Silicon, Solar Power Manufacturing: China Continues to Play by Its Personal Guidelines, Threatening All Comers

Graphic courtesy Washington Post

Considerably has been talked and written about competition when it comes to manufacturing and international trade in solar photovoltaic (PV) products and technologies in the wake of CASM’s filing of dumping and countervailing duty petitions with the Dept. of Commerce and Worldwide Trade Commission. Talking about the competitiveness, or lack thereof, of manufacturing solar PV in the US isn’t anyplace near central to the real problem, however. This becomes apparent when examining the vastly different, basic nature and construction of the Chinese and US economies.

Talking about relative competitiveness of manufacturing in China versus the US is valid adequate in concept, but in fact the US and China are taking part in entirely distinct ball video games, or much more accurately, taking part in the very same ball game according to wildly diverse guidelines. Nowhere can this basic clash of financial methods and government policies probably be observed a lot more obviously than in the solar PV business policies and goals set out in China’s most recent, just lately announced Five-Year Plan.

China’s 12th Five-Year Program: A Clear, Present Threat to Foreign Competitors

As element of China’s 12th 5-Year Strategy, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technological innovation announced the admirable and welcome goal of reducing the expense of solar energy to .8 yuan (12 US cents) per kilowatt-hour (kWh) by 2015 and .six yuan (9 cents) by 2020.

The 12th Five-Year Program also calls for Chinese makers to significantly enhance production of solar PV panels in order to reach 5 gigawatts (5 GW) by 2015, while polysilicon producers will improve their yearly production capacity to 50,000 tons.

These market place directives come in the wake of solar PV panel prices crashing in the previous two many years. Leading solar PV organizations close to the planet are posting losses, whilst much less-effectively-established organizations are going bankrupt. Uncalled for and unsustainable growth in solar PV panel and polysilicon production by Chinese producers have been the main culprits.

Ironically, the extraordinary drop in solar PV and polysilicon prices largely prompted by growing Chinese production is major governments in the countries that have led growth in solar energy to lower back and minimize, if not get rid of or shelve, subsidies and other incentives — killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, so to speak.

Flaunting Worldwide Trade Guidelines

Is China’s latest 5-Year Plan the response of an open market place-driven economy driven by provide and demand? Plainly not. It’s the response of a centralized command-and-manage financial system that is fundamentally the polar opposite of these in the US and other main marketplace-driven economies close to the globe. To pretend otherwise dangers long term economic development and effectively-being of citizens in the US, EU and all other Chinese trade partners.

Regardless of marketplace provide and demand situations, the Chinese government is intent on continual expansion of “private sector” solar power organizations across the provide chain. Could the following ever take place in the US, EU or other nations based mostly on a private sector, market place-driven economy?

“The government will also help businesses in the solar sector improve yearly product sales. It aims to have at least one particular organization reaching one hundred billion yuan in revenue by 2015, and between 3 and 5 companies reaching 50 billion yuan by the identical date,” according to People’s Daily On-line’s report.

Not only that, but in spite of announced plans to aggressively ramp up domestic solar PV installations, well over 90% of China’s solar PV cells and panels are exported. Tilting the scales even further in favor of domestic organizations, 󈭀% of solar gear and auxiliary supplies” are to be developed domestically. Hence, the solar power objectives spelled out in China’s most recent Five-Year Strategy only raise the stakes and increases the strain on rivals in other WTO member countries.

Subsidizing industries to increase exports to the detriment and harm of business and corporations in other WTO member nations is exclusively prohibited according to WTO guidelines. So is dumping of products at fees below domestic production. Looking for to enforce these international trade rules to assure something like a degree playing area is what CASM’s trade petitions are all about.

As a result far, China’s industrial improvement and trade policies have targeted on knocking out foreign competition in silicon solar PV. The newest Five-Year Program expands that and puts thin-film solar PV producers below threat. “The program will bring opportunities for thin-film PV panels,” Individuals’s Daily quoted a unnamed source at Hanergy Holdings Group Co Ltd, a producer of thin-film PV panels.

Associated posts:

1. US-China SolarTrade Dispute: The Situation for CASM and US Manufacturing


2. Dumping Solar: Research Sheds Light on Solar PV Trade Flows, US-China Manufacturing


3. What if China Stimulated Domestic Demand for Solar Photovoltaic Energy?

CleanTechnica

GE JP Morgan Invest $225 Million in 662.5-MW Capricorn Ridge Wind Farm

 

GE Power Financial Providers and JP Morgan announced yesterday that they are jointly investing $ 225 million into the 662.5-megawatt Capricorn Ridge wind farm in West Texas that is largely owned and operated by NextEra Energy Sources.

