China is the world leader in solar hot water heating
Your thinking, I’ve gotta be kidding…right? This third world backwater country we call China, green?
In the case of solar water heating, they do!
“Ninety-nine percent of households in Rizhao, China, use solar water heaters like these.”
In this nation that is known for its pollution spewing smokestacks, solar water heaters are on nearly every roof in some of it’s cities. The , manufacturers are now eyeing foreign markets, such as Southern California.
In the very recent past, many working-class Chinese would bathe the way have for generations: boil water, dampen a rag and wipe away the dirt. ASll that is now changing as more families are buying a solar water heater.
Thanks to their home solar systems families now can shower every day and wash their dishes with hot water. The stainless steel heater affixed to her red-tiled roof cost about $220.
Home solar energy has become a symbol of China’s rising standard of living and its leap into the era of clean energy.
In Shandong province, 99% of households are now using solar water heaters.These small collectors now dominate the skyline of many of their towns and cities residential rooftops.
As a parody to the fifties space race with Russia, we now find ourselves in the global race to develop green technology and to stem climate change. China has quickly become a leading producer of solar panels and wind turbines. It also dominates the lesser-known technology of solar water heaters.
I guess, we in America just thought that the technology was just too simple or we were just to flush to give it much consideration. Now China is using principles of solar heating more than a century old, the humble, low-cost devices consist of an angled row of cola-colored glass tubes that absorb heat from the sun. The most common models fill the tubes with cold water. As it heats, the water rises into an insulated tank where it can remain hot for days….
The heating of water accounts for a quarter of a typical building’s energy usage. The Chinese solar heaters are estimated to have prevented more than 20 million tons of carbon dioxide that would have been emitted annually using electrical units.
When considering the facts, you have to wonder if we Americans have lost our edge. I believe the race for clean cheap energy is every bit as important as the space race was so many years a go. We can still be the leaders if we have the desire to. As a nation, have we really embraced the importance of this?
These heaters will be much needed if Beijing is to meet its goal of reducing its reliance on coal, which supplies 80% of the country’s energy. The central government aims to meet 15% of its energy needs through renewable sources by 2020. Beijing hopes to triple its solar heater capacity by the same year, according to Greenpeace China.
“The key to the success in China is that the low price enables people to have an instantaneous payback,” said John Perlin, a solar energy historian and author of “From Space to Earth: The Story of Solar Electricity.”