Senator Markey Says It Makes No Sense To Cede Our Clean Energy Future To China – CleanTechnica

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Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) has promoted US climate action for the majority of his long Congressional career. Part of that work is to acknowledge the ascendancy of renewable energy projects, both in the US and abroad.

“This year, there is going to be 36,000 new megawatts of solar [electricity] installed in the United States, and 8,000 new megawatts of wind installed in the United States,” Markey told the Boston Globe. Solar power is projected to be 58% of the total new electrical capacity added this year. Installed wind power generating capacity has increased substantially in the US over the last 25 years, growing from 2.4 gigawatts (GW) in 2000 to 150.1 GW in April 2024.

Nonetheless, the transition to renewable energy in the US is still taking hold, and Markey is keenly aware of skeptics of the transition from burning fossil fuels like Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump. A continued focus on burning fossil fuels would clearly interfere with US progress toward a net zero future and relegate clean energy manufacturing to global competitors, like China.

“Economically, it makes no sense to just cede the future to China,” Markey argues.

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Yet without China’s electric vehicles (EVs), solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries, reducing planet-heating pollution will continue on longer and cost more across the global board. Even with domestic subsidies for local manufacturers and increased tariffs on Chinese imports, China’s dominance in clean energy supply chains remains a problem yet to be solved for the US government.

The Brookings Institute, for example, questions the either-or dynamic of US/ China renewable energy generation, musing that, while it is a significant achievement to bring renewable energy manufacturing back to US soil, it is unclear whether this goal can be achieved without disrupting the global supply chain in which China is a major player.

The US Push toward Clean Energy Production

The US, the largest emitter over time, has a more stringent voluntary reduction schedule than China and India. Recognizing the inherent difficulty in voluntary reductions, the Biden-Harris administration has included many incentives to move companies in ways that support wind and solar construction, increase renewable energy capacity, and reduce greenhouse gases.

• The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act allocates $65 billion for power infrastructure, including investments in renewable energy and grid modernization, with funding for transmission infrastructure expansion.
• Tax incentives and credits, such as the PTC and ITC, have been extended and expanded, with a new technology-neutral clean energy production credit (CEPC) introduced to eventually replace them and support other low-carbon technologies, including geothermal, hydropower, and nuclear.
• The administration set a goal of deploying 30 GW of offshore wind by 2030, streamlined permitting processes, and approved the first large-scale offshore wind projects, like Vineyard Wind.

The IRA has now leveraged some $370 billion in private-sector investments, which accounts for the creation of some 335,000 clean energy jobs, according to Climate Power.

On the second anniversary of the IRA, Markey’s office has unveiled a new online Climate Hub. It’s a tool Markey described as a “one-stop shop” for guidance on how cities, towns, organizations, and individuals can take advantage of the overlooked grant programs and tax incentives included in the IRA and in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. An introduction to the Hub describes Markey’s pride to have secured key provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act:

• the creation of a $27-billion national climate financing network based on his National Climate Bank Act;
• funding for environmental justice mapping and community engagement;
• support for local air quality monitoring; and,
• a brand-new production tax credit for offshore wind technologies made in the US.

With China trying to dominate the solar and wind energy, electric vehicle, and battery sectors, the IRA has given US producers a vital boost to help them compete. Indeed, renewable energy, and particularly solar, has been spearheaded under the Biden-Harris administration, so that a plethora of manufacturing construction projects have emerged — and a majority of this investment has happened in US red states.

Recognition of the improvement in red state manufacturing has prompted 18 House Republicans to write to Speaker Mike Johnson, saying they oppose repeal of the energy tax credits in the IRA. “Energy tax credits have spurred innovation, incentivized investment, and created good jobs in many parts of the country — including many districts represented by members of our conference,” they declare.

China’s Constant Focus on Clean Energy Sources

China is racing ahead in renewable energy, adding record-breaking amounts of solar and wind generation, eclipsing the rest of the world. It is a transformation that analysts are saying could be the world’s best hope yet of staving off climate catastrophe. “China is leading against all of its competitors, when it comes to green technology,” Li Shuo, the director of the China Climate Hub at the Asia Policy Institute in Washington, DC, told the Guardian. “China has a real advantage and has established a huge green industry.”

Last year, China installed a record 293GW of wind and solar generating capacity. Last month, solar and wind capacity outstripped China’s coal-fired electricity capacity. By 2026, solar power alone will surpass coal as China’s primary energy source, with a capacity of more than 1.38TW, or 150GW more than coal, according to forecasts by Rystad Energy.

China added as much new clean energy generation in the first half of this year as the UK produced from all sources in the same period last year, as wind and solar power generation continued to surge in the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. Electricity generation from coal and gas dropped by 5% in China in July, year on year, according to an update from the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) thinktank, basing its analysis on data released by the Chinese government.

Clean energy generated a record-high 44% of China’s electricity in May 2024, pushing coal’s share down to a record low of 53%, despite continued growth in demand. In fact, there were no new permits for coal-based steelmaking projects in the first half of 2024 for the first time since China announced its ‘dual carbon goals’ in September 2020.

The amount of wind and solar power under construction in China is now nearly twice as much as the rest of the world combined. Research published by Global Energy Monitor (GEM), an NGO, found that China has 180 gigawatts (GW) of utility-scale solar power under construction and 159GW of wind power. That brings the total of wind and solar power under construction to 339GW, well ahead of the 40GW under construction in the US.

The total volume of solar power in China could be much higher, as small scale solar farms account for about 40% of China’s solar capacity. The findings underscore China’s leading position in global renewable energy production at a time when the US is increasingly worried about Chinese overcapacity and dumping, particularly in the solar industry.