Right here are some a lot more details on the behemoth of a wind farm:

• in operation since 2007


• can make sufficient electrical power for up to 220,000 houses


• can cut greenhouse gas emissions by 952,000 metric tons per year (equal to taking ~186,000 cars off the road)


• contains 342 1.five-megawatt GE Energy wind turbines and 65 2.3-megawatt wind turbines from Siemens


• found in Sterling and Coke counties, in West Texas, in a single of Texas’ Competitive Renewable Power Zones (CREZ)

“This investment demonstrates our capacity to give both the capital and equipment for vital power infrastructure projects in assistance of GE’s broader ecomagination approach,” mentioned Kevin Walsh, managing director and leader of energy and renewable power at GE Energy Monetary Providers.

“We had been uniquely suited to invest in this project alongside JP Morgan because of our Texas wind marketplace knowledge.”

In total, “GE Power Economic Providers has invested in two,143 megawatts of wind farms in Texas – about twenty percent of the set up wind capacity in the state,” the organization notes. No modest deal.

Of course, as Chris Varrone wrote in an article for CleanTechnica almost a year ago, “GE wants to market you every little thing.” The firm is enormous and has it’s hands in just about everything, particularly in the energy sector. Of course, that doesn’t make its investment in clean power any much less essential, but a single does want that it would redirect much more of its resources in this path. This investment just announced yesterday is clearly a decent motion in that direction.

Source: GE | Capricorn Ridge wind turbine via NextEra Power Sources

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CleanTechnica

Hawaii’s Biggest Wind Power Project Now Beneath Building

 

Hawaii’s biggest wind energy project, the 69-megawatt (MW) Kawailoa Wind venture on Kamehameha Schools’ Kawailoa Plantation lands on Oahu’s North Shore, is now below development.

On the North Shore of Oahu Island, Hawaii

The wind energy venture will contain thirty 2.three-MW Siemens wind turbines, which will generate adequate electrical energy to power about 14,500 houses on Oahu Island, roughly 5% of the island’s complete electricity demand.

U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka, Hawaii’s Lieutenant Governor Brian Schatz, State Senator Mike Gabbard, Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle, and other individuals hosted a project groundbreaking on Friday.

“This venture will not only support the State meet its renewable power ambitions, but it will also assist protect and help continued agricultural production for long term generations,” Giorgio Caldarone, Regional Asset Manager and Renewable Energy Sector Lead at Kamehameha Schools, said. ”Kamehameha Colleges is committed to sustainability and to investing in projects right now that will produce optimistic outcomes for future generations. Mahalo to the North Shore neighborhood and to everyone else who aided to make this vision a reality.”

“This is the biggest wind farm in Hawai’i’s historical past, and it exhibits the progress we are creating toward our clean power goals. This is a excellent day for Hawai’i. We’ve moved from talking about renewable power to in fact doing it,” Lt. Gov. Schatz.

That line above that I bolded really stands out to me. The massive majority of the U.S. population supports and would like more investment in clean power. Poll right after poll following poll exhibits this. And a lot of individuals in highly influential positions talk about supporting clean energy. But help and speak are distinct from action, and they usually come extended prior to it. It’s exciting to see far more and more states, localities, and nations moving forward with clean power, and I can only hope that the other people will swiftly move from theoretical support and speak to action. 1 essential purpose we featured so numerous stories like this on CleanTechnica is simply because I feel they inspire others to start off and at some point implement this kind of tasks, or similar tasks that green their world with one more clean technologies.

But, back to the venture, here are some much more facts you may well be interested in:

“In December 2011, the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission authorized a power obtain agreement in between Initial Wind and the Hawaiian Electric Business (HECO), which serves a lot more than 400,000 Hawaii clients. Hawaii state law mandates 70 percent clean vitality for electrical energy and surface transportation by 2030, with 40 percent coming from regional renewable sources. Kawailoa Wind will considerably advance the state’s progress towards these goals.”

I’m certain that clean power mandate was a enormous element of this project’s fuel. Don’t have this kind of a mandate in your state? Or have one that you feel is too weak? Organize some influential and inspirational men and women and get it going!

For far more particulars on this project and others in the state, check out the Initial Wind hyperlink below.

Connect with me on Google+, Twitter, or the tiny-known social networking site referred to as ‘Facebook‘.

Supply: Initial Wind | Image: North Shore of Oahu Island, Hawaii courtesy shutterstock

Connected posts:

1. World’s Biggest Wind Power Project Moving Forward


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3. NTPC, India's Biggest Coal Power Generation Company, Plans 500MW Solar, Wind Power Venture

CleanTechnica

“Kitchen Stove” Biorefinery Goes from Grass to Gasoline in 1 Hour

 

The California biofuel organization Cool Planet BioFuels has announced the effective test of a pilot biorefinery that can convert an acre of the giant grass miscanthus into gasoline at the price of four,000 gallons per acre. You study that appropriate – the approach yields straight, drop-in good quality gasoline that is chemically identical to its petroleum-based mostly cousin.

A word about gallons per acre

According to Cool Planet, four,000 gallons/acre means that the procedure generates about twelve instances the yield of a corn ethanol refinery. Nonetheless, the company cautions that this figure represents optimal developing situations. In the true globe, given routine increasing circumstances for miscanthus in acceptable regions (largely the Midwest), Cool Planet estimates a standard yield of three,000 gallons per acre.

