URUMQI — More than 200,000 people in Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region have gained access to electricity generated by new energy, local authorities said on Nov 3.

Since 2013, eight Chinese energy enterprises have built independent photovoltaic (PV) power stations and distributed free household PV power generation systems to farmers and herdsmen in remote parts of Xinjiang, giving electricity of 201,000 people who had previously lived without, according to the region’s economic and informatization commission.

Seventy-year-old Iramidin Tursun from Kalpin county of Aksu prefecture has experienced the change.

His village, which has only six households, previously had no access to electricity since it is difficult to build power grids in such remote regions. “People had nothing to do at night,” he said.

“Since this June when we got electricity, we have been able to use mobile phones and our children can watch animated cartoons,” he added.

Unlike other provinces or regions in China, some remote areas of Xinjiang rely on electricity generated by new energy. The cost of extending grid power lines can be prohibitively expensive in the region and may not suit migrant herdsmen.