What China’s Environmental Policy Means for PV Solar, Electric Vehicles, and Carbon Capture and Storage Technologies

Abstract

This perspective paper elaborates on how the burden of environmental issues on public health and the economy led China’s government to declare its revised environmental policies or “war on pollution”. It explains the importance of photovoltaic solar (PV), electric vehicles (EV), and carbon capture and storage (CCS) in helping China to mitigate its environmental concerns while maintaining economic growth. China already leads PV solar and EV manufacturing; however, it has not made a tangible contribution to CCS technology yet. On the other hand, CCS is far behind its envisaged role in contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and supporting countries to meet their net carbon zero targets. China’s existing coal power plants are good candidates to be retrofitted with CCS. Similar to PV and EV technologies, China could influence this technology globally, by reducing the uncertainties, demonstrating the viability, and driving the costs lower. China’s revised policies have been effective and shown global impacts, but their implementations remain as strong as the political will behind them.

Accelerating the Low-Carbon Energy Transition in Sub-Saharan Africa through Floating Photovoltaic Solar Farms

“…This limitation has led to the innovative development of "floatovoltaics", or floating solar photovoltaics (FPVs), where solar panels are mounted on buoyant structures and deployed on water bodies like reservoirs and lakes [17]. Since the first over 1 MW scale FPV installation in Japan in 2013, the technology has seen rapid adoption, particularly in countries such as Japan, China, and the USA, making it one of the fastest-growing renewable energy technologies [17][18][19]. Figure 3 shows a schematic representation of a floating solar farm adapted from [20].…”