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China

Gamesa Receives First Order For Its Largest Turbine

written by saurabh

Gamesa claimed a ‘milestone in its sales and product strategy’ as it landed the first order for its largest wind turbine model.

According to a press release issued by the company, an order for 18 units of G132-5.0 MW has been received from the renewable energy subsidiary of Sinohydro, one of China’s largest manufacturing groups. Gamesa shall be responsible for the supply, installation and commissioning of the turbines at Nangang wind complex in Tianjin.

“This contract marks an important strategic landmark for Gamesa: not only is it the maiden order from the 5-MW platform in Asia, it is the first signed order for the G132-5.0 MW”, explained Álvaro Bilbao, Gamesa’s CEO in China.

The turbines are expected to be supplied during Q4 2017 while the project is expected to be commissioned during Q1 2018.

Gamesa claims that the G132-5.0 MW is the most powerful onshore wind turbine model in the world. A single unit can generate enough electricity to meet the demand of 5,000 households for a year.

The company claims to be the leading non-Chinese wind turbine manufacturer in 2015. With a presence of 16 years in the Chinese market, Gamesa has supplied over 4,000 MW of wind turbines and had a share of 13% in MW sales in 2015.

In September this year, the company also announced that it installed the highest wind towers in Asia. The company installed 33 wind turbines of rated capacity 2.0-2.1 MW at 153 meter height in Thailand.

November 30, 2016 0 comment

China Sees Its Lowest-Ever Solar Power Bid At 7.8¢/kWh

written by saurabh

China has seen its solar power bids fall to a record low in a recent auction held in the province of Inner Mongolia, which is rich in solar energy resources.

According to media reports, the Chinese government conducted an auction for 1 gigawatt (GW) solar power capacity in the Inner Mongolia province. A total of 50 solar power project developers and module manufacturers successfully participated in the auction, which saw the record-low tariff of 7.8¢/kWh.

This tariff bid is comparable to some of the costliest thermal power projects in China, indicating that higher competition in the country would expedite grid parity for solar power projects – as has been the case in other developing markets.

Inner Mongolia is not only rich in solar resources but has ample land resources for the development of large-scale solar power projects, which could explain the low tariff bids.

Inner Mongolia has seen curtailment of wind energy generation over the last few years due to lack of adequate transmission capacity. However, earlier this year, the National Development and Reform Commission mandated grid companies to purchase electricity from wind and solar power projects so as to let them function a set minimum hours in a year.

China’s lowest-ever solar price bids are still higher than the lowest tariffs seen in other parts of the world. For example, Abu Dhabi recently saw a world-record-low solar bid of 2.42¢/kWh while Chile allocated solar power contracts at 2.91¢/kWh a bit earlier.

Image by vectoropenstock.com for CleanTechnica and CleanTechies

September 30, 2016 0 comment

2 GW Chinese Solar Project To Be World’s Largest

written by Joshua Hill

China’s largest private investor group, China Minsheng New Energy Investment Co., is developing a 2 GW solar farm in the Ningxia region which will be made up of some 6 million solar panels.

A report from Bloomberg last week highlighted the massive solar project, which is being developed in phases by China’s biggest private investor group. The Ningxia solar project will eventually cover 4,607 hectares, and be made up of approximately 6 million solar panels. According to Bloomberg, it will be the largest solar farm the world has ever seen, requiring an investment of up to $2.34 billion.

Not only will the Ningxia solar project be the largest in the world, it will be larger or comparable to some countries’ total installed solar capacity.

bloomberg-1

As Bloomberg notes, the new project “is emblematic of China’s clean-energy ambitions.” As we saw earlier this year, China installed 22 GW of grid-connected solar in the first six months of 2016 alone, including a phenomenal 11.3 GW connected in June alone. This is on top of the 18.6 GW that was said to be installed in 2015. Bloomberg notes that China’s solar installations more than doubled to 50 GW in the two years through 2015, and everyone is predicting that China’s installed solar capacity is only set to soar over the next few years, thanks to a burgeoning economy, increasing population, and decreased solar costs — not to mention clean energy targets and worldwide pressure for countries like China (and India) to make cleaner energy capacity additions.

September 27, 2016 0 comment

United PV Commissions 100 MW Solar Project Under China’s ‘Front Runner’ Program

written by saurabh

One of the first solar power projects under China’s ‘Front Runner’ technology demonstrator program was recently commissioned.

United Photovoltaics announced that it commissioned a 100 MW solar power project under the ‘Front Runner’ program using concentrated PV technology. The project was commissioned by a subsidiary of United PV – Datong United Photovoltaics New Energy.

The National Energy Administration of China has launched this program to promote manufacture and use of latest technology solar PV modules. Among the various technical parameters the modules must meet is that the conversion efficiency of polycrystalline and monocrystalline modules must exceed 16.5% and 17%, respectively.

The first phase consists of a GW-scale solar power capacity which shall include 13 individual solar power projects. The solar power park shall be located in Datong, Shanxi province. With a total investment of $1.6 billion, the park is expected to generate 1.5 billion kWh of electricity and offset 480,000 tons of coal consumption every year.

