Will China Save the Planet? by Barbara Finamore

Author:Barbara Finamore [Finamore, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781509532667
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2018-11-30T00:00:00+00:00

By the time of our visit, China, the world’s manufacturing base, had already become the leading manufacturer of solar panels, accounting for 50 percent of total global production. But 90 percent of these panels were being exported overseas to countries like Germany that already had wellestablished solar subsidy programs up and running. In contrast, China’s domestic solar power industry was virtually nonexistent. Reporting on Himin’s Solar Valley at the time, the Washington Post was dubious: “Short of a calamitous economic collapse or a game-changing technological breakthrough, China’s chances look slim: Its mostly coal- and oil-fueled economy is growing so fast that its real but relatively modest green gains simply can’t keep up.” The Post quoted a Tsinghua University professor, who said the “manufacturing of solar devices helps local economies but won’t break or even dent China’s reliance on carbon-rich fossil fuels.”3

Little did we know how fast that was about to change. In 2007, the country’s fledgling solar PV industry had only installed 100 megawatts (MW) of domestic capacity, mostly in rural areas far from the grid. This amount is less than is currently installed in the city of San Antonio, Texas.4 Then the 2008 global financial crisis hit. International demand for solar panels plummeted as Western countries cut back their solar subsidies, adding to an existing glut in Chinese-manufactured solar panels and wreaking havoc on the industry. The government responded with a raft of measures designed to create a domestic market for its solar cell and panel manufacturers.

Among other moves, China amended its 2005 Renewable Energy Law in 2009 to require grid companies to purchase a fixed share of their power generation from renewable energy sources. This requirement is similar to the Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) in effect in many Western countries and 29 of the 50 US states, though enforcement in China has been notably lax. The law requires grid companies to be compensated for the higher cost of purchasing wind and solar power through a renewable energy surcharge on end-use energy consumers.

In the run-up to the 2009 Copenhagen climate summit, China pledged to increase the share of non-fossil fuels to around 15 percent of its energy mix by 2020. To jumpstart these efforts, China launched a solar roofs subsidy program, as well as a $3 billion “Golden Sun” initiative which subsidized 50–70 percent of the investment and grid connection costs of hundreds of solar power installations across the country. By the end of 2010, the first full year of the Golden Sun program, China’s total PV installed capacity grew by 166 percent from the year before, to nearly 900 MW, the equivalent of one large coalfired power plant.5

China’s domestic wind power industry was already up and running, taking advantage of the country’s abundant wind resources, which are similar in scale to those in the United States, though mostly concentrated in northern and western regions far from demand centers. China built its wind industry through a combination of measures, including government financing, demonstration projects, market-based mechanisms such as competitive bidding, government-approved tariffs, and national targets.

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