The Dream to Power Our Lives with Renewable Energy
中国梦 绿色能源梦
Since the dawn of industrialization, the consumption of energy rapidly increased. Large amounts of fossil fuels which took billions of years to form, are extracted out of our earths crust, taken to a power station then burnt away, producing energy, powering up our daily lives. It is common knowledge that science and technology has brought great convenience and even better living standards to the society, however, all this comes with a price. It was after industrialization, when we realized that science is destroying the environments, as it rapidly progress. One cause of destruction is the mining of fossil fuels, digging up our beautiful land. Green house gas emissions that pollutes our fresh clean air, also causing global warming. As early as the Ming Dynasty, hundreds of years before industrialization, the Chinese already has the concept that science is a knife that is sharp on both ends, where one end are the convenience and higher living standards it gives us while the other end is the environmental destruction it can possibly cause.
Ritual Comemorating Zhuang Zi, the Philoposher who Said: "The Mutual Contest of Yin and Yang Gives Rise to Electricity"
develop it in such a way that we compromise with our surrounding environment such as using renewable energy, manufacturing biodegradable products, recycling, etc.
The Chinese were the very 1st to have the concept of electricity. This came from the observation of lightning. Contrary to the general impression that the Chinese term for lightning, 闪电, is a modern word, however the term already appeared in ancient classics such as the History of the Sui Dynasty (隋书). 闪 means light and 电 means electricity. With the 2 words combined, 闪电 would mean light produced by electricity. So the Chinese knew that electricity produces light much earlier than any civilization on earth. In another ancient classic, Records of Ritual Music (乐记), quotes that electricity was produced by the interaction of Yin and Yang (阴阳相摩). Philosopher Zhang Zi (庄子) said: "The mutual contest of yin and yang gives rise to electricity (阴阳分争故为电)." These concepts of electricity as a produce of yin and yang is the most understandable and applicable explanation to electricity. Today the electrical and electronic appliances get their electricity from a power source, either from power point or battery. The power point connects 2 terminals, live terminal and neutral, to an electrical device, where neutral is yin and live is yang. The electrical
The Ancient Classic, The History of Sui, One of the Earlist Books with Records on Electricity
Science and technology should be developed, but with the limited resources in the world, we must
appliance operating with electricity is the interaction of yin and yang. The battery also has 2 terminals, positive terminal and the
had chrome-plating technology which required electrolysis. So the Chinese invented electrolysis which required electricity. At the time of 265-31 BC, an Aluminium 'Girdle' was recovered from the Tomb of General Chu. It was made from an alloy of 85% Aluminium, 10% Copper and 5% Manganese. The only viable method of producing aluminium from Bauxite was through electrolysis, after Alumina (The Aluminium Chloride component of the ore) is dissolved in molten 'Cryolite'. Such method was patent in the last century.
The industrial revolution began, at a time the UK was suffering from severe deforestation, leading to the lack of timber as burning fuel. With coal as the replacement fuel, it would become the major energy source that powers up the world. As China's economy rapidly progressed, the consumption of energy increased, making China the world's largest producer, importer and consumer of coal. In 2012, the mainland imported 289Mt of coal annually, while the Taiwan province imports 64Mt annually. The combined total is 353Mt of coal annually
Records of Ritual Music, States Electricity is the Produce of Yin and Yang
Mausoleum of the Qin Shihuang, the Place Where Evidence of the Ancient Chinese Using Electricity was Found
negative terminal, where the positive terminal is yang and the negative terminal is yin. If such theory is applied in university courses such as electrical engineering, the level of difficulty of the course can be greatly reduced.Being the 1st in the world to observe and analyze electricity, the Chinese also made use of electricity, at least 2000 years before industrialization. Over 2200 years old, during the Qin Dynasty, the world's largest mausoleum, Mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huang (秦始皇陵), was built. Within the mausoleum is one of the ancient miracles of the world, the Terracotta Army (兵马俑). The statues of soldiers held a variety of weapons, spears, axes, crossbows, arrowheads, swords, etc, with their metal parts coated with chromium to prevent them from rusting. The coating had a thickness as thin as 10 to 15 micron. This shows that the Chinese
How the Terracotta Army Looked Like Just Before They were Exposed to Air. This is the Part of the Mausoleum where Weapons with Chromium-Plated Metal Parts were Found
which is nearly double the 2nd largest importer, Japan, who imports 184Mt annually. The world's largest coal power plant is the Taichung Power Plant (台中发电厂) situated in the Taiwan Province (台湾) in Taichung city (台中) while the 2nd largest is the Tuoketuo Power Station (托克托电厂) in Inner Mongolia (内蒙古). Of the 10 largest coal power stations in the world, 8 of them are from China. China has the largest number of coal power plants in the world. With so many power stations producing such tremendous amounts of energy surely demonstrates the great power of the Chinese Dream. With so much supply of energy Chinese living standard have also on the rise. But at the same time means, just as our ancestors of the Ming Dynasty has discovered, these power stations are producing high levels of carbon emissions which are harmful to our environment. A time went by China has improved the efficiency of their coal power stations. With better efficiency, more energy can be produced while burining less fossil feuls. This
means less greenhouse emissions as well. In the short term, it is necessary to develop higher efficiency in the energy output of coal power. China has already built the Waigaoqiao III, in Shanghai, which is the most efficient coal power plant in the world. High efficiency means higher energy output with less carbon emission while burning less coal.
