Plate glass covers the whole building of the Mokran Kwangmyong Technology Company located in Kallimgil-dong of Mangyongdae District, Pyongyang.

“It is not coloured glass but filmy solar panel. The multi-storey square building group is completely covered with the panels,” said Kim Chung Song, chief of the renewable energy products workshop under the company.

According to him, the panel is made by coating a thin layer of silicon semiconductor on glass and is widely used in the world as it produces electricity even in cloudy days and can be employed as a decoration for walls and a material for roofs. He added that its cost is half that of coloured glass which is commonly used as a finishing material with aesthetic effects.

Such solar panels are manufactured at this workshop.

Thin-film and polycrystal solar panels are manufactured at its production process which is equipped with such modern equipment as ultra-pure water production facility, glass grinding and washing machine, laser cutter, ultrasonic cleaner, automatic joining machine, laminating machine and module detector. The products are in great demand as they have high quality indices including high levels of maximum output and optimum voltage and current and smooth chips.

“We have established a system-parallel photovoltaic generating system in different parts of the country with these products since we applied them to the sanatorium of the company for the first time in the country several years ago. At present, thousands of square metres of outer walls and roofs of the company have turned into a solar farm,” said deputy director Paek Il Myong.

He said that the outer walls are covered with thousands of filmy solar panels and the roofs with over a thousand polycrystal solar panels, with a generating capacity of more than 1 000kW, to generate hundreds of kW of electricity on average. The generated electricity is consumed in an efficient way through the power control system of the company and a great deal of the surplus is delivered to the national grid every day, he added.

The workshop installed solar panels in the Kumsanpho Fish Pickling Factory and other units and provides their management.

In addition, it turns out different kinds of relevant devices including a system parallel inverter, charging inverter, mobile photovoltaic power supply unit, solar cell charging unit, charge discharge controller, portable solar cell and vanadium battery. The Mokran Kwangmyong Technology Company is the one and only inverter quality certification unit in the country.

“Amid nationwide interest in renewable energy, more and more people pay attention to its development. It is a global trend to construct zero-carbon and zero-energy buildings at present and such structures are unthinkable apart from the development of renewable energy resources. In line with this trend, we will direct big efforts to producing goods by using domestic materials and technology,” said Kim Chung Song.