A Sino-Dutch consortium is spending tens of millions of U.S. dollars on a feasibility study for a project to harness tidal energy to produce clean power. Eight Dutch engineering firms and university institutes have joined Chinese industry and academic partners in the venture. The project, worth up to USD15 billion, would also need to have its environmental impact assessed. It has the potential to help China lessen its dependence on foreign suppliers and increase production of clean energy to help cut air pollution. The venture carries immense risks as its viability can only be proven if a full-scale project is built. “The biggest challenge is that the project must be done on a big scale in order to be economically viable,” Rob Steijn, one of the inventors of the technology. He is Director of the River, Coast and Sea Department at Amsterdam-based infrastructure design and consulting firm Arcadis, which plays a coordinating role in the consortium led by infrastructure design and construction firm Strukton.

Steijn said that after 30 months of studies, the partners are confident in the science and believe a project between Shantou in Guangdong and Xiamen in Fujian has higher feasibility compared with an alternative project at the entrance to the Bohai Sea in the north. He said the southern project has 5,000 megawatt (MW) of annual generating capacity and is estimated to cost USD15 billion to build. It is about 10% more expensive than a Chinese nuclear power plant – among the most expensive – on a per MW basis. Analysts said this means the tidal project will need greater state subsidies than offshore wind turbines, already among the most expensive to produce and turn a profit. The Dutch consortium has spent about USD4 million on a three-year preliminary feasibility study that will be completed at the end of this year. The Dutch government contributed USD1.27 million. “Mass commercialization of tidal power is very far away, maybe it will happen by 2050,” said Lin Boqiang of the Xiamen University Center for China Energy Economics Research. “Chinese research institutions may be looking into its feasibility out of our nation’s desire to enhance energy security and tackle pollution, but the cost-competitiveness thus far is highly doubtful,” the South China Morning Post reports.

Taiwanese solar stocks led by Motech Industries fell in July after the U.S. proposed expanded penalties on solar energy imports in a victory for the U.S. unit of SolarWorld, which accused China of shifting production to Taiwan after it lost an earlier case. Gintech Energy, E-Ton Solar Tech and Neo Solar Power also tumbled. The U.S. Department of Commerce issued a preliminary finding that said overseas producers, including China’s Trina Solar and Taiwan’s Gintech, sold goods in the U.S. at unfairly low prices, and called for duties ranging as high as 165% for some Chinese manufacturers and 44% for those in Taiwan. China hopes the U.S. can handle anti-dumping and anti-subsidy probes on Chinese solar products “cautiously,” the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said, calling for a quick end to the probes. Jennifer Liang, Taipei-based Analyst at KGI Securities, said the duties were higher than the market expected. “The U.S. accounted for about 30% of Taiwanese solar-cell shipments in the past year and a half,” she said. The duties will prompt Taiwanese producers to rely more on Japanese and European markets, she added. A final decision by the U.S. Commerce Department will be made in mid-December. The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) will determine by the end of January whether U.S. makers of solar power goods were harmed by the imports. If so, the duties will be permanent. U.S. imports from mainland China and Taiwan of the crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells, panels and modules used to make electricity from sunlight were valued at USD2.2 billion last year, the South China Morning Post reported.

China will have to adapt its power grid to use more of its installed solar and wind capacity. Wind farms are built faster than the power grid, designed for conventional energy, can adapt. Consequently, wind operators in some places are paid at times to idle a fifth of their turbines. The problem partly arises because wind and solar, while steady over the long term, fluctuate in the short term. Output peaks can clash with usage peak times on the power grid. Adding more power lines, which takes several years, is the standard solution. However, additional capacity is often underutilized, like empty highways during the day or late at night. Storing electricity is the alternative. For a century, the only realistic storage was pumped hydro. Compressed air, flywheels and molten salts are now gaining attention. The biggest advances are seen in falling prices for advanced chemical batteries. Like solar, batteries are modular, installed in days and work equally well whether distributed among consumers or concentrated in remote storage stations. Storage will increase the economic use of variable renewable energy. For example, batteries near renewable-energy generators soak up electricity otherwise lost to grid congestion. Distributed solar and distant wind farms, when the grid has spare capacity, can charge batteries near consumers. However, developing storage solutions is not simple. In China, State Grid runs the large-scale Zhangbei demonstrator in Hebei province, while battery manufacturer BYD has batteries deployed in Changsha, Hunan province. While other countries are also working on solutions, the world’s biggest storage targets will probably be in China. With experience elsewhere limited, how China optimizes value and integrates storage will be globally significant for policy and the fortunes of manufacturers in a critical new sector for sustainable electricity, Ecological Economist David Fullbrook suggested in the South China Morning Post.

The European Union’s deal to end a trade dispute over solar panels with China risks creating a downward spiral of prices, further damaging the EU producers it is designed to protect. The EU agreed a year ago to allow up to seven gigawatt per year of Chinese solar panels imports free of duties at a fixed minimum price of €0.56 per watt. However, that undertaking includes a potential change to the minimum price each quarter, based on a solar module price index compiled by Bloomberg. The price was cut to €0.53 euro in April. China’s Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products in July wrote to the European Commission seeking to clarify certain aspects of the undertaking. EUProSun, which represents about 40% of EU producers including Germany’s SolarWorld, said the chamber’s clarification was in fact a rewriting of the deal and would result in a continuous decline in prices in Europe. China wants currency fluctuations to be taken into account.

Large colonies of micro-organisms – some capable of causing serious disease – have been discovered inside pipelines carrying drinking water to homes in most major Chinese cities. Fortunately, most people habitually boil water before drinking, killing off the organisms and reducing the risk of outbreaks, but many foreign visitors often drink from the tap. Senior government officials and water scientists met last year in Beijing to discuss potable water safety, industry insiders say. One possible solution is to launch a national program to replace pipes with high-quality ones, made either of steel or plastic with special coatings. But such an effort would be costly and some experts question whether the central government would commit to the funding. Water safety has come under scrutiny following a tap water scare in Lanzhou, Gansu province in April. Benzene, which can cause cancer, was discovered in tap water at levels 20 times higher than national limits. An official investigation found that outdated water ducts were to blame and nine officials were disciplined for their role in the incident. Professor Guan Yuntao, associated with a laboratory in Shenzhen under the auspices of Tsinghua University, has been carrying out government-funded research on micro-organism in urban water networks for several decades. The organisms together with organic compounds and heavy metals are the main contributors to unsafe drinking water. In some cities, membranes consisting of a variety of species can form on the inside surface of pipes – much like plaque in human arteries – in a matter of days. The organisms release corrosive waste materials that accelerate the ageing of pipes. Leaks are a common problem and in some cities, up to half the supply is wasted due to problems with the pipe network, the South China Morning Post reported. Replacing Beijing’s more than 9,000 km of pipeline would cost more than CNY90 billion. The capital consumed 3.6 billion cubic meters of water last year.