First Solar signs massive deal with China

First Solar has signed a memorandum of understanding with China to partner on a 2,000-megawatt power plant in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia.

If and when completed, it will be one of the largest solar power plants, perhaps the largest, in the world in terms of megawatts. In comparison to other current projects, the U.S. Army is building a 500-megawatt solar thermal farm in the Mojave Desert. First Solar, which is based in Tempe, Ariz., also has a 550-megawatt project planned in California. And Canadian Solar recently announced a 500-megawatt solar farm also planned for Inner Mongolia.

Ordos City is marked by the red bubble with an "A" inside.

(Credit: Google Maps)

Construction on the first phase of the First Solar project in China, a 30-megawatt plant, is set to begin in June 2010. The second phase--at 100 megawatts--and third phase--at 870 megawatts--are scheduled to be completed in 2014. The final fourth phase, a 1,000-megawatt installation, is slated for completion by 2019.

"We are very pleased to be partnering with one of the solar industry's global technology leaders in a project of such significance to Ordos's low carbon future. Discussions with First Solar about building a factory in China demonstrates to investors in China that they can confidently invest in the most advanced technologies available," Cao Zhichen, vice mayor of Ordos City, said in a statement Tuesday.

First Solar manufactures thin-film solar cells from cadmium telluride and builds solar power plants. To accommodate the massive undertaking in China, it will "review the possibility of module and supplier manufacturing sites in Ordos, and other considerations required to support a First Solar investment."

The company also plans to look into recycling used photovoltaic modules in China, something it's already been doing in the U.S.

The Inner Mongolian government has arguably taken a keen interest lately in solar energy. Canadian Solar, a Canadian company with China-based subsidiaries, announced in August that will build a 500-megawatt power plant in Baotou, Inner Mongolia. Ordos City is about 100 miles from Baotou and about 500 miles from Beijing.

The surge in Chinese solar investment is no doubt due in large part to China's $586 billion stimulus package announced in November 2008, which included an estimated $70 billion earmarked for improving the country's electrical grid.

[Joe Real]

China has 2 GW slated for First Solar. 25 square miles of solar panels! This is something that the US cannot do at that scale because of the new breed of NIMBYs, patchwork of State Laws, fighting between states especially those that are spanned by Mojave desert, and still other Endangered Species of the Desert concerns of various environmentalists.

Many US companies are fighting with each other for the limited funds from DOE to have projects of a fraction of the scale planned by China.

You gotta love these Chinese folks:
"China has designated a region within the country for renewable energy production and transmission. It also has promised to guide First Solar through the approval process and make it profitable."

[Random_Walk]

Heh - the funny part is, First Solar is a US company.

Usually, China will stick with Chinese companies...

Even more impressive - 2 gigawatts is frickin' huge for any company; the biggest solar panel factories can produce about a gigawatt's worth of panels per year, and I doubt FS has more than five of those. Long story short, they're pretty much set for all of next year or two, methinks.

[javaman97]

Random_walk, if you read you'd see that this is a 10 year project. So no, they are not set for the next year. This is just one project, they still have other projects to complete as well as line up new ones over the next decade.

[shinkat--2008]

And don't forget, when this project is done, China will have a first class facility to manufacture the solar cells, which they can export to US.

[solsanders]

Isn't there a problem of the loess debris, the constant sand in the wind in northwest China which leaves a layer of dust on everything and sometimes creates violent dust storms?

[Random_Walk]

The map puts it in north-central China, so it probably isn't the massive problem you surmise it to be. :)

[karlengblom]

You're right, the area has very harsh climate with extreme temperature variations and dust storms. On the positive side, if the panels work there they will work anywhere.

[DCpowergirl]

China is wisely embracing energy efficiency and green technologies such as solar, as it continues its rapid expansion. This is a good thing, as building construction in China accounts for about half the new floor space built in the world each year, according to the US DOE. Furthermore in the next 15 years, the country expects that it will build the equivalent of the United States' entire building stock. With massive growth like this, it is imperative that China seeks out the best, most efficient ways to build its cities and communities using renewable and sustainable resources. And they will do just that -- because as time has shown, China can and will do basically anything it sets its mind to do.

[Dango517]

This looks like a "solar race" to me, liken to the old US/Soviet Space Race. We must not be "out done",. America must remain number one ............. it's in our "National Interest". What do you think they are really up too? Hmmm.... world dominance of solar maybe? Yep, that's it! OMG!

[charles_at_dtc]

Assuming 2GW is the peak power, it works 8 hours a day, 300 days operational cycle (out of 365). The total potential output uint kWh is: 2000x8x300.

According to http://www.economywatch.com/world_economy/china/electricity.html
For 2007, China?s per capita electricity consumption was estimated at 2,444 kWh. Let's assume it will increase to 3000kWh at end of 2020.

Therefore, the total population this 10 year project can support at the end phase will be about (millions unit): 2kWhr(millions)8x300/3,000kWhr=1.6m population. Keep in mind that there are 20million people living in Beijing. It will make a small impact. On the other hand, if you do this in Denver suburb, you can make the whole city renewable and maybe Petro Free by 2020 combined with plugin cars. US mid-west has a lot of sun and free land to do this. China, on the other hand, has to embrace nuclear and wind to make a real impact.

[Joe Real]

Just a slight correction in the intermediate calcs:
2GW is 2,000 MW. So that makes it 2,000,000 kW.
2,000,000 kW x 8 x 300 makes for 4,800,000,000 kWH.

I also believe that the 2,444 kWH is per capita household and is not per person. If the average household is 3 person and that the value is per person, that would make it 7,332 kWH per household per year, or 611 kWH per month. And here in California, our household consumes just about 500 kWH per month and would be hard to believe that on the average Chinese consume more electricity than us. So it must be per household or the data is wrong.

At any rate, China has large land area that 96.53 square miles would be negligible. Once the 25 square miles is paved with solar PV at overall solar efficiency of just 10%, that would mean about 6.5 GW power. Covering 96.53 square miles with solar PV should support 20 million people.

[Joe Real]

I meant 20 million households at 3,000 kWH per household per year.

[javaman97]

the 2444 kWH per capita is per year. So for you using 500 kWH per month, x12, would be 6,000 kWH per year.
And wow dude, 500kWH per month, you must be in nice weather. Here is Phoenix, Arizona it's too hot for that. We get down to about 400kWH during mild weather months (Oct, Nov, Feb, Mar) but during the heat of summer, the AC takes it up 2400+ kWH per month keeping it down to 80 degrees inside.

[ablazev]

One more calculation for your consideration:

This type of TFPV panels average 70Wp/ea., so 2.0GW field(s) will consist of approx. 28.57 million panels. Each panel contains 7-9 grams of Cd in form of CdTe and CdS, or approx. 400,000-500,000 lbs. Cd, uniformly spread over 24,000 acres.

Since Cd is a well known toxic carcinogen, we do hope that China is well equipped to take care of such a large potentially toxic area..

Since most of the Cd and Te in these panels comes from China anyway, it will be happy to get back home. And we should be glad that it would stay there...at least for now.