How China Floated To The Top In Solar Energy

[Peace Piper]

A boat navigates the Huainan solar farm

How China Floated To The Top In Solar Energy

The world’s largest floating solar farm

When Sang Dajie had a son, he knew things had to change. Working as a coalminer in eastern China was just too dangerous. “China always has accidents in coal mines,” he says. “A lot of things you just can’t control down there.”

So Sang moved up in the world—quite literally. As an electrician for Sungrow Power Supply Company, the 31-year-old now helps maintain the world’s largest floating solar farm on a lake formed on top of a collapsed and flooded coal mine just northwest of Anhui province’s Huainan city. A tapestry of 166,000 glistening panels bob and bask below an ochre sun, producing almost enough clean energy to power a large town, as fish break through the inky water all around.

“The coalmine was very hot and the air was bad,” says Sang. “But here I feel safe. The new energy is safe.”

And not just for coalminers. China has some of the world’s worst air pollution, which scientists say may contribute to a third of deaths, and regularly grounds flights and keeps children entombed in their homes and classrooms. Coal burnt for power and steel smelting is the principle cause, as soot-stained miners burrow China into what’s the world’s second largest economy today. But the nation, like Sang, is changing tact and embracing sustainability—no longer beholden to the singular tenet of growth at any cost.



China is now the world’s largest renewable energy investor. The government promises to spend $360 billion on clean energy projects by 2020, creating 13 million new jobs in the process. And as the Huainan project demonstrates, the Asian superpower is pushing the boundaries of green tech, whether wind, solar or hydropower.

New panels are being developed specifically for arid deserts and others to withstand sultry rainforests. “China is leading the way in terms of finding green solutions,” says Wu Changhua, Greater China director for the Climate Group.

The U.S. relinquished that leadership role upon the election of President Donald Trump. The real estate mogul has called global warming “an expensive hoax” and on June 1 vowed to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accords, which aim to limit global temperatures to a 2°C (3.6°F) rise by 2100. China stepped immediately into the breach. Chinese President Xi Jinping has called the Paris Accords “a responsibility we must assume for future generations.”

The U.S. has also lost global leadership on the $100 billion global solar industry. American scientists invented the technology in the 1970s, though it remained peripheral until China did what China does better than anyone: mass-produced with incredible speed and booming efficiency.
As a result, the price of panels plummeted 80% over the last two years as demand has mushroomed. Four out of five solar modules installed around the world today are Chinese-made. “China’s investment in solar really is a gift to the world,” says Amit Ronen, director of the Solar Institute of George Washington University.

Like regular solar farms, floating solar technology is not new, and has been used before in Japan, Israel and the U.K. But China again wins on scale. Floating solar panels have myriad benefits: Lower temperatures simply by being on water boosts efficiency by up to 10%; the lack of surrounding dust and dirt means panels stay clean longer; using the below water to clean panels is easy and minimizes waste; if installed on a drinking-water reservoir, the solar panels actually reduce deleterious evaporation; and expanses of water are underutilized and thus cheap.

Lower solar costs have been bad news for American manufacturers...snip

...But despite the demise of American-made solar panels, the solar industry remains a significant employer: one out of every 50 new American jobs last year was in the solar industry, though in fitting and maintenance rather than production. While China leads the world in overall capacity, the U.S. is leagues ahead in terms of private installations, with one million solar units over homes and businesses...snip
full article: http://time.com/china-massive-floating-solar-field/



China took US tech and ran with it. The US has been so busy bombing and invading lands 8,000 miles away few were paying attention. What a shame. In the next 24 hours, another $200 million dollars will be wasted by the criminals in DC while China builds another solar farm.

[Peace Piper]

Once again, a down-voter down-votes and scampers away like a rodent caught in a flashlight.

The least you cowards could do is explain your position. But you are afraid to do that because you'd lose a debate. SO you vote and run.

The good thing is your little down-votes motivate more articles.

[CaptUSA]

Hmmm... Not sure about the down-voters... I guess there's a whole "climate change" aspect to solar power that automatically ticks some people off.

However, it makes perfect sense that China would be the leader in solar power. In fact, I'd be sad if they weren't. Their government directs their economy and their skies are dirty because of it. Of course, they'd want to cover their asses by trying to generate power by other means. It's a natural response by government.

The reason why it won't fly in the US is because solar has to enter into a completely regulated environment. Regulations that were written by utility companies. Solar is not as economical as other fuels anyway, but even if it was, the other fuels gain the subsidies. And the way our government "evens the playing field" is not to remove the subsidies, but to give them out to the other side of the coin - in this case, solar. And when those happen, so-called "conservatives" suddenly think it's bad.

Here's a hint: It's always bad. It's bad when it happens for solar companies and bad when it happens for other fuels - whether that be coal, gas, nukes, or wind or water.

If you really want solar to "float to the top" in the US, the answer is to fight ALL subsidies. I totally agree that what China is doing is a "gift to the world." If solar can become a more efficient means of generation, that'd be amazing. But until they get it to work economically, without government intervention, we shouldn't try to get our government to do it.

[agitator]

http://spectrum.ieee.org/green-tech/...n-as-you-think

Solar Energy Isn’t Always as Green as You Think