CHINA WILL GET SOLAR

China seems to represent all the possibilities, one day talking up coal or nuclear and the next day talking up renewables. All you can do is watch where the investment goes. One thing is certain: They are getting busier every day while the west waits for the decision: Cap-And-Trade or Carbon Tax?

China Aims to Clean Up in Solar Power; Its environment is a world class mess, but the mainland has ambitious plans to use and produce solar cells and panels
Chi-Chu Tschang, April 11, 2007 (Business Week)

WHO
Chinese political leadership from President Hu Jintao down.

WHAT
Chinese leaders have indicated a strong commitment to the development of solar energy.

WHEN
China’s announced goal is to move from its 2005 solar energy generation of 10 megawatts (of 2.83 billion megawatts of electricity consumed) to 300 megawats of solar energy by 2010. Many current projects are timed to meet the demands of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Shenzen is expected to have solar panels on 20% of its rooftops by 2010. China expects to have enough polysilicon manufacturing capacity to break its dependence on foreign sources by 2011. Subsidized by municipal government, Shanghai will have 100,000 solar rooftops by 2015.

WHERE
Beijing and nationally.

WHY
China has some of the most polluted cities in the world. It also has 150 companies manufacturing photovoltaic cells, 1/3 of world production. 90% is exported. World demand is up 38% since 2001. With 30 million people in 30,000 villages still off the grid, the potential domestic market is enormous. Given China’s huge supply of cheap labor, only a shortage of the polysilicon used to make solar cells limits China’s potential to dominate the industry. And the country is in the process of constructing 11 new polysilicon plants.

QUOTES
- "If you add up all the solar energy investment in the Olympic Village, National Indoor Stadium, Bird's Nest, and rural villages, it is entirely possible that Beijing could have six megawatts by 2008," says Zhu Wei Gang, a vice-president with Beijing Corona Science & Technology, the company which is installing the solar panels in the National Indoor Stadium.
- "If the domestic Chinese PV (photovoltaic cell) market starts to develop that would pretty much be the nail in the coffin for other countries because then not only will the cluster be here, but the [lower] manufacturing cost will be here," figures Timothy Chang, managing director of Citigroup Venture Capital China.
"Right now, China's solar industry relies on foreign imports for its raw materials and exports most of its finished products overseas," said Meng Xiangan, secretary general of the China Solar Energy Society. "The foreigners have, in their hands, the power to direct which way our solar industry is heading."