Energy Policy 35 (2007) 41214127

Application and development of solar energy in building industry and

its prospects in China
Zhi-Sheng Li
a,b,
, Guo-Qiang Zhang
b
, Dong-Mei Li
a
, Jin Zhou
b
, Li-Juan Li
a
, Li-Xin Li
c
a
Faculty of Construction, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510643, China
b
College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
c
Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), Guangzhou, Guangdong 510640, PR China
Received 10 December 2006; accepted 9 February 2007
Available online 5 April 2007
Abstract
China is the second largest country in energy consumption. More and more energy demand pressures cause the Chinese government to
review its economy and energy policies in order to support the sustainable development. In China, the building sector amounts to 27.8%
total energy consumption, which is only behind the industry sector. China has abundant solar energy resource, which is extensively
applied to buildings. Therefore, solar energy utilization in buildings has become one of the most important issues to help China optimize
the energy proportion, increasing energy efciency and protecting the environment. Solar energy resource and its district distribution in
China are introduced in detail in this paper, and the representative solar energy application to the building sector is highlighted as well.
The solar energy utilization obstacles, especially policy disadvantages in building sector in China, are reviewed. Moreover, the
application prospects of solar energy in building sector are presented in combination with the China economic and household industry
growth.
r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Solar energy; Building industry; Application
1. Introduction
It is well known that China is the largest developing
country in the world, and the population is beyond 1.3
billion at present. Because of the low-grade economic
development mode, China was faced with huge pressure
including the economic development, environmental pollu-
tion, energy shortage and climate change (Lin, 1997) in
recent years. China consumed about 1500 million tons of
coal equivalent (MTCE) primary energy in 2002, only
behind the US, while China consumed about 1678 MTCE
primary energy in 2003 and predicted approximately 2173
MTCE in 2010. Among the total energy consumption, the
building sector accounted for 27.8% and it is still
increasing (Crompton and Wu, 2005; Document of the
World Bank, 2005). In addition, China accounted for 31%
of coal consumption, 7.6% of oil consumption, 10.7% of
hydroelectricity consumption and 1.2% of gas consump-
tion in the world during this year (Zhu and Lin, 2004).
Furthermore, Chinas energy consumption share of all the
above-mentioned in the world is still increasing sharply in
the recent decades. It is estimated that in China during
2005 the gross domestic production (GDP) was only 4%
compared with that of the world, but the ve main resource
consumptions (raw coal, fresh water, steel, concrete and
color metal) of unit GDP were far beyond the world
average level, which even became to 1.9 times (CAS, 2006).
Furthermore, egregious energy and resource consumption
means rigid impacts on the environment. Obviously, no
one country can meet this kind of predatory economic
development mode. Consequently, it should be the core
task to establish the abstemious and environmental
friendship modes in order to carry out the sustainable
development objective in future China.
The building sector is the corbel in China and also the
second energy consumption terminal to the industry.
The building and house industry in China has been
ARTICLE IN PRESS
www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol
0301-4215/$ - see front matter r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2007.02.006

Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 20 39322515; fax: +86 20 39322511.

E-mail address: Chinaheat@163.com (Z.-s. Li).
experiencing a high-speed growth, and an 11% annual
average increment rate was achieved from 1999 to 2004
(MOC, 2002) (Fig. 1). And, according to the experience of
developed countries, it will inevitably amount to 35% or
so. It is highly signicant to apply the renewable energy
such as solar energy to the buildings in China.
Solar energy becomes the center attention of with the
nature of being clean, safe and permanent. It is calculated
that the total solar radiant energy accepted by the China
inland territory surface becomes 335837 kJ/(cm
2
a)
(Goswami et al., 2004), and more important, it can be
easily utilized in buildings. To achieve sustainable devel-
opment goal, the Chinese government formulates a series
of policies and regulations to encourage solar energy
utilization. However, compared with abundant solar
energy resource, the successful commercial application of
solar energy in building sector still has great potential in
China, which is mainly due to the cost and policy
problems, although solar energy has been comparatively
extensively developed in the building sector.
In the paper, the solar energy resource of China was rst
briey described, and the main application styles to
buildings were introduced as well. Second, the solar energy
utilization obstacles, especially policy drawbacks, were
reported. Finally, the prospects of solar energy application
in building in China were analyzed.