Recently, JA Solar announced that it will supply 420 MW solar PV modules to various project developers that have been awarded projects under the program.

JA Solar will be one of the investors and developers of the individual projects in the solar power park and will use 50 MW modules. The balance 370 MW panels will be supplied to 6 companies that will also develop projects within the solar power park; these include the likes of China Three Gorges Corporation, China Huadian Corporation, China Power Investment Corporation, and China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group.

June 30, 2016 0 comment

SolarReserve And China’s Shenhua Group Sign 1 GW Solar Thermal Power Storage Deal

written by saurabh

China’s Shenhua Group has made a major announcement with regards to development of solar thermal power projects in China.

Shenhua Group will work with US-based SolarReserve to set up 1 GW of solar thermal power projects enabled with storage facility. The agreement is aimed at supplying the grid with 100% renewable energy baseload.

Storage solutions for renewable energy projects in China is critical as the capacity is being added at a much faster pace compared to the growth in transmission capacity infrastructure. Every year China comes out with report stating that a substantial amount of electricity generated from wind energy projects was wasted due to absence of transmission infrastructure. Most of these projects are in remote areas with significantly high wind energy resources.

Solar power capacity, which is being added at a record rate every year in China, may face a similar problem. While storage solutions for solar photovoltaic power and wind energy projects on a large-scale remains untested and very costly, that is not the case in case of solar thermal power projects.

If China has to achieve its very ambitious renewable energy capacity targets it must work on multiple fronts of distributed renewable energy projects, expansion of transmission grids and energy storage solutions.

Storage through oils and salts is common among solar thermal power projects around the world. Most recent examples being in South Africa where projects are supplying electricity throughout the day, and night!

May 14, 2016 0 comment

Beijing Wants to be China’s California Where Electric Vehicles are Concerned

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Last year eight states in the U.S. signed a Memorandum of Understanding calling for cooperation among the states, and alliances with the private sector to speed up deployment of plug-in electric and fuel cell vehicles in their states. The goal is 3.3 million zero-emission vehicles, or ZEVs, on the road by 2025.
The plan works with carrots rather than sticks. There are not quotas, rather the state governments are buying PEVs themselves, offering rebates to buyers, and building charging infrastructure. The Beijing Municipal government is studying that cooperative model, especially California’s measures to promote ZEVs, Yunshi Wang, China Center director at the University of Davis Institute of Transportation Studies told me recently. “They want be China’s California,” says Wang.

The Beijing Municipal government is already working to expand the use of new energy vehicles in its borders. New Energy Vehicles refers to plug-in electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles. But things aren’t moving quickly enough, apparently. The Beijing government wants to make raise the profile of its NEV plan by linking with California, says Wang.

California accounts for more around 40 percent of all plug-in electric vehicles purchased in the United States. That is partly because its citizens tend to be more “green” than those in many other states. But those tendencies are magnified by state policies supporting ZEV ownership and requiring automakers who sell cars in the state to produce and sell ZEVs here.

Those policies often come out of the California Air Resources Board, usually referred to as CARB. It is a high-level state government body that works on improving California’s air quality. The Institute for Transportation Studies at UC Davis works closely with CARB. In China, a similar role is played by the China Automotive Technical Research Center, or CATARC, located in Tianjin, a coastal city near Beijing.

“CATARC provides intellectual support to the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Information Industry Technology,” says Wang. The UC Davis Institute for Transportation Studies China Center at UC Davis works closely with CATARC. Indeed, in September the ITS and CATARC signed an agreement to help speed the commercialization of PEVs and fuel-cell vehicles.

CATARC also suggests to the central government some new ideas for developing the new energy vehicle segment, he says.
For example, the Tesla-inspired idea of allowing non-automotive companies to produce new energy vehicles originated at CATARC. (Any company in China wanting to produce vehicles of any kind requires a permit from the National Development and Reform Commission.) “Existing automakers, especially plug-in vehicle makers, are strongly opposed,” says Wang.

CATARC is also promoting allowing wider usage of low-speed electric vehicles, especially in provinces such as Shandong and Jiangsu, where there are companies that produce LSEVs (especially Shandong, where it is hard to throw a rock without hitting an LSEV maker).
As for the city of Beijing working more closely with California, CATARC is talking with the city’s Science and Technology Commission about it and the Commission is “very positive” about the idea, says Wang.

Beijing vs. California: Okay, they aren’t exactly alike
To be sure, Beijing is unlike California in many ways. The government structure is very different, naturally. And Beijing’s population is not known for being exceptionally green in their thinking (though there are of course greenies in Beijing).

Also, as an attendee at a lunch presentation I gave last month in Hong Kong for Macquarie on China’s NEV sector pointed out, Beijing’s climate is very different from California’s, or at least from Southern and Northern California, where EV ownership is concentrated.