Cool Planet also notes that as an additional advantage, some carbon could be diverted from the refining procedure and used as a kind of “terra preta” to boost crop soil. That would lower the production of gasoline but the yield is even now fairly extraordinary. The business claims that the process will function on switchgrass and other woody biomass, and even agricultural waste will yield about one,000 gallons per acre.

“Kitchen stove” biorefining

Cool Planet’s biorefining method needs a fairly low vitality input at each and every stage. That starts with developing, considering that Miscanthus is a hardy perennial that does not call for yearly planting. The biomass prep stage is reduced-impact since the refining process is designed for crops that can be air dried to the proper moisture subject material whilst nonetheless in the area. No added treatment is necessary other than grinding. As for the refining, Cool Planet describes the procedure temperature as comparable to a “kitchen stovetop,” and the stress barely tops that of a transportable tire inflater. All in all, the conversion method from dried biomass to gasoline takes about one particular hour.

Thisclose to biofuel parity with petroleum

Taking into account only the feedstock and vitality input, Cool Planet estimates that its biogasoline comes in at much less than 60 cents per gallon, primarily based on latest commodity rates. That’s not what you would pay at the pump, naturally, but it does indicate that biogasoline is breathing down petroleum’s neck in terms of ahceiving value parity.

That day could be coming sooner rather than later. Cool Planet is readying a modular biorefinery layout that can be planted just about anyplace that feedstock is accessible, and expects first installations to start inside of the next two years.

Following that, it’s just a matter of sitting back and watching the grass grow.

Picture: License Some rights reserved by Anton Novoselov.

Follow Tina Casey on Twitter: @TinaMCasey.

 

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CleanTechnica

Tobacco Goes from Dark Side Villain to Biofuel Hero

Tobacco is about to take center stage as a renewable biofuel crop if new research from the Lawrence Berkeley Nationwide Laboratory pans out. That would be very a turnaround for tobacco, which according to the Centers for Condition Manage is accountable for one in each five deaths in the U.S. each and every year. But hey, if even Darth Vader is capable of redemption, possibly there is hope for tobacco after all.

The Berkeley biofuel breakthrough

Microbial fermentation is a promising new location of investigation in the field of biofuels, but the Berkeley group is aiming even higher. Biochemist Christer Jansson explains that the Berkeley group’s goal is to skip a handful of steps by converting the hydrocarbon molecules from tobacco straight into a fuel that is practically ready to use as a drop-in substitute for petroleum fuels:

“We want to bypass downstream processes like fermentation and generate fuels right in the crop,” says Jansson. “After the biomass is crushed, we could extract the hydrocarbon molecules, and crack them into shorter molecules, producing gasoline, diesel, or jet fuel.”

Super-tobacco for biofuel

In order for the approach to be price-efficient, the team needs to come up with a strain of tobacco that is really productive at harvesting sunlight and converting carbon dioxide to hydrocarbon molecules. They are looking to boost tobacco with genes from cyanobacteria, a microbe that previously has a solid reputation as an power harvester in the choice fuels area.

A lot more biofuel analysis on the tobacco bandwagon

Tobacco has attracted a fair amount of consideration of its own among biofuel researchers. The University of Maryland is searching into a tobacco-hosted virus for fuel cells and batteries, for example. One more angle of investigation comes from the University of Central Florida where researcher Henry Daniell is operating on a tobacco enzyme to aid convert woody biomass to ethanol. The objective is to produce a procedure that would operate on a broad selection of feedstocks, enabling refineries to take benefit of regional sources this kind of as orange crop waste in Florida.

A location in the sun for tobacco biofuel

As a non-food biofuel crop, tobacco fits in nicely with President Obama’s nationwide biofuel initiative announced last summer season, which involves partnering the U.S. Division of Agriculture, the Navy, and the Department of Energy in a push to get far more non-meals biofuel crops into production.

Tobacco also has a likely benefit more than other non-meals biofuel crops like miscanthus, switchgrass and camelina. Considering that a pretty significant sum of land is previously committed to tobacco farming, there would be no need to place new land into production to develop tobacco for biofuel. Even though the aforementioned crops are hardy and can be grown on lands not fit for meals crops, the farming of new (albeit marginal) land includes concerns that want to be addressed including habitat loss, soil loss, and transportation infrastructure.

As far as agricultural land use goes there would be no reduction of existing acreage for meals production, if mass quantities of tobacco have been diverted from the drying shed to the biofuel refinery. Of program, the price of cigarettes would probably skyrocket as a outcome of diminished domestic supply, but at least that would give the individuals at the Centers for Condition Manage something to smile about.

Image: Cigarette. License Some rights reserved by Fried Dough.

Adhere to Tina Casey on Twitter: @TinaMCasey.

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3. Glycerin Goes from Soapy Bauble to Biofuel Hero

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