Solar, storage, and EVs: a powerful trifecta

The demand for solar power will continue to grow rapidly for the foreseeable future as part of the transition to cleaner sources of power. But along with that growth will come an intensification of the need to integrate the intermittent resource with the grid. The expansion of complementary energy storage, in the form of stationary devices and the batteries of electric vehicles, will create a more conducive environment for solar adoption.

By the end of 2010, Pike Research estimates that the total cumulative solar power capacity in the United States reached about 2.9GW, or approximately 0.3% of total electrical power capacity. However, penetration in a region can be much higher in states requiring clean energy production via renewable portfolio standards. Between 2011 and 2013, Pike Research estimates an additional 8-11GW of solar power will be installed. With each additional megawatt comes an increasing need to balance the naturally-occurring variations in solar power production.

As the percentage of power from solar grows higher in the coming years, there will be a greater need to balance the variations in power output. Other generation facilities, such as hydropower or power plants that burn fossil fuels, have historically been used to offset these variations. But energy storage, which uniquely can be used to absorb any surpluses in solar power when supply exceeds demand, can be a cleaner and better performing alternative

Storage for ancillary services

As with all forms of power generation, small mismatches between ongoing power delivery and demand can cause temporary drops in the voltage. Energy storage that uses surplus renewable energy can be a cleaner and more efficient alternative than fossil fuel generation to optimize grid performance. Using storage to execute these ancillary services, which include voltage and frequency regulation, will grow from a $230 million to $2.9 billion global industry between 2011 and 2015, according to Pike Research. Lithium ion batteries will be the most commonly adopted technology to support renewable power, with 72% market share in 2015.

Battery technologies are better-suited to providing ancillary services because they can respond in microseconds, and the power level can be closely controlled. By comparison, starting up and turning off a power plant for ancillary services is slower and will waste some of its energy. Other battery technologies used in ancillary services include flow batteries and advanced lead acid batteries.

Energy storage is also used to support solar power plants to enhance power quality and to enable renewable energy generation to be matched to later demand. The incorporation of energy storage to offset the intermittent delivery of renewable energy to create consistent, dispatchable power, is known as "renewable integration." For example, deployments of lithium-ion batteries are being used to buffer multi-megawatt solar installations that provide output at varying levels based on environmental factors. To enable more consistent power, grid energy services companies are expected to install energy storage equivalent to 1−3% of the installed solar capacity.

Many states currently do not have financial rules or operating regulations in place that allow non-utilities to offer ancillary services. Markets in some states, such as California and New York, are slowly opening up to permit entities to use energy storage for these services. After the rules are in place (which is expected during the next few years in most states) that enable organizations to recoup their investment in energy storage, we will see an acceleration of storage being used to support distributed renewable power.

Time-shifting

Energy storage is also being deployed so that solar power generated during the day can be stored for use later in the day or overnight in an application known as time-shifting. Time-shifting with storage enables solar installation operators to maximize their revenue by selling lower value energy produced early in the day at more lucrative peak times (see Figure).

Several large scale projects integrating storage with solar power plants are underway. For example, at the Solar Technology Acceleration Center (SolarTAC) in Aurora, Colorado, a 1MW storage facility will be used for power smoothing and time-shifting. The project is being managed by utility Xcel Energy and energy services company Xtreme Power, and will demonstrate how storage can be used to assist with distributed grid power management. For the next several years, projects of this nature will grow in scope and collect important performance data indicating the benefit of storage to solar power plants. If positive results are achieved, commercial adoption will follow.

By 2015, the annual investment in energy storage for supporting renewables through integration and time-shifting services will grow to 2.8GW annually, according to Pike Research. Approximately 10% of this investment, or 280MW, will support solar installations, while the remainder will be used in conjunction with wind and hydro generation.

Electric vehicles as storage devices

In addition to the batteries that will be deployed in support of distributed solar power plants in the coming years, a mobile source of potential auxiliary power will be arriving in driveways everywhere. More than 3.1 million electric vehicles (EVs) will be sold between 2011 and 2015. This will create a total of 52MW hours of vehicle batteries inside electric vehicles that could potentially be used to assist in strengthening the grid and accommodating the demands of integrating renewable power.

Figure 1. Global energy storage installations supporting renewable energy 2011-2015. SOURCE: Pike Research

In addition to providing power for both battery-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, the batteries can store solar power for later use. Applications include providing emergency power to the local buildings, or for selling the power to the local grid when it is the most financially beneficial to the vehicle owner. As with stationary energy storage, vehicle batteries, which contain between 5 and 24kW-hours of storage, can accelerate the return on investment for solar panels and the vehicles through "energy arbitrage," which stores energy when it is economical and profits from selling it back to the grid at premium rates.

