This Day, That Year

Editor’s note: This year marks the 70th anniversary of New China’s founding.

An item in China Daily on Jan 4, 1984, showed the delight of villagers in the Niulanghe Brigade of Xiangyuan county in Shanxi province at seeing electric light in their homes for the first time. The operation of the second generator at the county’s power station had made electricity available to every corner of this coal-rich area.

Now, electric lights are seen across rural China, and new technologies, especially those that are environmen- tally beneficial, are bringing greater convenience to inland regions.

Since 2011, authorities nationwide have been gearing up efforts to promote the use of energy efficient LED lighting as part of a program to save energy and reduce carbon emissions, according to the National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s top economic planning agency.

The program will help China to save about 48,000 gigawatt hours of electricity and cut carbon emissions by 48 million metric tons every year, the commission said.

The new LED light bulbs can save up to 80 percent of energy compared with traditional bulbs. In 2013, authorities started subsidizing the use of LED lighting and encouraged schools, shopping malls and hotels to install them.

In addition to lightbulbs, the country’s first photovoltaic road, in which current is generated when the surface is exposed to light, was completed in Jinan, Shandong province, in November, marking a breakthrough in highway construction.

The 2-kilometer-long road opened to traffic in December. It was later reported that if the hard shoulder in Shandong, which covers 26,000,000 square meters, were to be replaced with a solar-powered one, more than 6 billion kilowatt hours of electricity could be generated every year.

China is a world leader in renewable energy resources, boasting mature renewable energy technology and strong financial support. The country expects nonfossil energy to account for more than half of its energy mix by 2050.