Developments within the Chinese market formed the central theme of Intersolar China, hosted for the second time by the Intercontinental Hotel Beichen in Beijing from 11-13 December. The conference focused on innovative technologies and trends in photovoltaics and solar thermal technologies.
Some 69 speakers from around the world discussed current developments in the solar industry in front of 549 Chinese and international conference attendees. Around 70 expert presentations shed light on the most recent developments in the areas of energy storage, solar cities, large-scale photovoltaic plants, PV production and recycling, and a networking event on the first day of the conference allowed attendees to engage in intensive expert discussions.
Conference organizers report an increase in attendees of 17% in comparison to the previous year.
“It’s now conventional wisdom in the PV world that China will become the top market, if not in 2013 then certainly in 2014,” said Dr. Reinhold Buttgereit, Secretary General of theEuropean Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) and one of the keynote speakers at the official opening of the conference.
According to figures from the Chinese National Energy Administration (NEA), a total PV capacity of 21GW is expected to be installed in China by 2015.
The construction of large-scale PV plants will assume a central role in ensuring that the targets set out in China’s 12th Five-Year Plan (2011 to 2015) are achieved. The current challenges of developing, implementing and maintaining large-scale PV power plants therefore formed the focus of the double session PV Power Plants.
The People’s Republic of China is undergoing enormous growth with the country’s increasing urbanization leading to a continuous increase in energy consumption. While 51% of the Chinese population lived in towns or cities in 2011, this proportion is expected to rise to a total of 60% by 2020.
In the wake of this, the double session held by the Joint Forces for Solar initiative looked at both concepts for decentralized power generation in a session titled Distributed Generation, as well as examining solar cities, model cities that cover a large part of their energy consumption with solar energy.
Next year’s Intersolar China will be held 10-13 December 2013.