The current crop of electric vehicles does not include the electronic inverters to take power from the batteries and deliver it to the grid or the building (applications known as vehicle-to-grid, and vehicle-to-building, respectively.) However, the technology for upstream power delivery for vehicles exists and is being used in a pilot project run by the University of Delaware and grid operator PJM. The project uses several vehicles enhanced with technology developed at the university. Individual vehicles are likely to provide from 1−3kW of power to the grid. However, auto manufacturers are concerned that using vehicle batteries as storage devices could reduce the batteries' life cycle and are not likely to embrace their usage in this matter until a few years of data has been collected.

Triple play

Despite reservations from many automakers, several integrated companies that are excited by the synergies between EVs, storage, and solar are developing applications integrating all three.

Companies including Itochu, Sanyo, and BYD see residential solar fitting in well with energy storage and EVs. Solar panels can be connected directly to vehicle charging equipment to give EV owners the flexibility to determine whether to immediately consume or store solar power. Stored solar power can also provide emergency backup to the building should power go out. Consumers who have installed solar power at their homes can also leverage their investment in an inverter and other equipment to interface with the grid to deliver power stored in vehicle batteries. This reduces the total equipment cost and can lead to a faster return-on-investment for both solar and the electric vehicles. Several trials are underway around the globe to evaluate the benefits of combining the technologies.

Electric vehicle charging equipment companies including Aerovironment and Eaton Corporation are also developing energy storage units that will be packaged with their charging equipment. This storage could be integrated with a residential solar system to provide the benefits of lower cost power to the building or for sale back to the grid.

Using solar power to charge an EV also provides true emissions-free transportation, which is very attractive to environmentally-minded consumers. While these applications are cutting edge today, interest is likely to grow in the second half of the decade.

Requirements for future growth

Energy storage has not historically been viewed by regulators as favorably as renewable power or even smart grid technologies as a technology for enhancing energy efficiency and reducing emissions. However, storage of renewable energy is slowly starting to gain backing as a clean resource. Regulators, legislators, and other governmental decision makers are gaining a better understanding of storage's enabling role in expanding the use of solar power.

The federal STORAGE Act of 2010, proposes a 20% investment tax credit for energy storage. Bill co-sponsor Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) stated that "Growing our ability to store renewable energy not only promotes a more efficient use of energy resources, it makes energy sources like wind and solar just as reliable as conventional energy sources...." The bill is likely to be voted on by the Senate in 2011.

In California, assembly bill 2514, which became law in September of 2010, begins the process for requiring storage to be added to the state's power grid in order to enable the state to meet its required expansion of renewable power. The law, which is the first of its kind in the country, requires the state's public utilities commission to establish milestones for power producers to incorporate storage into their system beginning in 2015.

The need for a comprehensive federal plan for utilizing storage to benefit renewable and other power generation was recently spelled out by the director of one of the U.S. Department of Energy's largest research facilities. Eric D. Isaacs, the Director of the Argonne National Laboratory, wrote an editorial for website The Huffington Post about the need for expanding storage on the grid, stating that "[Adding renewable] energy generation does us little good if we can't save that electricity for use at the times when the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine."

When used in combination, solar power, energy storage, and electric vehicles have the potential to provide truly emissions-free transportation while enabling a greater percentage of renewable power. Investment in each technology is likely to spawn additional growth in the others.

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BYD F3DM Drive Review

BYD Dream Story, in Wang Chuanfu's Words

The founder of fast-growing BYD wore shop clothes for an interview to forecast the company's bold future

 

(Shenzhen) -- Investment bankers who've met auto and battery magnate Wang Chuanfu say he's an adept storyteller. So after Wang agreed to an interview with Caixin, we were anxious to hear his description of a personal encounter with Warren Buffet, and how he managed to win the billionaire investor's support with the BYD story.

Wang relayed the experience recently when we sat down together at BYD's headquarters in Shenzhen, flashing a proud smile but quickly turning serious.

(Wang Chuanfu)

Buffett, he said, expressed deep interest in BYD's new-energy dreams. Wang, however, made it clear that the company would have to rely heavily on government support.