Beijing is much hotter in the summer – making car air conditioning use a necessity if one has it – and winters are much colder ergo heaters are needed. That drains a PEV battery. But like California, Beijing has set NEV goals. It aims to have 200,000 NEVs on its streets by 2017. Of that, 50,000 will be public vehicles, 150,000 privately-owned. Among the public NEVs will be some 10,000 taxis. Half of mail and sanitation trucks will be NEVs. (This is more aggressive than the central government call for 30 percent.)

Beijing has allocated license plates that will go to NEV owners free of charge, and that bypass the municipality’s registration lottery. Beijing also has its own subsidies on top of the central government subsidies.

So Beijing already has some policies that are similar to California’s, says Wang. But the Chinese city is looking at how California’s policies have been implemented and considering some tweaks to its own, as well as additional perks such as high-occupancy lane stickers to NEV owners and the like.
China’s capital city favors one technology over another – Beijing’s policies are more focused on battery-electric vehicles, says Wang, and perhaps fuel-cell vehicles in the future.

As for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, the municipal government worries that owners of those vehicles are mostly driving on liquid fuel rather than using the battery capacity, says Wang. The lack of a widespread charging infrastructure is seen as the culprit. (This is also a concern of other city governments such as Shanghai. It nonetheless subsidizes PHEVs at near the same rate as BEVs.)

The ITS at UC Davis also aims to work with other cities in China on new energy vehicle policies, says Wang. For example, he wants to work with the Shanghai International Auto City (see my November 5, 2013 on SIAC’s EV efforts) to see how much time the PHEVs there run on pure electricity, who is driving and where, and what their expectations are. That will help the government know where to place charging stations, he says. Adds Wang: “You can’t blame PHEV drivers (for not running on pure electricity). If there is an appropriate charging infrastructure, there will be no problem. You need to provide infrastructure so you don’t force drivers to use the gasoline engine.”

November 6, 2014 0 comment

Why China’s Insatiable Appetite For Coal Has Likely Peaked

written by CleanTechies.com Contributor

A recent report from Greenpeace found that China’s coal consumption declined in the first half of this year and new Chinese government data suggests that the country’s coal imports have dropped. Estimates indicate that by the end of the year, China’s coal imports could be 8 percent below 2013 levels.

China imported 18.86 million tonnes of coal in August, the lowest level since September 2012.

Part of the reduced demand is due to a slowing Chinese economy. After years of double-digit growth rates, China’s GDP expanded by just 7.7 percent in 2013, and it could struggle to hit its 7.5 percent target this year. Some analysts are predicting an average growth rate of only 6 percent in the next few years.

But a lower GDP growth rate is only part of the reason. As the Sierra Club’s Justin Guay points out, China may be beginning to “decouple” its growth from coal consumption. In other words, China’s economy could continue to expand even while its coal consumption drops – something unthinkable not long ago.

That’s due in large part to China’s declared “war on pollution,” announced earlier this year.

Years of increasingly choking smog have sparked public anger and even led to protests. In 2013, a government survey of 74 Chinese cities found that all had pollution levels that exceeded levels the World Health Organization deems safe.

“We will resolutely declare war against pollution as we declared war against poverty,” Premier Li Keqiang said in March. The plan calls for the closure of old and dirty steel, cement, and coal plants: An estimated 1,725 small-scale dirty coal plants are expected to be shuttered. The government also declared it would spend $275 billion in the next three years to reduce pollution.

China has also set up environmental courts, instituted fines for offenders of environmental standards, granted non-governmental organizations the right to sue polluters, and now requires the nation’s largest factories to disclose pollution data to the public.

The efforts are starting to pay dividends, as evidenced by declining coal import levels. This is a major reason that international coal prices have reached their lowest levels in six years. And the low prices are not succeeding in stoking a resurgence in demand.

And more declines could be coming, thanks to a series of proposed new laws. The central government released a draft version of a law on Sept. 10 that amounts to an outright ban on coal with a high sulfur and ash content. This could significantly hurt coal exporters, like Australia and South Africa.

The government is also seeking to cut coal production by 10 percent because low demand is causing economic losses for 70 percent of China’s coal companies.

Moreover, China is considering a permanent limit on the overall consumption of coal. The current five-year plan aims for consumption of 4.1 billion tonnes of coal in 2015, up from 3.7 billion tonnes in 2013. But in the next five-year plan, which will run from 2015-2020, China could cap its coal consumption at the same 4.1 billion tonnes-per-year level, and even ratchet it downwards.

And in 2016, efforts to slash coal demand will likely only accelerate, considering China’s announcement that it will introduce a nationwide cap-and-trade program. Details are murky, but if successfully implemented, major producers will be incentivized to improve efficiency and switch to cleaner sources of energy.

As the world’s largest consumer of coal, as well as the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, the significance of China’s policies on coal use cannot be overstated. Thanks to a concerted effort by the government to improve air quality, the era of insatiable Chinese demand for coal could be over.

Article by Nick Cunningham, appearing courtesy Oilprice.com.

September 16, 2014 0 comment

China EV Policies and the Law of Unintended Consequences

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The law of unintended consequences is at work in China’s somewhat haphazard formation of electric vehicle policy. I call it haphazard because let’s face it, the plan has some holes in it and has progressed by fits and starts and occasional backward moves.

