Investigating Solar Power in China - Case Study Example

www.allwriting.net Sumanta Sanyal Dated: 23/04/07 Investigating Solar Power in China Before proceeding onto the main topic of investigating solar power in China it is first necessary to note down a few salient facts regarding energy production and consumption in that country. As the world’s most populous nation, and one with a fair amount of development, China is the world’s second largest energy producer and consumer, though per capita consumption figures are still low compared to advanced nations in the west and east (Bingguang, 2006). The break-up of energy consumption is as follows: Agriculture – 4.4% Industry – 69.3% Services – 14.9% Residential – 11.4% (Bingguang, 2006) Though, through attention of the authorities, energy efficiency has increased in recent years there is still a long way to go to meet up with international standards. Also, energy consumption by the industrial sector in comparison to the other sectors, particularly the residential one, is still very high. The authorities have earmarked conservation in the following sectors: industry, residential and commercial, buildings and building materials, transportation, government and utilities and new and renewable energies. ‘Amendment of the Energy Conservation Law’ promulgated in 1998 has been included in legislation by the National People’s Congress in 2006 with the chief aim of increasing energy efficiency in such a manner that both energy and environment are conserved (Bingguang, 2006). The ‘National Development and Reform Commission’ (NDRC), China, has in 2006 launched the medium (2005-10) and long term (2010-20) plans for energy conservation in compliance of the legislation. Notably, for this paper, the plans propose to utilise solar energy specifically for residential purposes (Bingguang, 2006). Basic Knowledge of Solar Energy in China: Traditionally, there is very little evidence of innovative use of solar energy in China (Chen, 2006). Residential heating and cooking was mostly done using coal as fuel though there are certain Chinese devices like the Yaodong cave dwelling types (Diagram 2, Appendix) that required little heating (Chen, 2006). There is also the Chinese kang, a type of bed heated by flue gases from the cooking stove (Diagram 1, Appendix), that helped conserve energy traditionally (Chen, 2006). Nevertheless, the modern Chinese realized that the yaodong is a dwelling that utilises solar energy passively and they have been innovatively promoting it throughout the countryside. Presently, as of end 2004, 18,000,000 square meters (floor area) of these passive solar houses have been set up throughout rural China and they collectively help save 3,60,000 tons of standard coal every year (Chen, 2006). There is also much effort being put to utilise this passive technology in school heating and water boiling (Chen, 2006). The yaodong has been upgraded to the third level and the ‘Building Environment and New Energy Resources Lab’, China, has set the following objectives in lieu of efficiently utilising solar energy for residential purposes. Developing passive heating and cooling technology for residential buildings Developing integrated design for solar buildings Finding suitable control systems for modulating indoor climate in solar powered houses Developing appropriate energy consumption and environmental impacts analytical methods for such houses (Chen, 2006) Solar Power Distribution in China: As can be perceived in the previous section, most of China’s efforts in generating non-renewable and clean energy sources using the sun’s radiation has so far been centred in its rural regions. This is good in the sense that rural people, often isolated from the centres of production and capital formation, are primarily deprived of regular and often even any sources of energy other than what can be locally found (Kaufman et al, 2000). This is mostly evident in developing countries, among which China can be counted. Thus, rural homes lack a number of amenities that are usually taken for granted in the modern era, even for populations living in developing countries. This is especially true of China which has the northern provinces where cold is a climatic factor that requires a large amount of energy per capita for heating purposes. This is aside from the usual cooking needs. It is also good that China has decided to utilise its indigenous technologies like the yaodong cave dwellings to overcome part of this problem. One major deciding factor in the strategy for providing rural areas with renewable sources of energy like sun and wind power is that these areas are easily accessible to these sources (Kaufman et al, 2000). Rural Electrification, China: Rural in the Chinese sense is the population available at the county levels – the county townships and the smaller rural villages (Pan, 2004). The elementary standards for the term electrification as defined by the Chinese authorities was 150/200 kWh/capita in 1990. This has since been upgraded in 2005 to 450 kWh/capita for underdeveloped regions, 700 kWh/capita for medium developed regions and 900 kWh/capita for developed regions (Pan, 2004). The new standards set for 2015 are 900 kWh/capita underdeveloped, 1300 kWh/capita medium developed and 1900 kWh/capita highly developed (Pan, 2004). It is also important to note that, in China, the rural population uses a large percent of its energy requirements (>60%) for non-hydro-renewable sources )pan, 2004). Though it may be pointed out that some of these sources are suspect as emission-free, such as wood and other plant-based sources, it is still encouraging that the rural population is in the habit of depending on such sources other than mainstream ones like fossil fuel and nuclear based grid power. In China, the counties are