22 May 2007 21:53:08 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Timothy Gardner
NEW YORK, May 22 (Reuters) - Solar power should become a mainstream energy choice in three or four years as companies raise output of a key ingredient used in solar panels and as China emerges as a producer of them, according to a report by an environmental research group.
"We are now seeing two major trends that will accelerate the growth of photovoltaics: the development of advanced technologies, and the emergence of China as a low-cost producer," Janet Sawin, a senior researcher at the Worldwatch Institute and an author of report, said in a statement.
Investors have flocked to solar and other renewable energy sources amid worries about the high costs of oil and natural gas and greenhouse gas emissions. Solar is the fastest growing energy source, but still provides less than 1 percent of the world's electricity, in part because its power can cost homeowners twice as much as power from the grid.
But costs could fall 40 percent in the next few years as polysilicon becomes more available, Sawin said.
More than a dozen companies in Europe, China, Japan, and the United States will boost production over the next few years of purified polysilicon, which helps panels convert sunlight into electricity, and is the main ingredient in semiconductor computer chips, according to the report.
Polysilicon's feedstock is abundantly available sand. But a downturn in silicon refining after the high-tech bubble collapse in the late 1990s has constrained the panel market.
In some of the world's sunniest places, like California, electricity from solar panels costs the same as power from the grid. A drop in solar panel prices could expand that to places that only get average sunlight, making solar more of a mainstream choice, Sawin said in an e-mail.
Last year, China passed the United States to become the world's third largest producer of solar panels, trailing only Germany and Japan.
"To say that Chinese PV producers plan to expand production rapidly in the year ahead would be an understatement," Travis Bradford, president of the Prometheus Institute, a Massachusetts-based group that promotes renewables, said in a release.
"They have raised billions from international IPOs to build capacity and increase scale with the goal of driving down costs," said Bradford, who helped write the report.
Many companies are producing thin-film solar technologies that cut the amount of silicon used in panels. Thin-film could grab a 20 percent share of the market by 2010, up from 7 percent of the market in 2006, the report said.
Showing posts with label china solar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label china solar. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Himin Solar Energy Group - The biggest solar water heater producer worldwide
Himin Solar Energy Group is the torchbearer and exploiter of solar energy industry in China. A decade ago, Himin was founded in an unknown warehouse cherishing the dream of replacing the fossil energy with renewable energy. Presently, it has become the aircraft carrier (pilot) of international solar energy industry.
Himin brand is the only one in solar energy field who has won three championships - "Chinese honorable trademark", " Chinese famous brand" and "free inspection products". In 2004, the trademark of Himin(reaches 5.13 billion RMB) is worth 5.13 billion RMB. By now the annual coverage covered area of Himin solar water heater has reached two million square meters, being equal to 800 megawatt electricity energy. Main products solar vacuum tube, Solar water heater, Warm-screen low-e glass, solar module and solar lamp.
The management theory of Himin Group is "user-friendliness comes before marketability". The Group will always guard interest of the solar energy industry. Himin will never wage the price war. It leads the industry to the direction of high-quality development. Since it has been founded, Himin always provides its costumers with the most favorable price and quality.
In the past ten years, Himin has created world famous "8422" reading, it has covered 80,000,000 kms to popularize the knowledge and application of solar energy; The solar energy utilized by the installation of Himin products is equal to 4000 megawatt electricity, which has surpassed the total amount of that of EU, been twice as much as north America and six times as much as Japan and Korea put together. It has saved totally 200 million tons normative coal for China and has reduced dirty discharge more than 200 million tons. For the time being, Himin can save fossil energy equaling to the reserves of one Zhongyuan oil field yearly by popularizing solar energy, and the utility rate of solar energy can be increased by 30% yearly.
Facing worldwide energy crisis, Himin has founded a large market of solar thermo and photoelectricity without any example to copy or method to be introduced, motivated by market-oriented operation and absolute innovation. To the belief, Himin has grown into modern large-scale industrial solar products production base from manual workshop. The whole industry system of solar energy utility has been set up by Himin in ten years, while it took western countries 60 to 80 years to do so. The commercial promotion model and industrial production system of solar industry created by Himin has set a most valuable example for the development of global renewable energy. In order to further develop solar industry, Himin Group has set up a solar valley in Dezhou City Shandong Province, by which Dezhou City is named "China Solar City" and is preparing for the 2010 "Solar City Conference". In the coming five years, the solar valley will become the center of R&D&I, manufacture, the popularity of scientific education, tourism and meetings &communication.
Himin brand is the only one in solar energy field who has won three championships - "Chinese honorable trademark", " Chinese famous brand" and "free inspection products". In 2004, the trademark of Himin(reaches 5.13 billion RMB) is worth 5.13 billion RMB. By now the annual coverage covered area of Himin solar water heater has reached two million square meters, being equal to 800 megawatt electricity energy. Main products solar vacuum tube, Solar water heater, Warm-screen low-e glass, solar module and solar lamp.
