China (3,705,407 square miles) is only slightly larger than the United States (3,537,438 square miles) geographically, yet it contains more than four times as many people; 1,335,962,132 versus 306,134,000 according to 2007 census figures.
What this does to China's sustainability equation can be imagined. China currently ranks third in coal reserves globally, but first in production, at 40 percent of the world's output in 2007. According to experts, this resource will be exhausted in 80 years. Smaller reserves of oil and gas will go even faster, lasting between 15 and 30 years at their current rate of use in China's rapidly expanding industrial economy.
China's leaders are fully cognizant of this scenario, and that is why China currently leads the world in solar cell production. In 2007, photovoltaic factories in the People's Republic of China tripled their production, capturing 35 percent of the global market. The same is true for lithium ion batteries used in electric vehicles and wind turbines. According to Steve Sawyer of Global Wind Energy Council, China will produce enough wind turbine assemblies to generate 10 gigawatts of power per year 2010. That 10 gigawatts represents more than half the capacity of the whole world in 2007.
With the Chinese, alternative energies like solar power aren't "feel good" measures designed to make the affluent seem more in touch with the earth. They are engines of necessity, and the Chinese have always been good at turning necessity into an art form.
Take solar. China, also the world's largest solar water heater manufacturer, currently uses about 100 megawatts of solar power to offset coal. This is a mere drop in the bucket, considering China uses 2.83 billion megawatts of power annually, 85 percent of it from coal. This usage creates 1.8 billion tons of fossil fuel emissions like carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, as compared to the U.S., which in 2007 emitted 1.6 billion tons.
By 2010, however, China's goal is 300 megawatts of solar energy, and that's not even considering amendments to the 2006 Renewable Energy Law, which doesn't offer government financial incentives for solar.
Should that happen, expect China's solar power industry to take off. In the meantime, the real solar push is coming from rural areas which electrification has failed to reach. These 30 million people, in 30,000 villages across the country, get their power from panels, and experts predict this "green" rural electrification will account for more than half of China's solar power production in the coming years.
Take Rizhao City, where nearly 100 percent of central district households rely on solar to heat their water, trigger their traffic signals, and power street and safety lights. Outside the urban area, many families use solar cookers. More than 60,000 greenhouses grow food under solar panels, and this plethora of captured sunlight is attracting the minds, imaginations, and livelihoods of businessmen, academics and retired people. Rizhao City is growing like - dare I say? - a weed under summer sunlight.
The trend isn't confined to rural areas. Shenzhen now requires all new buildings higher than 12 stories to install rooftop solar water heaters. In Shanghai, a plan is afoot to invest 1.5 billion dollars in rooftop solar panels before 2015, which the Shanghai municipal government plans to subsidize until the cost of solar panels become affordable to the average Chinese citizen.
Finally, a proposal by two Chinese companies to build a 1-gigawatt solar photovoltaic power plant in Qinghai's Qaidam Basin, will start small - 30 megawatts in 2009 - and end up being the world's biggest when completed.
The current world recession has put a damper on many Chinese plans for greener energy, but once it passes (in late 2009, according to most economists) expect China's solar energy platform to hit the ground running and not stop until every wall and rooftop in every city and village has its full complement of solar panels. Because the Chinese are very good in another venue: making products affordable.
Cooler Planet is a leading solar resource for connecting consumers and commercial entities with local solar Installers. Cooler Planet's solar energy resource page contains articles and tools such as our solar calculator to help with your solar project.
