100% in 10 Years

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Comment by Lawrence Murray on July 5, 2009 at 11:32am

China requires green energy and is investing billions to remake itself. Through a combination of carrots and sticks, Beijing is starting to change how energy is generated within its country. Coal remains the biggest energy source. Yet the rise of renewable energy is the only way to continue economic growth without depleting resources on foreign energy sources.
A big impetus was the government’s requirement, issued in September 2007, that large power companies generate at least 3 percent of their electricity by the end of 2010 from renewable sources. Like California, the calculation excludes hydro power (which already accounts for 21 percent of Chinese power) and nuclear power (which accounts for 1.1 percent). While China continues to move toward finishing 8 new nuclear power plants, Chinese companies must generate 8 percent of their power from renewable sources by the end of 2020.
This year China is on track to pass the United States as the world’s largest generator of wind power and biggest market for wind turbines. HSBC predicts that China will invest more money in renewable energy and nuclear power between now and 2020 than in coal-fired and oil-fired electricity. In fact, China has been doubling its wind power capacity in each of the last four years. State-owned power companies are competing to see which can build solar plants fastest, though these projects are much smaller than the wind projects. And other green energy projects, like burning farm waste to generate electricity, are sprouting up.
This oasis town deep in the Gobi Desert along the famed Silk Road and the surrounding wilderness of beige sand dunes and vast gravel wastelands has become a center of China’s drive to lead the world in wind and solar energy. A series of projects is under construction on the nearly lifeless plateau to the southeast of Dunhuang, including one of six immense wind power projects now being built around China, each with the capacity of more than 16 large coal-fired power plants. Each of the six projects “totally dwarfs anything else, anywhere else in the world,” said Steve Sawyer, the secretary general of the Global Wind Energy Council, an industry group in Brussels.
The 2007 goal was to have 5,000 megawatts of wind power installed by the end of 2009 (the equivalent of eight big coal-fired power plants) a tiny proportion of China’s energy usage. The pittance spent on renewable energy came at a time when China was spending huge somes to build two coal-fired power plants a week.
But in March of 2008, as power companies began accelerating construction of wind turbines and high voltage power lines, the government issued a forecast that 10,000 megawatts would actually be installed by the end of 2010. Recently, just 15 months later, it appears that China will have 30,000 megawatts of wind energy by the end of 2010 — which was previously the target for 2020, Mr. Li said. Construction of coal-fired power plants has slowed to one a week and the good new is planning of new coal-fired plants is still falling.
Chinese power companies are eager to invest in renewable energy not just because of the government’s mandates, but because they are flush with cash and state-owned banks are eager to lend them more money. And there are few regulatory hurdles.
By comparison, the grid buys electricity from coal-fired power plants for 4 to 5 cents a kilowatt hour. Wind turbine rates have dropped to 7 cents from 10 cents over the last couple of years because of fierce competition and declining turbine costs. Solar rates have droped from 56 cents to 16 cents as commodity prices have fallen. The solar project still must go ahead, Mr. Zheng said, because China has limited coal reserves — 41 years at current rates of production — and the potential for hydroelectric power is leveling off as most eligible rivers have already been dammed. China’s demand for coal is already stressed as imports grow.
But technical obstacles to renewable energy are popping up. Sandstorms in Dunhuang in the spring, for instance, will cover solar panels and render them useless until they are cleaned after each storm by squads of workers using feather brushes to avoid scratching the panels, a process expected to take two days.
And wind turbines are being built faster here than the national grid can erect high-voltage power lines to carry the electricity to cities elsewhere. On the windiest days, only half the power generated can be transmitted, said Min Deqing, a local renewable energy consultant.
“It’s the Gobi Desert,” said Wang Yu, the vice director of economic planning. “There’s not much other use for it.”
Published by The New York Times July 2, 2009, Keith Bradsher

Comment by John T on July 26, 2008 at 4:03am

Whether it is 10, 15 or 20 years, the objective of getting our energy from renewable resources (mostly wind, solar, geothermal) is clear. So let's get on with it.

Comment by Lawrence Murray on July 22, 2008 at 7:18pm

CoolingEarth.org is for getting us to 100% renewable energy. The solutions are many. Hydro, wind, solar-both concentration and PV, nuclear, hydrogen, ethanol-lets import some from Brazil. Let’s add taxes to pollution. Let’s learn to conserve and be efficient. Let’s support our technologies. Let’s vote for people that support a renewable energy policy. CoolingErth.org is supporting new 2 GW of solar for Northern California on 11 sights. We must support the IPO’s and buy (this is not a recommendation). CoolingEarth.org supports other technologies like an electric pneumatic car engine and electric airplane cruse ship-that clean up the atmosphere.

Comment by Len Shepard on July 17, 2008 at 10:02pm

Count us in, too. Len (Sky WindPower)

Comment by Bill Mollring on July 17, 2008 at 12:26pm

Thank you for starting this site. I am very interested in seeing how alternative energy ideas develop across the country. Please include me on your updates and notices. I wish you much success. We are listed on the Pickens Plan as Mariah Power. http://www.push.pickensplan.com/group/mariahpower
For other sources of alternative energy that we are involved with, please see our site at: http://www.emsystems.net
Aloha, Bill