2. Solar energy resource in China
China possesses very abundant solar energy resources
with more than
2
3
of the country area annual experiencing
solar shining hours and radiations of more than 2000 h and
5000 MJ/m
2
, respectively (Luo et al., 2005). In most areas
in China, the solar energy resources are better than that in
Japan and Europe, especially in the west and southeast of
the Qing-zang altiplano in China, the solar energy
resources are close to that of the Sahara desert. The solar
energy resource has the obvious zone distribution features
in China. Five solar energy zones are divided according to
the solar energy radiation quantity, which is indicated in
Table 1 and Fig. 2, respectively.
In Fig. 2, solar energy resource zones, IV are denoted
with yellow (most abundant solar energy), blue, red, brown
and green (least solar energy), respectively. Solar energy is
more and more considered in China as a renewable energy
resource compared to conventional energy resources. In the
next 5 years following 2005, China will invest 10 billion
RMB (1.25 billion US dollars) in developing solar energy
photovoltaic application.
3. Application of solar energy in building industry in China
Most solar energy technologies have been in existence in
one form or another for centuries in building industry in
developed countries (Tsur and Zemel, 2000; Muneer et al.,
2006). There are many applications for the direct and
indirect utilization of solar energy, and the most extensive
utilization is in building industry and related elds. In
China, the main solar energy uses in building industry
involve solar water heater, solar heating buildings, solar
refrigeration, air conditioners and photovoltaic system.
Especially, with the rapid rise of the energy price, solar
energy application in building industry is accelerating. In
China, extensive solar energy utilization in building
industry brings great environmental and economic benets
(Xiao et al., 2004; Li et al., 2005; Yin, 2005).
3.1. Solar water heater and hot water system
Chinese citizens use three kinds of water heaters: gas
combustion, electric-driven and solar water heaters. With
the rapid rise in energy price, solar energy water heaters
ARTICLE IN PRESS
6.13
6.55
7.09 7.35 7.65
11.01
13.18
14.09
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
Fig. 1. China urban housing area increment in recent years (billion m
2
).
Table 1
Solar energy resource distribution and energy equivalent per m
2
annually
in China
No. Annual
shinning hours
(h)
Solar energy
radiation
(MJ/m
2
a)
Energy
cumulation
(kg CE/m
2
a)
CO
2
reduction
(kg/m
2
)
I 32003300 66708370 225285 306
II 30003200 58606670 200225 252
III 22003000 50205860 160200 216
IV 14002200 41905020 140170 180
V 10001400 33504190 115140 144
Notes: CE in table means coal equivalent.
Z.-s. Li et al. / Energy Policy 35 (2007) 41214127 4122
have better competition and are more popular. The holding
rate of solar water was only 16.3% by Chinese citizens in
1999, but it achieved 28.42% in 2003, and it was predicted
to go up to 48.22% in 2007.
In an example of a hotel with 50 beds or 250 employees
located in the south of China, the total cost of solar water
heater in 5 years is only RMB94, 000 ($11,750), while that
of gas combustion and electric-driven water heaters
becomes RMB128, 000 ($16,000) and RMB155, 000
($19,375), respectively (Table 2). It is estimated in 2004
that Chinese solar water heater accounted for 30%
renewable energy, which was only inferior to mini water-
electricity contribution. At the end of 2005, the annual
production capacity of solar water heater thermal collec-
tion area rose up to 11 million m
2
.
To date, solar water heating has become a dominant and
widespread solar thermal application in buildings in China.
Since 1980, the utilization of solar water heaters has been
rapidly expanding with 30% annual average growth rate.
By the end of 2001, the total 320-million m
2
solar water
collectors had been put into use in China (Yin et al., 2005),
and China has become the biggest solar water heater
production, sale and holding country in the world. It is
estimated that the annual sale of unit numbers of solar
water heaters in China was more than 10 million m
2
in
2004, and with a displacement of 40 MTCE annually (Hu
et al., 2005). Fig. 3 indicates the solar water heater
installation in China.
3.2. Solar heating of buildings
Solar energy is often used to directly heat a house or the
building. Heating a building requires much more energy
and larger panels than heating a buildings water system.