The management theory of Himin Group is "user-friendliness comes before marketability". The Group will always guard interest of the solar energy industry. Himin will never wage the price war. It leads the industry to the direction of high-quality development. Since it has been founded, Himin always provides its costumers with the most favorable price and quality.
In the past ten years, Himin has created world famous "8422" reading, it has covered 80,000,000 kms to popularize the knowledge and application of solar energy; The solar energy utilized by the installation of Himin products is equal to 4000 megawatt electricity, which has surpassed the total amount of that of EU, been twice as much as north America and six times as much as Japan and Korea put together. It has saved totally 200 million tons normative coal for China and has reduced dirty discharge more than 200 million tons. For the time being, Himin can save fossil energy equaling to the reserves of one Zhongyuan oil field yearly by popularizing solar energy, and the utility rate of solar energy can be increased by 30% yearly.
Facing worldwide energy crisis, Himin has founded a large market of solar thermo and photoelectricity without any example to copy or method to be introduced, motivated by market-oriented operation and absolute innovation. To the belief, Himin has grown into modern large-scale industrial solar products production base from manual workshop. The whole industry system of solar energy utility has been set up by Himin in ten years, while it took western countries 60 to 80 years to do so. The commercial promotion model and industrial production system of solar industry created by Himin has set a most valuable example for the development of global renewable energy. In order to further develop solar industry, Himin Group has set up a solar valley in Dezhou City Shandong Province, by which Dezhou City is named "China Solar City" and is preparing for the 2010 "Solar City Conference". In the coming five years, the solar valley will become the center of R&D&I, manufacture, the popularity of scientific education, tourism and meetings &communication.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
The quest for clean energy: China's green revolution
The air in Beijing was classified as 'hazardous' this week as the city became choked with smog, but following dire warnings of rampant pollution, alternatives are emerging. By Clifford Coonan reports
Published: 23 November 2006
Desert winds drive the turbines in the vast wind farm on the outskirts of Urumqi, dusty capital of the north-western Chinese region of Xinjiang, and day-trippers come from the city to photograph the spectacular sight in the barren wilderness.
Just down the road, white-domed houses in a village of Central Asian Uighurs use solar power to provide their energy. In the province of Gansu, officials have announced plans to build the world's largest solar power station, part of efforts to ease China's dependence on coal. In fast-moving, sophisticated Shanghai, China's biggest city and its financial hub, hundreds of thousands of householders are using solar panels to heat the water for their morning showers.
Meanwhile in the capital, Beijing, plans are well advanced to use renewable energy for a big chunk of the city's power needs by the time it hosts what China is billing as the first "green" Olympics in 2008. Beijing intends to build a "solar street" where buildings and streetlights will run entirely on energy from the sun. To be green is to be hip in China these days, and even the government is taking note.
But is this the same China, infamous for its dirty rivers and poisoned skies? Nearly all of the world's most polluted cities are in China, and other urban centres such as Los Angeles are suffering the effects of pollution from China's factories. Green China as a concept seems ridiculous, particularly when you look at other headlines coming out of China. Strong economic growth led to a major increase in the discharge of major pollutants in the first half of this year.
Indeed, Beijing's air pollution became so bad this week that it reached "hazardous" levels on a government air quality index. The city was blanketed in heavy fog, visibility was cut to a few hundred metres, 80 flights were delayed and some motorways were closed. From July to September, in Beijing and 15 other major cities, one out of every three days was classified as polluted.
Seventy per cent of China's energy needs are met by coal, and every week to 10 days another coal-fired power plant opens somewhere in China, adding to the country's environmental woes. Meanwhile, China is the world's second-largest consumer of oil, behind the United States.
But China is on a major drive to boost renewable energies and cut pollution - for sound financial and political reasons. Oil is too expensive and the government wants alternative energies to reduce China's dependence on it. People in the highly polluted cities often complain that their children have nowhere to go to escape the bad air, and that they are worried about what all this will mean for their health.
Farmers have rioted and held demonstrations over pollution damaging their crops, making environmental hazards a potential source of political instability, something the ruling Communist Party refuses to tolerate.
China's top environmental watchdog, the State Environment Protection Administration (Sepa), said in September that pollution cost China £34bn in 2004, about 3 per cent of the GDP that year. In true pragmatic style, Chinese leaders introduced laws this year that set a goal of doubling the use of alternative sources of energy. By 2020, 15 per cent of China's energy needs will be met from renewable sources, with the amount of green power produced rising to 10 gigawatts by 2010 and 30 gigawatts by 2020.