In fact, as Wang tells the story, although BYD grew quickly as a battery-maker and carmaker in the private sector, it's now an increasingly government-dependent operation. Indeed, the new-energy dream that Buffet and BYD's other private investors are chasing relies on government subsidies and contracts: That's the true story of BYD's success.

Wang turned 44 in 2010, and it was the most controversial year for the business since he founded BYD 15 years earlier.

In 2003, many scoffed when Wang decided BYD would leapfrog from consumer battery manufacturing into the auto industry by acquiring Xi'an Qinchuan Auto. He later rattled conservative industry players by signing up Buffet as a major investor. In 2009, his company sold 440,000 vehicles a year.

BYD and Wang, who serves as company president, climbed a new mountain of controversy in 2010 when sales fell short of an 800,000-vehicle goal, and critics of the new-energy strategy noted that no new models were brought to market that year.

The company's dealer network also withered, with a number of dealers withdrawing from the network last year.

BYD reported sales of 519,800 units in 2010, up about 16 percent from 2009 but below many of its competitors in China, some of whom saw sales jump more than 30 percent last year.

Moreover, company costs rose 48 percent through the first three quarters of 2010 compared to the same period the year before.

The biggest source of doubt about the BYD dream surrounds the new-energy vehicles that it's promised and promoted for years, but has yet to produce for the market. BYD has repeatedly postponed an introduction and, even years of talk, total pre-market production remains below 1,000 vehicles.

Despite the controversy over a seeming lack of progress, Wang and other company executives have been busy telling the world BYD's story, talking up the company's value and outlining their strategy to investors.

When Wang met Caixin at BYD's Pingshan headquarters, he was wearing beige workshop clothes and a badge card identifying him as worker No. 1. He also wore a calm expression. As usual, he'd come to work early and planned to stay late.

Here's how the story unfolded, in Wang's own words:

One aspect of doing business is meeting the interests of shareholders. Another is using technology to provide better things for society, the world and the future, while encouraging society to change in a good way; this is BYD's original dream.

What will the future bring to the company and society? I think we should embrace new energy. In fact, the government has given new energy a high strategic position. This is a good opportunity. We have a dream, and the state has given a high degree of support.

From batteries, we moved into electric vehicles, energy-storing power plants and solar energy: These three industries can be connected just right, and the key is battery technology. (Energy-storing power stations and electric cars) involves the technology linking two ends.

Energy-storing power stations are needed to manage power generation methods such as solar and wind, which do not produce steady levels of power.

Among these three industries, the electric car will slowly grow over the next three years. I think the solar energy industry will explode in 2016. We just began working on energy-storing power stations this year, and the industry will grow slowly over the next decade.

New energy's capital demands are too great. Thus, we need to increase the profitability of our IT components and traditional automobiles. But if we wait for the solar industry explosion and then prepare, we'll be too late.

Traditional Autos

We have two automotive sector goals: To be the largest automaker in China by 2015 and the largest in the world by 2025. Fortunately, we are in China, the largest auto market in the world. China today sells 18 million vehicles annually. In the future, this may reach 50 million.

In the traditional auto business, we have some profitability. From our acquisition of Qinchuan and its transformation into BYD Auto, from several thousand vehicles then to 440,000 vehicles in 2009, growth has been very fast. Growth in 2010 was a little slower, mainly because we made some mistakes in our sales network. We're making adjustments now.

We're becoming more competitive in the traditional auto field. The Chinese market is the fastest-growing and most competitive. Foreign companies originally did not make cars that cost less than 100,000 yuan. Now, they are all making them.

Our competitive pressure will increase. The 2010 goal to sell 800,000 vehicles was a bit high. We actually sold 520,000.

With regards to our dealer network, our mistake in 2010 was to expand the network for the goal of 800,000 vehicles. The network seemed a bit excessive. Additionally, the early threshold we set for dealers was too low, and we let some in that shouldn't have been there.
 
With rising labor costs, we're also increasing our level of automation. This process began three years ago.

Making traditional cars not only generates profits to support the new energy side of the business, but by mastering complete-vehicle technology, air conditioning, batteries, etc., we build a technology base for new-energy vehicles.

New-Energy Industrialization

We're currently using cars to support cars. It's still very difficult for new-energy vehicles to make money. Research and development for a new-energy vehicle requires 1 or 2 billion yuan.

There are currently 50 E6s (a BYD car model) operating as electric taxis in Shenzhen. The most-used taxi has logged 70,000 kilometers, equivalent to five years of driving a private car. The battery has not decayed, which shows that our battery quality meets high standards.

