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China leads in solar energy, using U.S. technology

Obama can take heart in the fact that China’s two big solar farms will use U.S. technology. The big photovoltaic farm will use panels built by Arizona’s First Solar ( FSLR – news – people ) and the solar thermal farm will use technology developed by California’s eSolar.

The World’s Biggest Green Energy Projects Forbes.com Jonathan Fahey, 01.29.10, The U.S. and Europe have led the way in renewable power, but right now China has the grandest plans.

The U.S. government, desperate to add jobs to a feeble economy, is looking skyward for help: to the wind and the sun.

“We should put more Americans to work building clean energy facilities,” Obama said to applause during his State of the Union address Wednesday. Solar and wind power projects tend to appeal to politicians on both sides of the aisle. They are clean and domestic sources of power, and thanks to this government largesse, they are growing fast.

The American Wind Energy Association reported last week that in 2009 the nation’s wind power grew 39%, and that it has grown by 39% annually for the past five years. It’s a similar story with other technologies, like solar power, and abroad, where generous government subsidies in Europe and huge government-backed projects in India and China are fueling growth.

Of the top 10 largest renewable energy projects in the world, five were completed in the last two years………….

renewable plants are getting ever bigger, especially in China, where plans are on a scale far beyond anything contemplated in the rest of the world. The U.S. now has three of the 10 biggest projects in the world, but it will very soon lose the crown for largest wind project and largest solar project to China.This month China announced it would build a 2,000 MW solar thermal project, five times bigger than the current largest one, California’s Solar Energy Generating System. China is in the midst of building a wind corridor that could grow to a staggering 20,000MW, 25 times the size of Texas’ Roscoe Wind Farm. And last fall China announced a plan to build a 2,000 MW solar photovoltaic farm, 33 times bigger than the world’s largest today, a 60 MW farm in Spain………….

Obama can take heart in the fact that China’s two big solar farms will use U.S. technology. The big photovoltaic farm will use panels built by Arizona’s First Solar ( FSLR – news – people ) and the solar thermal farm will use technology developed by California’s eSolar.

The World’s Biggest Green Energy Projects – Forbes.com

January 30, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, climate change, renewable | energy efficiency, renewable energy, renewables, solar