Household solar power generation blooms in China

BEIJING -- When the previously smog-blurred sun cast its light onto a bizarrely equipped house on Friday, a man who prefers to go by "Ruhai" saw his dream of converting the sun's rays into usable power come true.

Ruhai's three-story house, located in the northern suburbs of Beijing, stands out among the rest of the area's dwellings, with thin film solar cells on the walls and a silicon battery on the roof.

For Ruhai, a 42-year-old white-collar worker, Friday was his red-letter day, as it marked his first attempt to connect the mini-photovoltaic power plant contained within his house to the local power grid.

The house made history in that it became the first distributed PV system with a capacity of at least three kilowatts designed and installed by a private individual.

Although it is still being tested, Ruhai's home PV plant can generate 10 kilowatt-hours of power every day, enough for him to power his house for two days.

Ruhai, who professes a dream of becoming the "Steve Jobs" of China's PV industry, said he first saw opportunity in household-distributed PV systems five years ago. He began work on his own system, although his enthusiasm was dampened in 2011, when his application to connect to the state grid was rejected.

"I didn't give up. Perseverance can bring people hope," Ruhai said when recalling the efforts he made at that time.

Ruhai saw a silver lining in October last year, when the State Grid allowed distributed PV plants with a capacity of less than six megawatts to obtain access to the state grid.

He filed an application to the State Grid last November and had the country's first on-grid facility installed in his house one month later.

"I can stand the hassle of explaining to my neighbors who come over to see what's going on here," Ruhai said. "But what I really worry about is whether household PV systems can get the same subsidies as others."

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