China Takes Lead in Clean Energy, With Aggressive State Aid

[Frank Booth]

Source: NY Times

Now, Changsha and two adjacent cities are emerging as a center of clean energy manufacturing. They are churning out solar panels for the American and European markets, developing new equipment to manufacture the panels and branching into turbines that generate electricity from wind. By contrast, clean energy companies in the United States and Europe are struggling. Some have started cutting jobs and moving operations to China in ventures with local partners.

The booming Chinese clean energy sector, now more than a million jobs strong, is quickly coming to dominate the production of technologies essential to slowing global warming and other forms of air pollution. Such technologies are needed to assure adequate energy as the world’s population grows by nearly a third, to nine billion people by the middle of the century, while oil and coal reserves dwindle.

But much of China’s clean energy success lies in aggressive government policies that help this crucial export industry in ways most other governments do not. These measures risk breaking international rules to which China and almost all other nations subscribe, according to some trade experts interviewed by The New York Times.

A visit to one of Changsha’s newest success stories offers an example of the government’s methods. Hunan Sunzone Optoelectronics, a two-year-old company, makes solar panels and ships close to 95 percent of them to Europe. Now it is opening sales offices in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles in preparation for a push into the American market next February.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/business/global/09trade.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&src=ig

---

I find this incredibly depressing. While I'm glad that China's government is bending over backward to help their clean energy industry (the Earth will reap the benefits), this is a sector that America could and should be leading. Do the Democrats want to decrease unemployment? Why not a massive stimulus program centered around alternative energy? It would create loads of jobs in manufacturing, installation, and maintenance.

[Hello_Kitty]

1. K and R. eom

[Wilms]

2. USA is #, er, 2!

If that.

:(

[burrowowl]

5. Maybe Germany or Japan

[kristopher]

3. I think Obama is trying to do what he can. Take the investment tax credit he proposed...

That would be a huge benefit to both wind and solar. We must do a lot more than we are, but with a "No" coming from the Congressional Republicans on every single issue no matter the value to the country, it is incumbent on us to remember where the blame lies.

[FarLeftFist]

4. True, this is going to come down to a huge giant...

I TOLD YOU SO moment.

[Kringle]

6. noboby wants a three-gorges-dam, in the US .nt

[ProudDad]

7. When I got solar power for my life

I had to wait a while because the ones on my roof were backordered -- from Germany...

And the ones on my solar powered bicycle trailer are from China...

Stupid fucking country we have here -- owned by the carbon industries...