South Korea and China have announced that they will cooperate in developing ways to harness new and renewable energy resources, beginning with a joint solar energy project, reported officials at the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy. The countries have agreed to establish a US$1.4 million 100 kW solar panel farm at a location in the Tibetan desert in western China for feasibility testing over three years.
The cost of the study will be met by each partner putting up $0.7 million each, with South Korea to be responsible for the supply and installation of the photovoltaic solar panels and China to take charge of building and managing the complex. China's generation of electricity from solar energy is expected to increase from 50 MW in 2003 to 400 MW in 2010 and 10 GW in 2020. South Korea, which provided 300 homes with photovoltaic solar panels this year, aims to have 100,000 homes supplied with solar-powered electricity by 2012.
