The “Green Sputnik” is Launched
The “Green Sputnik” is Launched
About: (Shenyang Power Group, China Stock Digest)
In the upcoming issue of the China Stock Digest we predicted that China was going to take the lead in the vital new green energy industry – wind and solar power, in an article entitled “The Green Sputnik.”
Well, China proved us right today.
Texans are abuzz today with the news that China is financing and building the state’s biggest green energy initiative.
Chinese and American companies have announced a joint venture to construct a massive 600 megawatt wind farm in Texas, using wind turbines manufactured in China. 600 megawatts is equal to the output from a large nuclear reactor. This is a major step.
Construction of the $1.5 billion wind farm will be funded largely by Chinese banks, with an assist from the United States in the form of loan guarantees and grants from the federal stimulus package. Once again, China acts as America’s banker.
It is a stunning development. America’s energy capital, the state of Texas, will use Chinese turbines and Chinese money to build the renewable energy generators of the future.
We called China’s emerging lead in renewable energy “The Green Sputnik” in the November issue of the China Stock Digest, borrowing an idea from Pulitzer Prize winning author Thomas Friedman.
Friedman argues convincingly that China is taking the lead in green energy. It’s an event much like the Russian launch of the world’s first space satellite, Sputnik, in 1957, an event that stunned Americans into realizing that the communists had stolen the lead from the U.S. in the space race.
The Chinese financing and construction of a wind farm in Texas is a Sputnik-like event in our estimation. Although the U.S. has always assumed it has a technological lead in the industries of the future, the news from Texas is a shocker. China is providing us with energy technology, manufacturing and money.
This is the first time a Chinese manufacturer will export wind turbines to the United States market. The manufacturer is Shenyang Power Group, an industrial company in China focused on renewable energy projects.
The new wind farm will be built on 36,000 sprawling and dusty acres in western Texas and will use almost 250 high powered 2.5-megawatt turbines from China. Construction is expected to begin next March.
