2015 In China, solar farm could be a real FARM

Nowadays the solar farm in China are more practical now.

BEIJING, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- In a place like this, you can see rows of solar panels like in a regular solar farm. But you may be surprised to find it is a farm that actually produces food: underneath the solar panels there are vegetables growing, or hairy crabs crawling.


This perfect marriage of renewable energy and agriculture is an innovation by Chinese solar power operators looking for ways to circumvent the country's tight restrictions on the conversion of agricultural land.


Solar farms take up a big area and one of the hardest challenges the sector face is to obtain land near major population centers. "Integrating food production helps us to convince the farmers to lease the land at a reasonable price and get local government support," Roger Yang, head of new energy business in China for Hong Kong-listed utility company CLP, was cited by Financial times as saying.


Solar industry has witnessed gigantic development in China over the past few years. Solar power capacity in China will reach 150 GW in five years, up from 35.8 GW at the end of June, Dong Xiufen, director of new energy for China's National Energy Administration, told Xinhua earlier . The government' s goal is to boost photovoltaic-power capacity by 20 GW annually from 2016 to 2020, she said.