Generally [in China], a building that is directly heated by
solar energy will have its solar water heated system. A solar
heating of building includes all kinds of passive and active
solar energy utilization technologies, which is commonly
integrated with buildings themselves. These technologies
involve trombe wall, solar roof and solar greenhouse
energy utilization system (ChenBin et al., 2006). Solar
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Table 2
Economic comparison of three kinds of water heater installed in a hotel
Item Gas
combustion
Electric-
driven
Solar energy
Fix investment (RMB) 30,000 20,000 80,000
Annual energy cost (RMB) 20,000 25,000 2,800
Total cost in 5 years (RMB) 128,000 155,000 94,000
Water heater lifetime (years) 56 45 More than 10
Safety Common Common Good
Fig. 3. Typical solar heat water system on rooftop in China.
Fig 2. Solar energy source distribution in China.
Z.-s. Li et al. / Energy Policy 35 (2007) 41214127 4123
energy is the best heating building mode. Solar heating
requires almost no energy transformation, so it has a very
high efciency. Heat energy can be stored in the liquid and
air, or in a packed bed. A packed bed is a container lled
with small objects (such as stones) that can hold heat
among the air space. Heat energy is also often stored in
phase-changer or heat-of-fusion units with the wall
materials.
Most buildings in China face the south that always
receives the strongest sunlight, therefore, the buildings
designed for solar heating usually have the large south-
oriented glass windows or trombe wall or simple solar
heated ventilation. When sunlight passes through glass or
other glazing, it warms the buildings, and stores solar
energy in oors or walls. Proper ventilation allows the heat
to circulate within the building (Figs. 4 and 5) (SCI, 1999).
The climate in China can be generally divided into ve
zones: severe cool, cool, summer-hot/winter-cool, summer-
hot/winter-warm and gentle zones. The northeast of China,
northwest of China and north of China (so-called three
north) are the traditional heating climate zones, and they
also account for about 70% of the country area with
abundant solar energy resource. It is calculated that at the
end of 2002 the area of solar heat buildings was more than
10 million m
2
, which was mainly distributed in the rural of
three north. Accordingly, the annual energy saving
exceeds 200,000 ton of coal equivalent (CE) because of
solar heating buildings.
3.3. Building-integration photovoltaic (BIPV) systems
Besides being used for heating and cooling, solar energy
can be directly converted to electricity by photovoltaic
cells. Photovoltaic cells convert solar radiation to electri-
city power by semiconductor (such as silicon) materials.
Unfortunately, most of the photovoltaic cells used in the
market today operate at an efciency of less than 15%
(Luo and Dai, 2006), which is an application restriction in
buildings; because the cost is of most consideration to the
citizens.
The typical design and integration of photovoltaic cells
into the building concerns the wall, rooftop and balcony
layout, which replaces conventional building craftwork
(Guiavarch and Peuportier, 2006; Wang and Gao 2004;
Zhong, 2004). This integration may be in vertical facades
replacing view glass windows, spandrel glass or other
facade material replacing semitransparent skylight. It is
commonly found that a photovoltaic roong system
replaces the traditional roong materials or shading
eyebrows in the windows, or other building envelope
systems (as shown in Fig. 6).
Plenty of BIPV demonstration projects have been
completed through international cooperation. Although
total power capacity of building integration photovoltaic
was only 40,000 kW until 2002, which is far laggard
compared to the solar heat water application, the devel-
opment potential is startling. However, the PV industry
had startling increment in the recent years, and it is
estimated that the annual PV installation capacity in 2005
ARTICLE IN PRESS
air layer in
negative
pressure
air distribution pipe fan
exterior
air heated
air layer
solar energy
absorb
Fig. 5. The microstructure of solar wall ventilation responding to Fig. 4.
Fig. 6. A typical building integration photovoltaic system with shading
materials.
Fig. 4. Solar heating of building with trombe wall for natural ventilation.
Z.-s. Li et al. / Energy Policy 35 (2007) 41214127 4124
rose to 300 kiloWatts (kW), and up to 2005, the total
completed PV installation capacity rose to a million kW. In
addition, China has completed 350,000360,000 PV in-
stallations, and the capacity of the single PV installation
became 150 kW up to 2005. It is predicted that in 2010 the
installation capacity of PV system will be more than
500,000 kW and more than 10 millions kW in 2020, And,
the power generation cost of per kilowatt-hour (kWh) by
the photovoltaic system will be lower than 0.64 RMB
($0.08). This is a rather competitive renewable energy in the
building industry.
