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China Is On an Epic Solar Power Binge (technologyreview.com)
An anonymous reader links to an article on MIT Technology Review: It's worth taking a minute to appreciate the sheer scale of what China is doing in solar right now. In 2015, the country added more than 15 gigawatts of new solar capacity, surpassing Germany as the world's largest solar power market. China now has 43.2 gigawatts of solar capacity, compared with38.4 gigawatts in Germany and 27.8 in the United States. According to new projections, it seems that trend is going to continue. Under its 13th Five Year Plan, China will nearly triple solar capacity by 2020, adding 15 to 20 gigawatts of solar capacity each year for the next five years, according to Nur Bekri, director of the National Energy Administration. That will bring the country's installed solar power to more than 140 gigawatts. To put that in context, world solar capacity topped 200 gigawatts last year and is expected to reach 321 gigawatts by the end of 2016.
Is this GWs produced per hour? per day? per year?
What's that in percentage of total eletric power?
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Arf! You go Sino Asians!
For crying out loud Carter Tried.
economic adjustment to massive malinvestiments (like solar) and over capacity (like steel). I wouldn't be trumpeting this trend. World markets are simply not demanding solar. Left wing governments do, to the economic ruin of us all.
The sun is always shining down on earth somewhere. Is it possible to transmit electricity so that the power is distributed across (most/some of) the planet? That would mean no, or shorter, interruptions during the night.
The world will add 121 gigawatts in the year 2016 (from 200 gigawatts to 321 gigawatts). China will add 15 gigawatts. This means China will be responsible for 12.4% of the new solar gigawatts. China has around 1.35 billion people, compared to 7.125 billion people worldwide. This means China has around 19% of the world population. So they are actually adding less per person than the world wide average.
. . . .can we assume that these panels are being deployed in the less-developed hinterlands ? Between sunlight being blocked, and the need to clean particulates off the panels for best efficiency, one would reasonably guess that urban applications of solar in China are minimal. . . .
Really?
Can someone tell me what the new chocolate ration is?
China Is On an Epic Solar Power Binge
Poor "an." Why doesn't "an" get a capital letter?
Of course the real question is why all the other words do, when No-one Ever Writes Anything Else Like This.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
A lot of people's supply chains have been disrupted, because China is modernizing, building industrial scale solar and wind nationwide, and took all their coal plants offline to convert those they could to cogeneration.
Which is a good thing.
But it has meant they have reduced use of steel and coal dramatically.
Many modern universities and entire cities on the coasts of the US and Canada now require all new construction be built with either super efficient HVAC or with load-bearing roofs and electrical systems that can handle rooftop solar. Since 2004.
The future is here, you just can't see it yet.
Fossil fuels are dying off.
And, good news, solar and wind creates, on average, about 10 times the jobs per GW that fossil fuels do.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Against solar city? Seriously, China invests far far more into coal plants and mines each year. Heck, China is around 1100-1300 GW of coal plants ( Chinese gov numbers do not agree with what locals claim and what the plants are ). And this is growing at ~52 GW/ yr. Solar will not make a dent in their coal unless they stop building new plants and stop their old ones.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Germany>USA>China
love is just extroverted narcissism
What is an "epic solar power binge"? Is that Cantonese for "power trip"?
To put it in perspective, 15 gigawatts of production would (if operating at full capacity) generate about 0.6% of the world energy demand from 2008.
It's a lot of new solar, but also only a small percentage of what is needed.
divide those numbers by about four to compare to the world's combined nuclear capacity of 384GW. or coal's 1500+MW.
I'm actually for paving over desert with solar panels and storage systems and UHVDC to carry it around continents, could actually power the world. But this piecemeal approach isn't aggressive enough
However, it is still one of the shittiest places to live.
The air pollution might actually be one driver for solar deployment: yes, it will definitely reduce effectiveness in the short to medium term; but the quality-of-life costs of some of the nastier power plants make them desirable targets for retirement in order to improve public health and reduce dissatisfaction.
If a given city is so polluted that it's cutting solar efficiency; that's a good sign that the people there probably aren't happy about it. It'll involve a bunch of shuffling around of the grid; but you would likely make people considerably happier if you can shut down the worst pollution sources, tide yourself over with power from elsewhere on the grid, and then get increasing amounts of local solar as the worst of the smog eventually settles out or blows away.
China needs to get their priorities straight. Apparently China currently has 4x the number of flu cases as the USA.
love is just extroverted narcissism
so if every (1.35 Billion) chinese person had ONE 0.3 kw (=300 Watt, 2 m x 1 m) panel
they would have:
1'350'000'000 *0.3 kW =
405'000'000 kW =
405'000 MW =
405 GW.
assume 4 hours of peak sunshine per day = 1'620 TWh per day : )
show me how much cheap steel can be made and exported using solar energy, versus how much can be made burning cheap coal. then we'll talk.
FYI: China is building solar power even if there is no one using the power, as a way to prop up the industry.
A typical nuclear plant produces 1GW (typical range: 0.5GW to 5GW). Last time I looked, been a while, I think the estimate was china needed more than 10 new nuke plants per year for sustained growth. So in context this is an enormous advance. Of course that's not 24/7 power. But with enough excess capacity they could even pump water upstream of the Dams or desalinate water.
the unit of measure here is power not energy. it's not a battery.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
How much power are they using producing all these solar panels? And how does that compare with the energy they use to produce the McDonalds play toys that entertain our kids for 2 minutes before we though them away.