But we still have not reached large-scale production. The current price of an E6 is 300,000 yuan. While the car will save on energy costs during its operation, a taxi company can buy a regular Jetta for 90,000 yuan. If we can reach production capacity of 200,000 vehicles, the price of an E6 will be cut in half.

And for the F3DM (another BYD electric) model, there are currently more than 200 orders a month in Shenzhen. But we can provide no more than 100, mainly because battery production capacity can't keep up.

In March this year, we will start using a new battery production line. Capital demand for battery production expansion is great. But we have the subsidiary BYD Electronics, which is listed in Hong Kong as a red chip. If necessary, we can raise money at any time. We can also issue additional BYD H-shares at any time, and we're still fighting to issue A-shares.

Overall, our debt ratio is not high, 50 percent, which is lower than our domestic counterparts. Our bank credit line is 30 or 40 billion yuan, so we're not constricted financially.

Also, the government is promoting electric public transportation. Our all-electric bus has already received orders -- about 1,000 vehicles for the full year, which means revenues of more than 2 billion yuan. We think orders will be similar in 2012. Then at least won't be losing money.

In new-energy vehicles, the struggle within the industry for a technology route has begun to move toward unification. Now, it is pure electric cars and plug-in hybrids. As to an understanding of industrialization, each manufacturer has its own timetable for the introduction of new-energy vehicles. We think industrialization of new-energy vehicles will be fully developed in the next two or three years.

A bottleneck for industrializing new-energy vehicles still lies in the policy environment. Policies surrounding new-energy vehicles need to have a system, for example, for a purchase tax, vehicle and vessel tax and consumption tax. Setting these tax rates at zero would be a big help.

But right now, policies are not coordinated. In places such as Beijing and Shanghai where there are restrictions on new license plates, couldn't new-energy vehicles be exempted? And then there are road tolls and other things.

2011 Goals

Global solar power is now 15 gigawatts. China has only 0.6 GW, which is not very proportionate. China's subsidies in this area are few. Solar power wasn't written into the 11th Five-Year Plan. Wind was, and its development has been more rapid. Solar power should be put into the 12th Five-Year Plan.

In fact, two years ago the bidding price for solar power was more than 2 yuan per kilowatt hour. In 2009, this fell to more than 1 yuan, and now it's 0.72 yuan. That's the market. Following this trend, it would be no problem for solar power to reach 0.5 yuan in the future. Coal-fired power is currently a bit more than 0.3 yuan, and it will rise. We estimate that by 2016 or 2020 the two will cost about the same, and the solar market will explode.

In 2010, BYD's solar business reached 800 to 900 million yuan. (BYD makes solar cells) In 2011, it might substantially increase to 7 or 8 billion, mostly for export. In 2011, we will make solar energy a new business category.

With around 2 billion yuan in sales from electric buses, together there will be 10 billion yuan in revenue.

In 2010, total company revenue was around 46 or 47 billion.

Buffett and Me

Contacts with Buffett first began two years after BYD listed, in 2003 and 2004, when a fund run by Buffet's partner Charles Munger began buying into BYD. After that, they slowly began observing.

BYD is different from other companies. We get involved in many, highly competitive industries with nothing at the time of our entry. Later, we do well. We have our own technology and can get orders from foreign companies, especially recognition from top-level companies such as Motorola, Nokia, Apple and Samsung.

BYD's core competitiveness is still technology. We currently have 200,000 personnel and 150,000 engineers. Our engineering team is our main asset, but it doesn't show up on our financials. We have 1,500 patents a year across all businesses. Our mold technology and battery technology have reached the top international level.

Our stock was relatively cheap at one time. At listing, it was 10 yuan per share. It is now 40 yuan. At the time we gave Buffett the recommendation, it was only 7 or 8 yuan.

Buffett was attracted to our new-technology strategy, our growth history, management team and work style. Buffett sent David Sokol to us. At first, he didn't believe we were making so many products. Every day, he found that what we did was actually quite successful -- engines, chassis, batteries, semiconductors. Later, he went back and gave his recommendation to Buffett.

After the investment was made, I went to America to see Buffett. The office was small, the corridors narrow and there were no computers. In total, there were only 20-some people. Buffett came to see BYD in 2010. This was the first visit.

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BYD Is the First Ripple in a Potential Chinese Wave

By BRADLEY BERMAN

GLENDALE, Calif.

