China Is Now Home to a Panda-Shaped Solar Farm

China is famous for its pandas, and infamous for its pollution. To celebrate the country’s national animal while also combating greenhouse gas emissions, Business Insider reports that a solar power plant investor and operator has unveiled a brand-new panda-shaped plant in Datong, China.

China Merchants New Energy Group (CMNE) teamed up with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to plan the 248-acre farm, which was built by Panda Green Energy Group, a global eco-development solutions provider that’s partly owned by CMNE. Their solar-panel bear is enormous, but it's only the first stage of construction for the new Panda Power Plant.

The plant currently contains one 50-megawatt plant. Later in 2017, CMNE plans to construct a second solar panda. When fully connected, the Panda Power Plant will measure 1500 acres and have a capacity of 100 megawatts. In the next 25 years, CMNE claims, the Panda Power Plant will produce 3.2 billion kilowatt-hours of solar energy, thus reducing China’s dependence on coal and carbon emissions by 2.74 million tons.

As for the pandas themselves, Mashable reports that their black-and-white features are rendered using two types of solar panels: white thin film photovoltaic (PV) cells and black monocrystalline silicon PV cells. The whimsical designs are intended to promote awareness about clean energy among young people.

“Designing the plant in the shape of a panda could inspire young people and get them interest in the applications of solar power,” Panda Green Energy’s CEO, Li Yuan, said in May 2016.

Chinese youth will be recruited to attend summer camps at the Panda Power Plant to learn more about green energy production. Panda Green Energy also plans to construct panda-themed power stations in Fiji and the Philippines, with the goal of constructing 100 panda plants around the world over the next five years.

"I believe that the panda solar power plants will become a tourist hotspot, and in future we'll export these panda power plants to other parts of the world," Yuan said.

[h/t Business Insider]