BYD – Solar PV, Iron Batteries & LED Lights

Source: H360 ( View Article )

BYD new energies lead the China International Solar PV “4 new” exhibition

On April 8th 2011 the most influential Chinese exhibition in the solar industry, the China International Photovoltaic Industry “4 New”(New Technology, Material, Products, and Equipment) Exhibition, held its opening ceremony in the Beijing International Conference Center, over 300 domestic and international companies were in attendance.

Among the exhibitors was the global new energies leader BYD(Build Your Dreams). At the Exhibition BYD showed off products and solutions like their solar modules, grid connecting PV inverters, LED lights, home energy systems, iron batter modules, and their “3 big dream models”. BYD attracted the attention and inquiries of many reporters, dealers and observers, their booth was bustling with clients flocking in to opening dialogues and negotiations about their products, technology and potential cooperation.

According to understanding BYD’s three major industries are IT, automotive, and new energy. Within the new energy field BYD handles all steps, from energy collection to energy storage to energy application, they are a global leader in complete package green energy solutions. During the exhibition BYD showed off products like their complete package solar products, iron batteries, and low carbon LED products.

Full package solar products

The ever worsening energy shortages and environmental pollution problems are already threatening mankind, and the recent Japanese radiation crisis is just adding to peoples energy and pollution concerns. The solar products BYD exhibited, without a doubt, bring hope of a healthy lifestyle for everyone.

BYD claims they have domestically and internationally recognized proprietary intellectual property for up, mid, and downstream core solar industry technologies. The key characteristics of their solar products are: relatively low cost, very high efficiency, advanced technology, a complete package set, and high quality.

At the exhibition potential clients were very interested in BYD’s home energy systems, solar modules, solar PV inverters, silicon wafers and solar cells, they were lining up to open dialogues and negotiations on technology and potential cooperation, all in all, BYD received plenty of attention.

Amazing iron battery technology

BYD’s iron batteries are safe, environmentally sound, have long lifespans, high power density, are light weight, recharge quickly, reserves hold for a long time, and are resistant to high temperatures.

According to information, the charge and discharge efficiency of iron batteries are much higher than lead-acid batteries, third party testing confirms that iron batteries have over 95% efficiency; Their lifespan is about 7 times that of lead-acid batteries; Iron batteries exhibit good temperature characteristics, they can operate normally between 20℃～60℃, and their lifespan will not deteriorate due to heat problems, in testing they also saved on cooling costs. From resource usage and manufacturing technique to product application and disposal, iron batteries are completely “green” and environmentally sound throughout their entire life cycle. BYD’s F3DM and E6 electric cars already used these amazing iron batteries.

Low carbon LED products

Currently there are not many Chinese companies holding core LED chip technology, most of the Chinese LED industry development is concentrated in the downstream industries of packaging and application. BYD has a strong wafer research team, they have already mastered core LED wafer technology working procedures, circuitry, optics, heat radiation, and component technologies. Their manufacturing is not restricted to wafer growth and chip packaging, it has also entered the lighting products field, forming a complete chain that provides a strong foundation for BYD’s continued development and technological innovation, having all of this together is very hard for any other company to do.

BYD’s LEDs fully embrace carbon reduction and environmental protection, their products have already acquired many authoritative certificates including the European energy efficiency certification (ERP), United States market certification(FCC), European country certification(CE), Chinese market certification (3C), United States and North American product safety certification (UL), and International Electrotechnical Certification(CB), it is also worth mentioning that BYD’s LED products passed the IEC/EN62471 standard and biological health and safety testing certification, the results deemed the products harmless and suitable for exemption level, proving they meet health and safety standards. They even received the ERP grade A(highest energy efficiency grade), proving they conserve energy and are environmentally friendly as well.

Chinese Wind Farm Power Grid Disconnection Accident

Source: CNB Daily( View article )

The dire need for a solution to the new energies power grid connection problem behind the Feb.24 Jiuquan wind farm accident

China’s State Electricity Regulatory Commission(SERC) reported yesterday on the Feb.24 Gansu Jiuquan wind farm massive grid disconnection accident, they called it China’s largest and most severely affecting the power grid wind power accident in the last few years. CNB Daily learned during their research that the accident was caused by “low voltage ride through capability” failure and power grid development falling behind new energies development. This accident exposed the reality of new energy grid connection difficulties: projects pushing forward on a stagnant power grid.

Projects pushing forward

Experts point out that the Jiuquan wind farm accident is an important warning: Ignoring technology standards and lack of coordination between relevant parties will become a great problem for new energy power grid connection.

China State Grid Energy Research Institute Deputy Chief Economist Bai Jianhua told CNB Daily that the main reason for the accident was that although the Jiuquan wind farm had very detailed specifications in their product purchase contract, most of the wind power units did not have low voltage ride through capability.

