The climate of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the hinterland of Asia is arid with very little rain. The region has anywhere between 2,500 and 3,200 hours of sunshine annually, and the intensity of solar radiation there is as high as 130 to 150 kilocalories per square centimetre. This makes it one of China's potentially richest regions in solar energy.

In Urumqi, capital of the region, Kashi, Turpan and Aksu, inhabited mainly by people of Uygur nationality, and in the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, various kinds of solar ovens and solar boilers are being used for cooking and heating water. And a "bath train" using sun-heated water moves up and down the Xinjiang-Lanzhou line providing its workers with refreshing baths.

Last August, the research institute under the region's grain bureau with the help of other units developed a solar grain-drying machine that can attain temperatures of up to 180 degrees centigrade and dry a ton of grain per hour.

A research institute was recently set up in the autonomous region to study the harnessing of solar energy to produce electricity, to pump water and to desalinize local brackish water.