"I'm very optimistic about the outlook for renewable energy here. In China, introducing renewables is good industrial development strategy, it's not part of the climate-change argument," says Dr Eric Martinot, a senior research fellow with the US-based Worldwatch Institute and a senior visiting scholar at Tsinghua University.
China invested £3.3bn in renewable energy last year, making it one of the biggest investors in renewables in the world, and Dr Martinot believes the spending was based on sound reasoning. "In other countries it's a question of 'a' or 'b', but here people say 'Let's develop everything - 'a' and 'b' and 'c', we need it all'," he says. "Local air pollution is playing a big factor in driving many of these arguments, as ordinary people don't accept this kind of pollution." There are 30 million solar households in China, which account for nearly 60 per cent of global solar capacity. Wen Jiabao, the Prime Minister, says solar power is central to his government's efforts to cut the use of fossil fuels by 20 per cent as a percentage of gross domestic product over the next five years.
Industry leaders all over the world are watching what is happening in China. The scale of the country makes it prime testing ground for new technologies - if something works in a country of 1.3 billion people, then it is likely to be viable the world over.
The Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association (CREIA) was set up in 2000 to promote the industrialisation of the use of green energy in China. "Using renewable energy can promote economic development in an environment-friendly way, which would be the key method to balance China's economic development and its environment protection," says Li Junfeng, CREIA's secretary general.
China still has vast coal reserves, but officials are examining the potential of renewable energy to resolve a potential bottleneck to faster economic growth. The experts say the challenges facing China's environment require a multi-faceted response - wind power in particular is especially suitable for remote, economically underdeveloped regions, such as Xinjiang and other barren provinces such as Inner Mongolia. Meanwhile, the CREIA is developing solar energy and biomass energy in several other provinces, including Hebei and Jiangsu.
Local government officials in Dunhuang in Gansu province said they would build the world's biggest solar plant there, a 100-megawatt project costing £400m that will take five years to build. Dunhuang is sunny, with 3,362 hours of sunshine every year, making it a prime spot for solar energy development.
The world's biggest solar plant is at Arnstein, near Wuerzburg in southern Germany, with a 12-megawatt capacity. Beijing is also examining the potential of ethanol and biodiesel. China produced one billion litres of ethanol last year - a small proportion of global production (which hit 33 billion litres) but one that is growing.
China is also getting help from some significant global players, including the World Bank and General Electric. British companies such as BP are also getting involved - the Tsinghua-BP Clean Energy Research and Education Centre was launched by Tony Blair three years ago and receives more than £500,000 a year from BP. It aims to develop clean energy technologies and advise China's National Development and Reform Commission on the use of clean energy. In May, the World Bank said it would work with China to look at how to optimise energy use.
"As the 2008 Beijing Olympics approaches, we are also conducting several related projects, such as the sustainable urban energy system," says the centre's administrative director, Jiang Ning. Ah, yes, the Olympics. With less than two years to go, Beijing is working hard to meet its pledge to make the 2008 Games a "green Olympics" and provide a platform for China to show itself as a modern, progressive country.
It's hard to overstate the importance of the Games as a symbol of national pride and as a motor for change. A pilot project is up and running in Xuanwu Park with solar power for lighting, heating and refrigeration. The goal is that by 2008, up to 90 per cent of the city's street lamps will use solar power, which will also heat 90 per cent of the water used for bathing, according to Tian Maijiu, the deputy director of the Standing Committee of Beijing Municipal People's Congress.
Wind power will generate 20 per cent of the electricity for the Olympic venues, and the city will provide direct investment or interest-free loans to key projects. Solar power, biomass and wind power development will be the three main projects in Beijing's rural ecological park, and the city is also planning to build a series of recycling projects that will include refuse incineration, processing plants and a disposal centre for dangerous waste.
Then there is hydroelectric power. The redirecting of rivers and relocating of millions of people for giant dam projects has caused consternation among environmentalists and human rights activists. But the government sees it as a viable alternative to coal, and the Three Gorges Dam, the world's biggest, which partially opened in May, will produce 22.4 million kilowatts when it is fully operational by 2009. The government is also sensitive to criticism: after Fu Xiancai gave an interview to a German television station in June 2006 to complain about insufficient compensation for relocation, he was beaten so badly that he will be paralysed for the rest of his life.
Another controversial power source is nuclear energy. Six nuclear power plants are due to be built in the south-eastern province of Fujian, part of China's goal of having 40 gigawatts of nuclear power on line by 2020.
It would be naive to think that China is planning to become a green superpower. Coal will continue to provide the lion's share of its energy needs. But crucially, renewable energy will form a more important part of the overall jigsaw of energy provision and that can only be good news for China, and the planet.
