U.S. satellites reveal China’s solar dominance

U sunenergy is abundant. And China is capitalizing.

Images captured by two Earth-observation of satellites, operated by the US Geological Survey, reveals a rapid expansion of solar farms in a remote region of northern China, the Kubuqi Desert.

“The construction is part of China’s multi-year plan to build a “great solar wall” designed to generate enough energy to power Beijing,” he writes NASAEarth Observatory. (For reference, although all this energy does not directly power the Chinese capital, about 22 million people live in Beijing; this is more than two and a half times the population of New York City.)

The two Landsat satellite images below show a section of the sun’s major expansion between 2017 and 2024. Use the slider tool to reveal the changes. (For size and scale reference, the image below is about 10 kilometers, or 6.2 miles, across).

Left:
December 20, 2017
Credit: USGS/NASA

Right:
December 8, 2024
Credit: USGS/NASA

And the solar complex is still growing. It will be 250 kilometers long and 3 kilometers wide by 2030, according to NASA.

Although China’s energy mix is ​​still dominated by fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas will make up 87 percent of its energy supply by 2022 – the nation clearly sees the value in expanding renewable energy.

“By June 2024, China will lead the world in solar farm operating capacity 386,875 megawattswhich represents about 51 percent of the global total, according to Global Energy Monitor’s Global solar energy tracker“, explained NASA. “The United States is second with 79,364 megawatts (11 percent), followed by India with 53,114 megawatts (7 percent).”

Energy experts say that solar energy, like wind, is a important part of the energy supplyas they are renewable and have been demonstrated reduce energy costs. Fossil fuels, of course, still play a prominent role in the energy mix of most states today.

But the economics of solar are clearly there. The test, via American satellites, is in the Kubuqi desert.