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Solar energy becomes popular choice in Tibet
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-10-21 10:44
Purbu, a native of Heping Village of Nyima County, southwest China's Tibet
Autonomous Region, traveled to Lhasa, the regional capital, during the National
Day holiday season to buy a solar energy converter as a dowry for his younger
sister.
"It's fashionable, pollution-free, and I'm sure my sister will love it," said
Purbu, who spent over 2,000 yuan (US$241) on the gift. Purbu's home, located in
northern, pastoral Tibet, is some 500 km away from Lhasa and it takes a full day
to travel there on the bumpy plateau highways.
It is true that in rural and pastoral Tibet, solar energy converters have
replaced conventional pollution-prone fuel and have become fashionable consumer
commodities.
For a long time, Tibetans, who consider themselves "sons and daughters of the
sun," had relied on straw, firewood, cattle dung for fuel, and ghee, a kind of
clarified and semifluid butter, for lighting, and shunned using solar energy
despite the fact that Tibet, also known as "roof of the world," abounds in
sunlight, which lasts for 3,400 hours a year here.
Some of the sun-worshiping Tibetans were reluctant, until recently, to use
state-subsidized solar ovens for cooking. Five years ago, Zhoima, an old Tibetan
woman from Dongjiao Village of Gyangze County, southern Tibet, insisted her
daughter return the solar oven to the shop she had bought for the mother as the
mother feared the sun god might "get tired out."
A region-wide "sunlight scheme" was launched in Tibet in 1990 and another
"electricity to township program" was also kicked off in 2002 in a bid to make a
good use of solar energy resources and protect local environment in the plateau
region.
Wang Haijiang, deputy head of Tibet Solar Energy Research and Demonstration
Center, said that under the "sunlight scheme," Tibetans would get a subsidy of
50 yuan for purchasing a solar energy oven, which costs 300 yuan.
Each solar energy oven can help save about 750 kg of straw and firewood a
year, said Wang.
Over the past 14 years, in addition to popularizing knowledge on the
scientific development of solar energy resources, workers with Wang's center
have helped Tibetan farmers and herdsmen install 110,000 solar energy ovens at
their homes.
In the meantime, since 2002, the state has also invested more than 800
million yuan in constructing 300 solar energy power generating stations across
Tibet, with the aggregate installed capacity amounting to 8,000 kw.
The efforts have paid off.
Dainzin Wangja, head of the Dongjiao Village Committee, Gyangze County, aid
thanks to popularization of scientific knowledge, all 247 households in the
village have built solar energy ovens and solar energy greenhouses.
Zhoima, the old Tibetan woman from the same village, now has one solar oven
fixed at her home for cooking. "Solar energy resources will be wasted in vain if
we don't use them," said Zhoima. "The most important thing is that solar energy
is free of charge, pollution-free, and we can use it to grow vegetables in
greenhouses and cook and heat."
Targyai, a 65-year-old Tibetan herdsman from Coqen County, said from his
nomadic tent that lamps powered by solar energy saved him 50 kg of ghee from
burning for lighting or 1,200 yuan a year.
When night falls, Cewang Ringqen, another old Tibetan farmer from Ngari
Prefecture, does woolen knitting under a solar energy lamp, with three
grandchildren doing their homework and the rest of the family watching TV
programs.
"Compared to cattle dung and ghee, solar energy is much cleaner, " said
Cewang.
Development and utilization of solar energy resources have not only changed
Tibetan farmers' and herdsmen' ways of life and production, but also changed
their environment for subsistence.
Lhaba Cering, an official from Ngari Prefecture, said every household needed
to cut seven tons of red willow branches for fuel before solar-heated houses
were built.
"Utilization of solar energy has effectively protected vegetation on
pasture," said Lhaba.
Moreover, with the electricity converted by solar energy, more than 500,000
Tibetan farmers and herdsmen have bid farewell to nights without light and cold
winters with no heating facilities, said Wang Haijiang.
In addition to illumination, cooking and heating, solar energy is also widely
used in fields such as telecoms, radio and TV services. The energy saved from
the solar energy development and utilization each year is equivalent to 130,000
tons of standard coal, and the economic returns thus formed is estimated at 50
million yuan a year.
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