As the U.S congress continues to struggle with passing an extremely watered-down and relatively weak climate bill, China is continuing its decisive drive toward incorporating more large scale renewable energy power production into its overall energy portfolio. No longer content with being told they’ll be largely responsible for future climatic calamities if they do not institute sustainable initiatives now, China, along with India and its newly announced renewable energy projects, can no longer be described as a country that is making no moves toward sustainability; quite to the contrary as of late.
‘Reds’ Turning Green
Thanks to generous government support (take notes Congress), China is becoming home to a burgeoning solar industry. The third largest manufacturer of solar panels is a Chinese company called Suntech. However, much of what China’s up and coming solar industry produces is exported largely due to the fact that they lack the experience and knowledge to build large scale solar power production facilities.
That lack of knowledge and experience may all change in the very near future. It was announced yesterday that First Solar, an Arizona based company, and Chinese government officials have tenatively reached a deal to build the world’s largest solar photovoltaic power plant in the Mongolian desert. The 2,000 megawatt photovoltaic farm is slated to be completed by 2019 and is only a small part of an 11,950-megawatt renewable energy park planned for Ordos City in Inner Mongolia.
The agreement between First Solar and China outlines a three phase timeline with ground being broken on the first 30 megawatt phase of the project in June 2010. The first 1,000 megawatts are scheduled to be completed and go online in 2014 followed by the remaining 1,000 to be completed in 2019. The finished 2,000 megawatt farm will supply enough power for 3 million homes and is equivalent to about 4 average sized coal-fired plants or one nuclear plant.
Expected cost for the plant is estimated to be between $5-6 billion dollars. First Solar has stated that building the plant will be difficult due to its remote harsh location as well as the fact that the Chinese have no experience in this type of construction project. Despite the anticipated difficulties, and the large price tag, the Chinese government is moving forward with the project and continues its acceleration at developing renewable energy technologies and projects.
The Good: A seriously large renewable energy power plant that has plans to become even larger. The Chinese government, better know for its oppressive rule and stubbornness, is taking the initiative on the renewable front and listening to the chorus of voices calling upon them to do so.
The Bad: Though the project is huge in scale, so is China. Relative to the population and increasing growth, the project is still barely a drop in the bucket of fulfilling Chinas overall current and future electrical needs. Logistically the location and size of the project will make it a tough project to complete on time and on budget.
The Bottom-Line: A great start, to be sure, for China’s burgeoning renewable energy sector, but given the size and increasing growth of the country’s economy, it needs a lot more solar panels than just this project if it is to have a significant impact on mitigating its current and future impact on climate change.
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