China's solar power industry is providing a potential boom for glass manufacturers. A solar-power revolution is being staged on China's rooftops. But instead of harnessing the sun to generate electricity, China has quickly emerged as the world leader in using solar power for a more mundane task - providing hot water for showers and washing dishes in dwellings that often have no other source of heat the year round. The low-frills, low-cost technology isn't suitable for heating rooms or houses but is fuelling a boom in solar power in China's poor countryside as well as its modernising urban centres. Already, China claims an estimated 30M solar households, or nearly 60% of the solar capacity installed in the world, according to Worldwatch Institute.
