China

Cleantech investment has bucked the market's decline – so far. The big news out of the sector this week?

Intel Capital -- the investment arm of U.S. chip giant Intel -- has announced that it's pumping cleantech cash to China for the first time ever, pouring $20 million into thin-film solar firm Trony Solar Holdings Co Ltd, and an undisclosed sum into energy storage firm NPH Holdings.

Why China? The company explains in a press release:

China’s renewable energy industry is experiencing rapid development. We believe these investments will be a catalyst to drive local clean tech innovation and help China toward the transition to a more sustainable energy system as well as economic growth.

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CIBC World Markets Chief Economist Jeff Rubin recently analyzed the explosion in shipping costs in the steel sector from triple-digit oil prices and came away with some thoughts (pdf) about which nation will prosper the most:

Soaring transport costs, first on importing iron to China and then exporting finished steel overseas, have already more than eroded the wage advantage and suddenly rendered Chinese-made steel uncompetitive in the US market.

In other words: Chinese steel manufacturing production is coming to America, along with the sector’s long-lost wages. That's promising news for the US Steelworkers of America, says Rubin, and a telling sign of things to come. The numbers:

China’s steel exports to the US are now falling by more than 20% on a year-over year basis—the worst performance in almost a decade. While many might attribute this decline to the slowdown in the US economy, it is noteworthy that US domestic steel production has risen by almost 10% during the same period.

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It’s becoming increasingly clear that the American public has been had.

The Bush-Cheney administration has used China as its #1 excuse for not joining Kyoto and for all subsequent inaction on fighting global climate change. The world's top carbon polluter is not building a clean energy economy -- the US argument goes -- so why should we?

Now we can see how factually wrong that was, and how derelict. The Climate Group has released new data on China’s "Clean Revolution," and here's what the authors predict:

"In the move to a low carbon economy, we believe that China will no longer be a developing country following where others have led, but a pioneer leading the way."

Steve Howard, CEO, The Climate Group
Changhua Wu, Greater China Director, The Climate Group

The evidence, from the report:

Most folks by now know about China’s wind power boom. At the end of 2007, the nation's installed base of wind energy was just over six gigawatts. By the end of 2008, it will climb to ten gigawatts. By 2010, experts predict 20 gigawatts. And by 2020, 100 gigawatts.

That’s more than all of the world's wind power today, which stands at 94 gigawatts.

But here’s the thing that’s really striking: China is gaining speed as the global leader in the manufacture of wind power parts, too. Indeed, its equipment may feed the whole planet's appetite for wind energy one day.

Think toys, but healthier.

The Oil Drum has posted stunning graphs on global cement production from the US Geological Survey's (USGS) latest cement data. Two of them are after the jump.

Take note of China.

In 2007, it produced 50 percent of all the cement used in the world, up from 42.5 percent in 2006.

Of the 1.3 billion tons that China manufactured last year, it used over 97 percent for the nation's own building boom, and exported the rest, around 33 million tons. The Olympics account for some of that growth. But not all.

It's official: China has risen above the rabble of plastic manufacturers and has boldly banned the plastic bag.

The law will kick in June 1, and will apply to bags thinner than .025 millimeters thick.

According to a survey by the China Plastics Processing Industry Association, the Chinese use up to one billion of the super thin sacks each day -- and 37 million barrels of oil a year to manufacture them.

In the wake of the global investment surge in solar power, China is cashing in -- big time. And its clean energy progress is putting the US and others to shame.

China has now overtaken Germany as the world’s #1 producer of solar cells, according to numbers tallied by the German magazine Der Spiegel.

Last year, China reached a production capacity of 1,200 megawatts, while runner-up Germany – one of the industry’s pioneers and long-time leaders – produced 875 megawatts worth of solar cells.

One-year wonder? No.

Green Energy News has picked up on something interesting in the middle of the Olympic controversy.

Tibet is a treasure trove of lithium.

In fact, it boasts the largest source of known lithium reserves in the whole world, according to the China Tibet Information Center.

It's not exactly what the villagers in a town in Southwestern China were after when they wanted the government to "green" a barren hillside that was once a stone pit. Green with foliage, they meant. Clearly. Not with oil paint.

Oops:

"A dozen painters spent more than 20 days painting the hill last summer. Large quantities of oil paint were used," a villager was quoted by a Kunming-based newspaper Metropolitan Times as saying.

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In just one year, China Coal Energy Co. doubled its profits, the WSJ reports. Its goal is to increase its annual coal output by 5 million tons each year until 2010. Right now, they're at 43.39 million tons.