The raw material for solar panels is polycrystalline silicon. Due to increases in oil prices, subsidies for solar panels in Europe and elsewhere, the price of polysilicon spiked tenfold from $50/kg in 2005, to $475/kg in early 2008.
China went on a crash building binge, in an attempt to capture the business and drive out non-Chinese competitors. They were too successful, and together with the world recession of that time (lower oil prices and end of subsidies), collapsed the price to $16/kg by $2012.
What to do with the surplus they could no longer export? Why, PV the heck out of their own country and hopefully put a lid on pollution. Ironically, polysilicon production is hugely energy-intensive, so that each production facility pretty much needs a corresponding (coal-fired) power plant.
Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
One particular thing I like about wind and PV solar is you don't need to waste water generating power, particularly for those of us that live in the desert.
Molten salt reactors can reach temperatures of 800C making air cooling viable. That means even in a desert the plant can produce power. A typical coal plant can get to 300C, making water cooling necessary for efficient operation. Steam cycle nuclear is similarly constrained.
Not only can molten salt reactors operate without water cooling it can load follow like natural gas turbines. The turbines used for both natural gas and molten salt nuclear are very similar, the difference is how the heat is produced. Coal, solid fuel nuclear, and some natural gas plants use steam which is very slow to react to changes in demand, if load changes too quickly the turbines can be damaged.
As the amount of energy from sun and wind increases the load seen on the grid can change much more dramatically. Not only do you have people turning electrical items on and off but the energy sources can come and go with changes in weather. This need for peak power is usually met with natural gas. If we get molten salt reactors then we can replace the natural gas power plants.
What I expect to happen over time is that people will realize that with a nuclear power plant that is capable of load following, and the cost to run it varies little based on the load, that wind and solar will become unprofitable.
Right now wind and solar are basically proxies for natural gas, since with every watt of capacity from wind or sun there must be a watt of reserve in natural gas. We are seeing coal power plants getting replaced but not with wind and sun but with natural gas, the windmills and solar panels are there for government subsidized greenwashing. When the US federal government gets their thumbs out of their asses and starts to do something meaningful about our reliance on fossil fuels we can expect a nuclear renaissance of sorts. At which point I expect to see wind and solar to fade as grid power.
If what I predict does not come true then so be it, so long as the USA is providing its own energy instead of importing it from Mexico or China.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
China now has about 30GWe in nuclear power capacity, plans to have 60GWe by 2020, and 150GWe by 2030.
I point this out because the articles linked above might lead people to think that China is abandoning it's nuclear power for solar power, it is not. They are investing in a number of energy sources and I believe that they are wise to do so. It would be nice to see the same investment in nuclear power in the USA.
To all of those that will inevitably reply with doomsday scenarios of piles of radioactive waste, meltdowns irradiating schoolyards and hospitals, and on and on, just don't. We don't build power plants like Chernobyl or Fukushima any more so the scaremongering based on those failures do not apply, we can build them better now. We can build them better because we learned from those mistakes. We can choose to join China in this new nuclear powered age or we can watch them surpass us in technology, in wealth, and in military capability.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
The sun is always shining down on earth somewhere. Is it possible to transmit electricity so that the power is distributed across (most/some of) the planet?
You lose less by storing it nearby rather than shipping it long distances. Storage technology is still improving rapidly, too. Long distance transmission is improving slowly or not much at all, and is unlikely to have a major breakthrough short of discovery of a hot-day-temperature, non-type-A superconductor.
Given that, there's no good reason to get into the politics, environmental hassles, solar flare and terrorist vulnerabilities, etc. of additional transcontinental and intercontinental electrical transmission just to even out the load while avoiding storage.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Economics as much Ecology is what is driving this. China has fully grasped that shipping money out for oil is just a huge parasitical drain on their economy going to countries that don't exactly promote world stability. Every watt of energy that is generated through solar is potentially a watt not bought from sponsors of terrorism as well as a watt not resulting in that money being shipped outside the economy.
Thus by looking at the big picture it is sensible for a country to spend quite a bit more on a per watt basis for homegrown energy than imported energy as that money continues to then circulate around your own economy. This is doubly important when the currency being used is not your own as oil is mostly purchased using USD.
Another benefit that is big picture is that by mastering the mass production and understanding of solar technology and its related technologies China will pull further ahead in its ability to become a world leader.
Then, as an added bonus, there are the eco benefits. Another benefit for a country that has still not yet built a comprehensive power grid is that solar generation is somewhat distributed. This fits perfectly with filling in gaps where not enough power can easily be supplied to some areas, combined with the fact that much of the Chinese powergrid is of an older design and in desperate need of replacement. This then allows for a modern power grid much more capable of working with a distributed and ever varying power source such as solar. Many western countries have older but comprehensive power grids that really aren't distributed generation friendly, nor do they want to be as the power companies aren't so big picture oriented.
Unlike the surfaces over which they are typically erected (such as sand or light-colored roofs), which bounce a lot of the sun's input back into space through the "visible-light window" of atmospheric transmission, solar panels absorb pretty much all the light that strikes them. Less than a third is converted into electricity and the remaining more than two-thirds ends up being re-radiated as infrared, which generally doesn't make it back out.
Were you worried about a greenhouse effect boost from carbon dioxide? What about that from leaving solar panels out in the sun?
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Congrats! Only a hundred more years of this and you will produce about as much power as one nuclear reactor during the daytime. When it's sunny.
when done at gun point.
And Environment Impact is the sound of a rifle butt cracking a skull.
Naaa! There's enough people in China to employ 'panel cleaners' by the millions! And, polution should start clearing up with more and more solar going in.
Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.