Irrigation in desert to go solar

TAKLIMAKAN DESERT, Xinjiang - Soon only solar power will be harnessed to irrigate the 436-kilometer shelter forest along the desert highway in Taklimakan, the world's largest shifting sand desert located in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. A complete reliance on solar energy, with a view to reducing carbon footprints, will be achieved before 2014, local authorities said.

"As part of a central government initiative to go environmentally friendly, the project, once completed, will offset 5,000 tons of carbon emissions a year, thus minimizing harmful human impact on the fragile desert ecology," said Xu Xinwen, director of the Taklimakan Desert Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences, on Monday.

The 562-km north-south highway running across the desert opened in 1995. It cuts the distance between the two important cities of Urumqi and Hotan by 500 km, and functions as a lifeline, transporting oil and gas out of the desert.