A new study reveals that solar energy in China is cheaper than utility-provided electricity in many cities, and even competes with coal in 75 cities.
This is not a few cases: There are 344 cities in China where solar energy costs less than grid energy. 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 from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, is an expert on Chinese economic activities. He did not stop at the comparison with the costs of the national electricity grid, but wanted to evaluate whether solar energy in China could undermine the first enemy of the environment, coal.
With a certain amount of surprise he therefore discovered that in 22% of cases Chinese energy produced by the sun is already cheaper than coal.
The political effort of recent years, with restrictions on the opening of new coal plants and the closure of some mines, is starting to bear fruit.
There's still a lot to do on Chinese coal, though. 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 encourage the acceleration of the solar phenomenon,” the study continues, “because it mitigates air pollution and places the nation at the top of the leaders in renewables. Massive adoption in both the commercial and civil sectors will drive price declines across 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 also 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 one by 2050 (according to a government statement, so take this news a bit like this).
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 have covered an area of over 3000 hectares, 3500 football fields filled with solar panels. Double what is needed to feed Marrakesh.
A roll is not spring
(What a horrible cliché joke, but it's done now). Naturally, even for Chinese solar the future will be the arithmetic mean between opportunities and risks. One that is very worrying is linked 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.
For example, note 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 also ended up polluting a nearby river, killing almost all of the fauna.
