Energy Superpower
"With
Europe importing 80 percent of its solar panels from China,
dependencies would merely shift from imported oil or gas to imported
solar equipment, leaving much to be desired when it comes to the solar
sector as a genuine source of energy security and strategic autonomy."
European Parliament backgrounder
China's
big break came when in 2001 Western powers agreed it should become a
member of the World Trade Organization. Actually, its big opportunity
came when Western consumers became enthralled with the prospect of
buying Chinese goods offered for sale at prices substantially reduced
for common household goods manufactured in their own countries where
production costs were higher, mostly because of higher worker wages and
benefits amidst union-corporate bargaining and national standards that
China's vast production network was untroubled by, particularly relating
to environmental degradation.
It
took dogged patience for Beijing's Chinese Communist Party, and careful
planning but in fact, took no time at all for China to dominate the
manufacturing and trade market globally, while manufacturing in the West
closed down, unable to compete with China, and corporate investment
from the West ensured that name brands once proudly home-grown were now
produced in China keeping their bottom lines healthy and Chinese
industry booming. The environment in China suffered; all-enveloping smog
from coal-fired production, poisoned lakes and rivers reflecting no
national standards.
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| SHANGHAI, CHINA - Feb 21, 2017: Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) offshore
patrol vessel No. 31088 berthed at the pier next to China's biggest
coal-fired power plant in Shanghai. |
Now,
add to that China, the world's greatest energy user and contributor to
greenhouse gases playing to the environmental game of Climate Change and
green energy, vowing at the United Nations to do its part in reducing
carbon output, while at the same time building new coal-fired power
projects at home and abroad. Remember the Olympic Games held in Beijing
when corporations were ordered to temporarily shut down their production
facilities and stop emitting particulate matter and carbon in an effort
to reduce the dense smog responsible for shortening life spans?
Anxious
efforts to show the incoming world spectators that there were blue
skies over Beijing, after all, lasted as long as the Games went on, and
then it was full throttle ahead, again. And more coal-fired projects on
the agenda, not only in China itself, but elsewhere in the world where
less-advanced economies responded to Chinese investment and planned
coal-fired projects through Chinese generosity willing to advance
foreign economies, upgrading bridges and roads in the Belt and Road
initiative.
In
the West the argument by advocates of decarbonization of industrialized
economies, that the oil and gas energy dependency would be replaced
with new "green jobs" has failed to materialize. On the other hand,
China has been advantaged there, too. Even while China continues to
benefit economically as it dominates global production with inexpensive
coal-generated power, and has secured a near monopoly on solar panel
production and rare earth elements which the West is hungry for in its
quest for clear energy and electric vehicle production.
Labels: China, Climate Change, Environment, l Coal-Fired Plants, Rare Earth, Solar Panels
The Race to Build Roads of the Future
"China
became the world's top solar power producer last year; it produces 78
gigawatts of solar power annually, compared to 40.3 gigawatts in the
U.S.. [The U.S. ranks fourth, after Japan and Germany]."
"The
China Daily has billed the road as 'the first photovoltaic highway in
the world', though it's not the first road to collect solar energy. The
French village of Tourouvre-au-Perche unveiled a similar-looking 'solar
panel road' in 2016, intended to power streetlights in the village of
3,400 people. The Netherlands built a solar panel-embedded bike path in
2014, despite public concerns about cost-effectiveness."
"The
Jinan highway is the largest project of its type; its solar panels
cover 63,200 square feet, about twice the area of France's road."
"China has also built a 500 foot-long solar road
— not quite a highway — in the eastern province Zhejiang, designed to
transfer solar energy into electromagnetic waves which can wirelessly
charge electric vehicles."
Jonathan Kaiman, Los Angeles Times
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| The solar road in Jinan, China. Getty Images |
China has long-range plans to be first among competing countries in renewal energy, already producing three quarters of the solar panels on the international market. It has turned its attention to solar roads imbedded with modified solar panels installed instead of traditional asphalt; admittedly at a much greater cost. The clear purpose is to generate electricity directly from streets, foregoing the older model of setting up solar panels in fields and deserts since a lot more energy could be produced and the land itself conserved for agriculture.
The idea is that the electricity generated could be used close to where it is generated; no power lost in transmission, a more efficient and effective sourcing of energy. Roads are installed everywhere to begin with, it's simply a matter of changing the way they are constructed, substituting solar panels for asphalt. Electric heating strips are envisaged as a way to melt snow falling on highways while light-emitting diodes embedded in the surface of the road provides illuminated signage directing drivers to exits, alerting to construction, and allied traffic hazards.
An integrated, all-in-one approach to be obtained as well in building roads capable of wirelessly recharging electric cars running along them. Roads such as these are becoming increasingly viable and less expensive to build as prices fall in response to soaring production in China where a solar panel now costs a tenth of what it did a decade earlier. Two companies leading in solar road development are at work in Jinan, China; Pavenergy and Qilu Transportation; the former producing panels the latter, owned by the state, operating the highway.
According to Zhang Hongchao, an engineering professor at Tongji University in Shanghai who helped develop the panel surfaces, they are constructed of a complex polymer resembling plastic, with a slightly greater friction capability than a conventional road surface. The road was selected in view of its proximity to an electricity substation, a logical enough choice. Colas, a French road building giant, represents the Western rival to this Chinese innovation in road building.
Colas has developed experimental solar roads and parking lots in France, Canada, Japan and the United States, twenty-four in all, the largest of the sites a country road in Normandy with half the surface area of the new solar highway in Jinan. Solar panels on a road are installed so they lie flat. However, intermittently covered with vehicles driving on them, they produce roughly half the power that rooftop panels tilted to the sun can produce.
Additionally, highway panels are costly, far more than asphalt; about $120 a square meter to resurface and repair an asphalt road every ten years, while Pavenergy and Colas aspire to reducing the cost of a solar road to $310 to $460 a square meter. On the other hand, solar panels installed on highways are likelier requir4ed to be replaced less frequently than asphalt, according to Professor Zhang, even while solar roads can produce roughly $15 a year's worth of electricity from each square meter of solar panels.
If so, they could pay for themselves within fifteen years. Judging whether the panels could withstand millions of tires pounding on them every year for over a decade is another matter; including whether the panels might be stolen. The latter has already occurred, where roads have been damaged when some of the solar panels installed on them have been extracted, defeating the very purpose for which they were installed until repairs could be effected.
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| Credit: XinhuaNet |
Labels: China, Energy-Producing Roads, Innovation, Research, Solar Panels
