Know that pesky problem we all have of being completely at the whim of the Middle East oil prices? As gas prices seem to rise and fall without reason, the world is turned to renewable energy as a solution to the energy crisis. Recently, the New York Times reported that China has become the foremost producer of clean energy technology. And experts are worried that China’s dominance in renewable energy may mean that the West might someday be as dependent on China as we are today on the Middle East for oil.

China is set to pass the United States in total power generation by the year 2012. Most of this power will still be from coal, but that is changing. Last year, China became the world’s largest producer of wind turbines. China currently leads the world in the making of solar panels. Plans for nuclear reactors are immense, and clean coal plants are in production. According to The NY Times, China intends for wind, solar and biomass energy to represent 8 percent of its electricity generation capacity by 2020.

Quickly, China is also becoming the home to multi-national corporations developing huge, state of the art clean energy facilities. The world’s biggest wind turbine factory was just built in northeast China by Vestas of Denmark. Jens Tommerup, the president of Vestas China, cites fast industry development as the reason. As he told the NY Times, “You have to move fast with the market….Nobody has ever seen such fast development in a wind market.”

Experts speculate that China’s push for clean energy has less to do with care for the environment and more to do with industry politics. China’s biggest advantage may be its domestic demand for electricity, rising 15 percent a year. Clean energy gets a boost because the power infrastructure in China being much “younger” than the one in place in the United States. Therefore, it is much easier to input great efficiencies that yield higher amounts of energy.

Finally, the Chinese government simply mandates that its people use clean energy. (You can already feel the hair rising off the back of necks of certain political figures.) The government banks provide low interest rates to develop clean energy, but the Chinese government charges a renewable energy fee to all electricity users. Further, reports are that a grid operator who does not connect a renewable energy operation to the grid must pay that operation twice the value of the electricity that cannot be distributed.

The Chinese wind and solar industries are selling their cheaper, efficient equipment abroad. The rest of the world finds this unsettling. After the Chinese inked a major deal to sell wind turbines in Texas, members of Congress protested. Ma Lingjuan is a deputy managing director of China’s renewable energy association. As he told the NY Times, “Every country, including the United States and in Europe, wants a low cost of renewable energy.” He concludes, frustrated, “Now China has reached that level, but it gets criticized by the rest of the world.”

Some world leaders are listening. In last week’s State of the Union address, President Obama put the world on notice about China’s lead in renewable energies. As Obama told the nation, “I do not accept a future where the jobs and industries of tomorrow take root beyond our borders — and I know you don’t either.”

For further reading: China is leading the world in clean energy
 

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