With the development of higher efficient power stations, the output of energy is higher with lower levels of carbon emissions. However because the nations gigantic economy requires extremely high energy consumption, the amount greenhouse emissions still remains high. Even if China's coal power plants can raise the efficiency high enough such that the carbon emissions are as low a zero, fossil fuels which are millions of years old are being dug out of the earths crust to burn. Under the circumstance that the energy released from the burning of coal is
An Ancient Chinese Windmill, Capable to Pump Water to Irrigate 66 Acres of Farmland
non-renewable and the resources on the earth is limited, China emissions are as low as zero, fossil fuels which are millions of years old are being dug out of the earths crust to burn. Under the circumstance that the energy released from the burning of coal is non-renewable and the resources on the earth is limited, China must develop renewable energy, for the long term. One way is to use wind energy. The concept of harnessing wind power existed in China for over 2000 years. The Chinese ancestors have been harnessing the wind much earlier than any country in the world. As earlier as 200 BC the Chinese were already using windmills to pump water. In fact, the invention of the windmill is the basis of the wind turbine.
July 2006, China invented the World's First "Magnetic Levitation" Wind Turbines. The generator, jointly developed by Guangzhou Energy Research Institute under China’s Academy of Sciences, generated 20% more energy than traditional wind turbines. This technology harness from lower wind speeds which previous turbines can't do. Since
2013, China is leading the world in renewable energy production. In 2010, the nation's Gansu Wind Farm was the already the largest wind power producer, generating 5,160MW of power. This capacity is nearly 5 times as much India's Jaisalmer Wind Park, which only produces 1064MW and was then the 2nd largest in the world. By 2012, Gansu Wind Farm extended to output 6000MW, roughly equivalent to the UK's entire wind power capacity. By November 2015, the Gansu Wind Farm was further extended producing an output capacity of 6300MW. By this time the World's 5 largest onshore wind farms are all in China. What is more surprising is the Gansu Wind Farm is still under further extension and by 2030, the energy output will be more than double, there will 20,000MW of energy, more than triple the already invincible wind farm. China has proven to take renewable wind energy seriously, but what we don't know is that the nation has extended this field much further than we know. As the Gansu Wind Farm is
Magnetic Levitation Wind Turbines, a Chinese Invention
Gallery of the Largest Wind Power Stations In the World
the world's largest onshore wind farm, China is constructing the world's largest offshore wind farm. China's wind energy is extending to the Great Pacific Ocean. The offshore farm is located at Boihai Bay, a few hours away from Beijing. When construction completes, it will generated 1000MW, 370MW higher than London Array, the current largest offshore wind farm.
As many of us believe that the Chinese are develop their own economy with absolutely no concern to the environment, the development and progress of Wind Energy has prove it wrong. In fact the Chinese and the International Community should learn to go deeper in understanding what is really going on rather than just get misleading information from the western media or other sources. When going deeper in understanding the development of wind power in China we would find out that it isn't only about massive onshore and offshore wind farms, nor is it just about new inventions by professional Chinese
scientists. This topic goes all the way to the peasant class in China. A Chinese farmer invented an electric vehicle. The difference is that this car is powered by wind energy. The 55 year old from a poor country side, Tang Zhengping, had a dream to drive a wind-powered car so he decided to make one. It took as fast as 3 months for Tang complete his amazing invention. The vehicle has a wind turbine in the from where it gets enough strength to rotate and generate electricity when the car reaches a speed of 40 miles per hour, maximizing the traveling range to 90 miles. "My dream is to make a contribution to society. I'm not doing this just for the money, I want to see people driving my car on the highway. I want to serve the people." said Tang.
