Chongzhou Industrial Development Zone news from Chengdu
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
This is, as it were, part of a regular newsletter which tells how Chengdu is doing. Chengdu Investment News tells us that amorphous silicon solar cell project worth RMB600 million will be put into construction this July at Chongzhou Industrial Development Zone. Its main investor is Sichuan Guangliang Investment subordinate to Sichuan Kaimai Group.
The company will complete the building of the first production line within a year and of all the construction items within 30 months. The annual capacity of amorphous silicon solar cell will reach 300 megawatt by then, the biggest in China, with RMB45 million taxes to be paid annually.
So what are we talking about?
A solar cell is a device that converts solar energy into electricity by the photovoltaic effect. Assemblies of cells are used to make solar modules, which may in turn be linked in photovoltaic arrays.
Solar cells have many applications. Individual cells are used for powering small devices such as electronic calculators.
Photovoltaic arrays generate a form of renewable electricity, particularly useful in situations where electrical power from the grid is unavailable such as in remote area power systems, Earth-orbiting satellites and space probes, remote radiotelephones and water pumping applications. Photovoltaic electricity is also increasingly deployed in grid-tied electrical systems. However, you would need more than a few systems to light up Chunxilu in Chengdu shown in our illustration.)
So why amorphous?
Silicon comes in two types, crystalline and amorphous. One of the main advantages of amorphous, over crystalline silicon relies in its production technique, as thin films of it can be deposited over large areas.
Because fuel cells have no moving parts and do not involve combustion, in ideal conditions they can achieve up to 99.9999% reliability. Thus if they can also produce 300 megawatt you have seriously useful power.
And moving from the most modern of technology to the use of something which has been with us for centuries.
Chengdu’s technology of high-strength bamboo-type material which took eight years and cost nearly RMB10 milion. Ci Bamboo commonly seen in villages of Sichuan, has good tenacity and well-built fiber framework, whose endwise tensile strength is 5 to 6 times than that of carbon steel. After machining it becomes high-strength bamboo-quality molding material, with properties of high density, strong rigidity, good wear-resistance, waterproof, moisture proof as well as mothproof. It also weight much less than the equivalent in steel and is therefore called ‘vegetable steel’. One estimate is that using the Sichuan Ci Bamboo to make the high-strength bamboo-quality material could bring out an industry of RMB20 billion a year.
Finally a no-paper declaration is expected to be applied widely within the year at Chengdu Export Processing Zone. In practice, the export company only needs to fill in the customs declaration form on-line, and the customs e-system will examine and verify those digital data; later on the company can print through the e-port platform the Notice of Customs Check and Release Permit returned by the customs authorities, and then ask for checking pass at the port with real products.
It is reported that according to the early trials, the ‘direct’ mode of declaration, made Intel (Chengdu) company’s finished products pass through the customs in five minutes after completing the on-line declaration, saving 83% of time. Just like the non-use of airline tickets this can save a vast amount of paper.
Newsletters like this, letting the world how an industrial zone is progressing is a wonderful idea. We should see more of it.
Source: All Roads Lead to China
