China's solar industry

China is quickly becoming a renewable energy power house and has been aggressively investing in developing green technologies attracting many of the top clean tech companies as a result. NPR’s Louisa Lim features Applied Materials and the company's recently launched advanced solar research facility in Xi'an, China.

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China’s move to solar was highlighted in a USA Today article, including comments from Applied’s Chief Technology Officer Mark Pinto and U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu. Chu observed, that once China’s central government decides on a policy, it can execute quickly through the nation’s handful of state-owned utilities. In sharp contrast, in the United States there are thousands of electric utilities and massive regulatory and environmental hurdles to overcome. Check it out. More

Today in Xi’an, China Applied Materials opened its Solar Technology Center to a crowd of customers, local dignitaries and executives. We are proud to offer this new capability to our customers who will be able to visit the facility and see demonstrations as well as work on our latest equipment for thin film and crystalline silicon.

The ability for customers to come here and work on the equipment before they install it in their own factories is a unique time-to-market advantage that we think will help them rapidly implement our technology in their fabs around the world.More

As anyone who travels for business knows sometimes in the hazy morning when you just can’t sleep, there are plenty of moments for reflection – and watching local TV. Over the past three years I’ve traveled to China more times that I can count, always driving the message for renewables adoption.

Most recognize China as the country that adds a gigawatt of new coal capacity each week. But China has come a long way in understanding and acting upon the importance of clean energy.More