The use of public lands to spur the development of clean energy industries in China has been a contentious issue in recent months. While China’s aggressive growth in renewable energy manufacturing capacity has caused consternation over this lost American opportunity, few would argue that the Federal government should mirror the Chinese state and leverage federally managed lands to attract manufacturers (and the accompanying industrial waste). However, public lands overseen by the Bureau of Land Management can help drive domestic deployment of renewables and will be a critical proving ground for the next generation of energy technology.
Although reports on China’s efforts to nurture cleantech industries can be dismaying, such as the work by AEL’s Daniel Goldfarb on Chinese land hand-outs for manufacturing and contributor Leigh Ewbank additional commentary on the emerging Chinese, American trade dispute, it is important to note that America has not yet lost the renewable energy deployment battle. While growth in the Chinese wind market surpassed the US by almost 4,000 MW in 2009, America leads the world in wind power capacity by almost 10,000 MW (China is currently #2). Similarly, while China is investing heavily in renewable energy generation, Chinese solar power capacity stood at only 150 MW in 2008 compared to an EIA estimate of ~540 MW of in the United States. As is the case for wind, China is moving to aggressively increase solar capacity, targeting 2,000 MW by 2011. Geothermal appears to be a lonely bright-spot: America is far and away the world leader in geothermal generation, with more than 3,000 MW of existing capacity and an additional 4,500 MW in the pipeline. China ranks 17th, with less than 100 MW of geothermal capacity.
While the Race for Megawatts captivates the public, deployment is much more than a matter of national pride. Deployment drives both innovation, reducing technology cost through ‘learning-by-doing’, and economic growth, not only creating jobs through project development but rippling through ecosystem of suppliers, distributors, and manufacturers. A clear path to deployment is also critical if entrepreneurs are expected to invest the time and capital necessary to bring a new technology to market. As can clearly be seen in China (or Germany, Spain, and Japan), strong state support is the single most important factor currently driving the introduction of renewable energy onto the grid.
A mainstay in the conversation around energy innovation is the clean energy ‘race’ between the United States and China. While U.S. competitiveness in the clean energy sector is undeniably important, both in terms of short-term job creation and long-term economic outlook, the ‘race’ metaphor provides a rather limited perspective. A recent article in Foreign Affairs, 
The Pew Center on Global Climate Change released a 
The term “industry” is often cast about like a dirty word in discussions on reducing emissions. Such criticism is not entirely misdirected, as industrial sectors around the world have been almost uniformly slow to begin greening themselves. 
It can be hard to quantify what is at stake in debates over clean energy policy, but a 
China’s ambitious efforts to dominate in clean energy sectors have been widely documented of late, but a new Worldwatch Institute report, “