3.4. Solar energy refrigeration and air-conditioning
Utilization of solar air-conditioning is the most ideal
harmonious state between human and nature, which can
create both favorable indoor and outdoor environment
temperatures. Therefore, the effect of warm-island in the
big cities will be cut down. The absorption chiller driven by
solar energy demands no Freon refrigerants, so it does not
damage the ozone layer, and is hence named green air-
conditioning.
At present, the possession rate of solar energy air-
conditioners in Chinese urban families is below 20%, so its
market potential is very huge. Moreover, with rapid
economic development, more Chinese citizens tend to live
in the villadoms and top grade of residential buildings, and
the solar energy air-conditioners will be of more applica-
tion, because traditional central air-conditioner and family
individual air-conditioner cannot adapt to the requirement
of the capacity. The operation cost of solar air-condition-
ing system is only 15% compared with that of traditional
air-conditioning system. Furthermore, the ideal combina-
tion between buildings and air conditionings overcomes the
shortcomings of the whole building outlook. For example,
a top-grade villa in urban China costs about 1.2 million
RMB ($150,000), and the primary and annual operation
costs of a solar air conditioning system installed in the villa
are 30,000 RMB ($3750) and 8000 RMB ($1000),
respectively, which are rather competitive compared to
other types of air-conditioners in China.
China started solar energy air conditioning development
at the end of the 1970s. Plenty of small-scale solar air
conditioning samples were tried and experimented since
then. Until the ninth-ve plan period (19962001), solar
air conditioning application in building industry was
mature, and from then on, the ministry of science and
technology (MOST) focused on solar air conditioning as a
key research item. Many solar air conditioning demonstra-
tion projects have been developed to spread its application
in buildings till now (Fig. 7).
4. Chinese solar energy development policies in building
industry
The adoption of incentive policies is the international
regular method in order to support the solar energy use with
consideration to its high cost and market generalization
problems (Tsai and Chou, 2005; Okoro and Madueme,
2004). China always encouraged renewable energy develop-
ment. In China, renewable energy resource commercial
development domain mainly includes solar energy, wind
energy, high-efcient application of biological substance and
ground heat utilization in buildings. Solar energy develop-
ment policies in building industry in China can be divided
into three administrative levels according to these policies
feature and inuence region. The rst level policies are
directive and are an outline, and the second are criterion
policies. These two level policies are formulated by the
central government and operated in the whole nation. These
policies involve economic incentive policies, subsidy policies,
tax remission policies and tariff favorable polices for solar
energy development. The third level policies are idiographic
economic incentive policies and administration supervision
system, which are usually regulated by local governments.
The solar energy development is strongly inuenced in
various provinces in China, so the central government only
provides the outline and directive policy frame, while the
provinces implement the detailed policies. In China, these
level policies include both renewable energy policies and
individual solar energy policies.
However, China has not shaped the denite management
mechanisms and all-round benet incentive systems for
solar energy application in building industry till now.
Many policies are not manipulative and inconsistent.
Furthermore, whole national corruption and bureaucracy
rigidity may make these policies rebate greatly. Local
governments sometimes negatively disputed or even
rejected solar energy policies and regulations formulated
by the central government. For example, local governments
refuse solar water heater installation in buildings as they
destroy the uniform building appearance. At present, solar
energy building industry has not formulated systemic
and uniform national and industry standard, and the
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Fig. 7. A solar air conditioning system demonstration project in China.
Z.-s. Li et al. / Energy Policy 35 (2007) 41214127 4125
quantitative guideline and evaluation system for solar
energy building development policies are under research.
These involve the passive solar energy utilization, solar
water heater, solar heating of buildings and photovoltaic
national and industry standards.
The bottleneck of solar building development is not
laggard solar energy technology and shortage of the public
environment protection intention, but shortage of national
economic incentive mechanism based benet. It is observed
that the original cost increment for solar energy buildings is
only RMB 230 ($ 28.75) per m
2
, but the operation cost can
achieve 70% energy saving. For combinations other than
energy saving technology such as oor heating, the energy
saving rate will exceed 80%. For example, in the residential
section in Beijing with complete utilization of solar water
heaters, the annual electric power saving becomes 600 kWh
per m
2
. But the estate developers lack the drive because of
the shortage of direct benet return. Therefore, it is a
prerequisite for government formulation benet-based
incentive policy (nancial and tax) to urge solar energy
building development.
Solar energy policies in China for building industry
should involve denite and incentive solar building industry
management system and operational mechanisms, such as
solar energy technology development, solar energy product
generalization, market regulations and its industrialization.