Talking recently with a friend whose company works with bus companies in China on EV technology, I heard about an unintended consequence of the section of the EV subsidy policy that defines the all-electric distance needed to qualify for some government largesse.

If you are from California you are very familiar with the “compliance” car. Automakers produce and sell in small volumes various types of zero-emission vehicles to meet the state’s strict emission control standards. In California, the compliance cars are produced to avoid fines. My friend told me that local governments in China are producing “compliance” EV buses to get subsidies!

Here is how it works. In order to qualify for the central government’s subsidy, which is up to RMB 250,000 for PHEV buses, a vehicle must be able to travel at least 30 kilometers on pure electricity. That distance, and the necessary battery size, was chosen, it seems, because it is not too expensive. Not cheap, but at a cost the central government figured was bearable. Another large expense associated with a fleet of plug-in electric vehicles is, however, a network of charging stations.

Some local governments have found an easier and cheaper way to qualify for the subsidy, a method that does not involve any pure electric propulsion or the need for a network of charge posts. Here is how it works: The local governments install a battery and a super capacitor on their diesel-powered buses. A super capacitor can store and discharge energy very quickly. They are often used on hybrid buses for storing energy created by regenerative braking.

On these compliance buses, the battery pack is built to the minimum spec to go 30 km on a charge. There is a connector socket on the side, or at least what appears to be a connector socket. That is never used, however. The bus is driven like a regular hybrid bus, never on pure electric power. “The main thing the battery does is allow the engine to be downsized,” my friend said. That cuts costs.

The battery is recharged while the bus is in operation, but that occurs using the diesel fuel. The battery can, as my friend put it, last forever. And while the fuel economy does improve on the hybrid bus, it is still running mainly on diesel.

Why did the government make the all-electric bar so low – 30 kilometers – that it could be met by in effect cheating? Because the policy was made using the crossing the river method. The battery is the major cost in an electric vehicle. The 30 kilometer battery was a compromise. It wasn’t that costly and still replaced liquid fuel use (when used properly). Of course, adding the super capacitor was an additional cost. But the super capacitor was small enough that the additional cost wasn’t that great, my friend figures.

Charging stations also hit by LOUC (Law of Unintended Consequences)

Another big area of cost savings under this scheme is the elimination of the need for a charging network. Charging stations for buses have to be very powerful, roughly four times the power of Level 2 charging in the U.S., my friend said. They are expensive. By producing the “compliance” buses the local governments eliminate the need for that expense, at least for now.

My friend is optimistic, however. He figures that the central government will eventually see that its current policy is ineffectual and will make the requirements for pure electric range much stiffer (that will be the next stone…).

“The thinking in the bus companies,” he figures, “is that someday, if the government changes its regulation and ups the range requirement, at some point it is going to be cost effective to use the battery. Otherwise they are hauling around 4,000 pounds of dead weight.”

That is charitable. The local governments have saved themselves money by fudging their PHEV buses and also by not building out a charging network. If they need to produce buses that have a longer pure electric range, they will cross that bridge when they come to it. Or throw down that stone.

Of course, the news lately is that the central government will throw 100 billion RMB towards funding a charging infrastructure. That may encourage some of the local governments to build out charging networks since they can nab some government funds to do that. Then they can continue to use their compliance E buses as hybrid buses and save costs on recharging.

According to the Ministry of Information Industry Technology, in June 673 commercial plug-in hybrid vehicles were produced in China, a more than four-fold increase compared to the same month in 2013. Production of commercial battery electric vehicles in June rose 85 percent to 362 units. How many of those were true PHEVs, however, and how many were in fact compliance PHEVs?

Meanwhile, true hybrid production plummets….

The latest EV policy does not subsidize regular hybrid vehicles. A consequence, perhaps unintended, perhaps not, of this omission, is that production of actual hybrid commercial vehicles has virtually ceased. And while foreign and Chinese company executives told me last year that they expected hybrid subsidies to eventually be announced, that has not occurred.

The slowdown in hybrid bus production has had a huge impact on the China sales of Maxwell Technologies, Inc. The San Diego-based company produces super capacitors, which is another name for an ultra-capacitor. Its China sales of super capacitors are down 50 percent to $25 million in the first half of 2014 compared to the same period in 2013, Mike Sund, vice president of communications and investor relations at Maxwell, told me.

Now wait a minute, you say, shouldn’t Maxwell’s sales go up if what Frank is saying is true? My best guess is that there is no need for a super capacitor of the quality that Maxwell produces to make a hybrid bus appear to be a PHEV. Also, the number of compliance buses being produced is no doubt small.

China is down on regular hybrid buses because Toyota owns most of the intellectual property associated with hybrids and China doesn’t figure it can make any breakthroughs in that area. Plus Chinese companies might end up paying to use Toyota-owned technology. So why subsidize them?

