CHINA SHINING (AND CASTING A SHADOW)

Always read Leah Krauss:

Solar World: China becomes a growing force
Leah Krauss, February 22, 2007 (UPI)
- Two years after China passed a comprehensive renewable energy law, its solar energy industry is poised to enter the world market in a big way.

- "Thin film will be the future," solar energy markets expert J. Peter Lynch told United Press International, referring to an emerging type of solar technology that relies on much thinner solar panels than the traditional black panels on many rooftops today. "As more and more Chinese (thin film) companies (go) public, they will drive prices down and shrink margins."
- …The scarcity of solar-grade refined silicon has driven up traditional photovoltaic prices, and the shortage is not expected to ease until 2008.
- "I would definitely foresee (China taking a bigger role in the world solar market)," Yong X. Tao, a professor and Undergraduate Program Director in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Florida International University, wrote…
- "Right now, Suntech is the only significant player from China in the world solar market: its market is outside of China…" Tao said…

- One of the smaller companies has already started making international waves…China's Solarfun Power Holdings Ltd. "…will sell approximately 140 megawatts of photovoltaic modules to UB Garanty Project S.L. in Spain over the next three years. The contract is expected to have an estimated value of between $40 million and $50 million in 2007…and we are confident that Solarfun will continue to penetrate high growth (photovoltaic) markets such as Spain, Italy and other emerging markets in Europe…"
- China gets about 7 percent of its energy from renewable sources…The 2005 Renewable Energy Law called for the country to increase its renewable energy consumption to 10 percent of the total by 2020…
- "A few wise men in Chinese government listened to the scientists and made right decision to push the policy. The 2008 Olympics (slated for Beijing) is another reason," Tao said…The government "supports (solar) in many ways," Tao said…

- Not all observers agree with this positive outlook, however: "Manufacturers are expanding their capacity, but I don't see a major drive to install solar power domestically," Wang Xing, a senior program officer for electricity and renewable energy at the China Sustainable Energy Program, told the news agency AFX earlier this month.
- "Right now there is not a very strong incentive program for solar power…Most domestic manufacturers are gearing production toward the export market…"
- …Tao…says the Chinese solar domestic market, which is mostly focused on solar water heaters, is doing quite well…The 2005 law required all new smaller buildings to install solar water heaters.