At first glance, the 60-square-foot booth with a 24-inch presentation monitor and a four-chair set table is not the most eye-catching display among all the exhibitors in this year's trade show at the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC 2008) held on March 4-6 in Washington, D.C. The name of the booth owner-Anwell Technologies-looks like just another anonymous, dull energy company. But then, visitors catch a glimpse of one of its posters, proudly proclaiming: "God Creates Light, Anwell Converts It Into Lives!"

Russell Yau, President of Anwell Technologies America, was probably among the busiest exhibitors in the WIREC 2008 event. Together with his colleague Jian Ming, Executive Director of Marketing of Anwell Technologies Ltd., Yau was busy explaining to the potential customers, partners or investors details of the company's new product which they named SunLite, a type of manufacturing equipment for thin-film solar cell modules.

Founded in 2000 by six young entrepreneurs including Jian, Anwell is now a Singapore Stock Exchange-listed company headquartered in Hong Kong with the manufacturing plant in Dongguan, Guangdong Province. The company has been offering manufacturing solutions to the DVD-R and CD-R replication industries. But witnessing the dawn of an era of energy constraint, the management of Anwell foresaw a tremendous market potential in industries related to renewable energy. So they decided to invest in the research and development of equipment for solar energy utilization.

Anwell completed the SunLite system last year and is looking for buyers for this $80 million equipment used for solar power plants.

Brian J. Hays was one of those who showed great interest in SunLite at the trade show. Hays is chairman and executive vice president of Bel Soley, a firm that puts together many different companies for a development in Haiti.

"We look for partners to do a project in Haiti. Because of the great deal of sun in Haiti, there is a real demand for solar energy there," Hays told Beijing Review. He said that because Haiti has no infrastructure, nor a national power grid, solar energy would be a good solution for the country.

Hays hopes to build a solar power plant in Haiti and Anwell is one of his considerations when looking for a partner to do the project. But since $80 million is quite a big sum, he said that he needed to think about it further before he could make a final decision.

Solar dilemma

Anwell is not the only manufacturer in China seeking fortune in the solar photovoltaic (PV) market. PV is a term used to describe the hardware that converts solar energy into electricity. According to China Renewable Energy Development Overview 2008 (Overview 2008) published by the Energy Bureau and the Energy Research Institute under the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's PV industry has developed rapidly since 2004 due to strong demand in the international PV market, especially in Germany and Japan.

"Chinese solar manufacturers contributed more than 10 percent to the world PV market in 2006, ranking the third only after Japan and Europe. It is expected that by 2010 China will become one of the largest solar cell manufacturers in the world, with annual production capacity of 1 gw," according to the Overview 2008.

But analysts also pointed out that compared with the fast expanding PV manufacturing sector, the domestic Chinese solar PV market has been growing rather slowly.

"Due to lack of proper subsidy policies to encourage the development of solar PV-related industries, a lot of companies have preferred to export their related products to foreign countries that have much more favorable policies for the industry," Jian Ming told Beijing Review.

According to the China Solar PV Report 2007 compiled by the Chinese Renewable Energy Industry Association (CREIA), the development of solar PV industry cannot be solely driven by the market and government support would be essential because of its high cost.

Increased investment

Not only solar power, but other sectors of renewable energy require large support from the government, argued Li Junfeng, Secretary General of CREIA. Li said that governments of developed countries have played an important role in pushing forward the development of renewable energy, including solar, hydropower, biomass and wind energy.

"Countries like the United States and some European countries spend about $600 million-700 million on the research and development of renewable energy every year, while the investment of the Chinese Government in this regard was relatively small, less than 10 percent of that," Li said.

Li said the country should increase its input in renewable energy, but he added that the private sector could also play a bigger role in this regard in future.

At the WIREC 2008, many participants emphasized the importance of private efforts in the advance of renewable energy.

Since China implemented its first Renewable Energy Law on January 1, 2006, the country's renewable energy sector has indeed seen a growth in private investment. Statistics provided by the Overview 2008 shows that by the end of 2006, a total of 15 Chinese renewable energy companies had gone public on the major stock exchanges of New York, London, Hong Kong, Singapore and domestic stock exchanges, with a total market value of over $10 billion.

Large domestic state-owned power enterprises like the State Grid Co., Shenhua Group and China Yangtze Power Co. Ltd. have also become active players in the renewable energy industry, according to the Overview 2008.

China's commitment

At a time with fast climbing oil prices and increasing threats from climate change caused by the emission of carbon dioxide largely resulting from coal burning, every country is trying to dig into the potential of the renewable energy.

China is rich in renewable resources, according to the Medium and Long-term Development Plan for Renewable Energy in China formulated by the NDRC in September 2007. It said that hydropower, biomass, wind and solar are the four sectors in which China has the broadest potential.

Statistics provided by the Overview 2008 show that the total ground-received solar energy each year in China is equal to 1.7 trillion tons of coal equivalent and the feasible potential capacity of onshore and offshore wind energy is around 1 billion kw.

China has not hesitated to explore its rich resources of renewable energy, though currently the country still mainly relies on coal and oil for its energy need. Coal consumption accounts for over two thirds of the overall energy consumption, while the ratio of renewable energy is around 7 percent.

Premier Wen Jiabao, when delivering the government work report at this year's session of the National People's Congress in March, emphasized the government's commitment to supporting the development of renewable energy industry.

The country has already set specific objectives for the development of renewable energy. It aims to raise the share of renewable energy in total primary energy consumption to 10 percent by 2010 and 15 percent by 2020.

Cooperative efforts

China is stepping up efforts to boost the development of renewable energy as one of its priorities in restructuring the country's energy consumption pattern. And it is also looking for partnerships with countries that have more advanced technologies in this field.

According to Li Junfeng, there is now not much cooperation between China and other countries in the research and development of renewable energy, and most connections are currently technology transfers.

A latest example of this kind is the agreement signed between Trina Solar Ltd., a Changzhou-based company, and U.S. company GT Solar Inc., a global provider of manufacturing equipment in the PV industry, based in New Hampshire. The agreement allowed Trina Solar to purchase the primary converter and reactor systems from GT Solar for its planned polysilicon production project for approximately $49 million.

Founded as a system installation company in 1997, Trina Solar is now among the leading PV manufacturers in China. The company is backed by a number of well recognized investors including Good Energies, Milestone Capital and Merrill Lynch and it was listed in New York Stock Exchange, in 2006.

Gao Jifan, Chairman and CEO of Trina Solar, said that he expected the cooperation would extend his company's "technology, brand and cost advantages" with the advanced technology bought from GT Solar.

Attending the signing ceremony, Reno Harnish, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, expressed his support for cooperation between China and the United States. "On behalf of the U.S. Government, we're very pleased with the agreement and want to be as supportive as possible," said Harnish.

He also told Beijing Review that what the United States would do is drop its trade barriers and tariffs for clean energy technology and encourage such connections between companies of the two countries.

(Reporting from Washington D.C.)