Paw power: 100 panda-shaped solar plants planned for China’s new Silk Road
First station is already up and running in Shanxi province as energy firm tries to show country’s cuddly side
In a country where you can find everything from chopsticks to slippers designed to look like pandas, one Chinese energy company is going a step further by building 100 solar farms shaped like the bears along the route of the ambitious belt and road trade plan.
Panda Green Energy Group has already connected one such 50-megawatt (MW) plant to the grid in the northern province of Shanxi, the first step in a public relations stunt that emphasises the cuddly side of the world’s No 2 economy.
Built with darker crystalline silicon and lighter-coloured thin film solar cells, the plant resembles a cartoon giant panda from the air.
“The plant required an investment of 350 million yuan (US$52 million), and it would require investment of US$3 billion for 100 such plants,” Panda Green Energy’s chief executive Li Yuan said.
Li did not say where the longer-term investment would come from.
