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Peking University, Sep, 25, 2011: “We totally have the confidence of hosting an excellent SD competition, which will also help our Datong City speed up on its way to low-carbon development mode,” said Datong’s Mayor Di Yanbo.

These words were said on Sept.21, when the SD China (Solar Decathlon China) host city unveiling ceremony was held at Peking University (PKU). And Datong City, one of the major cities of Shanxi province, is going to be the SD China’s host city in 2013. This competition will also be co-hosted by the National Energy Administration, U.S Department of Energy and undertaken by PKU.

Datong is known to be a city whose economy mainly depends on its abundant coal resources. Therefore, the highly-polluted heavy industry is its main economic stimulation. At the unveiling ceremony, Mayor Di Yanbo emphasized the importance of transforming heavy industry to green industry and building a low carbon city. And he pointed out that SD competition was a good opportunity for Datong to accomplish this goal.

Liu Yinan, deputy director of National Development and Reform Commission, director of National Energy Administration, agreed that the aim of inviting this competition to China was to promote the cooperation with international society in the field of advanced resource technology.

As PKU will shoulder the responsibility in organization, PKU President Zhou Qifeng also made a speech. He promised that PKU would do its best to support the event and win extensive attention from the society.

SD China is an award-winning competition aims to promote solar energy and international collaboration of developing energy-efficiency technologies. In the competition, each college team will have to build an elaborately designed house which is entirely supported by solar power. And the house will be both energy-efficient and attractive. Because each team’s house will be evaluated by ten contests, the competition gains its unique name, Solar Decathlon.

Since the first SD competition which was organized by U.S. Department of Energy in 2002, it has been hosted in the United States and Europe for five times and more than 100 college teams have participated in. As the 6th SD will be hosted in China, it is going to be SD’s first time to be held in Asian countries. The SD China’s launch ceremony was held on April 28, 2011 at PKU.

Written by: Liu Yineng
Edited by: Qian Xin
Source: PKU News (Chinese)