Coal wants to turn gorgeously into the solar city

The International Solar Decathlon Competition is currently being held in Datong, Shanxi. This is the first time the event has been held in China and Asia. The 20 “Solar Houses” produced by 13 countries have attracted a large number of Chinese and foreign tourists.

“The 'Solar House' is energy-saving, environment-friendly, beautiful and comfortable. Datong is rich in sunshine and is really a feng shui treasure land.” 73-year-old Datong citizen Chen Liying said in a visit that in a short period of ten years, she deeply felt that Datong moved from the “coal capital” "Garden" and then the "solar city" transformation.

Datong is known as the “Coal Capital of China” and is one of the most important coal-producing cities in China. It has proven coal reserves of 37.6 billion tons. Since the founding of New China, it has transported more than 2.3 billion tons of high-quality steam coal to various parts of China and has been dubbed China's “boiler room”.

The Datong large coal mines and small coal mines in the past blossomed. “Transmitting electricity, transporting coal, leaving a pile of ash, and dyeing a piece of water” is a true portrayal of Datong's coal production. Before and after 2005, Datong had 113 major cities in the country. Ranked the top three in the environment rankings.

The deteriorating investment environment coupled with a single industrial structure severely restricts the development of Datong. In recent years, Datong has invested 3 billion yuan in large-scale urban greening, and constructed a large number of garden-style parks such as the Wenyu Lake Wetland Park. At the same time, Datong implemented the construction of the central city and the restoration of the ancient city. The appearance of the city has changed significantly.

“We need to use the east wind of the competition to realize the transition from non-renewable energy to renewable energy, and from high-carbon cities to low-carbon cities in Datong.” Li Junming, mayor of Datong City, said that in the future, the output value of solar energy related industries in Datong will exceed that of the coal industry and become The world's largest solar energy industry base, "low carbon, recycling, and green" has become Datong's development philosophy.

Datong sunshine is rich in resources, the average annual sunshine time is 2800 hours, and the annual average daily radiation is 6.1 kWh/m2. At present, 50,000 tons of polysilicon, 1 GW of solar modules, and 300 watts of solar power plants form a complete solar industry chain.

Li Junming said that by 2015, Datong will form a new energy industry system that fully utilizes wind energy, solar energy, biomass energy, and geothermal energy. The total output value of the city's new energy industry will strive to reach 100 billion yuan. By 2020, it will strive to build Datong into one of China's new energy supply and new energy equipment manufacturing bases.

"Datong not only removed the 'black hat' that seriously polluted the city, but also built a green new "coal capital," and Datong is realizing a magnificent turn from black to green and from the 'coal capital' to the 'solar city.' "Li Junming said.