Low voltage ride through capability allows the power grid time to self adjust during temporary faults by maintaining uninterrupted grid connection, thus increasing power grid stability.

The Regulations for Wind Farm Connection to Power Grid Technology put forward by the State Grid in 2009 require that the wind turbine units in wind farms have low voltage ride through capability that maintains grid connection for 0.625 seconds when there is a power grid fault.

According to understanding, equipment tenders for the Jiuquan wind farm were complete in 2008, at that time China had not yet set clear requirements for low voltage ride through, in the end the relevant requirements were set by an additional technical agreement. Currently nearly all manufactured wind turbine products don’t have low voltage ride through capability. Since October 2010, when the Jiuquan wind farm checked and accepted the products, there have already been many wind turbine grid disconnection accidents due to lack of low voltage ride through capability.

Bai Jianhua also believes a lack of coordination in review and approval between the regional governments and the National Energy Administration and State Grid was also a leading cause in these accidents. He says the Government requires the State Grid to guarantee full purchase of wind power, and the State Grid does not have enough control.

Stagnant power grid development

An executive for Guodian China Longyuan Power Group Co., Ltd told newspapers that low voltage ride through technology is not complicated, calling it a “trifling matter”.

According to understanding, some of the equipment that had low voltage ride through capability was activated during this accident, the main cause of the accident was safety and reliability management shortcomings in the power grid, grid faults are much too frequent. “Regardless of whether a wind farm has tens or hundreds of wind turbines, not having low voltage ride through capability is not a major problem, but as soon as there are power grid problems there is nothing that can be done on the wind turbine side.”

He says wind turbines normally operate within parameters, spinning at about 20 revolutions per second, but spin speed can immediately get out of control and reach 30-40 revolutions per second if it is disconnected from the grid. This uncontrollable spin rate can lead to what the Chinese industry calls a “flying car accident”, these are extremely dangerous accidents that can lead to wind tower collapse, turbine destruction and can even cause fatalities.

For these reasons, even the earlier wind turbine designs included safety features, if power grid faults cause voltage to rise or drop, it will first of all disconnect from the grid automatically, and then halt turbine spinning automatically. The reason there was no damage from this most recent accident is because when the grid fault occurred the turbines disconnected from the grid.

Bio-Waste Processing Project in Gansu, China

Source: Sina News( View article )

Gansu: Restaurant and Kitchen Bio-Waste Project Launched

On March 24th the Lanzhou Restaurant and Kitchen Waste Recycling and Decontamination Project was launched.

On March 26th, reporters learned from the Lanzhou restaurant and kitchen waste treatment plant that, after a series of process including shredding, sand removal, grease separation and anaerobic fermentation, restaurant and kitchen waste will be turned into treasures like biodiesel, bioasphalt, organic foliar spray fertilizer, organic microbial agents and bio-energy, all of the organic components are used up.

According to information, this is Gansu’s first restaurant and kitchen waste recycling project. It uses comprehensive biotechnology methods, wet separation, and wet anaerobic fermentation to maximize processing of the restaurant and kitchen waste, turning it into a renewable resources and energies, making it useful once again.

“After the waste is collected, it is shredded, sand is removed and fats and oils are separated, the remaining organic compounds will be anaerobically fermented to produce methane and biogas residue to generate power. The fats and oils are used to produce things like biodiesel, bioasphalt, liquid fertilizer, and biological agents.” said Boa Lin, the person responsible for the project, “After passing through the various processes, all that remains are some inorganic material, like bottle caps”.

The project can process 200 tons of bio-waste per day, and 73,000 tons annually. After the project is finished it will annually produce 7.69 million cubic meters of methane, 4,200 tons of organic fertilizer, 15.33GW/hours of electricity, 18.9 Mj of heat energy, 4380 tons of industrial oils, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 55,000 tons, saving 9,709 tons of common coal.

“This bio waste processing project can truly turn trash into treasure. The electricity and organic fertilizer it produces in one year can supply 100,000 families and 4,200 mu(691 acres) of farm land.”

According to information, the project will be finished by 2015 and will encompass all of Lanzhou’s restaurant and kitchen biowaste disposal, completing the first steps in bio-waste processing and decontamination.

Worlds Largest Private Hydro Station and Their Solar Plans

Privately owned hydro power station formally connected to power grid, installed capacity of 2.4GW

On Mar.27th Jinsha River’s Jin’an Bridge hydro power station, which once drew attention for failing to obtain a permit, finally, after 8 years’ construction, is connected to the grid and generating power. It became the worlds largest privately owned hydro power station investment. It is the first large scale hydro power station on the Jinsha river that is grid connected and generating power, with installed capacity of 2.4GW.

