From the panda-shaped solar farm to the world's largest floating solar plant, China is making its mark in the renewables sector. And the United States is losing ground.
China is the world's largest investor in renewable energy. Since Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, and especially since he decided to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate, leadership in the search for alternatives to fossil fuels has passed to China. The result has been considerable, so much so that the United States is now trying to protect its position.
China produces solar panels in enormous quantities, and very quickly. Banks have therefore granted favourable loans and incentives to manufacturers. Lower production costs translate into more competitive sale prices. This led the United States — during the Obama administration — to accuse China of dumping, that is, of exporting at a price far below that charged on the domestic market. Beijing denies it, and now Trump has raised the stakes by imposing heavy tariffs on imports of Asian solar panels.
Europe is also holding its own. According to Eurostat statistics, the amount of energy from renewable sources produced in the European Union increased by a total of 71 per cent between 2005 and 2015. In 2016, the solar sector employed more than 81,000 full-time workers and generated a turnover of over 4.6 billion euros. An interesting fact? On 28 October 2017, Germany, Europe's leader in renewables, produced so much wind energy that it gave it away, while the world's first solar disc with an air turbine is Italian.
It is difficult to predict the consequences of Trump's decision, but for now Chinese president Xi Jinping finds himself holding a significant advantage to manage. The Chinese government intends to invest 360 billion dollars in renewable energy by 2020, creating 13 million new jobs. Currently, 11 per cent of the energy used is clean, but this figure is expected to rise to 20 per cent by 2030. 80 gigawatts come from solar plants.
China is in search of innovative solutions: it aims to build panels capable of withstanding desert climates and the humidity of tropical forests. It is "the land of records": it boasts the world's largest ground-mounted solar farm, the most charming one (shaped like a panda), and the largest floating solar farm.
"In the mine it was unbearably hot and the air was terrible," said Sang Dajie, a worker, to Time. "But here I feel safe. The new energy is safe." Dajie works at the Huainan solar plant, in Anhui province. There, the panels float on a lake that formed where a coal mine once stood. They are capable of producing up to 40 megawatts of energy, enough to power 15,000 homes.
Read also: Renewables. China builds world's largest floating solar plant
Not only is it an impressive sight, but it is also a particularly effective solution: the water helps cool the solar panels, increasing energy efficiency by 10 per cent, and prevents dust from accumulating on their surface. Cleaning them is easier and cheaper, not to mention that building a plant on unused land costs little. In May of this year, an even larger floating plant will open, capable of producing 150 megawatts of energy.
It may seem absurd, but much of the clean energy China produces goes to waste. The construction of the grids that carry electricity across the Asian giant cannot keep pace with its rapidly rising electricity production. The power grid, moreover, favours plants located close to urban centres, to the detriment of solar and wind farms that are often situated in peripheral and rural areas. Not to mention that China is still among the largest consumers of fossil fuels, and the country that emits the most CO2 of any nation. Yet it is also the country that has launched the largest plan to replace coal with clean energy. President Xi Jinping has described the Paris Agreement as "a responsibility that must be assumed for future generations." Given the pace at which his country is working to keep that promise, it seems that in this case words are truly being translated into action.