Especially, the government should formulate a long-term
plan for solar energy application in the buildings, and
spread solar energy utilization products to the west of
China, which has the most abundant solar energy resources.
Furthermore, a systematic solar energy utilization policy is
also indispensable in buildings for reinforcement technology
research devotion and international cooperation.
5. Prospects of solar energy in building industry in China
Solar energy combination building is an inevitable trend
in future China, and especially, solar energy integration
building development has great potential. In China, solar
energy application in the buildings has experienced three
phases. The rst solar energy utilization in the building
industry is passive sunspace, which simply collects and
distributes solar energy through application of buildings
orientation, structure and materials. The second stage of
solar energy utilization in the building industry shifts to
active sunspace. The buildings are heated by solar heating
system with solar heat collectors, fans, pumps and
radiators, or are refrigerated by solar energy absorption
chillers and air-conditioners. The third stage is photo-
voltaic application to buildings. The solar energy is
converted to electric power by the photovoltaic system
installed in buildings, which fully meets the buildings
operation energy demands for heating, lighting, ventilation
and air-conditioning, and even to so-called zero energy
consumption building.
Although the research and application for solar energy
buildings in China mainly focus on solar water heater,
which is very mature in buildings, the active solar energy
utilization such as solar energy air-conditioning is also
successful. In the near future, solar energy technology will
not have the obstacles that restrict solar energy building
development in China. The trends for solar energy
application to buildings will be transformation of tradi-
tional passive solar heating of buildings to integrative solar
energy utilization such as photovoltaic, solar water heater,
solar air-conditioner, ventilation and lighting, etc. With the
conversion efciency improvement and cost reduction for
solar photovoltaic in buildings, the solar energy is
increasing practicably for buildings energy solutions.
In the future, with the solar energy large-scale utilization
in the building industry, China will not only emphasize
saving energy and resource consumption, but also solving
building maintenance techniques caused by solar energy
use. The favorable solar energy building technology in
combination with renewable ground heat, wind energy and
biologic substance energy will be developed, which assures
basic indoor environment and safety energy demand even
for the buildings not momentarily occupied by dwellers.
Solar energy application to building industry also helps to
improve energy stability and transportation reduction.
After the UN Summit Conference on Global Environ-
ment and Development in 1992, China quickly made a
response towards implementing a sustainable development
strategy, and issued the Agenda of China 21st Century.
In 1995, the Chinese government formulated a new and
renewable energy resource development outline
(19962010), which focused on the populations solar
energy building, solar water heater and photovoltaic
electric power. It is predicted that solar energy building
items and solar water heaters will be in large-scale
production, and the family solar water heater general-
ization rate will achieve 2030% of the goal.
A series of national standards will emerge for solar
energy integrated buildings, and the Chinese government
will strengthen solar energy integrative building demon-
stration items. Moreover, a nationwide training and
appraisement scheme for solar energy building criteria
and standards will be regulated for the detection and
evaluation of residential solar application and environment
impact. The prospects for solar energy building industry in
China are dependent on not only the policies and
sustainable development effect understood by architecture
designers, civil engineers, solar energy service engineers,
ofcials and material providers, but also the international
solar energy application achievement in the building
industry. It is also predicted that the main body of
popularization of solar energy integrative residential
building will be enterprises of the government.
6. Conclusions
The application, development and forecasts of solar
energy in the building industry in China were presented in
this paper. With the rapid economic development and
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Z.-s. Li et al. / Energy Policy 35 (2007) 41214127 4126
monetary housing policy implementation, China has been
experiencing a high growth in the building industry, and it
can be predicted that the total urban housing and public
building area will be further booming due to the rapid
industrialization and urbanization in the future. Conse-
quently, the building energy consumption rate to the total
energy consumption is accordingly rising year by year.
Furthermore, the building energy consumption is mainly
provided by fossil fuels, which also brings about violent
impacts on the environment due to inefcient energy
utilization modes. The application and development of new
and renewable energy to the building industry is a key issue
for Chinese sustainable policy goals.
Solar energy is a clean and inexhaustible resource and
compatible to application in the building industry. China
has abundant solar energy, which is extensively by utilized
in the building industry in terms of solar water heater, solar
heating and cooling of buildings and photovoltaic power
production. At present, China has become the biggest solar
water heater producer and holding country in the world
and with 1530% of annual increment. It is predicted that
solar water heater energy collection area in China will
become to 300 million m
2
, which will replace 40 MTCE
annually in 2010.