LABELS that read Made in China are long familiar to American consumers. But a car for sale in the United States bearing those words — considering what that might portend for our economy and our self-image — could deliver a jolt far sharper than discovering that our newest digital gadget was produced in the world’s largest exporting country.

Yet there was no wobble to be felt in the earth’s rotation as I drove away from Cars 911, a used car dealership in this Los Angeles suburb where BYD Autos has set up temporary North American operations. The generic-looking BYD I was testing — read what you wish into the company name, whose initials stand for Build Your Dream — is a compact sedan so bland as to completely escape the notice of fellow drivers. 

Still, it could make its mark: if BYD clears the regulatory hurdles, its F3DM plug-in hybrid would be a frontrunner in the race to become the first production car in American showrooms from a Chinese automaker — arriving as soon as next spring, the company says.

Despite its potential importance, hardly anybody noticed the F3DM, not surprising given its appearance — about as trendy as a Y2K-era Toyota Corolla. Until now, the car has been unavailable for test drives in the United States. The view from behind the wheel is as proletarian as it gets: no frills, no flash, no real driving engagement. It would be easy to chuckle at the F3DM’s minor flaws — the wobbly storage compartment between the front seats, subpar floor mats, squishy handling. But the build quality and materials seem perfectly adequate for utility-oriented Americans. The exterior panels line up; audio and air-conditioning buttons are a bit big, but easy to use; seats are reasonably comfortable. Slam the door and it goes “thunk.”

BYD says that later this year it will submit the necessary filings to obtain federal safety and emissions certification. My test car was a Chinese-issue production model, visiting California on a research exemption. According to company officials, “close to 10,000” of the F3DM models have been sold in the home market.

To focus on the F3DM’s inconspicuous sheet metal and boring driving experience is to miss the audacity of BYD’s strategy. Think of the F3DM as a Chevrolet Volt with a Wal-Mart price tag, a car with a large-capacity battery — that delivered 31 miles of uninterrupted pure-electric driving for me — as well as a gasoline engine that gives it the ability to go an additional 300 miles.

General Motors, however, loaded up the Volt with a powerful electric motor, an iPod-like console and a luxury feel that help to justify a $41,000 price tag (before state and federal tax incentives). The F3DM — which does have an auxiliary audio input jack and a parking sensor — is expected to sell for less than $29,000. Incentives could drop the price closer to $20,000.

My drive of the F3DM started with the 16-kilowatt-hour battery charged to 95 percent of its usable capacity. Instead of babying it to see how close I could get to the 60 miles of E.V. range BYD claims, I punished the F3DM with a succession of pedal-to-the-floor freeway merges and herky-jerky speeding and slowing, all with the air-conditioning going full tilt.

No matter how hard I floored the accelerator or how hard I pushed to keep pace with the frenzied Los Angeles freeway traffic, the F3DM stayed in purely electric mode, as long as the battery’s state of charge was above 20 percent. Acceleration, as expected, was quick off the line — not as snappy as the Nissan Leaf, but better than electric offerings from niche E.V. makers like Smart and Think.

After 31 miles of this flogging, the battery reached its 20 percent switchover threshold and the car automatically shifted from pure E.V. operation to its hybrid mode.

The F3DM can be described as a plug-in hybrid, but dual mode — that’s what the DM stands for — is more accurate. Drivers can manually toggle between modes.

The F3DM’s E.V. button is not like the one on a regular production Toyota Prius. Those are stingy things, generally yielding a few blocks of engine-off electric driving (Toyota says it can go a mile, conditions permitting). The F3DM’s mode choices offer dozens of miles of all-electric driving, even while the switch is in hybrid mode. One day of driving didn’t begin to scratch the surface of how to finesse the modes for maximum efficiency.

That will be fun for the tech geeks, but is irrelevant for BYD’s aim of bringing a practical energy and environmental solution to a billion potential customers in China — and a truly affordable option for the growing number of American consumers who just want to get to work with cheap homegrown electricity.

If my destination had been in those first 30 to 40 miles, which the F3DM can easily achieve with sensible driving techniques, and I had the opportunity to charge the car for a full work day or overnight, the gas in the 8-gallon tank would go stale before having a chance to be burned in an engine.

Conserving a precious dwindling commodity is a fine reason to drive a plug-in hybrid, and avoiding price spikes at the pump is another strong incentive. But with the F3DM, there’s a more immediate imperative to keep the engine dormant: when the battery drops to a 20 percent charge level, the 3-cylinder engine loudly rumbles into service. No, it’s more accurate to say that it screeches like a banshee as it converts gasoline into power that can turn the motor — now acting as a generator — to bring up the battery charge to 30 percent.