The world's economic powerhouse
While China is stepping up its efforts to promote renewable energies for hard-headed pragmatic reasons, there is no question that the environmental picture remains grim.
A relentless drive to boost the country's gross domestic product (GDP) - the economy grew 10.9 per cent in the first six months of the year) led to an increase in the discharge of major pollutants in the first half of this year, according to the State Environment Protection Administration (Sepa).
Over half of all finished industrial goods are made in China these days, and the reason why so many Western companies are turning to China to manufacture their products is because of cheap production costs. But pressure to keep manufacturing costs down generally bodes ill for the environment as companies use the cheapest means of production available, which is often not the most environmentally friendly means. And growing domestic demand for everything from cars to washing machines to double-glazing, all products long denied the vast majority of Chinese people, has also put pressure on the environment and on energy use.
"It is almost impossible to reduce energy consumption within a short period while experiencing such a high economic growth rate," Lu Zhongwu, an expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, told the China Daily newspaper.
* Coal output grew by 12.8 per cent in the first half of this year. Coal-fired power plants emit greenhouse gases and a new plant opens in China every week to 10 days.
* Local governments in one-third of Chinese cities have banned increasingly popular electric bicycles, even though they are less polluting than cars. And bicycle lanes for regular bikes are being trimmed back in nearly every city in China to make way for cars.
* China produced 12 billion tons of industrial waste-water in the first half, up 2.4 per cent from the same period last year.
* China is the world's second-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases and is expected to overtake the United States as the biggest, bringing acid rain to roughly one-third of the country and poisoning nearly three-quarters of rivers and lakes.
* Sepa said that under 40 per cent of public projects had undergone environmental evaluations before receiving approval.
* Air pollution in Beijing was "hazardous", the highest category in the China Environmental Monitoring Centre's index, for the 24-hour period ending at noon on Tuesday this week, Xinhua news agency reported.
* Chemical oxygen demand (COD), a common index of water pollution, increased by 3.7 per cent, while emissions of sulphur dioxide increased by 4.2 per cent in the first half of this year.
Published: 23 November 2006
Desert winds drive the turbines in the vast wind farm on the outskirts of Urumqi, dusty capital of the north-western Chinese region of Xinjiang, and day-trippers come from the city to photograph the spectacular sight in the barren wilderness.
Just down the road, white-domed houses in a village of Central Asian Uighurs use solar power to provide their energy. In the province of Gansu, officials have announced plans to build the world's largest solar power station, part of efforts to ease China's dependence on coal. In fast-moving, sophisticated Shanghai, China's biggest city and its financial hub, hundreds of thousands of householders are using solar panels to heat the water for their morning showers.
Meanwhile in the capital, Beijing, plans are well advanced to use renewable energy for a big chunk of the city's power needs by the time it hosts what China is billing as the first "green" Olympics in 2008. Beijing intends to build a "solar street" where buildings and streetlights will run entirely on energy from the sun. To be green is to be hip in China these days, and even the government is taking note.
But is this the same China, infamous for its dirty rivers and poisoned skies? Nearly all of the world's most polluted cities are in China, and other urban centres such as Los Angeles are suffering the effects of pollution from China's factories. Green China as a concept seems ridiculous, particularly when you look at other headlines coming out of China. Strong economic growth led to a major increase in the discharge of major pollutants in the first half of this year.
Indeed, Beijing's air pollution became so bad this week that it reached "hazardous" levels on a government air quality index. The city was blanketed in heavy fog, visibility was cut to a few hundred metres, 80 flights were delayed and some motorways were closed. From July to September, in Beijing and 15 other major cities, one out of every three days was classified as polluted.
Seventy per cent of China's energy needs are met by coal, and every week to 10 days another coal-fired power plant opens somewhere in China, adding to the country's environmental woes. Meanwhile, China is the world's second-largest consumer of oil, behind the United States.
But China is on a major drive to boost renewable energies and cut pollution - for sound financial and political reasons. Oil is too expensive and the government wants alternative energies to reduce China's dependence on it. People in the highly polluted cities often complain that their children have nowhere to go to escape the bad air, and that they are worried about what all this will mean for their health.
Farmers have rioted and held demonstrations over pollution damaging their crops, making environmental hazards a potential source of political instability, something the ruling Communist Party refuses to tolerate.
China's top environmental watchdog, the State Environment Protection Administration (Sepa), said in September that pollution cost China £34bn in 2004, about 3 per cent of the GDP that year. In true pragmatic style, Chinese leaders introduced laws this year that set a goal of doubling the use of alternative sources of energy. By 2020, 15 per cent of China's energy needs will be met from renewable sources, with the amount of green power produced rising to 10 gigawatts by 2010 and 30 gigawatts by 2020.