Another law of unintended consequences result. Regular hybrids do improve fuel economy and thus could be a stepping stone to China’s goal of reducing dependence on imported fuel. Indeed, some Chinese officials even called hybrids an interim step to full-electric vehicles. That step wasn’t big enough to warrant government support, apparently.

Let’s see if the latest subsidy bone the government is throwing the PEV sector has positive results i.e. more charging networks. And if that actually increases the number of PEVs on the road, both commercial and private.

September 3, 2014 0 comment

Where Did All the Coda EV’s Go?

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Ever wonder where the 100+ electric vehicles that Coda delivered ended up? Well, I found five of them in a warehouse in Davis, California. Efficient Drivetrains Inc., a company with plug-in hybrid electric vehicle and continuously variable transmission technology bought five of the Coda all-electric sedans for a China-related project. Full disclosure: I do some business development work for EDI.

EDI is doing some other interesting China-related stuff as I discovered when I visited a few weeks ago. It seems all manner of Chinese companies and even research institutes are looking to benefit from the government’s electric vehicle policy. As I discuss in a blog I’ll post after this one, however, some elements of that policy are not very well-thought out.

But I digress. EDI’s warehouse is filled with vehicles in various stages of having some form of electric drivetrain or CVT installed. Imagine my surprise to see some familiar faces on the lifts! EDI has been asked by the Dongguan Research Institute to produce some pure electric vehicles that also have CVTs. This research institute, contained within one of Dongguan’s many universities, is surely owned by the local government.

EDI procured the five Coda’s for this project. Why? “They are cheap,” said Andy Frank, EDI founder and chief technical officer. Frank explained that the Institute wants an EV that is inexpensive but also shows good performance (doesn’t everyone?). It “wants to design something different than the conventional EV manufacturer,” said Frank. “They have to show some uniqueness.”

Pure electric vehicles aren’t the ideal application for CVTs, admitted the engineers at EDI. A CVT allows a car to change gears without steps, and electric vehicles do that anyway, I believe…. But the Research Institute is the customer, so EDI will install a CVT in the Coda sedans’ pure electric drive, which will add cost. EDI has a cost-cutting strategy, however: Source parts from China.

Coda sourced most of the components for original EVs from multinational suppliers. Think UQM motors and Borg Warner transmissions. EDI is replacing those high-cost components with less-expensive components sourced in China. EDI will then add its secret sauce — software and a management system that will make all the parts work together in a superior way.

The replacement CVT is from Hunan Jianglu Rongda.Vehicle Transmission Co. On the company’s website is a Chinese saying that, according to Rongda’s English translation says: “Ocean holds precipitation; acceptance makes greatness.” A better translation might be “The ocean accepts a hundred rivers, and that makes it great.” It is a saying that urges tolerance for diversity because diversity produces greatness. I guess that is meant to promote acceptance for a CVT. And it is a play on the characters in Rongda’s name.

Rongda is China’s only volume CVT manufacturer. Since its CVT can be bought off the shelf, EDI is using one in the prototype. How good are the Rongda CVTs? “We don’t really know; we have to build one and test,” said Frank. “In order to get real economics (in fuel economy) we (will) have to design a special CVT for this application,” he added. If the vehicle goes into volume production, EDI will design a CVT specifically for the vehicle, either on its own or with Rongda, said Frank.

The motor will come from Beijing-based Jing-Jin Electric. The company, founded by a General Motors China alum, supplied motors to the ill-fated Fisker Karma. It produces motors of all sizes for electric vehicles, said Frank. And its motors may show up in the Fisker-based car that Wanxiang produces.

Another interesting project in the EDI garage was a Ford F550 truck that is a PHEV with exportable power being produced for Pacific Gas & Electric. In a blog last year, I talked about how exportable power is what PG&E, one of the largest utilities in the U.S., really wants in its PHEV trucks. It can use that power, said Dave Meisel, director of transportation for PG&E, to light up a neighborhood while it does repairs, or during emergencies such as hurricanes when power has been lost.

I talked with Meisel recently about the PHEV that EDI is producing for PG&E. It has exportable power, it seems, and a lot of it. PG&E will test it soon. Why has EDI apparently been able to achieve levels of exportable power that others haven’t, I asked Meisel? “It is technology related,” he said. “EDI’s software and onboard management system has done a really good job.” I guess we will know if that proves true in a few weeks as PG&E is planning to test the EDI truck then.

China could certainly benefit from some exportable power. Although the brown-outs that were common when I lived in China in 1984, and even when I was there in the early 1990’s, they aren’t so common now. The grid in China is strained, however. Imagine if a fleet of trucks could serve as power plant in a pinch.

So that’s what I saw during my EDI visit. I’m still laughing at the Coda sedans. Never thought I would run into them in such a place. And they’re going home! The body came from China, after all, and now the components will, too. Is the fact that such disparate entities – such as a research institute — are looking into producing electric vehicles good news for China? Or is it a waste of resources? Will it produce innovation that doesn’t emerge from the big automakers? That is what China is hoping. The government thinks that by giving non-automotive entities licenses to produce EVs, a Chinese Tesla could emerge. That seems a stretch. But there may be a Chinese Elon Musk out there.