This project is a joint venture between Hanergy Holding Group, Jinsha River Hydro power Development Co., Ltd. and Yunnan Development  & Investment Company, with static total investment of 12.501 billion RMB(1.9 billion USD) and dynamic investment of 14.679 billion RMB(2.24 billion USD).

Hanergy’s massive solar photovoltaic plan is becoming clearer now that this hydro power station is up and running, but can this station support Hanergy’s tens of billions of RMB investments into the PV industry?

Jin’an Bridge hydro power station sits in Lijiang city, Yunnan Province. It is the 5th power station in the “one reservoir eight cascade levels” hydro power development plan in the midstream of Jinsha River, it is also the first project launched in this cascade. Jin’an Bridge hydro power station has installed capacity 2.4GW. It has installed four 600MW generators, with average annual power generation of 11.043TW.

In April 2002, the State Development Planning Commission (now called the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC)) reviewed and approved the development of the  midstream section of Jinsha River, and agreed to the Jin’an bridge and some hydro power stations as short term development projects. Hua Rui Group(now known as Hanergy) and Yunnan province has signed the Agreement on investment and development of Yunnan province Jinsha River Jin’an bridge hydro power Station.

On Jan. 9th 2006, the hydro power station had successfully achieved river closure, but due to failure to get approval from the NDRC, the plan for the first unit to be generating power by the end of 2009 failed. It was not until mid July 2010 that the Jin’an hydro power station obtained its NDRC permit.

According to Hanergy’s plan, their strategy will be to use traditional clean hydro power generation as their foundation, with high technology such as solar R&D and production as their left wing, and solar PV application as their right wing. Their “1 base” will be the foundation for their “2 wings”.

However, as a late arrival in the solar industry, outsiders not very optimistic about Hanergy’s development outlook.

Last January, Hanergy announced investment of 21 billion RMB(3.2 billion USD) to build a manufacturing plant with annual capacity of 1GW in Heyuan city, Guangdong province. In just a year  they have started near term projects including a 5GW thin-film photovoltaic project and power station pilot project, with total investment of over  90 billion RMB(13.7 billion USD).

Newspapers earlier reported that, Hanergy’s land acquisition costs are quite low. In Wujin, Jiangsu province, Hanergy was able to get 350 mu(57 acres) of land for the 200MW first phase of a 1GW project. Local land price quotes are about RMB190,000 per mu, so the company had to invest almost 66 million RMB(10 milion USD) in land, which means the land cost for a 1GW solar PV project woul be about 330 million RMB(50 million USD), which is a very small portion of the 12 billion RMB(1.8 billion USD) investment. An analyst said, however, that “the 12 billion RMB investment in the 1GW Wujin project means that roughly 12 RMB must be invested for each watt. It’s possible that it will take Hanergy 10 years break even, and that’s not very suitable in such a fast developing industry.”

Hanergy is still exploring thin film photovoltaic technology, with the unpredictability of market variables and technological advances, Hanergy’s future is still unclear.

Chinese silicon cutting wire arrives

Source: ChemInfo ( View article )

Another breakthrough in key solar manufacturing material production

Domestically produced silicon wafer cutting wire reaches 96% quality control pass rate

On Mar. 23rd, reporters at China Chemical Industry News learned from the Baotao Economic and Information Technology Commission that the technical difficulties in silicon wafer cutting wire production that have hampered development of China’s PV industry have finally solved. China’s first domestic proprietary silicon wafer cutting wire production line at Baotao YingBoTe Ultrahard Composite Materials Co., Ltd. began production, with 96%quality control pass rate, higher than the 93% of foreign companies.

Silicon wafer cutting wire is an important raw material in solar cell manufacturing. Baotao YingBoTe Ultrahard Composite Materials Co., Ltd has invested two years into technology R&D and innovation, 150 million RMB($22.9 million USD) in the Baotao Equipment Manufacturing Industrial Park, building a solar cell silicon wafer cutting wire production line with a manufacturing capacity of 10,000 tons per year. The first trial batch of solar cell silicon cutting wire was used by the Inner Mongolia Shengxin Energy Company in this February. The trial showed that the product’s performance reaches advanced international levels, with over 96% passing quality control. YingBoTe has already begun formal production of their silicon cutting wire.

Experts told reporters that solar cell cutting wire is used to cut silicon bars into solar cell silicon wafers. A cutting wire is 680km long, capable of cutting 4,500 to 5,000 solar silicon wafers, however because each section of wire can only be used once it must be treated as an expendable material. The quality control pass rate is the key measure of silicon wafer cutting wire performance, a high pass rate can reduce silicon material consumption. Due to the complexity in this manufacturing technology the core technology has previously been monopolized by a small number of companies from countries like Switzerland and Japan. Domestic use of solar wafer cutting wire has been dependent on imports, severely limiting development of some of China’s industries such as semiconductor lighting, solar photovoltaic and integrated circuit manufacturing. The launch of YingBoTe’s silicon wafer cutting wire line can lower its domestic market price, and satisfy the solar industry’s needs for high materials effeciency, high precision and low cost, thus lowering silicon wafer processing costs and reducing the manufacturing cost of solar cells, and speeding up China’s solar PV industry development.

