BEIJING - The German photovoltaics specialist IBC Solar, the world's biggest solutions provider for solar-generated power by sales revenue and turnover, made its entry in the Chinese market by officially establishing an office in Beijing on Monday.

"Although China has been a leading country in the manufacturing of solar cells and panels for power generation in the world, the domestic usage of solar power has just started," said Udo Moehrstedt, founder and CEO of IBC Solar.

"We hope to provide our leading products and services to China, a country that generally relies on coal resources for traditional thermal power generation but that now attaches great importance to alternative energy."

Moehrstedt said he hopes China will focus more attention on solar energy, a safe and inexhaustible resource, after Japan's nuclear leak in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant following the earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

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"The energy from sunlight each hour on Earth equals the total power we use around the world in a year," said Moehrstedt. "So solar power is the best solution for a sustainable future to ease China's heavy pressure to meet its surging energy demand and support the country's rapid economic growth."

China replaced the United States as the biggest energy consumer in the world in 2010, said the International Energy Agency. It predicted that the nation's demand for energy will keep rising sharply in the next few years.

The Chinese government said in its 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) that it aims to increase the nation's current solar-energy generation capacity from 5 gigawatts (gW) to at least 10 gW in the next five years.

According to Moehrstedt, solar-energy generation capacity in Europe has reached 30 gW, with 17.5 gW in Germany.

"We believe China will be a big country in the future in converting solar radiation into direct-current electricity, and we'd like to provide any help in services and products with our nearly 30-year experience to support China's target to double capacity by 2015," said Moehrstedt.

According to IBC, China has been a major exporter of solar panels and modules, with 50 percent going to Germany. "As we helped Chinese solar products suppliers enter Germany many years ago, we believe our long-time cooperation will also support our development in China," said Moehrstedt.

IBC Solar (China) Co Ltd recently signed the first agreement with China's Building Integrated Photovoltaics Committee to provide consultancy and training.

"We are also in discussions with the government and Chinese companies to provide different solar power-generation equipment," said Norbert Hahn, a board member of IBC.??