This is actually a good place for electric vehicles given that electricity can be cheaply generated on the island.
Picture of the Seven islets and Yongxing dated Jan 9, 2016.
Tree Island is just off the NW corner.
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Yongxing Island - dated Jan 9, 2016.
The harbor in the SW has been deepened.
Rocky Island is now joined to Yongxing Island, with reclamation still on-going.
Both ends of the runway have greenery.
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I would say EVs will be good in not polluting the air out there and reducing the direct need for fuel. But the statement of electricity being cheaply generated is debatable. Any electricity generated via fossil fuel will not be cheap due to cost of transport and lack of scales of economy. Via solar, wind, wave? Depends on cost of the respective infrastructure needed.
Solar probably takes the least space/money on an island and is the most reliable out of the three.
The Seven islets should be connected becoming a much bigger one "island" by of course reclamation, it seems very much doable ...
Solar is also very space intensive.
On top of everything, you need to consider that Typhoons regularly pass through the region, so any power generation solution would need to be able to withstand Typhoon strength winds of waves.
That makes a lot of conventional green power solutions, like solar farms (which need so much real estate as to be unviable on such small islands) and wind farms.
Ironically, I'm starting to think nuclear is potentially the best solution.
It does not require a great deal of physical fuel mass. The reactors are built like bomb shelters anyways, so should be able to easily be further re-enforced to withstand Typhoon winds and waves.
Finally, a nuclear reactor is effectively unbombable in that bombing someone's nuclear reactors can be seen as having crossed the line from conventional to nuclear conflict, not to mention the environmental devastation such a move would cause.
Press will probably raise a s***-storm if China so much as consider it.
Solar is also very space intensive.
On top of everything, you need to consider that Typhoons regularly pass through the region, so any power generation solution would need to be able to withstand Typhoon strength winds of waves.
That makes a lot of conventional green power solutions, like solar farms (which need so much real estate as to be unviable on such small islands) and wind farms.
Ironically, I'm starting to think nuclear is potentially the best solution.
It does not require a great deal of physical fuel mass. The reactors are built like bomb shelters anyways, so should be able to easily be further re-enforced to withstand Typhoon winds and waves.
Finally, a nuclear reactor is effectively unbombable in that bombing someone's nuclear reactors can be seen as having crossed the line from conventional to nuclear conflict, not to mention the environmental devastation such a move would cause.
The western press will do that no matter what China does.