According to information, Baotao YingBoTe Ultrahard Composite Materials Co., Ltd. was set up in September 2009 and is a high technology company combining research, manufacture and marketing of silicon cutting wire. With professional expertise and mature technology in the field of metal materials, plus the regional advantage of silicon resources in Inner Mongolia, YingBoTe suddenly emerged as a big player, successfully researching and developing new solar silicon wafer cutting wire technology.

China’s Ultra-High Voltage Plan “Slimmed down”

Source ChinaHighTech (View article)

Ultra-high voltage development speeds up, possibly benefiting the new energy industry

During the 12th Five-Year Plan China will invest 500 billion RMB($76.2 billion USD) in the “3 horizontal, 3 vertical” ultra-high voltage AC grid backbone and 11 DC ultra-high voltage projects, this level of investment is equivalent to 2 Three Gorges projects. Of this investment about 2/3 will be invested in ultra high voltage AC transmission. This massive investment will not only benefit downstream industries but power generation industries like solar, wind and nuclear power will also benefit.

Spring brings new life. When news spread of ultra-high voltage development being put into the 12th Five-Year Plan, the economy’s barometer, the stock market, reacted strongly and immediately. Several companies that already hold core technology manufacturing equipment in the ultra-high voltage market segment were immediately pursued by investors.

On March 17th stocks rose drastically, against the falling market, for companies like Huayi Electric, a manufacturer of products such as ultra-high voltage vacuum circuit breakers, high voltage load switches, and related accessories, and Baoding Tianwei Baobian Electric the only domestic company to independently hold all core power transformer technologies. In the next few days other companies like power cable giant S&P Pharmaceutical(actually a massive manufacturer of power cables in addition to pharmaceuticals) and ultra-high voltage GIS product giant Henan Pinggao Electric also saw their stocks shoot up.

Included in the 12th Five-Year Plan

The recently published 12th Five-Year Plan puts forth: “achieve appropriate scale in cross regional power transmission and new energy grid connection requirements, faster modern power grid construction, further scaling and development in transmission of western power to the east, perfection of regional power grid backbones, development of ultra-high voltage and other advanced high capacity, high efficiency, long distance power transmission technology, reliance on advanced systems like information, control and power storage systems, promotion of smart grid construction, strengthening of urban-rural power grid construction reform, and strengthening of optimized grid power allocation and power supply reliability.”

China State Grid development strategy expert Zhang Ke says future development of nuclear, wind, and even clean hydro power is dependent on construction of of an ultra-high voltage power grid. Take wind power as an example, China has planned for installed wind power capacity to reach 150GW by 2020, but China’s 8 largest wind farms account for 80% of total installed wind power capacity, of that China’s 5 largest wind power regions are all in the north China, restricted to provinces and autonomous regions like Xinjiang, Gansu, Inner Mongolia and Jilin, and they account for 80GW, so there are some big problems in wind power grid integration and consumption.

Deputy Chief Economist for the State Grid Energy Research Institute and Director of the Energy strategy and planning institute Bai Jianhua says ultra-high voltage transmission is very important for wind power grid connection. Because wind power is unstable, large scale wind power development can only be achieved by transmitting the power to load centers in northern China through ultra-high voltage transmission, only then can the wasted wind energy problem be effectively resolved. “Once the ultra-high voltage transmission is constructed, large scale wind power can be built and effectively transmitted and consumed. Then the current problem of wasted wind energy being as high as 25% can be controlled to around 1%.”

Potential to “slim it down” and pick up the pace

China’s State Grid Corporation has mixed feelings about the sections relating to power grid construction in the 12th Five-Year Plan. They are happy that ultra-high voltage has been promoted and  included in the plan, but they are worried that terminology regarding ultra-high voltage has been changed from “power grid” to “power transmission”.

“China’s 12th Five-Year Plan refers to ‘ultra-high voltage power transmission’ but doesn’t mention an ‘ultra-high voltage power grid’. A difference of just one word but it completely changes the meaning.” said an industry insider, this indicates that the government policy has affirmed the importance of ultra-high voltage power transmission to national power supply but have also considered the concerns and risks involved in building an ultra-high voltage power grid.

Zhang Ke explained that during the 12th Five-Year Plan time frame the plan calls for construction of 4 large district power grids (central, northeast, northwest and southern China), and ultra-high voltage DC transmission lines connecting the districts. It also calls for “3 horizontal and 3 vertical” ultra-high voltage transmission lines within the central China district.

