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panda

China is known as the dwelling house of the endangered and adorable panda, and now there's a new panda that could exist spreading to the whole world. Only this one doesn't eat bamboo — it eats sunlight. A company called Panda Green Energy has built a solar panel array that looks similar a giant panda. Information technology's the cutest power establish you've always seen, and the company wants to beginning building them in other parts of the earth.

The grid is located in Datong, a urban center in the northern province of Shanxi. It covers about 248 acres (ane square kilometer), making information technology a respectably big solar ability facility. There are plenty larger ones, including the Tengger Desert Solar constitute, which has a size of 43 square kilometers. The largest one in the U.s.a. is just 13 square kilometers in area. The power generation capacity of the panda array is 100MW, near what you'd expect from a solar power farm of this size. That'due south plenty juice to ability more than viii,000 homes. The creators hope information technology volition generate 3.2 billion kWh of power in the next 25 years. That's the equivalent of burning more than one million tons of coal.

As for how it was fabricated to look similar a panda, that'south thank you to the clever use of ii different solar console technologies. The lighter panels are thin motion picture photovoltaic (PV) cells, and the darker ones are monocrystalline silicon PV cells. The outcome is a happy panda sitting on a plateau.

pandas

The solar power farm was built with the help of the United Nation Development Program (UNDP), which has focused heavily on promoting renewable free energy to Prc'due south youth. The nation's rapid industrialization in recent decades has led to severe environmental consequences. In fact, the UNDP and Panda Green Energy will run a summer camp in August for Chinese teenagers.

Panda Light-green Energy is currently working on building a second panda solar assortment at the aforementioned site, but information technology also wants to expand to other locations. Early plans are in place to deploy panda solar arrays in Fiji and the Philippines. It aims to build 100 such solar power facilities around the world in the next v years. Of grade, not all areas are suitable for solar power considering of climate and lack of infrastructure. Solar power doesn't ever go as much back up every bit traditional forms of energy. But really, who can object to such a beautiful power plant?

Now read: How practise solar cells piece of work?