Chinese officials have outlined plans to invest nearly $500 billion in electric power infrastructure — including roughly $90 billion in smart grid technologies — by 2020, a strategy experts say could significantly improve the nation’s energy efficiency and cement a dominant position in the smart grid market. (more…)

Israel Electric Corp. has signed contracts to build a $1.3 billion 240 megawatt solar energy project in China.

The facility, to be situated in northern China, will consist of three photovoltaic solar energy arrays. Israel Electric Corp. will not invest equity in the project. (more…)

Is China and its rare earth supply restrictions actually doing cleantech a favor?

On the one hand, limiting the supply of these metals, which are used in the manufacture of many clean technologies, clearly isn’t great for the growth of the low carbon economy.

Swiss-based VC firm Mountain Cleantech says it’s a (more…)

A new study says the explosive growth in China’s construction sector is now driving the country’s steep increase in carbon emissions, reversing a long-term trend in which consumption and exports were the dominant factors.

According to the study, published in journal (more…)

With the emergence of China as the globe’s cleantech powerhouse (see Why China has already overtaken the U.S. in cleantech), it’s become fashionable for cleantech companies with products to sell to target China seeking large purchase orders.

What’s not been so popular is to go to China seeking (more…)

A family trip recently brought me back to China for a few weeks. I was in a small provincial capital — quieter than Beijing or Shanghai and the kind of place that has seen explosive population growth in the past ten years.

I spent some time this trip trying to understand the (more…)

The carbon footprint for the average Chinese individual is quickly approaching levels common in the world’s industrialized nations and, if current trends continue, could match or exceed U.S. levels by 2017, a new report says.

Since 1990, CO2 emissions in China have increased (more…)

Levels of nitrogen in the East China Sea, Yellow Sea, and Sea of Japan have risen sharply over the last 30 years because of growing industrial and agricultural pollution, according to a new study in the journal Science.

Analyzing data from the 1980s to the present, (more…)

Global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2)increased by 45 % between 1990 and 2010, and reached an all-time high of 33 billion tons in 2010. Increased energy efficiency, nuclear energy and the growing contribution of renewable energy are not compensating for the globally increasing demand for (more…)

A new report by the U.S. Energy Information Agency predicts that worldwide energy consumption will surge 53 percent between 2008 and 2035, with China and India accounting for about half of the growth.

As their economies continue to expand, China and India are expected to double their energy demand by (more…)