and help in the creation of more energy efficient and eco friendly railway stations.
Zheng Jian, who works as Chief Engineer in the Ministry of Railways said that railway stations are perfect locations to implement such solar technology projects as they did not require additional space and the solar panels are just integrated in the building structure. He added that this technology will be more useful in eastern parts of China where the land resources are restricted and energy requirement is high.