When visiting a friend's home who has an outdoor swimming pool, it is likely that we will see a row of solar evacuated tube collectors mounted on their roof. The device sends pool water to the tubes where it gets heated by the sun. The warm
Bohai Bay Offshore Wind Farm, to Become the World's Largest Offshore Wind Farm
Video Documentary of the Wind Powered Car, Designed by a Poor Farmer
water is then sent back into the swimming pool. Despite having occasionally seeing this device mounted on some roof tops within our community, we never knew that the Chinese invented an important part that of that invention. In 1984, Prof. Yin Zhiqiang, who worked for mainland Chinese company called Tsinghua Solar Systems (清华阳光) invented the solar selective coating on evacuated tubes. The company kept this technology to be the most advanced compared to any company in the world that produced the solar evacuated tubes. China is also by far the world’s largest manufacturer and user of solar water heating. By the end of 2002, the total installed area of solar domestic hot water systems there was about 40 million m², annual production and sales volume reached about 8 million m² in 2002. Over 1000 manufacturers are producing and selling solar thermal systems. A total turnover of
more than €1 billion has been achieved. Evacuated-tube collectors dominated the Chinese domestic and export market. When compared elsewhere, around the world, about 1 million m² of solar collector surface was installed in the US by 200. In Europe, there was about 1.1 million m² of collector area installed by 2002. The combined total of Europe and the US are no match with China. As the
leading nation in solar water heating, China is rapidly expanding in the solar energy field. The nation has proven, solar thermal systems, will play an important role in the struggle against global warming.
The solar evacuated tube collector is a great help in using clean energy to heat volumes of water. Think about the cost of an electric bill to heat a
Logo of Tsinghua Solar
Solar Evacuated Tube Collector Manufactured by Tsinghua Solar Systems
pool of water. If you think the cost of heating can drain you wallet the cost of cooling is even worse. So apart from solar heating, the professors of Shanghai Jiaotong University invent the solar refrigerator. The new household icebox only costs 2000 RMB which solely runs on sunlight. Refrigerators chew up a lot of electric, making solar cooling an obvious need, however in the it is even more obvious during the summer time when we all need to turn on our air conditioners to cool down the heat. On September 2010, China invented the world's first solar power air conditioner. The year 2005, when the author was in university, he asked his lecturer, who taught him in the Solar Energy Course, about driving an air conditioner with solar energy. He replied by saying: "Anyone who wanted to do that is crazy." But now China has successfully done it. Designed by Shandong Vicot Air Conditioning Company, the product has a thermal cooling efficiency of 85% and is also capable for heating water. Some have predicted that non-renewable energy resources like coal, oil and gas will be exhausted on this planet by the year 2060 which proves that the development in China is not only beneficial to the world but an urgent matter to everyone. China has already developed to become the world’s largest producer and consumer of solar power producing 40% of the world's solar cells. As of the year 2009, the nation is also the
How the Solar Selective Coating Works When the Sun Shines on the Solar Evacuated Tube Collector
world's biggest energy user, a national giant is hungry for power consumption. This shows how important it will be for China to further increase its yield on solar production.
China is increasing its yield on solar production. The nation need to do so to build the world's largest solar power plant. Construction started in the year 2009. This enormous project required two company giants to build. They are China Technology Development Group Corp and Qinghai New Energy Co. The plant will be constructed in
Qinghai and will the twice the size of the 550-megawatt thin-film power plant to be built in San Luis Obispo, California, which is to be the 2nd largest in the world. The initial goal of the Qinghai project is to supply electricity of 30 megawatts at a cost of 1 billion Yuan. Eventually it should supply 1 gigawatt, nearly twice the amount of the Californian project.
As China is building massive solar plants and wind farms to supply gigawatts of clean energy for its people, the power consumption of 1.3 billion population is hard to feed.
Although non-renewables are still main energy source, China has built an alternative renewable energy substitute. Buildings that supply their own clean energy were built. November 27th 2009, China opened the world's largest solar office building, Riyuetan-Weipai Building. Located in the Shandong Province, the structure has an area of 75,000 square meters. Shaped like a sundial, the building appearance underlines the urgency of seeking renewable resources in both energy and outside sectors.
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