Many hands make village light work

Lin Liangqi left general manager of Philips Lighting Greater China, explains how solar energy light-emitting diodes work to former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and villagers in Xiaoxichong village in Guiyang, Guizhou province.

BEIJING - Baigongzhai, a village in Guizhou province, is well known for being the first model for the 1,000-Village Solar Initiative. After the village was equipped with 22 light-emitting diode LED street lamps that use solar power, residents now visit the public square after dinner where children play and the elderly can rest and chat.

There are 200,000 villages in China more than 25 percent of the country's total like Baigongzhai that lack full electrical coverage from the national grid and so are plunged into darkness after sunset. Thanks to a solar initiative from The Climate Group, a UK-based international non-profit organization, and Jet Li's One Foundation in August 2009, about 40 villages in Chongqing, Chengdu and Guiyang have been donated 400 solar power LED street lamps which benefit 40,000 residents.

There are many obstacles to connecting certain places in China to the national grid, said Chou Baoxing, vice-minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development. The government wants to provide clean energy sources such as solar, wind and water generators.

Philips Lighting China announced it was joining the 1,000-Village Solar Initiative on its first anniversary. The company designed a special LED street lamp for Guiyang's 10 model villages that can provide energy over six continuous rainy days, said the company's representative, Lin Liangqi.

The LED street lamps do not need new cables and transfer the solar energy into electricity for daily use at no extra cost, Lin said, adding that the new technology could bring the double bonus of lower carbon dioxide emissions and better social welfare.

According to The Climate Group, the 1,000-Village Solar Initiative is a global five-year plan that is aimed at exploring and implementing low carbon lighting solutions in rural areas through the wide application of solar power LED lighting.

The project will cover 400 villages in China over the first two years. A second phase will see it expand to a total of 600 villages in China, India and Africa.

The Climate Group's China director, Wu Changhua, said that in the coming second year, it will promote other clean technologies in model villages it engaged with in the first year.

With the 1,000-Village Solar Initiative and local government support, Baigongzhai is clean and scenic now and many residents are operating family hotel businesses for a growing number of tourists. Infrastructure such as landfill and a sewage treatment system have been built. The Climate Group's special representative, the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, congratulated the villagers on a visit to Baigongzhai in August last year.

As the project's new partner, Philips made a commitment to donate 1 million yuan $150,000 of lighting products in addition to the solar power LED street lamps to the project. Lin said Philips has continued to help the rural people of China to improve the quality of their lives since the company donated 13 million energy-saving lamps to the Chinese community last year.