August 26, 2014 0 comment

China Added Large Amount of Solar Power in First Half of 2014

written by Yale Environment 360

In the first half of 2014, China added 3.3 gigawatts of solar power — as much as is installed in the entire continent of Australia — China’s National Energy Administration reports. The country now has 23 gigawatts of solar power installed, which is nearly twice that of the United States.

China, the world’s largest carbon emitter, has set a goal of 35 gigawatts of installed solar power by the end of next year. The nation’s push toward solar energy will include distributed solar, such as rooftop and ground-mounted installations near homes and municipal buildings, Chinese officials say, and the government could announce distributed solar incentive programs later this month, Bloomberg News reports.

Renewable energy, especially solar, has become a high priority for the Chinese government as major cities and industrial areas have experienced choking air pollution. Earlier this week, officials announced that Beijing would ban coal use by 2020.

August 11, 2014 0 comment

Standards Still China’s Waterloo Where Spread of Electric Vehicles is Concerned

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Electric vehicle enthusiasts here in the U.S. are all a flutter over the news that China has announced several policies aimed at creating a market for electric vehicles.

They are also excited about the news that a Chinese businessman decided to build his own charging network when he couldn’t drive his Tesla Model S from Guangdong to Beijing because of a lack of charging stations.

The businessman, Mr. Zong, bought 20 220V charging stations from Tesla and installed them at businesses on the roads to Beijing. Now he can drive to Beijing in his new Tesla, it seems. Other Tesla owners can use the chargers too, he says.

Tesla thanks him for his contribution to China’s charging network. “We welcome any efforts from the private or public sector that promotes the widespread adoption of electric vehicles,” a Tesla spokesperson here in the U.S. wrote to me in an email.

This has little significance where widespread adoption of electric vehicles in China is concerned. It may promote more sales of Telsa vehicles in China. That’s about it. The stations can’t be adapted to charge other EVs, though the press has mistakenly reported that Mr. Zong will adapt them so other EVs can use them. Per the Tesla spokesperson: “Mr. Zong did not modify the wall connectors to fit other EV brands. He installed the Tesla ones for Tesla only.”

Even if Mr. Zong had wanted to modify the connectors to fit other EV brands, he couldn’t have. Well, perhaps he could, but they might only fit one other EV brand, in one city. That’s because, despite all the stories that China puts out (and the foreign press eats up) about producing and selling millions of EVs, and about all the charging standards it has issued, and the mandates to make local governments buy EVs and install charging posts, there are still no finalized standards in China for the connector configuration, the communication standard, or DC charging. Without those, China is creating a huge problem by urging widespread adoption of EVs. Instead of a nationwide industry, it is creating many local industries.

Here’s the lowdown on the state of charging standards in China:
First, the AC standard. That’s the slower charging method, and the one that will be used most widely. Chinese voltage is already 220V (versus the common 110V and less common 240V here in the U.S.) so plugging into a wall socket gets you Level 2 charging in China.

China in 2011 released an AC standard, GB/T 20234.2-2011. GB stands for “Guobiao” or “national standard.” T stands for “tuijian,” or “recommended.” How does that really translate? China hasn’t settled on a final standard yet. The Tesla spokesperson put it well. She wrote: “It lacks definition of some important parameters, resulting in the incompatibility of EV products with different brands and charging facilities in different cities. So it is still a voluntary standard, not mandatory.”

The central government is pushing automakers in China to produce EVs. People won’t buy them without a charging network. So localities come up with their own charging station parameters including connectors and communication. Local automakers produce EVs that can use those charging stations but can’t safely charge anywhere else.

And what about that mandates that 30% of local government fleet purchases must be EVs? And that that 30% of their purchases be made from manufacturers outside their area? (Which are not new, by the way. Both were included in the policy issued in September, 2013). Well, the EVs from outside the area won’t be able to charge on the local stations.

I talked with my old friend David Reeck, who recently retired from his post as Manager of Electrification Strategy for GM China, about the state of standards in China’s EV world. This is a man who spent years trying to rationalize China’s charging standards. Reeck is living in Oregon now, working as a consultant. He was not optimistic. “I would say by the end of the year China will realize it has really messed up,” he said.

He is especially pessimistic about the DC standards, which are the most contentious and thus the most difficult to decide. “From end of this year until about 2016 China won’t have a DC standard formalized,” said Reeck. China has a DC connector plug that it is promoting. But that lacks safety features that the European, U.S., and Japanese standards include. Also, the male and female parts on the Chinese DC connector are reversed, added Reeck.
There is disagreement among the Chinese about this standard, he says. Some figure it is safe for passenger vehicles — though perhaps not for trucks — and should be released. Others think it better to wait for a standard that works for all kinds of vehicles.

This is an argument that has been going on a long time. I attended the global EVS25 electric vehicle conference in Shenzhen in 2010 and executives from the U.S. Society for Automotive Engineers (SAE) told me at that time of their safety concerns regarding the Chinese plug standard. SAE is now working with China’s CATARC on a DC standard. But SAE declined to comment when I asked about the safety issue.

