ISC China Communications Manager Huang Wei shared this great success story from our nonprofit partner in Xiaolan.
The Zhongshan Xiaolan Low Carbon Development & Promotion Center has successfully implemented the first rooftop solar panel project in the city of Zhongshan. Building on this work, the Center engaged five community households to install their own rooftop solar projects. At a recent ceremony celebrating ISC partner successes, Maggie Zhao from Xiaolan shared the story of the half-year winding road of working with town, city and province-level electrical departments to get this first rooftop solar project connected to the grid. In its first three months, the initial project has already generated 1972 kWh, equivalent to 1966 Kg of GHG reduction.
The most significant impact of Xiaolan’s project is that they really implemented the national policy at the township level. Local governments didn’t know how to proceed with the national policy; they needed more specific guidance from the central level. Following the completion of Xiaolan’s pilot project, Zhongshan City has developed and published interim procedures for household solar-panel rooftop projects, shortening the timeline for connecting to the grid from 6 months down to one month.
As part of ISC’s capacity-building program, Xiaolan Center also organized the community members to participate in open discussion. With their hard work to educate the community members about solar power and safety assurance of roof-top project, and of course, thanks to their demonstration project, five community households installed their own projects. In this news story, (in Cantonese) Mr. Li from the Xiaolan community talks about his experience, telling the journalist that he thinks solar power helps to reduce pollution while providing economic benefits.