Renewable Energy News

China takes the Lead in the Renewable Energy Race

 

These efforts to dominate renewable energy technologies raise the prospect that the West may someday trade its dependence on oil from the Mideast for a reliance on solar panels, wind turbines and other gear manufactured in China. “Most of the energy equipment will carry a brass plate, ‘Made in China,’ ” said K. K. Chan, the chief executive of Nature Elements Capital, a private equity fund in Beijing that focuses on renewable energy. President Obama, in his State of the Union speech last week, sounded an alarm that the United States was falling behind other countries, especially China, on energy. “I do not accept a future where the jobs and industries of tomorrow take root beyond our borders — and I know you don’t either,” he told Congress. The United States and other countries are offering incentives to develop their own renewable energy industries, and Mr. Obama called for redoubling American efforts. Yet many Western and Chinese executives expect China to prevail in the energy-technology race. Multinational corporations are responding to the rapid growth of China’s market by building big, state-of-the-art factories in China.

 Vestas of Denmark has just erected the world’s biggest wind turbine manufacturing complex here in northeastern China, and transferred the technology to build the latest electronic controls and generators. “You have to move fast with the market,” said Jens Tommerup, the president of Vestas China. “Nobody has ever seen such fast development in a wind market.” Renewable energy industries here are adding jobs rapidly, reaching 1.12 million in 2008 and climbing by 100,000 a year, according to the government-backed Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association. Yet renewable energy may be doing more for China’s economy than for the environment. Total power generation in China is on track to pass the United States in 2012 — and most of the added capacity will still be from coal. China intends for wind, solar and biomass energy to represent 8 percent of its electricity generation capacity by 2020. That compares with less than 4 percent now in China and the United States.

So while Americans are used to thinking of themselves as having the world’s largest market in many industries, China’s market for power equipment dwarfs that of the United States, even though the American market is more mature. That means Chinese producers enjoy enormous efficiencies from large-scale production. In the United States, power companies frequently face a choice between buying renewable energy equipment or continuing to operate fossil-fuel-fired power plants that have already been built and paid for. In China, power companies have to buy lots of new equipment anyway, and alternative energy, particularly wind and nuclear, is increasingly priced competitively. Interest rates as low as 2 percent for bank loans — the result of a savings rate of 40 percent and a government policy of steering loans to renewable energy — have also made a big difference. As in many other industries, China’s low labor costs are an advantage in energy. Although Chinese wages have risen sharply in the last five years, Vestas still pays assembly line workers here only $4,100 a year. ...from the New York Times

Suniva to do Combined Solar and Battery Project

One of the few remaining challenges to utility scale solar energy plants is how do you generate energy once the sun goes down.  Unless this problem is solved solar power plants will be limited to playing just a supporting role in our national renewable energy strategy. Because this is a critical renewable energy issue the federal government decided to include investments in storing solar energy as part of the overall federal energy incentives. As of January 1, 2010, battery storage systems qualify under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for the same 30 percent federal investment tax credit as solar systems. One of the first project to leverage this combined incentive will be a new project from solar provider Suniva Inc.

Suniva will collaborate with GS Battery Inc., the American subsidiary of GS Yuasa International Ltd., a battery and inverter development company, to develop solar powered energy storage systems using Suniva's solar modules.  The collaboration between Suniva and GS Battery will begin with the planning and development of several commercial demonstration sites across the United States. The first system will use 30 kilowatts (kW) of Suniva’s solar modules and will be built on GS Battery’s headquarters in Roswell, Georgia. This solar array, which is designed, engineered and constructed by Atlanta-based solar integrator First Century Energy, will also be the first grid-connected energy-storing solar installation in Georgia. As of January 1, 2010, battery storage systems qualify under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for the same 30 percent federal investment tax credit as solar systems. “Solar system owners that are able to store their energy output are also able to take advantage of many new economic opportunities,” said Yasuyuki Nakamura, President of GS Battery. “Our state of the art approach allows customers to achieve better returns on investment with a more flexible and profitable solar energy supply. We are excited about the value of utilizing Suniva’s high-powered modules with our battery technology.” Under the partnership, GS Battery will use Suniva’s high-efficiency solar modules, Powered by Suniva, which consist of Suniva’s ARTisun series monocrystalline solar cells, in its energy-storing solar systems. Suniva modules can achieve power output up to 300 watts, which is one of the highest performance levels in today’s solar industry. ... from Renewable Energy World

Renewable Energy Videos

Here is a recent collection of some of the better You Tube videos on renewable energy. If you have some favorite You Tube videos relating to renewable energy please send us the links and we will try to include them. Thanks! --Editor

Join our community

Meeting our energy needs in a responsible manner requires the efforts not just of each individual but of our communities.  Please share what you learn here with members of your own community and encourage them to share their successes and challenges with the Energy Bible community. Write to us at editor@energybible.com.