China Leading Global Race to Make Clean Energy

New York Times ^ | January 31, 2010 | Keith Bradsher

[reaganaut1]

TIANJIN, China — China vaulted past competitors in Denmark, Germany, Spain and the United States last year to become the world’s largest maker of wind turbines, and is poised to expand even further this year.

China has also leapfrogged the West in the last two years to emerge as the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels. And the country is pushing equally hard to build nuclear reactors and the most efficient types of coal power plants.

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.

...

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. Coal will still represent two-thirds of China’s capacity in 2020, and nuclear and hydropower most of the rest.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

It's déjà vu for this old hillbilly.

Nytimese headlines from the past.(as best I can remember).

Josef Stalin leads world to a happy, comfortable future
USSR Leading Global Race to Make Better Future
U.S. falls behind; women, children, and minorities face bleak future here.

[The Great RJ]

The Chinese haven’t made even simple efforts to clean up their own environment, but for a buck will sell worthless windmills and solar panels to the gullible in the west.

[Mike Darancette]

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.

And the USA is so stupid we'll forego getting free of ME oil by not developing our own resources and the depend on the ChiComs. Get a grip America.

[ponder life]

Muzzle the environmental activists and lawyers. Get the best nuclear plant design together and use single plan. Plan for breeder reactors to reprocess fuel. Then get the hell out of the way as American companies build 80 to 100 new plants. Stimulus money could have been used a a loan guarantee.

Well, actually, you are right. What has halted American nuclear projects in the past, was a never ending stream of protests that delayed the cost of projects while the utilities continued to pay dividends on the bonds they issued.

Ironically, the scenario you are describing to ensure a hundred reactors are built is playing out in China. China has spent the last 20 years building only 11 reactors. Mainly because they were learning the ropes of building reactors. And they have worked with Westinghouse and France's Framatone for technology transfers. Both Westinghouse and Framatone have agree to license their reactor design (AP1000 from Westinghouse and the EPR from Framatone). China is expected to build anywhere from 160 to 240 reactors over the next 20 years. And I have read that over the next 10 years, China will build more nuclear reactors than the rest of the world combined. There is currently 20 reactors under construction, right now, in China. Most if not all, using either the Westinghouse or Framatone design.