Quick: which nation builds the most wind turbines?

[Emit]

China's ahead in the green-tech race(Fortune Magazine) --

Quick: which nation builds the most wind turbines? If you guessed America, with its blustery Great Plains dotted with whirring GE blades, you'd be wrong. In 2009, China became the planet's largest producer.

What's going on here? While America was digging itself out of its financial crisis, China quietly positioned itself to become a leader in what promises to be the largest emerging industry of the 21st century: green tech.

A new report by the Breakthrough Institute, a progressive think tank in Oakland, argues that China, along with Japan and Korea, will dominate the clean-energy race by out-investing America.

Asia's clean-tech tigers are already launching massive government investment programs to dominate this industry and, according to the report, have surpassed the U.S. in virtually all clean-energy areas, including wind, solar, and electric-car batteries.

~snip~

http://money.cnn.com/2010/01/27/technology/china_clean_energy.fortune/

[RedCloud]

1. Now if they can just stop that pesky desert from expanding...

[ThomWV]

2. The more they invest at home the less they will invest here.

but then, I suppose people have noticed that ... haven't they?

[nc4bo]

3. Hey, I got it on my first guess.

More Made In China stuff since I'm sure we'll be buying plenty of it because we lag so far behind. Wonderful.

Boo for not getting our asses in gear.

[wtmusic]

6. Quick. Which nation builds the most __________(fill in blank)?

:D

[RKP5637]

4. American has clearly fallen off it's trolley tracks. All this country does today

is sit around and argue with each other, certainly not much of a recipe for success, short or long term. America had a good time of it since WWII and now greed and ignorance seems to rule. Hopefully it's just a phase, but correction might be nearing real problems because of our financial situation. Those with monied interests are willing to sell out the country to pad their pockets with all the cash they can amass.

[notesdev]

5. Oh the irony

A nation more polluted than any nation on Earth has ever been, now usurping the clean-energy market.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

7. +1

[wtmusic]

8. They'll need those 1,400 coal plants they're building to provide the power nt

[LongTomH]

9. We're losing the lead in solar too!

Check out these articles at Climate Progress: First, China pursues the technology that will save humanity:

The good news is that China is finally making the great leap forward into concentrated solar thermal power (with biomass). That is “The Technology that will Save Humanity,” as I’ve argued. It’s the most scalable and affordable baseload (or, even better, load-following) low-carbon supply technology when used with low-cost, high-efficiency thermal storage or when sharing its steam turbine with biomass or even natural gas (see “Hybrid solar/gas plants provide low-cost, low-carbon power when needed“).

The bad news is, this is yet another core clean energy technology pioneered in the United States (in the 1980s) that China may eat our lunch on (see “Invented here, sold there”).

The earlier article quotes from a NY Times article by Tom Friedman. Yeah, the "The World is Flat" guy; but, this time you need to listen:

Applied Materials is one of the most important U.S. companies you’ve probably never heard of. It makes the machines that make the microchips that go inside your computer. The chip business, though, is volatile, so in 2004 Mike Splinter, Applied Materials’s C.E.O., decided to add a new business line to take advantage of the company’s nanotechnology capabilities — making the machines that make solar panels. The other day, Splinter gave me a tour of the company’s Silicon Valley facility, culminating with a visit to its “war room,” where Applied maintains a real-time global interaction with all 14 solar panel factories it’s built around the world in the last two years. I could only laugh because crying would have been too embarrassing.

Not a single one is in America.

Let’s see: five are in Germany, four are in China, one is in Spain, one is in India, one is in Italy, one is in Taiwan and one is even in Abu Dhabi. I suggested a new company motto for Applied Materials’s solar business: “Invented here, sold there.”

[RKP5637]

10. +1000, Thanks for posting this!!! n/t

[madrchsod]

11. here in the usa we have to get environmental statements and...

zoning permits,compensation or long term payments to land owners. then we have to get permits to build transmission lines. right now there`s a wind farm here that is still in court.

china does`t have those procedures.