News from the 2009 Working Conference of the Chinese Academy of Sciences is that CAS has formally initiated a solar power action program.

To achieve the aim of solar power being an significant source of energy by 2050, the program has three phased goals: distributed utilization by 2015, alternative utilization by 2025, and scaled utilization by 2035. CAS says that the program will be carried out by making breakthroughs in key sciences involving photovoltaic, photothermal, photochemical, and photo-biological technologies.

In launching this program, CAS hopes to join forces with other technical organizations in China to strive for breakthroughs in new principles, new methods, new materials, and new techniques, pushing forward the integration of production, study and research, and making solar power an energy source that can be utilized in a large scale as soon as possible.