What do all these internecine battles mean for the industry? Let’s go back to Mr. Zong and his Tesla charging network. No, let’s drop Mr. Zong and just consider Tesla’s attempt to build a charging network in China. Remember, this is a company that has charging stations that only work with its vehicles. But the issues Tesla faces are those that the whole industry faces.

Tesla’s 220V charging stations in China have connectors that are based on the EU standard, which shares a communication standard with J1772, the U.S. standard. Those two are therefore compatible even if the connectors aren’t exactly the same.

When China does finalize the AC charging standard, “Tesla Model S in China will be compatible with the new GB AC standard,” said Tesla. That means all the charging stations that are installed up until then probably won’t work with future Tesla vehicles.

Meanwhile, the U.S. and Europe are moving ahead. In October of 2012, they unveiled a combined AC DC plug standard. It was created through collaboration between engineers in the U.S. and in Europe. “This new standard reflects the many hours that top industry experts from around the world worked to achieve the best charging solution – a solution that helps vehicle electrification technology move forward.” Gery Kissel, the combo plug Task Force Chairman, said. That didn’t include Chinese engineers, it seems. Or if it did, China didn’t collaborate. No, it wants to create its own DC standard.

Foreign automakers in China haven’t been sitting idly by while EV charging standards moved forward in the rest of the world. A group of foreign automakers – collectively known as the Charging Interface Initiative Asia – that includes BMW, Volkswagen Group, Daimler, Ford, and General Motors has been encouraging China to adopt a combined plug standard similar to that just adopted by Europe and the U.S..

So far China insists it wants its own standard. But in 2015, the Germans will “aggressively” demonstrate a combined China GB standard plug, says Reeck. Still, he figures China won’t have a DC standard formalized until 2016. And whether or not that will be compatible with international standards remains to be seen.

July 28, 2014 0 comment

BMW Flogs its EV in China and Tesla Hits Some Potholes

written by

I was in Chongqing a few weeks ago. Boy has that city changed since I first visited it in 2003.

But that’s not what I want to talk about. I was on an EV panel at the 2014 China Auto Summit , and also visited the Chonqqing Auto Show on media day.

What a pleasant change from Auto China. I could actually walk around without shoving through crowds of “journalists.” Of course, the Chongqing show is considerably smaller than Auto China and also is consumer-oriented – visitors can actually buy cars there. Since I was in town anyway, however, it was well worth the visit.

I went to a few press conferences, but mainly I just walked around and looked at car and for electric vehicles. I saw lots of cars, but found only one EV, the Zinoro E1, a pure electric vehicle produced by the BMW Brilliance joint venture.

(I do not count the Lexus CT200h regular hybrid in the EV category but it had a big stand all to itself in Chongqing.)

Oliver Liang, Brand Management Director for BMW Brilliance Zinoro China, was a fellow panelist at the Summit so I already knew something about the marketing plan for the 1E. I picked up several pamphlets at the show, as well. The car itself is nice-looking enough. But what impressed me is the thought BMW Brilliance has put into the marketing plan, which centers on the concept of “worry free.”

The vehicle is only available to be leased. It offers 1, 2, or 3-year or daily rental plans. Costs are respectively RMB11, 000/month, 9,000/month, 7,400/month, or RMB 400 a day. “We have prepared a range of convenient, worry-free services and flexible rental plans tailored to meet urban and individual needs,” said the pamphlet.

It includes a free maintenance package and warranty since Chinese consumers worry about the maintenance costs of a car with new technology such as an EV. “You will be able to keep your Zinoro 1E in optimal condition without incurring additional maintenance costs,” said the pamphlet.

If the car does need to go into the shop, Zinoro provides a free loaner car, and in the “rare event” of a breakdown, offers year-round, 24-hour roadside assistance as part of the lease.

China has few public charging spots. And who wouldn’t rather charge at home anyway? So the lease includes a wall-mounted charging unit and free installation (up to RMB 12, 0000).

The 1E became available for lease in December of 2013. It is currently only available in Shanghai and Beijing though I suppose someone from another city, say Hangzhou, could lease one in Shanghai and drive it home. If they could find charging stations along the way….

It will be interesting to see if this plan succeeds in moving some electric metal for BMW Brilliance Zinoro.

Tesla discovering China’s special characteristics

Meanwhile, I’ve been getting a stream of Chinese-language messages from Tesla on my Weixin feed concerning launch plans and services in China. But remember a blog I wrote a while back regarding issues Tesla would likely face in China, especially where building a charging infrastructure was concerned?

Well, anecdotal evidence and actual evidence suggests Tesla is off to a bit of a rocky start in China.
First the actual evidence. An e-commerce entrepreneur in Inner Mongolia smashed the windshield of his new Model S to protest glitches in the delivery process. Now that was a bit silly. But this is China. Buyers of an RMB 1 million EV don’t like to feel slighted.

