After the Solar World Congresses 2003 (SWC2003) in Gothenburg, Sweden and 2005 (SWC2005) in Orlando, USA, and the celebration of the 50th anniversary of ISES in the same year, the International Solar Energy Society and the Chinese Solar Energy Society warmly welcome you to the ISES Solar World Congress 2007 (SWC2007) in Beijing, China, from September 18 to 21, 2007.

   China with its huge population and vast area, while in some parts still poverty-stricken and lacking basic supplies such as water and electricity, is one of world's biggest producers and consumers of energy. The economic miracle that has set the country on a trajectory of unheard-of growth puts its energy industry in the difficult position of having to face both insufficient energy supply and an ever more ardent need to engage in environmental protection. There is no way out of this predicament than to change the means of energy production, improve the efficiency with which energy is used, and adjust the overall energy structure, especially with a view to further incorporating solar energy and other renewable energies. Within the frameworks of such a new system of sustainable development, both economic growth and environmental protection will be compatible.

   The Chinese government has made the development of renewable energy a high priority in its strategy for national sustainable development. Ambitious targets have been set in its mid- and long-term planning, projecting a 10% contribution of renewable energies to the total energy mix in 2020. With the Renewable Energy Law passed on January 1, 2006, the utilization and strategic development of renewable energy in China has drawn worldwide attention and acclaim.

   China's 11th Five-Year-Plan lays out a comprehensive set of measures to gear the country towards sustainable development; its objectives are to
 implement preferential policies for renewable energies in finance, taxation, and mandatory market share,
 encourage production and consumption of renewable energies,
 enhance their proportion in the consumption of primary energies,
 speed up wind energy development,
 set up thirty large-scale wind power stations with over 100 MW of dynamoelectric power generation capacity,
 build wind power bases of GW proportions,
 quicken the exploration of biomass energy,
 support and develop straw and waste incineration, as well as landfill- gas generation,
 set up straw and wood power stations,
 extend the production performance of biomass solidified fuel, fuel ethanol, and bio diesel,
 raise the cumulative installed capacity of grid connected wind power and biomass generation to 5 GW and 5.5 GW respectively, and
 exploit and utilize energetically solar, geothermal and ocean energy.