This means the State Grid has had to quietly adjust the pace of their ultra-high voltage development, slimming down their original plans to construct an ultra-high voltage power grid to now just building an ultra-high voltage backbone in central China. Even with the slimmed down plan described by Zhang Ke, the scale of the State Grid’s ultra-high voltage power grid construction is still very large, and speed of its construction could be even faster after being “slimmed down”.

A while before this, the China Electricity Council published their “Electricity Industry 12th Five-Year Plan Research Report” which describes the scale of China’s State Grid construction in relative detail. It says that during the 12th Five-Year Plan, by building off of the foundation of ultra-high voltage AC pilot projects, they will speed up construction of ultra-high voltage AC to match pace with grid construction. “The central China ultra-high voltage power grid will form the “3 horizontal and 3 vertical” backbone, i.e. Energy bases such as Ximeng, West Inner Mongolia, Zhangbei and North Shaanxi will transmit power to northern, eastern and central China through the 3 vertical ultra-high voltage AC transmission lines. Northern coal power and southwest hydropower will be transmitted to northern and central China as well as the Yangtze River Delta ultra-high voltage ring through the 3 horizontal ultra-high AC voltage lines. To match  China’s southwest hydropower and northern and northwestern coal and wind power development, DC transmission projects will be constructed connecting areas such as Jinxing-Jiangsu, Xiluodu-Zhejiang, Hami-Henan, Ningdong-Zhejiang, Baoqing-Tangshan, Inner Mongolia-Tianjin, Humeng-Shandong, Jiuquan-Hunan, Ximeng-Nanjing, Zhundong-Chongqing, Binchang-Shandong, West Inner Mongolia-Jiangsu and West Gansu-Jiangxi.

Establishment of a standardization system

Ultra-high voltage construction speeds up, technology fundamentally perfected

Wang Haisheng, an analyst for Everbright Securities Co., Ltd., told reporters that power transmission construction is at the core of the 12th Five-Year Plan, of which power lines, power towers, and insulators account for more than 50% of total investment. S&P Pharmaceutical, as a major supplier of ultra-high voltage power cables, has increased investment in high end power cables and Carbon fiber composite cable(ACCC). China has already achieved domestic production of key ACCC components, breaking the foreign monopoly in this technology.

In recent years China has also achieved innovative breakthroughs in areas such as core ultra-high voltage DC technologies, key equipment, construction engineering and standardization. Companies like Tianwei Baobian have successfully development world class technologies including high capacity ultra-high voltage power transformers, reactors and converter transformers, forming a complete set of key ultra-high voltage equipment and components, mastering core ultra-high voltage technology.

As the overall ultra-high voltage network operator, the State Grid has done their work in setting standards.

In the beginning of a February this year, the Standardization Administration of the People’s Republic of China(SAC) published a bulletin stating that the China State Grid Corporation’s series of ultra-high voltage AC standards has been awarded the 2010 first place prize in the “China Award for Innovative Contribution in Standards”. According to information, the State Grid Corporation’s series of  ultra-high voltage standards encompasses 73 sets industry standards. This is the first time a set of industry standards has been awarded first place. These standards will promote technological and market advantages, and serve as a stepping stone towards participating in and leading international ultra-high voltage development.

A staff member at the State Grid says it has already set a series of technology system standards covering fields such as ultra-high voltage power equipment, engineering design, work, testing and operation. There are standards covering every kind of technology equipment, including system voltage control, insulation coordination, transformer stations and power line design technology, field work, Assessment Guidelines,transformer station and power line operational standards, and even so far as transfer testing and debugging guidelines, nothing is without standards.

Other than the 73 industrial standards, during the 11th Five-Year Plan when it came to ultra-high voltage AC standards, they led the world by researching and and coming up with 41 industrial standards and a system of ultra-high voltage standards composed of 36 national standards. All of which have already successfully been established or announced, this represents establishment of a full framework of ultra-high voltage standards.

Experts say that during the time frame of the 12th Five-Year Plan, construction of the the “3 horizontal and 3 vertical” ultra-high voltage grid backbone will begin. The establishment of an ultra-high voltage standards system will help enjoy the current fruits of scientific research and technology and thus enable the economy and society to benefit from standardized cost savings investment, increased efficiency and quality control.

China’s Power Consumption Increasing Steadily

Source BYF News ( Source article )

Power consumption will continue to increase in 2011, new energies lead power investment

Reporters learned at the China Electricity Council‘s  2011 Economic Trends and Electricity Industry Outlook Conference that, from an overall perspective, electricity supply and demand are estimated to remain balanced, but there are still some regions and some periods where supply will be tight.

Liu Zhenya, China Electricity Council president and General Manager of the State Grid Corporation of China, said total power consumption for the first 2 months of this year reached 702.5 terawatt hours, up 12.3% from last year. Estimates are that this year’s total power consumption will reach 4600 terawatt hours, up roughly 10% from 2010. Overall power supply and demand are balanced, but some regions and time frames still exhibit tight supply. From a regional perspective central and southern China power supply is balanced with demand, northwestern and northeastern China have excess power supply, and power supply in northern and eastern China is tight.