"I'm very optimistic about the outlook for renewable energy here. In China, introducing renewables is good industrial development strategy, it's not part of the climate-change argument," says Dr Eric Martinot, a senior research fellow with the US-based Worldwatch Institute and a senior visiting scholar at Tsinghua University.
China invested £3.3bn in renewable energy last year, making it one of the biggest investors in renewables in the world, and Dr Martinot believes the spending was based on sound reasoning. "In other countries it's a question of 'a' or 'b', but here people say 'Let's develop everything - 'a' and 'b' and 'c', we need it all'," he says. "Local air pollution is playing a big factor in driving many of these arguments, as ordinary people don't accept this kind of pollution." There are 30 million solar households in China, which account for nearly 60 per cent of global solar capacity. Wen Jiabao, the Prime Minister, says solar power is central to his government's efforts to cut the use of fossil fuels by 20 per cent as a percentage of gross domestic product over the next five years.
Industry leaders all over the world are watching what is happening in China. The scale of the country makes it prime testing ground for new technologies - if something works in a country of 1.3 billion people, then it is likely to be viable the world over.
The Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association (CREIA) was set up in 2000 to promote the industrialisation of the use of green energy in China. "Using renewable energy can promote economic development in an environment-friendly way, which would be the key method to balance China's economic development and its environment protection," says Li Junfeng, CREIA's secretary general.
China still has vast coal reserves, but officials are examining the potential of renewable energy to resolve a potential bottleneck to faster economic growth. The experts say the challenges facing China's environment require a multi-faceted response - wind power in particular is especially suitable for remote, economically underdeveloped regions, such as Xinjiang and other barren provinces such as Inner Mongolia. Meanwhile, the CREIA is developing solar energy and biomass energy in several other provinces, including Hebei and Jiangsu.
Local government officials in Dunhuang in Gansu province said they would build the world's biggest solar plant there, a 100-megawatt project costing £400m that will take five years to build. Dunhuang is sunny, with 3,362 hours of sunshine every year, making it a prime spot for solar energy development.
The world's biggest solar plant is at Arnstein, near Wuerzburg in southern Germany, with a 12-megawatt capacity. Beijing is also examining the potential of ethanol and biodiesel. China produced one billion litres of ethanol last year - a small proportion of global production (which hit 33 billion litres) but one that is growing.
China is also getting help from some significant global players, including the World Bank and General Electric. British companies such as BP are also getting involved - the Tsinghua-BP Clean Energy Research and Education Centre was launched by Tony Blair three years ago and receives more than £500,000 a year from BP. It aims to develop clean energy technologies and advise China's National Development and Reform Commission on the use of clean energy. In May, the World Bank said it would work with China to look at how to optimise energy use.
"As the 2008 Beijing Olympics approaches, we are also conducting several related projects, such as the sustainable urban energy system," says the centre's administrative director, Jiang Ning. Ah, yes, the Olympics. With less than two years to go, Beijing is working hard to meet its pledge to make the 2008 Games a "green Olympics" and provide a platform for China to show itself as a modern, progressive country.
It's hard to overstate the importance of the Games as a symbol of national pride and as a motor for change. A pilot project is up and running in Xuanwu Park with solar power for lighting, heating and refrigeration. The goal is that by 2008, up to 90 per cent of the city's street lamps will use solar power, which will also heat 90 per cent of the water used for bathing, according to Tian Maijiu, the deputy director of the Standing Committee of Beijing Municipal People's Congress.
Wind power will generate 20 per cent of the electricity for the Olympic venues, and the city will provide direct investment or interest-free loans to key projects. Solar power, biomass and wind power development will be the three main projects in Beijing's rural ecological park, and the city is also planning to build a series of recycling projects that will include refuse incineration, processing plants and a disposal centre for dangerous waste.
Then there is hydroelectric power. The redirecting of rivers and relocating of millions of people for giant dam projects has caused consternation among environmentalists and human rights activists. But the government sees it as a viable alternative to coal, and the Three Gorges Dam, the world's biggest, which partially opened in May, will produce 22.4 million kilowatts when it is fully operational by 2009. The government is also sensitive to criticism: after Fu Xiancai gave an interview to a German television station in June 2006 to complain about insufficient compensation for relocation, he was beaten so badly that he will be paralysed for the rest of his life.
Another controversial power source is nuclear energy. Six nuclear power plants are due to be built in the south-eastern province of Fujian, part of China's goal of having 40 gigawatts of nuclear power on line by 2020.
It would be naive to think that China is planning to become a green superpower. Coal will continue to provide the lion's share of its energy needs. But crucially, renewable energy will form a more important part of the overall jigsaw of energy provision and that can only be good news for China, and the planet.
The world's economic powerhouse
While China is stepping up its efforts to promote renewable energies for hard-headed pragmatic reasons, there is no question that the environmental picture remains grim.