Now the anecdotal stuff: A friend has a neighbor who bought a Model S with the 85 kWh battery. Charging does not seem to be a big issue for this new owner, for now. He lives close to Hongqiao Airport, and works in Anting, which is not that far from Hongqiao. One of Shanghai’s two fast-charging stations is in Anting (the other is in Pudong). So the Tesla owner can charge while at work, for now.

That may change if Tesla ownership reached the levels Tesla has predicted and competition for charging spots emerges. But I guess Tesla plans to add more charging stations if permitted. The owner also has a garage, so he can charge at home overnight.

Other aspects are not so sanguine. First, some interesting details about the licensing and tax: He was exempt from the license plate cost, which is at RMB 70,000 in Shanghai right now. But he did still have to pay the import tax. So the total cost of the Model S was RMB 1,000,000! Tesla touted its fair price policy of charging only RMB 734,000 for the Model S based on the following breakdown. So I guess there was an extra expense Tesla missed.
$81,070 US price
$3,600 Shipping & handling
$19,000 Customs duties & taxes
$17,700 VAT
734k CNY @ 6.05 exchange rate

Also a problem Tesla may not have anticipated – the touchpad for the infotainment control system doesn’t fully function in China. GPS, traffic, mapping of locations don’t work, said my friend. Neither does over-the-air updates, which will be a real problem as Tesla issues those rather frequently.

I sent an email to Tesla here in the U.S. asking how it planned to resolve these issues and hadn’t heard back at time of posting. I will add that info if/when I get it.

Article by Alysha Webb, a freelance automotive journalist and founder of ChinaEV Blog.

June 30, 2014 0 comment

China Might Be Winning The Race To Reduce Solar Costs

written by CleanTechies.com Contributor

Many people, even fanatical advocates of solar power, are unaware quite how close we are to reaching a critical milestone in the industry. Within a fairly short space of time, solar generated electricity will be fully cost competitive with coal-powered electricity — at least if the governments of the world’s two largest energy consuming nations have their way.

Both the U.S. and China have a stated goal of reducing the cost of solar generated electricity to that level, and quickly. How they are going about it says a lot about how each economic system works.

In the U.S., despite the complaints of some that a drift toward government control is taking place, private initiative and free markets still rule. The Department of Energy launched the SunShot initiative in 2011, with a stated goal of reducing the cost of solar power to be fully competitive with conventional energy sources by the end of this decade. The program funds grants, incentives and competitions to encourage private sector research that will improve the efficiency and lower the cost of solar energy.

The Chinese, faced with what is in many ways a more urgent need to achieve the same thing, have taken a different approach. In a manner more in keeping with their history and current economic system, they are beating the problem over the head with piles of cash until the desired outcome is achieved. It looks, if this excellent Michael Sankowski piece at Monetary Realism is to be believed, as if they are getting mighty close.

Sankowski maintains that, driven by high levels of pollution and national security concerns, the Chinese government asked a question back in the early 2000s: “How Much Will It Cost To Make Solar Cheaper Than Coal?” The answer was based on Swanson’s Law that states that every doubling of photovoltaic (PV) solar capacity results in a 20 percent reduction in unit cost. Testing that theory, because of low levels of production at that time, would only have cost around $10 billion — a small price to pay for the chance of cheap, clean energy that didn’t rely on importing coal from Australia.

When Swanson’s Law still worked after a couple of doublings of capacity the Chinese government stepped up their efforts. As a result, Suntech now expects the goal to be achieved by 2016, or 2017 at the latest. That’s right: 2016. A couple of years. Of course, Suntech has an interest in exaggerating somewhat, but even so, that is stunningly close.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, coal accounted for 69 percent of China’s energy production as recently as 2011. Cost comparative solar power and a centralized government committed to change will make that number laughable in a few years.

It should be borne in mind that reducing the cost of solar electricity to parity with coal in China is not the same as it is in America, if for no other reason than that electricity in general, and coal-powered electricity in particular, is more expensive in China than in the US.

SunShot, however, has also been successful, and claims a 60 percent reduction in cost since its inception three years ago. Many believe that their stated goal of solar power at $0.06 per kilowatt hour (kWH) is achievable by 2018. Some of that cost reduction is no doubt down to China ramping up capacity at such a rate and flooding the market, but there have been technological advances over that time, as well.

You can argue all day about which approach is correct. History shows us that innovation from the private sector is the most effective, long lasting change agent there is, but the Chinese approach of heavily subsidizing a massive increase in PV production capacity has been effective. Unfair, short sighted and disruptive, maybe, but effective nonetheless.

Command economies may be terrible at some things but when the rapid marshalling of resources is needed to solve a problem they can be very good at doing whatever it takes.

The simple fact is that with both innovation and increased capacity, the cost of solar energy has fallen considerably over the last few years and continues to do so. If, as looks likely, it does become truly cost comparative with coal in the next few years, then the days of cheap, clean, renewable energy dominating the world’s two biggest energy markets may be closer than you think.

Article by Martin Tillier, appearing courtesy Oilprice.com.

June 19, 2014 2 comments

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