Near future
No Result
View All Result
May 31, 2023
  • Home
  • Tech
  • Health
  • Environment
  • Energy
  • Inland solutions
  • Spazio
  • AI
  • concepts
  • H+
Understand, anticipate, improve the future.
CES2023 / Coronavirus / Russia-Ukraine
Near future
  • Home
  • Tech
  • Health
  • Environment
  • Energy
  • Inland solutions
  • Spazio
  • AI
  • concepts
  • H+

Understand, anticipate, improve the future.

No Result
View All Result
Energy

Solar energy in China now costs less than the electricity grid

The political efforts made, including cuts in new coal plants and the closure of mines, bear the expected results: solar energy in China is cheaper and cheaper.

August 16 2019
Gianluca RiccioGianluca Riccio
⚪ 3 minutes
Share81Pin4Tweet12SendShare3ShareShare2

READ THIS IN:

A new study reveals that solar power in China is cheaper than electricity provided by the national utility in many cities, and also competes with that of coal in 75 cities.

This is not a few cases: there are 344 cities in China where solar energy costs less than the grid rigorous research published in Nature Energy, and according to its authors, it should act as a stimulus for greater investments in renewable energy.

China has indeed made great strides in developing solar projects, and the effort seems immense in the wider field of renewables. In the 2017-2020 three-year period only, the Celestial Empire will end up spending something like 370 billion euros on energy from sun, water and wind.

The first author of the study, Jinyue Yan of the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, is an expert in Chinese economic activities. He did not stop at comparing the costs of the national electricity grid, but wanted to evaluate whether solar power in China could undermine the first enemy of the environment, coal.

The article continues after the related links

Senior US official: "ready to fight in space"

GEM, the small "neighborhood" solar car

With a certain amount of surprise, he discovered that in 22% of cases Chinese energy produced by the sun is already cheaper than coal.

The political effort of recent years, with the restrictions on the opening of new coal plants and the closure of some mines, is starting to bear fruit.

There is still a lot to do on Chinese coal, however. According to Reuters China still depends on coal for 59% of its needs, it is an exorbitant percentage.

The researchers therefore see a highly renewable future for China. "The government will favor the acceleration of the solar phenomenon," the study continues, "because it mitigates air pollution and positions the nation at the top of the leaders in renewables. Massive adoption in both the commercial and civil sectors will drive the drop in prices around the planet thanks to the economy of scale."

To infinity and beyond

Knowing the Asian titanics neither their growth nor their ambition surprises me. The projects under study include a much wider use of solar even than expected in this study.

Among the plans for solar energy in China there is even that of solar power plants in space, each capable of sending enough energy to Earth to power a city like Beijing.

The Chinese Aerospace Agency hopes to launch the first by 2050 (according to a government statement, so take this news a bit like that).

More solidity (also because it's already over) has the construction of the largest solar farm in the world in Morocco, the Noor-Ouarzazate complex. There the Chinese covered an area of ​​over 3000 hectares, 3500 football fields filled with solar panels. Double what it takes to power Marrakesh.

A roll is not spring

(What a horrible cliché joke, but it's done now). Of course, for Chinese solar too, the future will be the arithmetic average between opportunities and risks. One that worries a lot is related to the waste produced by the solar industry: China alone it will produce 20 million tons of panels by 2050.

Where will we put the used ones? Someone has already experimented with not very pleasant solutions: several producers have faced bitter protests from communities literally submerged by waste.

Note, for example, the apologies that Jinko Solar Holding Co made to the population of inhabitants in the area of ​​its factories, after violent protests against the monstrous pollution produced by the production of solar panels. Residues of material ended up polluting a nearby river, killing almost all of the fauna.

The sunny sky above me, the environmental ethics within me, or there will be no "clean" energy to hold. The Chinese are warned.

Tags: dinnerthe energysolar power


GPT Chat Megaeasy!

Concrete guide for those approaching this artificial intelligence tool, also designed for the school world: many examples of applications, usage indications and ready-to-use instructions for training and interrogating Chat GPT.

To submit articles, disclose the results of a research or scientific discoveries write to the editorial staff

Most read of the week

  • Oculus gives VR visit to the Anne Frank house

    265 Shares
    Share 106 Tweet 66
  • 16k screens are popping up, but we may never see them

    4 Shares
    Share 1 Tweet 1
  • Here comes a new magnetic field reversal. We are ready?

    4 Shares
    Share 1 Tweet 1
  • Goodbye camera: here is the electronic eye that "sees" like us

    9 Shares
    Share 1 Tweet 1
  • Even the giants "miss": 5 prophecies about the future that are blatantly wrong

    4 Shares
    Share 1 Tweet 1

Enter the Telegram channel of Futuroprossimo, click here. Or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Mastodon e LinkedIn.

The daily tomorrow.


Futuroprossimo.it provides news on the future of technology, science and innovation: if there is something that is about to arrive, here it has already arrived. FuturoProssimo is part of the network ForwardTo, studies and skills for future scenarios.

FacebookTwitterInstagramTelegramLinkedInMastodonPinterestTikTok
  • Environment
  • Architecture
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Gadgets
  • concepts
  • Design
  • Medicine
  • Spazio
  • Robotica
  • Work
  • Inland solutions
  • Energy
  • Edition Francaise
  • Deutsche Ausgabe
  • Japanese version
  • English Edition
  • Portuguese Edition
  • Русское издание
  • Spanish edition

Subscribe to our newsletter

  • The Editor
  • Advertising on FP
  • Privacy Policy

© 2022 Near future - Creative Commons License
This work is distributed under license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.

No Result
View All Result
Understand, anticipate, improve the future.
  • Home
  • Tech
  • Health
  • Environment
  • Energy
  • Inland solutions
  • Spazio
  • AI
  • concepts
  • H+