However, although the Chinese government strongly
supports solar energy application in buildings, the obvious
policy obstacles for solar energy popularization are in
existence. The bottleneck of energy saving buildings,
especially for solar energy building development, is not
the lack of solar energy technology and the shortage
of environment protection intentions, but the shortage
of national economic incentive mechanisms on the basis of
benets. The breakthrough of application and prospects of
solar energy in the building industry in China is dependent
on establishment of nationwide economic incentive me-
chanisms including tax, nancial, subsidy and tariff
policies. In addition, the uniform technology standards
and criteria are expected to aid the promotion of solar
energy application to building industry.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Teaching and
Research Award Program for Outstanding Young Teacher
in Higher Education Institution of MOE, PR China (No.
2002[383]) for the nancial support.
References
Chen, Bin, Meng, S., Chen, H., et al., 2006. Effect of advanced trombe
walls on indoor environment moisture control. Heating Ventilating &
Air Conditioning 36 (3), 4246.
China Academy of Science (CAS), 2006. China sustainable development
strategy reports 2006-2-28 (In Chinese).
Crompton, P., Wu, Y., 2005. Energy consumption in China: past trends
and future directions. Energy Economics 27, 195208.
Document of the World Bank, 2005. Project document on a proposed
global environment facility (GEF) grant of US$18 million to the P.R.C
for the heat reform and building energy efciency project. Report No.
20747-cn, pp. 19.
Goswami, D.Y., Vijayaraghavan, S., Lu, S., et al., 2004. New and
emerging developments in solar energy. Solar Energy 76, 3343.
Guiavarch, A., Peuportier, B., 2006. Photovoltaic collectors efciency
according to their integration in buildings. Solar Energy 80 (1),
6577.
Hu, R.-q., Shi, J.-l., Li, J.-f., et al., 2005. The industry policy research of
solar energy thermal utilization, Renewable energy development
Center, (In Chinese).
Li, Z., Tang, R., Xia, C., et al., 2005. Towards green rural energy in
Yunnan, China. Renewable Energy 30, 99108.
Lin, G., 1997. Center for International Climate and Environmental
Research (Oslo). Energy Development and Environmental Constraints
in China, vol. 4, pp. 114.
Luo, B., Dai, Y.-j., 2006. Development and perspective of the technique
of solar semiconductor refrigeration. Renewable Energy (1),
(In Chinese).
Luo, Y.-j., He, Z.-n., Wang, C.-g., 2005. Solar Energy Utilization
Technology. Chemical Industry Press, Beijing, 2005, pp. 2032 (In
Chinese).
MOC, 2002. Outline of the 10th Five Plan of Building Energy Efciency of
MOC, (In Chinese).
Muneer, T., Maubleu, S., Asif, M., 2006. Prospects of solar water heating
for textile industry in Pakistan. Renewable and Sustainable. Energy
Reviews 10, 123.
Okoro, O.I., Madueme, T.C., 2004. Solar energy investments in a
developing economy. Renewable Energy 29, 15991610.
Solar Center Information (SCI), 1999. Passive Solar Options For North
Carolina Homes.
Tsai, W.T., Chou, Y.H., 2005. Overview of environmental impacts,
prospects and policies for renewable energy in Taiwan. Renewable and
Sustainable Energy Reviews 9, 119147.
Tsur, Y., Zemel, A., 2000. Long-term perspective on the development of
solar energy. Solar Energy 68 (5), 379392.
Wang, H.-j., Gao, Y.-j., 2004. Discussion of the integration mode between
solar energy and buildings in e-times. Solar energy 4, 3840
(In Chinese).
Xiao, C., Luo, H., Tang, R., 2004. Solar thermal utilization in China.
Renewable Energy 29, 15491556.
Yin, Z., 2005. Development of solar thermal systems in China. Solar
Energy Materials & Solar Cells 86, 427442.
Zhong, J.-s., 2004. The strategy and technology modes of solar energy
buildings. Solar Energy 4, 2224 (In Chinese).
Zhu, Y., Lin, B., 2004. Sustainable housing and urban construction in
China. Energy and Buildings 36, 12871297.
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Z.-s. Li et al. / Energy Policy 35 (2007) 41214127 4127