On the power supply side, the China Electricity Council estimates that in 2011 new energies development, cross regional power grid construction and rural electrification reform will push China’s investment in electric power even further. Total investment in power project construction is estimated to be around 750 billion RMB($114 billion USD) for the year, a 6% increase when compared with last year’s 705.1 billion RMB($107 billion USD), of which power supply construction will be around 400 billion RMB($60 billion USD) and power grid construction will be around 350 billion RMB($53 billion USD). The China Electricity Council estimates that newly added electric power infrastructure will continue to maintain high levels. This year’s total national installed power generation capacity will increase by about 90GW, taking new construction and “closure of small facilities” into account, total national installed power generation capacity will exceed 1.04TW by the end of 2011.

China’s Geothermal: Overview and Current Problems

Source: Hexun News ( View article )

Chinese Academy of Sciences Academician: Geothermal development should emulate solar power development policies.

The 12th Five-year Plan just came out on March 16th, targeting development of new energy sources like solar power, bio energy and geothermal, and promoting distributed energy systems. The Japanese nuclear leak also brought new highs in geothermal development. Shen Yiyang, high level resources and carbon financing expert at the Asian Development Bank told reporters that “Geothermal is one of the most realistic and competitive forms of new energy, but with the heavy development of solar, wind and nuclear power over the past few years, geothermal has not received much focus.”

Geothermal energy has great potential

China contains vast geothermal resources, in the central eastern China sedimentary basin 49.17 billion cubic meters of underground hot water resources have been discovered with potential energy equivalent to 1.854 billion tons of common coal. When compared with other new energies like wind and solar power, geothermal resources are safe, stable, unaffected by seasons and time of day, clean, low carbon, renewable, etc…

Geothermal energy comes form inside the earth, according to estimates the earth’s geothermal energy resources are approximately 170 million times global coal reserves, every day the earth’s core radiates energy through its surface equivalent to 100 billion barrels of oil. The utilization factor of geothermal energy is as much as 73% higher than that of solar power. China’s current exploitation of geothermal energy is 500 million cubic meters and is growing at 10% per year, but geothermal only accounts for a small portion of China’s energy system.

Statistics revealed at the World Geothermal Congress (WGC2010) in Bali, Indonesia, showed that China has already become a large global user of geothermal energy, ranking number one globally. America ranked #1 in installed geothermal electric power generation capacity and geothermal electric power generation.

As a new source of energy, geothermal power has achieved global recognition. According to understanding, there are currently three methods for exploiting geothermal energy: steam power generation, directly using moderate and low temperature fluid and geothermal heat pumps. Of the three, because geothermal heat pumps are already universally recognized by the average person for their energy-savings and emission-reductions, they have become a new hot field to invest in. Increases in geothermal heat pump application have already greatly exceeded the development speed of direct use and high temperature geothermal electric power generation, and is currently being applied most broadly in Europe, North America and China. Currently, nations broadly applying geothermal energy include the U.S., China, Switzerland, Norway and Germany.

During the last century European and American countries listed geothermal energy as an optimal alternative energy sources for development and exploit, among them Iceland applied it quite broadly, currently 85% of Icelandic residents use geothermal energy to heat their homes. In Asia, geothermal energy already accounted for 21% of Indonesia’s electric power generation in 2002.

China’ has some of the world’s leading geothermal technology, but it is not well known enough and it’s popularization is far from sufficient. Foreign capital has already begun quietly flowing into China attempting to raid the massive potential of the Chinese geothermal market.

Chinese Academy of Sciences Academician Wang Jiyang points out that geothermal energy has massive potential to generate electric power, he estimates that installed geothermal electric power generation capacity has the potential to reach 70GW by 2050, and if new technology is used, installed capacity could even double, by that time geothermal energy could potentially supply 8.3% of the world’s power supply. If coal based power generation was replaced with geothermal power generation then carbon dioxide emissions could be reduced by 1 billion tons per year by 2050, and if it replaced natural gas power generation emissions could be reduced by 500 million tons per year.

Geothermal development is facing some problems

China began developing and exploiting geothermal resources in the 1970s, by the late 1980s the international community was already beginning to attempt exploiting shallow geothermal energy, and through geothermal heat pumps began application. In the last century China began full scale national exploration and development of geothermal resources, but development of geothermal energy still faces many problems today.

