Yingli Solar has announced it has commenced construction of a 50 megawatt solar power plant on land degraded by mining activities in Huangshi City, Hubei Province, China.
The 50 MW facility will consist of approximately 170,000 Yingli solar panels, which are are expected to generate approximately 55,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) of clean electricity annually.
The project will avoid the burning of nearly 22,000 tons of coal and 50,000 tons of carbon emissions annually.
This is the first solar farm in China to be built on land affected by mining activities and will serve as a key demonstration project for the integration of solar power into land rehabilitation programs across the nation. Yingli says it also plans to develop an educational visitor’s center near the project site.
“This highly replicable project shows how solar power can be integrated into ecological restoration programs, stimulating the local economy and providing clean power to the community while simultaneously aiding in land revitalization,” commented Mr. Liansheng Miao, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Yingli Green Energy.
“We’re pleased that our first project on degraded mining lands will deliver concrete economic and environmental benefits to the surrounding community.”
The system is scheduled to commence operations late this year.
In other recent news from Yingli, the company announced it would release its unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2014, before the U.S. market opens on Wednesday, March 25, 2015. The dial-in details for the live conference call can be viewed here. A live and archived webcast of the conference call will be available on the Investors section of Yingli’s web site.
Headquartered in Baoding, China, Yingli Green Energy has supplied more than 10 GW of Yingli solar panels, approximately 40 million units, to customers worldwide. Yingli solar panels have been particularly popular in Australia for residential solar applications. In 2013, Yingli became the first solar panel supplier to ship more than 3 GW of solar modules in a single year.
The company is one of the world’s largest fully vertically integrated solar panel manufacturers and was founded by Mr. Liansheng Miao in 1998.
