Can plant roofs generate power? It sounds unimaginable, but it is true. On October 13, the reporter saw the amazing scene when interviewing in Yuchai Group.

Install solar panels on plant roofs

How do plant roofs generate power? Let's take a close look.

The reporter looked down on the roof of Yuchai Power Building, seeing a spectacular scene in the sun: stretches of blue on roofs of plant buildings around. With the blue, Yuchai Group has built China's largest rooftop solar PV power station in operation.

Zhou Yu, assistant to general manager of Yuchai New Energy Co., Ltd., introduced the process of converting solar energy into electric energy briefly. Yuchai Group made full use of stable local solar resources to install solar panels made from semiconductor materials like silicon on roofs of plant buildings of relevant subsidiaries, which generates direct current through light and supplies power for production.

Launch the most capacious national golden sun project

As a large-sized modern enterprise, with a large plant area and robust demand for power, Yuchai Group needs strong self-supply energy, rooftop solar PV power generation accords with the development trend of new energy in the country and the actualities of Yuchai Group very well.

In August 2011, good news came that the continuous grid-connected generation project of Guangxi Yuchai Machinery Group Co., Ltd. had been approved by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Science and Technology. It is a national Golden Sun demonstration project with the largest single construction capacity approved.

On February 16, 2013, the project commenced. In the project, solar power generation systems were installed and constructed on roofs of buildings of Yuchai Group and its subsidiaries covering a total area of 420,000 square meters, with a total installed capacity of 30MW and a dynamic investment of over 500 million yuan. Over 130,000 solar cell modules were installed. Six months later, the project wound up and passed examination and inspection by relevant national departments.

Set a good example in corporate energy conservation and emission reduction

PV power stations are internationally advanced technical project of directly converting solar energy into electric energy at present, which produce no pollution like gas, liquid and solid waste in the full process, Zhou said.

Since going into operation, the project has generated over 2,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity, saving standard coal by over 10,000 tons, carbon dioxide emission by 25,000 tons, sulfur dioxide emission by 750 tons, nitride emission by 37 tons and dust emission by 6,800 tons annually. PV power generation produces no noise and discharges no sewage, can be integrated with rooftop buildings, occupies no land resources and has yielded substantial environmental and social benefits.

Gu Tangsheng, president of Yuchai Group, said, the project is a major move to promote renewable energy application in the building field as well as an inevitable choice for Yuchai to take the road of "low-carbon economy". This has not only provided all-day self-supply energy to Yuchai Group, but also opened up a new road of energy conservation, emission reduction and scientific development for large-sized state-owned enterprises across the country, setting a good example in the industry.

(Li Xiaojun/Li Wei/Yulin Daily)