China is the world´s second energy consumer and, in view of the existing preoccupation on the part of the Chinese government in case the rhythm of growth is ballasted by energetic needs, in 2005 it was decided to increase the participation of renewal energies in the energetic country mix to more than the double by 2020, passing from 7% to 15% in that year. This proposal is in its turn supported by investment plans of 18.000 million U.S. D.
The factors that prompted the Chinese government to promote this kind of energies are the following:
- Local economic development to promote access to progress in the most remote areas of the country through renewable energies;
- Independence and energy diversification despite China’s important oil reserves;
- Economic, since these energies are expected to be profitable in the future;
- Environmental, since China is the country that produces more greenhouse gases and the salubrity in many Chinese cities is quite deficient. Besides, taking into account that the Kyoto protocol has recently been signed, there is an incentive to promote environmentally sustainable projects.
Likewise, the Chinese government aims at developing a local industry of equipment for renewable energy, for instance solar photovoltaic panels or thermal cells as well as wind turbines and its components. Investment in enterprises and R + D (Research and Development) have been subsidized and legislative reforms done for the settlement of foreign companies in the country and local production requirements have been fixed to produce 70% of the components in order to bid for eolic parks.
Spain, thanks to its location in the South of Europe and to its firm commitmentonthe part of its government as well as its companies, has become a world reference of renewal energies. Spain is a leader both in creating renewal energy installations and in investigating and producing components for these installations. Approximately 5.000 million Euros have been invested in solar energy during 2007, furthermore, Spain is the world’s second country in generating eolic energy. Spanish companies are hard investors in the sector competing with leading markets like USA and involving themselves in promoting pioneer technologies like solar thermoelectric .Besides, China can benefit by development assistance loans for renewal energy generation projects, as well as in the execution of viability studies.
CHEIC has demonstrated experience in the field of renewable energies, especially in solar photovoltaic energy. We work with the main solar photovoltaic panel manufacturers and we have collaborated both in purchase negotiation and cells quality supervision with many Spanish enterprises that have done important photovoltaic installations in Spain. CHEIC’s work in supervising production in collaboration with important certifying companies permitted detecting serious amounts of defective cells before being shipped, therefore preventing derived delays. We have also worked closely with suppliers in order to solve in the most beneficial way for our clients any kind of anomalies that could arise during the contract execution. Furthermore, the experience of our team enables us to obtain the best possible purchasing conditions when negotiating a contract.
Concerning eolic energy and being conscious of the potential of the Chinese enterprises for manufacturing components, CHEIC collaborates with companies of the sector in order to find the most adequate component suppliers for wind turbines. Moreover, knowing the important role that local entities play in deciding about eolic bidding, CHEIC has its own net of consultants to find the most adequate and interesting locations for Spanish enterprises wishing to apply for these biddings.
Finally, Cheic collaborates with some of the leader companies both in solar photovoltaic and eolic energy sectors with investment interests in China. We also have experience in the “know-how” necessary to implement investment with the support of the Spanish Government, whether by soft credits or by financing facilities to carry out the feasibility studies.