Gansu Province, CHINA

In the summer of 1993, SELF installed 100 Solar Home Systems (SHS) in Majiacha, a remote mountain community of farmers in Gansu Province, thus launching the first-ever solar electric village in China. Following the success of this pilot project, which was supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, SELF then helped form a non-profit affiliate in China, the Gansu Solar Electric Light Fund (G-SELF), to manage PV rural electrification projects in Western China. With financial support from SELF and the Gansu provincial government, G-SELF has been responsible for implementing a 1000-house PV project in Gansu. G-SELF provides 20Wp solar home systems to farmers on credit and manages a central revolving fund. More than 300 families have been electrified so far under this program. The Gansu PV Company installs systems ordered by G-SELF, and provides after-sales maintenance service.

SELF was awarded a contract by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), to supply 500 solar electric home lighting systems to farmers and herdsmen in Gansu. This NREL-supported project builds on the PV rural electrification program initiated by SELF in 1993. It is being carried out as part of a protocol agreement signed in 1995 between the U.S. Department of Energy and the Chinese State Science and Technology Commission to cooperate on a range of renewable energy endeavors. Once completed, the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture will use the SELF/NREL project as a template for the expansion of PV-based rural electrification to other provinces in China. SELF's Director of International Programs, Robert Freling, who is fluent in Mandarin, has managed SELF's operations in China since 1995, including the NREL project. In 1995, with financial support from the Rockefeller Foundation, SELF acquired a 49% equity interest in Gansu PV Company (GPV), a photovoltaic systems integrator and distribution company based in Lanzhou, Gansu. Managed by Professor Wang Anhua, known as the "father of PV in western China," GPV assembles and markets solar home systems to farmers and herdsmen in Gansu and neighboring provinces. Since its formation, GPV has sold more than 1000 PV systems, mostly for cash, to Tibetan herdsmen living in the southern region of Gansu. At present, GPV is negotiating SHS supply contracts with various government agencies that would increase annual sales by 2000 units. SELF's interest in GPV has been transferred to its for-profit affiliate, the Solar Electric Light Company (SELCO).

In addition, Professor Wang has been requested by a large electronics company in Xian, which has financial backing from the Shaanxi provincial government, to find an overseas joint-venture partner to establish in China a large solar cell and module manufacturing facility. GPV, and by extension both SELF and SELCO, would have an equity position in the new joint venture PV manufacturing facility in China.

A study for the U.S. government calculated that the gasoline equivalent of the energy saved over the lifetime of one 24-watt compact fluorescent bulb is sufficient to drive a Prius from New York to San Francisco.