A relentless drive to boost the country's gross domestic product (GDP) - the economy grew 10.9 per cent in the first six months of the year) led to an increase in the discharge of major pollutants in the first half of this year, according to the State Environment Protection Administration (Sepa).
Over half of all finished industrial goods are made in China these days, and the reason why so many Western companies are turning to China to manufacture their products is because of cheap production costs. But pressure to keep manufacturing costs down generally bodes ill for the environment as companies use the cheapest means of production available, which is often not the most environmentally friendly means. And growing domestic demand for everything from cars to washing machines to double-glazing, all products long denied the vast majority of Chinese people, has also put pressure on the environment and on energy use.
"It is almost impossible to reduce energy consumption within a short period while experiencing such a high economic growth rate," Lu Zhongwu, an expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, told the China Daily newspaper.
* Coal output grew by 12.8 per cent in the first half of this year. Coal-fired power plants emit greenhouse gases and a new plant opens in China every week to 10 days.
* Local governments in one-third of Chinese cities have banned increasingly popular electric bicycles, even though they are less polluting than cars. And bicycle lanes for regular bikes are being trimmed back in nearly every city in China to make way for cars.
* China produced 12 billion tons of industrial waste-water in the first half, up 2.4 per cent from the same period last year.
* China is the world's second-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases and is expected to overtake the United States as the biggest, bringing acid rain to roughly one-third of the country and poisoning nearly three-quarters of rivers and lakes.
* Sepa said that under 40 per cent of public projects had undergone environmental evaluations before receiving approval.
* Air pollution in Beijing was "hazardous", the highest category in the China Environmental Monitoring Centre's index, for the 24-hour period ending at noon on Tuesday this week, Xinhua news agency reported.
* Chemical oxygen demand (COD), a common index of water pollution, increased by 3.7 per cent, while emissions of sulphur dioxide increased by 4.2 per cent in the first half of this year.
Solar Panels 2007
China's production of solar panels is estimated to have more than doubled to 400MW in the past two years, making it one of the world's largest providers of the line. The country now accounts for approximately 20 percent of global solar panel output, up from 10 percent in 2004.
Output growth rate, however, will be slower in the next few years. In 2007, annual production is expected to increase by a modest 20 to 30 percent to reach about 500MW, still leaving much of capacity unutilized.
The main constraint to higher growth is the shortage of polysilicon, the main raw material of wafers and cells. While the supply situation is expected to improve, it is still projected to fall short of demand in coming months since most of the expansionary activities of polysilicon companies are expected to take effect only in or after 2008.
China is now capable of producing 1,500MW of solar modules, five times its capacity at the end of 2004, as many suppliers established new facilities or upgraded production lines to take advantage of the high demand coming from the EU and the US.
The following are some of the other key trends that we see in China's solar panel industry:
- Overall capacity will continue to expand, but not as fast as it rose in 2005. Most companies will increase capacity by only 20 percent or less.
- Prices will increase further as polysilicon remains in short supply. The majority of companies will limit adjustments to within 10 percent, however, to keep quotes competitive.
- The amorphous segment will continue to grow as more mono- and polycrystalline panel makers venture into the line. Crystalline panels, on the other hand, will adopt thinner, more efficient cells.
- More companies will vertically integrate their production facilities to improve their control over costs along the supply chain, and to ensure a stable supply of components, especially cells.
Output growth rate, however, will be slower in the next few years. In 2007, annual production is expected to increase by a modest 20 to 30 percent to reach about 500MW, still leaving much of capacity unutilized.
The main constraint to higher growth is the shortage of polysilicon, the main raw material of wafers and cells. While the supply situation is expected to improve, it is still projected to fall short of demand in coming months since most of the expansionary activities of polysilicon companies are expected to take effect only in or after 2008.
China is now capable of producing 1,500MW of solar modules, five times its capacity at the end of 2004, as many suppliers established new facilities or upgraded production lines to take advantage of the high demand coming from the EU and the US.
The following are some of the other key trends that we see in China's solar panel industry:
- Overall capacity will continue to expand, but not as fast as it rose in 2005. Most companies will increase capacity by only 20 percent or less.
- Prices will increase further as polysilicon remains in short supply. The majority of companies will limit adjustments to within 10 percent, however, to keep quotes competitive.
- The amorphous segment will continue to grow as more mono- and polycrystalline panel makers venture into the line. Crystalline panels, on the other hand, will adopt thinner, more efficient cells.
- More companies will vertically integrate their production facilities to improve their control over costs along the supply chain, and to ensure a stable supply of components, especially cells.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Shrinking the cost for solar power
By Michael Kanellos Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: May 11, 2007, 4:00 AM PDT
One of the big problems with solar power has been that it costs more than electricity generated by conventional means. But some experts think that, under certain circumstances, the premium for solar power can be erased, without subsidies or dramatic technical breakthroughs.
