At the same time, Shi was getting restless in Australia and wanted a new challenge. He made a snap decision after a two-week visit to China left him "really excited" about its potential.

"My life was too easy over there," he said. "I thought if I came back I could do something really good."

The government of Wuxi, a city on Shanghai's western outskirts with ambitions as a high-tech center, put up $6 million to finance Suntech, which started with 20 employees, and helped to land $5 million in research grants.

"A lot of scholars aren't successful (in business) because they don't have a sense of marketing and sales," Shi said. "From the beginning, we had a very strong sense, whatever we do we have to make money as soon as possible, because there is no money for us to burn."

Suntech's main 120,000-square-foot factory is still in Wuxi, though Shi bought out his state backers before the IPO with the help of private investors led by Goldman Sachs.

At the Wuxi factory, technicians in green Suntech uniforms, surgical masks and hair nets turn 4-inch silicon discs into solar cells.

The cells are coated with power-producing films and sandwiched between sheets of glass in groups of 72 to form solar panels, each capable of generating 175 watts of power. That is too little to power three typical 60-watt light bulbs, but Suntech notes that it will light many more energy-saving bulbs.

Production is growing so fast that just two years after the factory opened in a special high-tech zone, Suntech is building a new one the same size a block away.

Shi said Suntech's goal is to develop superior technology, not just rely on China's low labor costs. But he said lower prices for skills and equipment will give the company an edge by making its $20 million annual research budget go further. A technical college graduate can be hired for 2,000 yuan ($250) a month.

Shi said that as technology improves, Suntech hopes to be able to cut prices within five years from the current $3.50 per solar panel to $2.50 - a level that he said would compete with traditional power in California, a big potential market.

Other Chinese companies are springing up to supply solar equipment, wind turbines and pollution-control technology. A Chinese law that took effect Jan. 1 - Shi helped to draft it - requires local authorities to favor renewable energy. The government has ordered power plants and factories to start complying with long-ignored emissions standards.

Those initiatives will create opportunities in industries ranging from wind turbines and nuclear power plants to pollution control and raising crops needed to produce ethanol and other clean-burning fuels, said Jing Ulrich, chairwoman of China equities for JP Morgan.

"It's so huge," Ulrich said, "no one can estimate the scale."

1

2

3

4