ENERGY EFFICIENCY, SOLAR APPLICATION IN CHINA

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Gracious day from the Pearl of the Orient!

Energy efficiency has received a new shot in the arm in China recently, with applications in solar energy innovations. This initiative will hopefully reduce the carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels in the world’s 2^nd largest economy.

The experimental area for massive implementation in the short run of the clean energy initiative is Shandong province. Accordingly, Shandong has the 2^nd largest industrial potential in the entire China, so prepositioning clean energy this early will surely be a boost to cleaner air when the manufacturing concerns will be in full throttle in the province.

Below is an update report from the Asian Development Bank about the said initiative.

[Philippines, 11 September 2011]

Source: http://beta.adb.org/news/adb-energy-efficiency-project-has-prcs-first-large-industrial-solar-application

ADB Energy Efficiency Project Has PRC's First Large Industrial Solar Application

19 Aug 2011

MANILA, PHILIPPINES – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is extending a $100 million loan for an energy efficiency project in Shandong province in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that will reduce harmful emissions including carbon dioxide and incorporate the first large-scale industrial use of solar thermal technology to generate electricity.

The ADB Board of Directors has approved the assistance for the Shandong Energy Efficiency and Emission Reduction Project. Along with financing state-of-the art energy technologies at two private companies, it will raise the capacity of government and financial institutions to plan, invest in, and manage further energy efficiency improvements. Slashing the use of coal for power generation and industrial production will help mitigate respiratory diseases and scale back the use of fossil fuels.

“Shandong has the second largest level of industrial output of all provinces in the PRC and is heavily dependent on fossil fuels,” said Shigeru Yamamura, an Energy Specialist in ADB’s East Asia Department. “This project, which incorporates an innovative financing mechanism, will reduce energy intensity and emissions, as well as helping to spur future investments in energy efficiency.”

At present there are major financing barriers for large-scale energy efficiency investments that have held back badly-needed upgrades in the PRC’s industrial sector. The financial intermediation model chosen for the project will catalyze additional domestic private equity and debt finance, with the revolving nature of its financing. It follows a similar financing mechanism used by ADB to support energy efficiency retrofits in Guangdong Province.

Assistance will be initially channeled to the privately owned Golden Yimeng Group and Dongying Lufang Metallic Materials. Golden Yimeng will use the funds to expand a biogas capturing system to generate power and supply heat, as well as to produce organic fertilizers. It will also use steam preheated by solar parabolic concentrators to supply a six-megawatt electricity generating steam turbine―the first such large-scale industrial solar application in the PRC.

Dongying Lufang Metallic Materials, which is among the top six copper producers in the PRC, will use funds to supplement the development of a zero coal copper ore smelting furnace. This will both reduce emissions and set a benchmark standard for future copper smelting technology.

The total investment cost is estimated at $553.2 million with $141.8 million earmarked for the first batch of subprojects. ADB’s loan from ordinary capital resources has a 15-year term, with a 10-year grace period, and interest determined in accordance with ADB’s LIBOR-based lending facility.

Counterpart equity finance for the first subprojects will be provided by Golden Yimeng and Dongying Lufang Metallic Materials. The Shandong Provincial Government is the executing agency for the project which will run from 2011 to 2016.

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RE-ECHOING CLEAN ENERGY

Erle Frayne D. Argonza


In the province of Ilocos Norte, in northern Philippines, is a pilot project for wind energy… Hydraulics application has already seen the rise of dams that generate at least couples of thousands of megawatts of power… Geothermal energy will be breaching the 3,000 megawatt level soon, making PH the world’s top geothermal power producer.

There are more such narratives of nascent and maturing power producers that tap alternative energy sources, or energy other than fossil fuel. We have vast reserves of natural gas in the country, which is fossil-related though clean energy in classification.

Solar power is a sunrise industry, and the good news is that our engineers here have exceeded the capability level of those in California and elsewhere in producing state-of-the-art solar panels. Ocean power research & development is proceeding at rapid pace, with installations projected in pilot areas in the short run.

Wind power potentials of the Philippines itself is projected at past the 70,000 megawatt level, which is a whopping figure that is over five (5) times the current electricity needs. Already, over 3,000 megawatts of wind power projects are in the pipeline, either as on-going or soon-to-start-installation projects.

In Manila, shuttle vehicles powered by electricity ferry shoppers at the Araneta Center and the Mall of Asia or MOA. Jeepneys in Makati using electricity are also shuttling shoppers as well as employees around the classy Ayala Central Business District, the country’s financial center. Tricycles powered by electricity are also rising, while motorbikes powered by electricity are now in use in Palawan.

The news about the usage of alternative energy is increasing by the day in the Philippines. Hopefully, the industrialized Northern countries will move ahead in shifting towards clean energy despite the economic downturns they are now experiencing. Emerging markets are surging ahead in this very dynamic field, and this phenomenon is causing me a sense of fulfillment and happiness being a habitué of the ASEAN.

In previous articles, I already shared the information about China’s perfection of the nuclear fusion technology. The news first reached my attention in 2007, and at that time it was projected that the first commercial prototypes for fusion breeder plants will be out in 10 years time. That means that as early as 2016 China will launch nuclear plants powered by fusion technology.

So dynamic is the field of alternative energy R & D that the sources of ideas for it are like oceans of thought. There simply are too many options for deriving alternative energy, so that in the not-so-distant future the starships for traversing space will be fueled by clean-recyclable-inexhaustible energy.

Let’s take the planet itself and its constant motion. As the planet moves around its axis, torque is generated. Torque is a potential source of energy, and for as long as the Earth revolves around its axis, torque will be inexhaustible. This is one area that I wish to be involved in the R&D phase itself.

Airplanes, airships, rockets and satellites can be fuelled in the future by torque among many options. By airships I mean maritime ships of today that can be retrofitted and re-engineered to be able to fly in the air, though at low altitudes, thus turning into a more efficient passenger vehicle more than today’s airplanes.

Another planetary source of energy for tomorrow is albedo. Around 1/3 of the heat that gets to the Earth from the Sun and other celestial sources escape as albedo. My thesis is that the escaping albedo can be tapped as an inexhaustible source of energy.

Necessarily, the policy environment and institutions that will propel clean energy and make it the sole energy source in the future should be prepared and strengthened early enough. Incidentally, the Philippines is among the countries with an exemplary policy environment for clean energy, and so industrialized and emerging markets can emulate the experience of my country in this line of endeavor.

The long-term goal, of course, is to rid the planet of fossil fuel. At some point in the future, extraction of oil & gas should be put to a stop. Prolonged extraction is causing imbalances in the geological structures of the planet, imbalances that can be irreparable in the long run. It would be best to carve out a global policy architecture to cease all fossil fuel extractions in the future, and enforce this strictly.

I would be celebrating the day when fossil fuel will cease to be the source of electricity and vehicular power in the foreseeable future. As far as electricity generation is concerned, the Philippines is almost there. But I shall wait a bit till electricity will be totally clean and using non-fossil energy sources.

[Philippines, 09 February 2011]

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Come Visit E. Argonza’s blogs anytime!

Social Blogs:
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UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com

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BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com

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