A sufficiently large solar thermal power plant (also called concentrated solar power, or CSP) could potentially generate electricity at about the same cost as electricity from a conventional gas-burning power plant, experts say.
It's not easy. The plant would also have to come with a large energy storage system, be built next to others and be located close to users. To date, no one has completed a facility that comports to all of these parameters, said Fred Morse, an energy analyst who has studied the issue.
"Solar thermal is available at much more attractive prices than solar photovoltaic. The land mass isn't huge, but it does take a while to build these," said Stephan Dolezalek, a managing partner and co-head of the clean tech practice at venture firm Vantage Point Venture Partners, an investor in Bright Source Energy, which builds solar thermal plants and components.
Both Dolezalek and Jiang Lin, who heads up the China Energy Group at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, said that solar thermal is likely the most promising technology in the entire alternative-energy field right now.
When asked when solar thermal can hit parity, Lin responded "now."
Thermal by the numbers
Conventionally generated electricity ranges between 5 and 18 cents per kilowatt hour (the amount of money to get a kilowatt of power for an hour) but in most places it's below 10 cents, according to the Energy Information Agency. Solar thermal costs around 15 to 17 cents a kilowatt hour, according to statistics from Schott, a German company that makes solar thermal equipment.
A solar thermal plant would need a facility to store the heat harvested in the day by its sunlight-concentrating mirrors so that the heat could be used to generate electricity at night. "You need the kind of system that can run in the evening," Morse said. At some sites, such as Nevada Solar One, excess heat is stored in molten salt and released at night to run the turbine.
The plant, ideally, should be capable of generating about 300 megawatts of electricity. Those plants can churn out electricity at about 13 cents a kilowatt.
That's still a relatively high price, so utilities would need to group two, three or more 300-megawatt plants together to share operational resources, Morse said. "They could share control rooms or spare parts," he said. That would knock the price closer to 11 cents a kilowatt hour.
"Under 10 cents is sort of the magic line," he said.
Dolezalek puts it another way: the plants need to be around 500 megawatts in size. Most solar thermal plants right now aren't that big. The 22-year-old thermal plant in California's Mojave Desert is 354 megawatts. Utility company Southern California Edison is erecting a 500-megawatt plant scheduled to open in 2009.
By 2014, solar thermal plants located in the Southwest could crank out nearly 3 gigawatts of power, estimated Travis Bradford of the Prometheus Institute for Sustainable Development, a nonprofit based in Cambridge, Mass. That's enough for about 1 million homes.
Costs can then be reduced further by building the plants close to consumers. It costs about $1.5 million per mile for transmission lines, according to statistics from Acciona Solar Power, which owns solar thermal plants. Solar thermal plants work best in arid deserts that get little rainfall. Since some of the fastest-growing cities in the world are located in sun belts, that's less of a problem than it used to be.
But getting to that point isn't easy. Land-use hearings and permits can drag on for years while construction costs rise. The amount of land required can be an issue too: the 354-megawatt plant in California occupies 1,000 acres. Larger plants would need more land, while smaller plants result in higher costs per kilowatt hour.
Even if all of these factors could be completely optimized, solar thermal power plants would likely not produce electricity at a level that would compete with coal plants. Coal plants, however, will likely be hit with carbon taxes in the near future, which will make solar thermal more competitive. Still, at less than 10 cents a kilowatt, solar thermal would be competitive with electricity from gas-powered plants.
Utilities will also likely work hard to lower the costs of solar thermal in the coming decades, Morse added. Utilities are under mandates to increase their renewable energy sources. Citizen groups often complain about wind turbines and the wind doesn't blow at a constant, predictable rate. Several companies are intent on tapping heat from under the surface of the earth to generate power. Geothermal power, however, works best only in certain locations.
"There is an enough flat, unproductive land in the U.S. to power the U.S.," Morse said. "We just don't have the wires to get there. Eisenhower built the national highway system. Some president will build the national grid."
Published: May 11, 2007, 4:00 AM PDT
One of the big problems with solar power has been that it costs more than electricity generated by conventional means. But some experts think that, under certain circumstances, the premium for solar power can be erased, without subsidies or dramatic technical breakthroughs.
A sufficiently large solar thermal power plant (also called concentrated solar power, or CSP) could potentially generate electricity at about the same cost as electricity from a conventional gas-burning power plant, experts say.
It's not easy. The plant would also have to come with a large energy storage system, be built next to others and be located close to users. To date, no one has completed a facility that comports to all of these parameters, said Fred Morse, an energy analyst who has studied the issue.