First of all there is a bottleneck in geothermal application technology. According to Zheng Keyan, Director of the China Energy Research Society Geothermal Special Committee, application of geothermal energy is divided into three categories: 150℃ to 300℃ is high temperature geothermal, it is most cost effective to use it for electric power generation; 90℃ to 150℃ is moderate temperature geothermal, it can be used to generate electric power and for heating; below 90℃ is low temperature geothermal, it can be used directly for many applications such as bathing, medicinal applications, heating, greenhouse cultivation, aqua-farming, etc..

Most of China’s geothermal resources fall under the moderate to low temperature categories, most high temperature geothermal resources are concentrated in areas like Yangbajing in Tibet province and Tengchong in the west of Yunan province. Currently China’s progress in core geothermal technologies is rather slow.

Globally advanced low to moderate temperature geothermal application technologies are held by the American company UTC (United Technologies Corporation), China has no choice but to rely on foreign technology in the development of its low and moderate temperature geothermal resources.

Secondly, China has not done much geothermal resource exploration and development. According to understanding, China has not yet fully grasped the layout of its geothermal resources. As China’s economic structure shifted toward a market economy, much of the geothermal research and exploration was affected when they lost their original support for operating expenses.

Even though China ranks #1 globally for non-electric direct geothermal usage, it only ranks #16 globally in geothermal electric power generation. The total installed capacity and power generation of the world’s 24 nations that have already constructed geothermal power generation plants are 10.715 GW and 612MW respectively, China, however, only has 25MW of installed capacity, obviously a very low level of development. China’s geothermal heating and heat pump manufacturing industry has received government policy support, but a staged resource development and usage model has not yet been formed, efforts in resource development are not enough.

Therefore China must initiate suitable research and investigation into geothermal electric power generation; Start a full appraisal and division into districts of all national geothermal resources, determine which are prime regions with economic value for geothermal development and begin key development and application projects.

Thirdly there is a lack of geothermal heat pump standardization, the China Renewable Energy Society’s Special Group for Geothermal Heat Pumps Group Leader, Li Yuanpu, points out that: One side is that China has not perfected its manufacturing and application standards, resulting in the geothermal heat pump systems of many projects failing to reach energy conservation and emission reduction requirements, this is detrimental to large scale promotion of the market; The other side is that government subsidies and management systems are not sound, supervision of geothermal project construction and management is not strict enough, leading to inefficiency of energy conservation subsidies. China should let science lead the way and build a united geothermal heat pump standardization system for geothermal heat pump projects, increasing energy conservation and reliability starting from the source, gradually working towards perfecting geothermal standardization.

Finally, China lacks sufficient talent in the field of geothermal development, China’s talent in geothermal technology R&D is also lacking, overall technology levels are not very high. The entire scientific research community is not very large, only about 100 people, far behind the research communities of other renewable resources like wind and solar power. Fostering talent that understands both terrestrial technologies and underground surveying is a prerequisite for large scale development of geothermal resources.

With China advocating energy conservation and emissions reduction, geothermal resources have great potential. Geothermal electric power production technologies are mature, and although investment requirements are rather large it can still be competitive when applied commercially, and can play a role in China’s resource portfolio.

Wang Jiyang recommends a set of laws and preferential policies should be established under the framework of China’s Renewable Energy Law. Establishing a system that encourages geothermal power generation and follows the subsidy methods for solar power, wind power and bio energy in order to guarantee China’s continued development of geothermal power generation.

China Replacing Uranium with Thorium in Nuclear Power

Source: China Business ( View article )

China may gradually replace uranium with thorium in nuclear power

The global “hot topics” are currently revolving around Japan’s nuclear crisis, although China can not abandon nuclear energy it is quietly beginning to use thorium as nuclear material, hoping it can replace uranium. Thorium power generation effectiveness is the same as uranium but is less dangerous. Thorium is a shiny silver rare earth metal. A thorium nuclear reactor won’t get out of control as easily as those at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. Reactions to the Japanese nuclear reactor leak have already led many governments to re-evaluate energy development policies, but demand for power won’t decrease because of the earthquake and nuclear incident, so China is just investigating alternative power production methods and has not abandoned its nuclear energy plans.

Wenhui News reported that the Japan nuclear crisis is a turning point in global energy development, many countries are looking for alternative energy solutions, China, however, has locked its sights on fields such as thorium nuclear power, wind power and solar power. China actually began research and development of thorium nuclear power a long time ago, it’s just that not many people took notice. Internationally uranium is the most common source of nuclear power, but replacing uranium with thorium is safer, produces less dangerous waste and is cheaper.

Not long ago, the Chinese Academy of Sciences began its “future advanced nuclear fission power generation – thorium-based molten salt reactor nuclear power series” project, with the goal of developing a new generation of nuclear power systems within 20 years. According to British media “This project didn’t receive much attention, except from a few people who are very interested in thorium, but this may symbolize government policy and strategic leadership changes, from being content with current western standards and lacking vitality turning to willingness to break convention and rise up as a technology superpower.”