Much of the recent progress in conventional gas-electric hybrids has been aimed at making a seamless transition from gas to electric and back again. Not so with the F3DM. The car’s personality shifts from a quick, nimble and silent E.V. to a revving demon. The steering wheel vibrates. The dashboard hums. You feel the vibration in your molars. As long as the battery pack’s charge is in the 20 to 25 percent range, the F3DM’s urgent priority is to fill up the batteries to about 30 percent so that electric driving can be resumed. Even at a stop, when other hybrids — and gasoline-only cars in increasing numbers — use an idle-stop feature to shut down the engine, the F3DM’s engine noisily stays on task.

After about a minute at a standstill, the car’s computer reluctantly stops the loud engine. But even a gentle toe on the accelerator brings the engine back to a roar. If you need to accelerate onto the Interstate while the engine is busy recharging the batteries, the engine power is routed directly to the wheels to assist the electric motors, for a total combined output of 168 horsepower.

But as loud as the engine roars, drivers can take comfort: allowing the engine to rev operates the system most efficiently. At a standstill, the engine backs down to about 1,800 r.p.m., just recharging the batteries. Step on the accelerator and it speeds up to about 2,700 to 3,000 r.p.m. for charging plus acceleration. The gas engine is either running hard or running harder.

With some engineering effort, better engine mounts and lots of sound damping, BYD can reduce the din. The company has nearly a year to absorb feedback from spoiled Americans and do something about it. The hardest engineering is done, and there are no showstoppers. All of the problems are fixable without adding a lot of cost.

BYD’s to-do list before bringing the F3DM to the United States next year already includes upgrading the charging system with an SAE-standard J1772 connector found on all new plug-in cars.

BYD says the current F3DM will be sold in limited numbers to corporate fleets, but a new and improved version, possibly with a new name, is in the works for individual car shoppers.

What might be harder to fix is Americans’ doubt that Chinese cars will be reliable and durable over time. Some industry analysts have suggested that nagging quality problems have cost BYD sales in its own market, even though the gas-only F3 — the basis for the F3DM — tallied more than 264,000 domestic sales last year, making it the No. 1 seller in China in 2010, according to J. D. Power & Associates.

BYD’s challenge is made more daunting because it will take years to establish a nationwide network of dealers. The company, which will base its American headquarters in downtown Los Angeles, plans to start by opening about five dealerships in early 2012, where it will also sell the e6 pure electric car (with a promised 200-mile range), as well as BYD solar panels, solar-shaded parking systems, home energy-storage systems, charging systems and LED lighting.

By the end of my day with the F3DM, I had logged 112 miles and used 2.3 gallons of gas. That comes to 48.7 m.p.g. for the day, mileage that my 2006 Prius would not have reached given my frequent stomping on the accelerator. It was once thought impossible that Japanese and Korean cars would ride alongside Fords, Chevys and Dodges on American roadways. After my day with the impressive, though imperfect, F3DM, I see that Chinese cars—electric and affordable — are not only possible, but imminent.

You don’t believe it? Then consider the view of the investor Warren E. Buffett, who was on hand in Shenzhen last year to attend the Chinese market debut of the F3DM. His Berkshire Hathaway holding company invested $230 million in BYD in 2008. The latest BYD models will be displayed at a Berkshire Hathaway meeting in May.

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Selected Countries' Performance in Mathematics, Reading, and Science, 2009

National IQ estimates

Rank	Country	IQ estimate[4]
1	Hong Kong	107
2	South Korea	106
3	Japan	105
4	Taiwan	104
5	Singapore	103
6	Austria	102
6	Germany	102
6	Italy	102
6	Netherlands	102
10	Sweden	101
10	Switzerland	101
12	Belgium	100
12	China	100
12	New Zealand	100
12	United Kingdom	100
16	Hungary	99
16	Poland	99
16	Spain	99
19	Australia	98
19	Denmark	98
19	France	98
19	Mongolia	98
19	Norway	98
19	United States	98
25	Canada	97
25	Czech Republic	97
25	Finland	97
28	Argentina	96
28	Russia	96
28	Slovakia	96
28	Uruguay	96
32	Portugal	95
32	Slovenia	95
34	Israel	94
34	Romania	94
36	Bulgaria	93
36	Ireland	93
36	Greece	93
39	Malaysia	92
40	Thailand	91
41	Croatia	90
41	Peru	90
41	Turkey	90