3 Gorges X 5

Amazing article in The New Yorker last month, about China’s green energy programs, and more importantly, how they absolutely dwarf anything we’re trying to do here in the U.S.

I had known that China was a big force in renewables – that the country was a major supplier of wind turbines and solar systems, and that their manufacturing capacity was huge, and growing. But I hadn’t really appreciated the scale, not of what they are able to do now nor of what they are going to be able to do in the near future.

In fact, Chinese researchers have been pushing hard to develop green energy for decades, through an initiative called the 863 Program – so-named because it was the result of a scientific call to action in March of 1986. 1986! That was more than three decades ago.

With such a big head start, it’s no surprise that China has moved into such a leadership position. Here’s my favorite stat about the country’s impressive progress: in the next decade, China is expected to install enough wind power equipment to generate FIVE times energy of the Three Gorges Dam, which is already the world’s biggest electricity producer.

Chinese scientists have also garnered respect for other advanced systems, including clean-coal gasification, batteries for electric cars, thin-film solar cells and more.

And it’s not just scientific progress that’s boosting the country’s green progress; Chinese policy shifts have allowed the price of coal to increase, giving the billion-plus consumers there incentive to seek an alternative for what has long been one of the most common sources of household energy.

Meanwhile, back in the U.S., the Reagan and Bush administrations moved in the opposite direction, dismantling green research projects and developing policies that encourage the use of oil and other sources of greenhouse gases.

This was a powerful reminder of what can result from far-sighted leadership.