6 Coal Companies Merge, Target Solar and Wind Power

Source: BJX News ( View article )

6 Shandong Coal companies join forces, target solar and wind power

Longkou Mining + Feicheng Mining + Zibo Mining + Zaozhuang Mining + Xinwen Mining + Linyi Mining
= Shandong Energy Group

The biggest restructuring of provincially managed industries in Shandong’s history was set in stone on March 21st in Jinan. The Shandong Energy Group Co. Ltd. was officially registered finalizing the 7 year restructuring of 6 of Shandong’s massive mining groups.

Entering China’s top 5

The newly formed Shandong Energy Group, a provincially state owned enterprise, was formed by the merging of Longkou Mining Group, Feicheng Mining Group, Zibo Mining Group, Zaozhuang Mining Group, Xinwen Mining, and Linyi Mining Group. It is headquartered in the provincial capital of Jinan, has registered capital of 10 billion RMB(1.52 billion USD), over 200,000 staff and a net asset value of 120 billion RMB(18.2 billion USD).

According to the restructuring plan, the registered legal persons for the 6 Groups will not change.

The new company now ranks in the top 5 national producers of coal. This restructuring is the largest restructuring in scale and number of companies in Shandong’s history. Following the restructuring formation of the Shandong Steel Group, Shandong Heavy Industry Group, Shandong Ocean Investment and the Taishan Asset Insurance Company, this is yet another success for Shandong’s large group restructuring strategy.

Targeting solar and wind power

According to Bu Changsen, General Manager and Board Chairman of Shandong Energy Group, following its establishment, coal will be Shandong Energy Group’s core business, diversifying gradually and building off a foundation of industries such as coal, electricity, oil and gas they will enter new energy fields like wind power, solar power, nuclear power and bio energy. Along with the 12th Five-year Plan’s full force in innovation, they will realize a doubling of key economic metrics, working hard to enter the global top 500.

“Simultaneously developing traditional and new energies” has already been established as one of their development strategies listed on their website. The new company will put its strength into developing traditional energies, new energies, equipment manufacturing and modern service industries, they will optimize and innovate in fields like chemical coal processing and health & medicine, while also seeking and developing emerging industries.

Bu Changsen told the media that from now on Shandong Energy Group will invest capital to diversify into new energy sectors like wind and solar power.

Why wasn’t Yanzhou Mining Group included?

Provincially managed coal companies, from 7 to 2

A Jinan newspaper reported that the formation of Shandong Energy Group was the closing act in the “7 becomes 2″ restructuring of provincially managed “big coal”.

Many people familiar with Shandong’s coal industry may notice that this merger formation of Shandong Energy Group “missed” one of the giants, Yanzhou Mining Group. Located in Yanzhou, Jining. Yanzhou Mining Group had an annual coal production capacity of 60 million tons, it was once the province’s largest coal company. Their exclusion in this restructuring all started in August 2010 with the establishment of a plan to merge the large coal companies.

Shandong had been investigating plans to restructure the coal companies since 2004, but it wasn’t until 2010 that a plan was actually established. In august of 2010 the Shandong Provincial Committee and provincial government agreed on the principles for restructuring the coal giants and began preliminary work.

Before the restructuring there were 7 provincially managed coal companies, Yanzhou Mining Group, Longkou Mining Group, Feicheng Mining Group, Zibo Mining Group, Zaozhuang Mining Group, Xinwen Mining, and Linyi Mining Group, with cumulative annual coal production capacity of over 100 million tons. However according to the restructuring plan Yanzhou Mining Group would remain independent and the other 6 would merge to formally become the Shandong Energy Group by the end of the year. There would be group management and the registered legal persons for the 6 companies would not change.

On December 16th 2010 Shandong Energy Group completed it’s business registration. On February 24th 2011 the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Shandong Provincial Government announced their opinions on the adjustment of people responsible for Shandong Energy Group, entrusting Bu Changsen as Board Chairman(legal representative), General Manager and Deputy Party Secretary for Shandong Energy Group. The leadership structure of Shandong Energy Group was finally set and the company began formal operations.

As for why Yanzhou Mining Group was excluded, Shandong Energy Group Board Chairman and General Manager Bu Changsen says the reason for keeping that company intact was because it is internationally recognized and has gone public in New York, Hong Kong and Shanghai. If it was included the restructuring may have taken longer and been much more complicated.

Bu Changsen also expressed that Shandong Energy Group and Yanzhou Mining Group both have resources in places like Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Guizhou, but they are not in the same mining regions, and comparatively speaking, Yanzhou Mining Group is better in the field of coal chemical processing. As provincial brothers, Shandong Energy Group and Yanzhou Mining Group have a both competitive and cooperative relationship, if they both expand into the same mining region they will establish good lines of communication and work together to build a strong reputation for Shandong coal outside the province.