Los Angeles, U.S. and the Jiangsu Province in China have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on solar cooperation; this is the first MOU of its kind between the two countries.
The conditions of the MOU map out that the two country’s governments must agree to help strengthen bilateral cooperation in the solar energy sector, including expertise exchange, respective market access and dialogue on business expansion.
Signing on the behalf of their responsive governments were; Fei Shaoyun, deputy director general of the Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation of Jiangsu Provincial Government, and David Freeman, deputy mayor of Los Angeles. Both have set out aggressive renewable energy development strategies and supporting policies.
The Los Angeles-Jiangsu MOU was signed days after U.S. Energy Secretary Stephen Chu visited China on a mission to boost bilateral cooperation on clean energy between the two countries.
Los Angeles has an ambitious clean energy plan, under which the city is expected to have 40% of its electricity from renewable sources in more than 10 years, with 1,280MW supplied by solar energy.
Meanwhile, Jiangsu Province has become a well renowned solar energy production and innovation base, with officials from the province claiming that there are more than 500 solar energy equipment manufacturers in the area and an annual solar energy product exports at more than $6.5 billion.
The province is also the first in China to introduce a clean energy stimulus plan, encouraging the use of solar energy.
With the objective of expanding cooperation between PV companies in Jiangsu and their U.S. counterparts, a one-day conference titled “U.S.-Jiangsu China Solar Business Summit 2009” was held in Los Angeles, gathering more than 200 government officials, businessmen and solar energy researchers.?
