Climate Change and Renewable Energy News and Discussion

This would actually be huge. A very US gov't type of move in trying to destroy competition. I really hate how US gov't protectionism and complete disregard for WTO rulings will now cause a cascade of protectionism across the world. China controls 97% of the solar wafer production. There really isn't any notable capacity outside of China. So a move like this would choke off Biden's effort to bring solar panel manufacturing to America.

But still,, I'm not a big fan of this kind of move in general because this is bad for solar industry and environment, even if the collective West asked for it.

Chinese firms have spent the past decade developing cutting-edge technology to produce bigger, thinner wafers that have played a big part in reducing the cost of solar power by more than 90%. If foreign manufacturers have to use older wafers, it will diminish the cost competitiveness of their panels, Ries said.

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The move is still in the public consultation phase and no decisions have been made yet. Still, it’s coming just months after the US passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes subsidies for

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and has spurred a spate of announcements for new factories.

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Not just solar:

Chinese factories are able to make LFP cheaply, in part because the consortium of organizations that owned the relevant patents—including France’s National Center for Scientific Research, Hydro-Québec, Johnson Matthey, and the University of Montreal—agreed not to charge Chinese companies licensing fees if they sold only in China.
Over the past few years, the core patents behind LFP manufacturing have expired, removing a barrier for non-Chinese companies interested in producing LFP. O’Laoire says the expirations also make it easier for Chinese companies to serve markets where the patents were previously enforced.

2022 clean energy investment

escobar said:

2022 clean energy investment
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https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1619196993846530050

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The US's unusually large investment in electrified heat can be explained by IRA.
China has more efficient communal district heating systems and recycles industrial waste heat for urban areas, but also needs to electrify household heaters in rural areas.

escobar said:

2022 clean energy investment
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China's clean energy investment dwarfs the other nine combined and some.

Pakistan launches K3, the second Hualong 1 NPP, built by China. I thought this went online last year.

With regards to electrified heat, under the RePowerEU plan from May 2022, the EU plans to subsidize heat pump deployment massively. This, along with the nudge provided by the Ukraine conflict, is yet another export sector China can benefit from.

Europe has experienced some record heat waves in recent years. On top of good energy efficiency and replacing the natural gas furnace, the nice thing about a heat pump is that they can provide heating in the cold seasons, and then reverse the cycle to cooling mode in the hot season.

A couple of slightly old articles from September last year:
Air Source Heat pump exports from China to Europe jumps by a large amount, basically almost equaling domestic sales.

Domestic sales of air source heat pumps rose 6.82 percent year-on-year to 3.74 billion yuan, while the export value reached 3.45 billion yuan, surging 68.2 percent on a yearly basis. Italy, Poland and Spain saw year-on-year increases of more than 50 percent in the first six months of 2022.

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Last year, China exported around two million air source heat pumps to Europe. Industry insiders are optimistic that the annual export volume could top 10 million units in the next few years.

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IEA predicts the number of heat pump units to hit 600 million installed globally by 2030, up from 180 million units in 2020.

China held almost 60% of global heat pump production share in 2020.

@Chilled_k6

Do you have info on which is the major brand, are they using local brands of compressors, and their reliability?

broadsword said:

@Chilled_k6

Do you have info on which is the major brand, are they using local brands of compressors, and their reliability?

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Besides Midea Group and Haier mentioned in those posted articles previously, there's also PHNIX, Gree electric, SolarEast.

This article here mentions Shanghai Highly for compressor. Pretty good summary here of the industry in China if you're interested.

Also correction on my previous post, I meant total export value almost equaling domestic sales, not just export to Europe.

Chilled_k6 said:

Air Source Heat pump exports from China to Europe jumps by a large amount, basically almost equaling domestic sales.

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