China Takes Lead in Global Clean Energy Race

'NYT - China Leading Global Race to Make Clean Energy' - January 30, 2010
The following is largely a summary of the above article. Thanks to Keith Bradsher for the informative reporting.

China is now the world's leading manufacturer of wind turbines and solar panels, and is making headway in the nuclear reactor industry and coal efficient power plants.

The US is trying to catch up, and apparently has incentives in place, but clearly not enough. Obama called for a 'redoubling' of US efforts, "yet many Western and Chinese executives expect China to prevail in the energy-technology race."

Unlike the US, China is finding no difficulty in creating renewable energy jobs; 1.12 million such jobs existed in 2008 and are rising at 100,000 a year. Granted, salaries are significantly lower in China, with Vestas (a Danish wind turbine manufacturer, recently built the world's largest turbine factory in China) paying its assembly line workers $4,100 a year.

China has various advantages when it comes to dominating the global renewable energy race. Besides low labor costs, Chinese banks provide loans at a 2% interest rate, "the result of a savings rate of 40 percent and a government policy of steering loans to renewable energy." The Chinese government also understands the importance of energy for their nation and the world; Chian will need to greatly expand its generation capacity as demand has grown 15% a year consistently. Reflecting their sincerity, in January 2010 the government announced the creation of a National Energy Commission led by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao himself.

Chinese companies are increasingly looking to export their renewable energy tech, with western nations complaining that the Chinese have unfair advantages. Congress has considered halting federal spending on imported equipment in response to a November 2009 deal for China t osupply turbines for a large wind farm in Texas.

“Every country, including the United States and in Europe, wants a low cost of renewable energy,” said Ma Lingjuan, deputy managing director of China’s renewable energy association. “Now China has reached that level, but it gets criticized by the rest of the world.”