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Commercial development of solar energy has become a worldwide trend: The European Union, Japan and the United States have focused their energy supply security on the development of renewable energy resources such as solar energy.

It is estimated that by 2030 solar energy-generated power will account for over ten percent of total global power supply, and that figure will rise to twenty percent in 2050. Large-scale development and exploitation of solar energy will help it to take up its due market share in energy supply. Photovoltaic energy production that is combined to the grid is the major means for large-scale and commercial use of solar energy.

China is expected to emerge as one of the greatest solar energy production bases in the world after 2008. Certain fundamental conditions are already in place in China for the large scale development and exploitation of solar energy. These conditions include China's huge potential domestic market and solid resource foundation. Besides, China's solar energy industry has already taken shape, and progress has been made in technological development and innovation.

Solar energy becomes the new hope for China's energy resources: Given the recurrent oil and coal price spikes as well as the power shortages nationwide, energy is increasingly having a bottleneck effect on China's economy. This brings new opportunities for the development of solar energy.

The cost of generating electricity out of solar energy will come close to or even become lower than that of power generation by coal in the near future, making it possible for China to conduct vigorous development of solar energy. China's solar energy industry, having been nurtured in the domestic market for over ten years, is fully launched by now, and it has gained momentum for rapid development in the future.

China is the biggest solar water heater producer and consumer in the world. Both its output and consumption of solar water heaters account for over a half of the world total. Research shows that 58.52% of Chinese households have the intention of buying solar water heaters or replacing their gas/electric heaters with solar ones in five years' time. It is estimated that, by 2010, with 70 million square metres more of solar water heaters to be installed before then, the overall area of solar water heaters installed in China will reach 100 million square metres, amounting to a market capacity of 60 billion RMB.

The annual growth rate in the coming years will be maintained at 20 to 30 percent, which means that solar energy industry in China will become a genuine green "gold mine." If a quarter of the Chinese population use solar water heaters, China's solar energy market in 2020 will be projected to reach 270 million square metres. And this is the target the Chinese government is working at.

Investment in solar water heater industry is worthwhile. Our solar water heater industry starts with a very thin basis, but it has been expanding ever since its launch. Currently, the sales volume of solar water heaters in China is ten times that in Europe. Whether it is measured in terms of output or number of solar water heaters sold domestically, China ranks No. 1 in the world. Solar water heaters are also being applied and adapted to a wider range of uses and purposes in our country, so solar energy has a very bright future there.

At present, there are about 28,000 villages in China, or 7 million households and 30 million rural people, that have not yet had access to electricity, and 60% of the counties that have access are in great shortage of it. Most of these powerless areas, rich in solar energy resources, possess a huge market potential for photovoltaic energy production.

Chinese government plans to exploit the rich photovoltaic energy and provide electricity for remote areas before 2010. Since 2005, China has begun large-scale construction of desert power plants and rooftop photovoltaic systems combined to the grid. The market share of photovoltaic energy is expected to grow from 4 percent in 2003 to 20 percent in 2010 and to 60 percent in 2020.

Most solar energy enterprises pursue the mode of photovoltaic electricity generation, which is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. It is also the industry that generates the greatest profits among all renewable resource industries.

Solar cell industry investment trends: Currently, China's solar energy industry has already developed a power generation capacity of 15 MW. Meanwhile, quite solid a foundation has also been laid for the photovoltaic electricity generation industry. Though the cost of photovoltaic generated electricity is still higher than coal-generated electricity, it is nevertheless an advantage in remote areas. As it does not incur the cost of fixing power wires in these areas, small solar energy generators are comparably cheaper and more applicable. Herein lies the reason for both the popularity and prosperity of solar cell industry in recent years.

Be it the photovoltaic industry or the solar water heater industry, the future trend will be the development of the technique of integrating solar energy utilisation with construction.