Grid gets first jolt of residential solar power

A residential photovoltaic system has been connected to China's State electrical grid for the first time.

That accomplishment occurred in Qingdao, Shandong province, giving evidence of the country's desire to promote the use of solar power.

"From Dec 22, when it was connected to the grid, to Dec 25, the system generated 17.08 kilowatt-hours," said Xu Pengfei, owner of the system. "This will be enough for our household electricity needs and the surplus can be sold to the State Grid."

Local authorities said this is the first project to take advantage of a service that the State Grid Corp of China, which transmits and distributes power in the country, introduced to allow small producers of photovoltaic solar power to connect to the national grid from the start of November.

Xu, who works at a solar-power company, learned of that offer shortly after it was made and submitted an application to set up a residential system to State Grid's Qingdao branch on Nov 9.

"I am an insider in the industry and am very interested in the actual results of the system," Xu said on Wednesday.

Xu's home is on the seventh floor of an apartment building, a living arrangement that forced him to negotiate with every other resident there before he could install the system on the building's roof.

Xu said he is satisfied with the service.

"I at first bought components for the photovoltaic system and intended to install it by myself," Xu said. "But the State Grid sent two workers to help me for free."

Wu Xinhua, a project manager at Shandong Electric Power Corp, has been following the project from start to finish.

"We spent a lot of time designing the working procedures and trying to perfect it," Wu said. "It took 19 days to complete it."

The system has an installed capacity of 2 kilowatts.

"This system will generate 2,600 kilowatt-hours per year and reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 2,592 tons (a year)," Xu Pengfei said.

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