supplied by three types of energy sources – 1) national grid power, 2) county-wide supply companies and 3) small hydro- and thermal power plant supplies at the local level (Pan, 2004). Still, as of 2002, there was still a large proportion of the rural population, 28,000,000 (28 millions), that had no access to electricity (Pan, 2004). Thus, there is not only necessity of cleaning up supply sources where electricity is available, even in urban areas, there is also necessity of providing reliable sources for the population that go without it today. With the aim of increasing all-round per capita energy consumption within the context of higher energy efficiency and environment protection standards the Chinese authorities have delineated certain plans. Among these plans is one in which solar energy derived from photovoltaic cells combined with wind energy will be made available to the rural population in areas where these are feasible. The reason why solar energy as been earmarked in tandem with wind is because it has been assessed that solar energy alone cannot provide the total requirement in designated areas in a cost-effective manner. Table 1: Available Renewable Energy Technologies (Source: Pan, 2004, Diagram 5.3b) As is observable from the table above, while generating small amounts of solar energy, 25W, is cheap the wattage generated is too low to enable even pervasive domestic usage. Thus, the Chinese authorities have earmarked, especially in regions like parts of Inner Mongolia, county regions where both wind and solar energy in combined forms are generable. The combined source is capable of running the lighting, a colour TV and a small refrigerator (Pan, 2004). Nevertheless, it is found that the price for installation of the necessary equipment at ~12,000 yuans is beyond the means of the general population there. Also, the running costs at 1350 yuans for a 3-year period is also too high. The average person in such areas earn 1700 yuans annually. Even with a government subsidy of 3000 yuans at installation the alternate source is not attractive enough at present (Pan, 2004). Consequently, there are no figures available for solar energy generation and consumption as of this day for different regions in China but it is observed that the government has adopted solar energy as one of its new clean and renewable energy source strategies and it is hoped that one day, with the characteristic persistence of the Chinese people, China will be able to generate a sizeable portion of its energy requirements from the sun. A downtrend in installation and running costs will obviously speed up this process. Available Solar Energy Technologies: It is still considered very significant that China has persisted with traditional solar energy based passive devices and structures like the kang (heated bed) and the yaodong cave dwellings to help with its energy requirements in the present era. It is also considered advisable that China do so in future as these devices and structures seem to cope with modern requirements admirably in a cost-effective and environmentally clean manner. Nevertheless, there are certain technologies pertaining to solar energy exploitation that China needs to delve into more. To begin with, photovoltaic cells are relative expensive energy producers and populations like the Chinese rural one can hardly afford to install and run energy generation equipment based on this technology. Instead, China can use solar energy made available either passively or actively in areas like agriculture and small rural production facilities so that a percentage of cheaper energy produced from other sources, albeit clean and efficient ones, is made available for domestic usage. Here the point to note is that while solar energy can be considered cheap for these alternate applications it cannot be so for domestic purposes. Thus, solar dryers, solar heating systems and photovoltaic-cell driven pumps can be used in agriculture (Pataki and Delorio, Undated) while other solar energy based devices can be used in small rural manufacturing facilities. The solar source may be considered cheaper in the sense that it is the usual practice in countries like China for farmers to share equipment among themselves. The same may be considered true for small manufacturers. Since demand in these applications can be made more flexible than for domestic ones the shared equipment costs can make solar energy itself relatively cheap for these applications. China, with its large base of energy production from non-conventional sources is thus considered quite capable of pursuing a strategy where solar energy is utilised for various applications primarily in the rural regions thus providing a large base for clean and efficient energy. This is in addition to the traditional solar energy production bases and the present strategy of inducing part of the rural population in particular regions to utilise solar energy in combination to the wind one. References Bingguang, He, Recent Initiatives in Improving Energy Efficiency in China, National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China, 2006. Chen, Bin, Residence building integrated solar energy in cold areas in China, Building Environment and New Energy Resource Lab., Dalian University of Technology, 2006. Kaufman, Steven, et al, Rural Electrification with Solar Energy as a Climate Protection Strategy, January 2000. Pan, Jiahua, China’s Experiences with Rural Electrification, Research Centre for Sustainable Development, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 2004. Pataki, George E., and Delorio, Vincent A., An Introduction to Solar Energy Applications in Agriculture, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, Undated. Appendix Diagram 1: (Source: Chen, 2006) Diagram 2: (Source: Chen, 2006) Read More