China Unveils Clean Vehicle Strategy, Builds on $738 Billion Cleantech Proposal

On 08.08.10, In News, By Yan Zhu

Last Tuesday, China revealed its Clean Vehicle Investment Plan (2011-2020), which would invest over 100 billion RMB ($14.7 billion) in the development of electric and hybrid vehicles. The new investment is aimed to help China reach its annual production goal of 500,000 alternative technology vehicles by 2011.

Through China’s Energy Law and the coming 12th Five-Year Energy Development Plan, the nation has proven that it intends to lead on both the economic and renewable energy front. China has already surpassed the U.S. as the largest investor in clean energy in 2009. Bloomberg Businessweek also reported that China may spend about 5 trillion RMB ($738 billion) more in the next decade developing cleaner sources of energy.  If the plan gets approved successfully by the State Council, some analysts predict an annual increase of 1.5 billion RMB ($220 million) in clean energy production value and the creation of 15 million jobs.

When China recently updated its Renewable Energy Law to include the 15-year Science and Technology Development Plan, it launched talent development programs across the nation and opened 16 new clean energy R&D centers. By taking such action, China sent out a stable signal to local governments as well as domestic and foreign companies, which will attract more private investment and further foster China’s clean energy cluster development.  The Washington Post cited China’s foreign investment in the first six months of the year as having rose 19.6 percent to $51.4 billion, after a 14.3 percent increase in the first five months. China’s sustained investments have attracted the world’s biggest energy companies and venture capitalists. A few of the most prominent examples of this are:

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National Journal: How America Can Lead the Clean Energy Race

On 08.03.10, In News, By Staff

better chinese and american flags

The National Journal has published our response to how America can remain competitive in the clean energy industry after the collapse of comprehensive climate legislation in Congress.  The article is part of a special energy expert series called “Can The U.S. Keep Up In Clean Energy Race?” including contributions from the Chairman of Sierra Club, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association, CEO of the George C. Marshall Institute, Director of Policy at the Brookings Institution, and others.

How America Can Lead the Clean Energy Race

NationalJournal.com | August 3rd, 2010

This comment was submitted by Teryn Norris, president, of Americans for Energy Leadership, and Daniel Goldfarb, program director of the organization.

U.S. economic leadership is at a crossroads. Recent outlooks suggest we may experience long-term stagnation and unemployment comparable to Japan’s lost decade. Yet while we have suffered an economic crisis produced by our own financial sector – losing millions of jobs, trillions in economic output, and further damaging our industrial base – China has largely shrugged off the global recession with high levels of growth and self-financed stimulus, all while purchasing billions of Treasury bills to finance our own deficit.

Meanwhile, as Breakthrough Institute and ITIF documented in “Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant,” China and other nations are establishing dominance in one of the largest growth industries of the century. According to World Economic Forum, the global clean energy market will reach $450 billion annually by 2012 and $600 billion by 2020. Full market potential for clean energy products is much larger, with one analysis estimating Chinese market potential alone at $500 billion to $1 trillion. No wonder President Obama declared in the State of the Union, “The nation that leads the clean-energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy.”

The United States must quickly pursue a new growth agenda, and clean energy technology offers one of our greatest opportunities. For over a decade, the primary goal of U.S. climate and clean energy advocates has been to establish a strong carbon pollution cap. This agenda is dead for the foreseeable future, and precious time has been wasted. The United States must quickly pivot from pollution regulation to an aggressive clean energy competitiveness and innovation agenda, and we can begin with new leadership in the next Congress.

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China Reigns as Largest Energy Consumer

On 07.22.10, In News, By Yan Zhu

china_destination

This week’s energy focus is unarguably on China. The argument between China and the International Energy Agency (IEA) about China becoming the biggest energy consumer is still fresh in everyone’s mind and the energy giant continues to make more news that no one can ignore.

China Surpasses the U.S. as No.1 Energy Consumer

According to figures recently released from the International Energy Agency, China has overtaken the U.S. and is now the world’s number one energy consumer.

China’s total 2009 consumption equals approximately 2.265 billion tons of oil, compared with 2.169 billion tons used by the U.S., according to the IEA. These figures show that energy consumption in China has more than doubled over the last decade, from 1.107 billion tons in 2000, despite the fact that the U.S. still consumes five times the amount of energy that China does per capita. The staggering energy consumption increase is driven by China’s leapfrog economic development and burgeoning population growth.

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Three Posts on Energy Innovation & Competitiveness

On 07.13.10, In Columns, By Sydney Baloue

The Americans for Energy Leadership summer policy fellows, who we recently highlighted here, have three new posts at our fellows blog about energy innovation and competitiveness. Excerpts of these articles are included below, and full articles can be accessed at our AEL Fellows Blog.

“Yingli Solar at the World Cup“ by Clifton Yin

“China did not participate in this year’s World Cup and has actually qualified for the tournament only once, in 2002. Nevertheless, 2010 saw a solar energy company – Yingli Green Energy Holding Company – become the first firm from that country to secure global marketing rights to the sporting event.”

“Leading the Clean Energy Industry Requires Public Investment” by Yan Zhu

“While carbon pricing has polarized the U.S. energy and climate policy debate, the governments of some Asian nations are investing heavily to develop clean technology manufacturing and form innovation clusters. As a result the United States lags far behind its economic competitors in clean technology manufacturing.”