"Solar thermal is available at much more attractive prices than solar photovoltaic. The land mass isn't huge, but it does take a while to build these," said Stephan Dolezalek, a managing partner and co-head of the clean tech practice at venture firm Vantage Point Venture Partners, an investor in Bright Source Energy, which builds solar thermal plants and components.
Both Dolezalek and Jiang Lin, who heads up the China Energy Group at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, said that solar thermal is likely the most promising technology in the entire alternative-energy field right now.
When asked when solar thermal can hit parity, Lin responded "now."
Thermal by the numbers
Conventionally generated electricity ranges between 5 and 18 cents per kilowatt hour (the amount of money to get a kilowatt of power for an hour) but in most places it's below 10 cents, according to the Energy Information Agency. Solar thermal costs around 15 to 17 cents a kilowatt hour, according to statistics from Schott, a German company that makes solar thermal equipment.
A solar thermal plant would need a facility to store the heat harvested in the day by its sunlight-concentrating mirrors so that the heat could be used to generate electricity at night. "You need the kind of system that can run in the evening," Morse said. At some sites, such as Nevada Solar One, excess heat is stored in molten salt and released at night to run the turbine.
The plant, ideally, should be capable of generating about 300 megawatts of electricity. Those plants can churn out electricity at about 13 cents a kilowatt.
That's still a relatively high price, so utilities would need to group two, three or more 300-megawatt plants together to share operational resources, Morse said. "They could share control rooms or spare parts," he said. That would knock the price closer to 11 cents a kilowatt hour.
"Under 10 cents is sort of the magic line," he said.
Dolezalek puts it another way: the plants need to be around 500 megawatts in size. Most solar thermal plants right now aren't that big. The 22-year-old thermal plant in California's Mojave Desert is 354 megawatts. Utility company Southern California Edison is erecting a 500-megawatt plant scheduled to open in 2009.
By 2014, solar thermal plants located in the Southwest could crank out nearly 3 gigawatts of power, estimated Travis Bradford of the Prometheus Institute for Sustainable Development, a nonprofit based in Cambridge, Mass. That's enough for about 1 million homes.
Costs can then be reduced further by building the plants close to consumers. It costs about $1.5 million per mile for transmission lines, according to statistics from Acciona Solar Power, which owns solar thermal plants. Solar thermal plants work best in arid deserts that get little rainfall. Since some of the fastest-growing cities in the world are located in sun belts, that's less of a problem than it used to be.
But getting to that point isn't easy. Land-use hearings and permits can drag on for years while construction costs rise. The amount of land required can be an issue too: the 354-megawatt plant in California occupies 1,000 acres. Larger plants would need more land, while smaller plants result in higher costs per kilowatt hour.
Even if all of these factors could be completely optimized, solar thermal power plants would likely not produce electricity at a level that would compete with coal plants. Coal plants, however, will likely be hit with carbon taxes in the near future, which will make solar thermal more competitive. Still, at less than 10 cents a kilowatt, solar thermal would be competitive with electricity from gas-powered plants.
Utilities will also likely work hard to lower the costs of solar thermal in the coming decades, Morse added. Utilities are under mandates to increase their renewable energy sources. Citizen groups often complain about wind turbines and the wind doesn't blow at a constant, predictable rate. Several companies are intent on tapping heat from under the surface of the earth to generate power. Geothermal power, however, works best only in certain locations.
"There is an enough flat, unproductive land in the U.S. to power the U.S.," Morse said. "We just don't have the wires to get there. Eisenhower built the national highway system. Some president will build the national grid."
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Solar Energy Industry Gross Margin
Please see below the current gross margin for the different sectors in the solar energy industry:
To produce polycrystalline silicon: over 80%
To produce ingot and slice: about 25%
To produce solar cell: 18%
To produce solar module: 5%
While about 3 years ago, the gross margin for the sectors in the solar energy industry was quite different, please see below:
To produce polycrystalline silicon: 30-40%
To produce ingot and slice: about 40%
To produce solar cell: 35-40%
To produce solar module: 15-20%
The polycrystalline silicon suppliers control the whole industry, and they are happy to see the feedstock shortage, and they raised the polycrystalline silicon price and enjoy the high margin.
To produce polycrystalline silicon: over 80%
To produce ingot and slice: about 25%
To produce solar cell: 18%
To produce solar module: 5%
While about 3 years ago, the gross margin for the sectors in the solar energy industry was quite different, please see below:
To produce polycrystalline silicon: 30-40%
To produce ingot and slice: about 40%
To produce solar cell: 35-40%
To produce solar module: 15-20%
The polycrystalline silicon suppliers control the whole industry, and they are happy to see the feedstock shortage, and they raised the polycrystalline silicon price and enjoy the high margin.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
