Peak Oil is You
Donate Bitcoins ;-) or Paypal :-)
Page added on July 3, 2015
Rapid Expansion of Utility-Scale Solar in China
Solar is taking over the Gobi Desert in China’s Gansu province.
China is a difficult solar market to track from the outside. Government subsidies are opaque and bureaucratic, interconnection problems run rampant, and non-Chinese businesses often have a hard time getting into the country.
There’s no doubt that the Chinese PV market is growing at unprecedented speed. But determining its overall health is more of an art than a science.
So perhaps the scientists can help.
NASA recently published a fresh batch of satellite images of China’s utility-scale solar boom in Gansu province. While they don’t tell us much about market conditions on the ground, they do illustrate the boom underway in the country.
With ample sunshine and a wide-open desert, Gansu is ideal for PV project development. Last year, more than 5 gigawatts of projects were installed in the province, making it a leader.
Below are two satellite images showing the expansion of PV in the Gobi Desert between 2012 and May of 2015.
NASA describes the pictures: “The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on the Earth Observing-1 satellite acquired these images of the solar farms, located on the outskirts of Dunhuang in northwestern China’s Gansu Province. In 2012 (top image), grids of photovoltaic panels are visible on land that was essentially bare in an image from October 2006.”
Source: NASA’s Jesse Allen
Driven by ambitious targets and a growing demand for power, China’s solar boom isn’t going to stop. According to GTM Research’s new global demand report, China could be installing 24 gigawatts of solar PV yearly by 2020.
13 Comments on "Rapid Expansion of Utility-Scale Solar in China"
tahoe1780 on Fri, 3rd Jul 2015 10:24 am
http://fortune.com/2015/07/01/clean-energy-thermal-revolution/
Hello on Fri, 3rd Jul 2015 11:54 am
Better be rich and healthy than poor and sick.
Davy on Fri, 3rd Jul 2015 12:12 pm
Article said “China could be installing 24 gigawatts of solar PV yearly by 2020.” This will be a doubling of what was done in 2013.
http://about.bnef.com/press-releases/chinas-12gw-solar-market-outstripped-all-expectations-in-2013/
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/08/08/3468974/china-solar-capacity-booming/
Pretty impressive but I am not seeing a doubling by 2020. If the growth of power needs declines in a declining economy it will be difficult to make such aggressive targets.
Speculawyer on Fri, 3rd Jul 2015 1:44 pm
Go, China, GO!
Apneaman on Fri, 3rd Jul 2015 3:52 pm
The darker side of solar power
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/the-darker-side-of-solar-power/article24649804/
Makati1 on Fri, 3rd Jul 2015 10:02 pm
One of the ways that China is investing their Charmin Dollars. Nothing lost if they never make a profit. Everything to gain if they provide energy for their future.
Davy on Sat, 4th Jul 2015 2:36 am
Mak, better than this type of investing for sure:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-03/chinese-stocks-plummet-despite-government-threats-shorts-europe-lower-us-closed
Kenz300 on Sat, 4th Jul 2015 8:18 am
Alternative energy sources like wind and solar are safer, cleaner and cheaper than fossil fuels….
and they will not fry the planet by contributing to global warming.
Renewables to Beat Fossil Fuels With $3.7 Trillion Solar Boom – Renewable Energy World
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/news/2015/06/renewables-to-beat-fossil-fuels-with-3-7-trillion-solar-boom.html
—————————
A 9-Minute Guide to Pope Francis’ encyclical on climate change : Biofuels Digest
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2015/06/a-9-minute-guide-to-pope-francis-encyclical-on-climate-change.html
BobInget on Sat, 4th Jul 2015 8:44 am
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/03/solar-impulse-lands-hawaii_n_7717886.html
Solar Impulse lands in Hawaii.
BobInget on Sat, 4th Jul 2015 9:12 am
“The Dark(er) Side of Solar”
1) this article
2) Name a single commercially viable energy resource or life saving pharmaceutical, without painful side-effects in certain locations,
societal groups, climatic conditions, animal populations, finite fuel resource, compatibility,
air/water quality, etc.
3) Wind is in essence ‘solar power’. Wind, not PV may be more suitable for Canada or Germany regardless of how progressive their
citizens.
4) At this time in human history we are experimenting with all manner of alternative energy. We can’t exclude nuclear because of
several accidents any more then we stopped practicing medicine because historically doctors refused to wash up between patients.
BobInget on Sat, 4th Jul 2015 9:28 am
Now that I’m able to replace a 10 year old,
7.5 KW solar array for half original cost, I’ve no regrets. Did we ‘save’ any money paying our electric bill ten years in advance? No.
Did we have standby power when our grid went down? No. (we resorted to diesel generators while the sun blazed, unable to access our array, legally).
Did we feel better about replacing thousands of tons of CO/2, you bet.
We feel confident engineers can improve PV’s
in the next ten years at least as much as they did since 2005.
Kenz300 on Sun, 5th Jul 2015 7:38 am
If we are to have any hope of dealing with Climate Change we need to speed up the transition to safer, cleaner and cheaper alternative energy sources.
Renewable Energy Responsible for First Ever Carbon Emissions Stabilization – Renewable Energy World
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2015/06/renewable-energy-responsible-for-first-ever-carbon-emissions-stabilization.html
Kenz300 on Tue, 7th Jul 2015 12:33 pm
Climate Change is real….. we need to deal with the cause (fossil fuels)
Listen Up: Pope Calls for the Replacement of Fossil Fuels, Renewable Energy and Solar Subsidies – Renewable Energy World
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2015/07/listen-up-pope-calls-for-the-replacement-of-fossil-fuels-renewable-energy-and-solar-subsidies.html