Investments in technology innovation pay off with economic prosperity, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said in a speech Monday in Washington, D.C. He said that the China-based solar company Suntech Power Holdings is succeeding not because of low-cost labor but because of technical innovations. Above, Suntech modules generate power at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Steven Chu, a longtime professor who is now secretary of energy, says the United States is facing a crucial test.
With the rest of the developed and developing world moving toward renewable and cleaner energy technologies, he said in a speech Monday, the time is now for the nation to seize the initiative.
“America still has an opportunity to lead in a world that will need essentially a new Industrial Revolution,” he said, adding that developing lower-cost, clean-energy technologies “is a way to secure our future prosperity.”
“But I think time is running out,” Mr. Chu said in an hourlong talk at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
He described the situation as a new “Sputnik moment” for the country, referring to the shock U.S. leaders and citizens felt when the Soviet Union launched the first Earth-orbiting satellite in 1957.
The nation quickly began mobilizing to ramp up science education, research and development to ensure that it could compete and ultimately become a leader in space-age technology.
This time, China is the country forging ahead, with 40 percent of the world’s solar photovoltaic manufacturing capacity, five of the top 10 silicon-based solar PV manufacturers, and three of the top 10 makers of wind turbines. China has made no secret of its intent to promote new-energy industries as a route to economic success.
The energy secretary referred to a 2009 speech in which H.E. Wen Jiabao, premier of China’s State Council, said, “We should see scientific and technological innovation as an important pillar and make greater effort to develop new industries of strategic importance. Science and technology is a powerful engine of economic growth. To overcome the severe international financial crisis, we must rely more on science and technology in making breakthroughs and boosting development.
“We will make China a country of innovation. We will seek breakthroughs in key technologies that are vital to industrial transformation and upgrading, speed up the development of new industries of strategic importance, and give priority to research, development, and industrial application of technologies in new energy” and other fields. “We will accelerate the development of a low-carbon economy and green economy so as to gain an advantageous position in the international industrial competition.”
Mr. Chu, a Nobel Prize winner in physics, said the United States, which devotes 0.14 percent of its $3.6 trillion annual budget to energy research and development, needs “sensible, long-range energy policies” to be competitive.
He said a commonly held myth among Americans is that China has become the leading silicon solar PV manufacturing center as a result of low-cost labor. Mr. Chu told the journalists and others at the gathering that he toured the headquarters factory of Suntech Power Holdings Co., China’s leading solar PV manufacturing company.
“This company, Suntech, as I toured this plant, it was 100 meters by 400 meters and four stories. It was a high-tech, modern plant that imports its raw materials – raw crystalline silicon – from where? The United States.” The company makes solar wafers and cells at its China plant, but has established plants around the world that assemble the energy-producing modules. One such factory is now operating in Arizona.
“So, what is wrong with this picture?” Mr. Chu asked. The plant in China “is a high-tech, automated factory. It’s not succeeding because of cheap labor.” Instead, he said, the company’s polycrystalline silicon modules have set a record for production efficiency. Its success stems from producing a lower-cost, higher-efficiency module.
“This is the threat that I see,” Mr. Chu told the audience.
“One of the drivers with wind and solar and these other technologies is, we think it can be cheaper than fossil fuel,” Mr. Chu told the group. “In the end, this will be a cornerstone for our economic prosperity.”
"What I’m trying to tell the American public is that this is an economic opportunity,” he said, an investment “in the long run, for the future economic health of the country.” The time is fast approaching in which the investment has to be made to keep pace with countries like China, he added.
In his 2009 speech at a meeting of the World Economic Forum, Wen Jiabao also talked about the country’s actions to address global warming.
“The world economy is undergoing profound changes and transition,” China’s premier said. “The future and destiny of all countries are more closely interconnected than at any time in history. We should be more forward-looking and more broad-minded. To promote world harmony and prosperity, I propose that we make concerted efforts in the following areas:
“First, tackle climate change. Climate change is a common challenge confronting the entire mankind. Each and every country, enterprise and individual should assume a due share of responsibility in meeting the challenge. China takes this issue very seriously. We have developed the national program on tackling climate change, increased resources for scientific research and taken aggressive steps to adjust the industrial structure with a view to saving energy and reducing pollutants.”
As in 1957, when the 184-pound Sputnik, bristling with spiky antennas, soared far above the United States, untouchable and unmatched by the best technology this country could muster, a turning point has arrived, the secretary of energy said.
“I’m hoping that the United States can recognize the economic opportunity that virtually all of Europe, Western Europe, has recognized, and developed countries in Asia have recognized, and developing countries around the world are beginning to recognize,” Mr. Chu said.
“America, I believe, will wake up and seize the opportunity, and when it does, it still has the greatest innovation machine in the world.”
Steven Chu's Speech
Secretary Chu highlighted several crucial technologies where the United States must innovate or risk falling far behind, such as:
High Voltage Transmission.
China has deployed the world's first Ultra High Voltage AC and DC lines - including one capable of delivering 6.4 gigawatts to Shanghai from a hydroelectric plant nearly 1300 miles away in southwestern China. These lines are more efficient and carry much more power over longer distances than those in the United States.
High Speed Rail.
In the span of six years, China has gone from importing this technology to exporting it, with the world's fastest train and the world's largest high speed rail network, which will become larger than the rest of the world combined by the end of the decade. Some short distance plane routes have already been cancelled, and train travel from Beijing to Shanghai (roughly equivalent to New York to Chicago) has been cut from 11 hours to 4 hours.
Advanced Coal Technologies.
China is rapidly deploying supercritical and ultra-supercritical coal combustion plants, which have fewer emissions and are more efficient than conventional coal plants because they burn coal at much higher temperatures and pressures. Last month, Secretary Chu toured an ultra-supercritical plant in Shanghai which claims to be 45 to 48 percent efficient. The most efficient U.S. plants are about 40 percent efficient. China is also moving quickly to design and deploy technologies for Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plants as well as Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).
Nuclear Power.
China has more than 30 nuclear power plants under construction, more than any other country in the world, and is actively researching fourth generation nuclear power technologies.
Alternative Energy Vehicles.
China has developed a draft plan to invest $17 billion in central government funds in fuel economy, hybrids, plug-in hybrids, electric and fuel cell vehicles, with the goal of producing 5 million new energy vehicles and 15 million fuel-efficient conventional vehicles by 2020.
Renewable Energy.
China is installing wind power at a faster rate than any nation in the world, and manufactures 40 percent of the world's solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. It is home to three of the world's top ten wind turbine manufacturers and five of the top ten silicon based PV manufacturers in the world.
Supercomputing.
Last month, the Tianhe-1A, developed by China's National University of Defense Technology, became the world's fastest supercomputer. While the United States - and the Department of Energy in particular - still has unrivalled expertise in the useful application of high performance computers to advance scientific research and develop technology, America must continue to improve the speed and capacity of our advanced supercomputers.
No comments:
Post a Comment