“Understanding the Energy Innovation Lifecycle“ by Jeremy Cohn

“Understanding the process of energy innovation and investment is an important next step towards taking the necessary actions to ensure energy independence and security.  By recognizing the innovation gap between what is best for a firm versus what is best for all firms we can ensure that American-made products and technologies dominate the marketplace in the years to come.”

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New Energy Finance Releases Report on US-China Clean-Tech Relationship

On 05.19.10, In News, By Kevin Hsu

A new white paper out today from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

The report examines the drivers of growth in clean technology in both countries; compares the competitiveness of wind and solar manufacturers; and reveals how the two countries are actually “joined at the hip” in the search for a cleaner energy future. It also highlights the role of innovation (alive and well in the US — for example, publicly-traded solar PV companies here are putting more funding into R&D than their Chinese counterparts are).

However, politics can introduce a wrinkle into this relationship; some are calling for protectionist trade measures, which the white paper cautions against. One conclusion: “A focus solely on trade-based winners and losers in the US-China clean energy relationship neglects the gains from both lower cost and higher quality clean energy technology. Both countries, and indeed all countries, will benefit as the US and China drive the cost of renewable energy below that of conventional energy.”

Instead, the study “finds there to be little zero-sum competition between the two nations and, in fact, the two countries will need to cooperate in many ways in order to meet their respective carbon reduction goals.“ (However, this is no excuse for America to delay. The report is highlighting the fact that US companies have a major role to play in the development of clean energy solutions — if they want. So let’s get moving!)

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WATCH: China building ambitious “Solar Valley City” to advance solar industry

On 04.18.10, In News, By Teryn Norris

Originally published by Huffington Post

China is building an ambitious “Solar Valley City” as a new national center for manufacturing, research and development, education, and tourism around solar energy technologies. as part of the Chinese government and industry’s efforts to promote clean energy technology and grow the nation’s global market share (see video below beginning at 10 seconds).

Solar Valley City is located in Dezhou, Shandong Province, where I visited last month as part of a delegation from Stanford University, and it is unlike any city you’ve seen before.  The city houses over 100 solar enterprises including major firms like Himin Solar Energy Group Ltd, the world’s largest manufacturing base of solar thermal products, and Ecco Solar Group.  According to reports, around 800,000 people in Dezhou are employed in the solar industry, or one in three people of working age.

“China’s solar thermal industry and Himin’s complete industrial chain are examples for the rest of the world.  That  sounds brash, but it’s true,” said Himin’s CEO Huan Ming in 2009, now one of China’s richest men.  Himin specializes in solar thermal technology, producing over twice the annual sales of all solar thermal systems in the United States, and it is quickly expanding into solar photovoltaics and other technologies.

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Is ARPA-E Enough to Keep the U.S. on the Cutting-Edge of a Clean Energy Revolution?

On 03.04.10, In Uncategorized, By Kevin Hsu

That’s the question posed by an article in Scientific American.

The first ARPA-E summit is currently underway, and as the author notes, despite frequent references to the Apollo Project, the “premise of the U.S. Department of Energy’s ARPA–E is somewhat simpler—emulate its older sibling, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)” in spurring the development of new technologies. “Since its founding in 1958 during the Cold War in the wake of the Soviet Union’s Sputnik,” DARPA has given birth to a wide range of inventions, including stealth fighters and the Internet. For its part, ARPA–E “plans to fund multidisciplinary technical ideas that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve national security and create jobs.”

Out of some 3,700 applications, “37 technologies qualified for government funds, with each getting an average $4 million.” On the bright side,  ”‘the number of good ideas has been amazing, and we don’t even have all the intellectual horsepower of the U.S. into clean energy,’ [ARPA-E director Arun] Majumdar says. But as he notes, ”‘we need multiple lunar landings, not just one.’”

Unfortunately, ”political realities might short-circuit those ‘lunar landings,’ many of which (according to the ARPA-E director) won’t become manifest for 10 years or more.” Majumdar says, ”We are not short on ideas. The question is, what happens next?”

In any case, things are moving ahead: “$100 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (better known as the stimulus) was made available on March 2, to be awarded via ARPA–E to the best proposals for new grid-scale storage devices, better power converters and more efficient air conditioners.

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Superlatives – China keeps rising

On 01.12.10, In News, By Kevin Hsu

Recent statistics reveal China’s continued growth, which is breaking new records, even in the face of last year’s worldwide economic slowdown:

  • Figures released Monday show China “surged past the United States to become the world’s largest automobile market.” (in units sold, not in dollars)
  • China “surpassed Germany as the biggest exporter of manufactured goods, according to year-end trade data.”
  • The World Bank estimates that China will soon overtake Japan to become the No. 2 economy in the world. It was only the world’s fifth-largest economy four years ago.

According to the New York Times:

“the shift of economic gravity to China has occurred partly because growth here remained robust even as the world’s developed economies suffered the steepest drop in trade and economic output in decades.

But that did not happen by chance: China’s decisive government intervention in the economy, combined with the defiant optimism of its companies and consumers, has propelled an economy that until recently had seemed tethered to the health of its major export markets, including the United States.”

Indeed, Chinese media are in a celebratory mood:

The country’s economic miracle, the newspaper People’s Daily boasted last week, exists because its leaders — unlike those in other, unnamed nations — can make quick decisions and ensure underlings carry them out. The Great Recession, the newspaper said, has laid bare cracks in plodding Western-style capitalism.

(Hm… I wonder if that’s also an underhanded swipe at Western-style democracy…)

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