Solar Energy Firms Leave Waste Behind in China (solar panel & toxic pollutant)

WP ^ | 03/09/08 | Ariana Eunjung Cha

[TigerLikesRooster]

Solar Energy Firms Leave Waste Behind in China

By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, March 9, 2008; A01

GAOLONG, China -- The first time Li Gengxuan saw the dump trucks from the nearby factory pull into his village, he couldn't believe what happened. Stopping between the cornfields and the primary school playground, the workers dumped buckets of bubbling white liquid onto the ground. Then they turned around and drove right back through the gates of their compound without a word.

This ritual has been going on almost every day for nine months, Li and other villagers said.

In China, a country buckling with the breakneck pace of its industrial growth, such stories of environmental pollution are not uncommon. But the Luoyang Zhonggui High-Technology Co., here in the central plains of Henan Province near the Yellow River, stands out for one reason: It's a green energy company, producing polysilicon destined for solar energy panels sold around the world. But the byproduct of polysilicon production -- silicon tetrachloride -- is a highly toxic substance that poses environmental hazards.

"The land where you dump or bury it will be infertile. No grass or trees will grow in the place. . . . It is like dynamite -- it is poisonous, it is polluting. Human beings can never touch it," said Ren Bingyan, a professor at the School of Material Sciences at Hebei Industrial University.

The situation in Li's village points to the environmental trade-offs the world is making as it races to head off a dwindling supply of fossil fuels.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[DB]

This is why China has peaked or is about to peak in terms of low cost production.

Their methods of production are not sustainable.

As they are forced to stop taking short cuts to lower costs they haven’t yet factored in the long term costs. At they are forced to clean up the massive pollution everywhere costs are going to rise substantially.

In addition Chinese workers are going to demand healthier working conditions because currently it’s killing them.

All of these things are going to increase costs.

Buy your cheap Chinese stuff while you can. It isn’t going to last much longer.

[DB]

Sorry, “At they are forced ...” is supposed to be “As they are forced ...”

[kinoxi]

Sunshine...on my shoulder, makes me happy...

[geopyg]

Not quite sure who will enforce any environmental rules on the ChiComs. I get a kick (actually pisses me off) how we can’t throw our cell-phones, computers, etc. away in the trash that will be put in a sealed-for-all-eternity modern landfill. Instead we have to “recyle” them. Which means instead of a trip to the landfill it is a trip to the nearest port city. Then loaded onto a ship that burns how much fuel to get to China. Then on to another truck (with terrible emmision control no doubt) to some vast wasteland of computer parts. There some 8-year old barefoot short-sleeve wearing child smashes the thing to bits to get out the precious metals. I imagine some melting and breaking of plastics and soldier takes place. And the discards get tossed into the ditch out back with the creek running throught it.

All for the sake of “save-the-planet”. (Actually, I imagine it is for the money they get from the metals, but that would seem just mean).

[geopyg]

i.treehugger.com/.../computer%20junk-jj-001.jpg

[Maelstorm]

It just goes to show there is no free lunch. While it is good and well to push for energy diversification to make unjustified claims about the moral superiority of one form of energy production or another is highly dubious. Someday when the land fills are filled with the toxic batteries of electric cars and the novel chemicals used to produce solar panels and energy efficient light bulbs then the true costs of modern misanthropic naivety will be known.

It is complexity, individuality, and open competition of ideas that allows innovation to thrive. Rigidity and the capricious granting of bureaucratic moral imperative guarantees not the accomplishment of a singular mission of great importance but instead cements the weakness, limits, and flaws of individual men who no matter how great of intellect or how well traveled do not have the field of vision or understanding to know what is best for everyone for all time. That is why the guidance of the past is important.

The great principles of the past whether from God or wise men remain great because they survived and survived because they were great(or simply worked). Today’s environmentalists and leftists don’t seem to care what works or has worked. They start with their wants and work outward to fit the world into those wants. They start out with a premise fueled by emotion which then the whole world will be made to fit because of the righteousness of the premise. It is indistinguishable from the twisted religion of the bureaucratic churches of the middle ages which these same people hold in great disdain but so quickly rush to emulate.

Many of these may reject the idea of God and the devil but they soon enough nominate themselves for the role of God and those who challenge them are most certainly in their eyes devils. This is the most backward way to approach problems but you find it in the way they approach climate models to the way they justify failure after failure of the bureacratic systems they worship with the citizen’s wealth.

[Robert A Cook PE]

The evil we are not supposed to see: Foreign waste dumping, foreign (slave) workers in China, overseas waste for “green” power.

And much of it for “greed” power.

[Dahoser]

The situation in Li's village points to the environmental trade-offs the world is making as it races to head off a dwindling supply of fossil fuels.

Wait a minute! "The World" is gleefully making environmental trade-offs where toxic pollutants are just dumped anywhere in the name of green technology, but draw up the least invasive plan in history to drill in one tenth of one percent of a wretched wasteland north of the Arctic Circle that might disturb the pooping grounds of some caribou, and "The World" has a massive stroke? WTFO!

[chainsaw]

Buy your cheap Chinese stuff while you can. It isn’t going to last much longer.

Why buy the stuff,it won’t last very long either.

[Dutch Boy]

That sounds very much like the Ethanol planets. Its okay that they are allowed to pollute at 250% above an oil plant. Its also okay that the Brazilian rain forest is chopped down to grow beets for fuel.

[JACKRUSSELL]

"It's poison air. Sometimes it gets so bad you can't sit outside. You have to close all the doors and windows," says Qiao Shi Peng, 28, shown in front of a dumping site in his village, who worries about his 1-year-old son's health. (Zhang Quanfeng - Photo By Zhang Quanfeng)


At left, cornfields in China's Henan Province died after a green energy firm dumped industrial waste inside a nearby village. The liquid waste evaporated and left white powder. Tests of the soil where the dumping occurred showed high concentrations of chlorine and hydrochloric acid, which do not exist naturally. (Zhang Quanfeng - Photo By Zhang Quanfeng)




(Please FReepmail me if you would like to be on or off of the list.)

[sweetiepiezer]

Thanks for the ping JACK.
All going to get worse before better.

[steelyourfaith]

 

Global Warming Scam News & Views

• Beam me to Planet Gore !
• Reasoned Thinking Comes From Cooler Heads
• WeatherQuestions.Com (Dr. Roy Spencer, Official Climatologist, EIB Network)
• Dr. Spencer's book, Climate Confusion: How Global Warming Leads to Bad Science, Pandering Politicians and Misguided Policies that Hurt the Poor due out March 27, 2008, can be pre-ordered from amazon.com.

[SolarEnergyIndustriesAssociati]

“The 550 member companies of SEIA were outraged and disappointed by the reports of toxic chemical dumping by a factory in China ... this practice violates both our association’s professional code of conduct and the very spirit of what we’re trying to do as an industry. We are out to solve environmental problems, not create them...

“Solar energy is the most environmentally friendly energy technology that exists today… But manufacturing solar feedstocks, like any heavy industry, requires strong environmental safeguards. Polysilicon, the primary feedstock in most solar cells, has been produced in the U.S. and Europe for fifty years using the Siemens process in a clean, safe manner, in strict compliance with environmental law…”

— Rhone Resch, president, Solar Energy Industries Association, Washington, D.C.

See Rhone’s full statement: http://www.seia.org/solarnews.php?id=168.

At least 89% of air pollution associated with electricity generation could be prevented if power from solar photovoltaics (PV) displaces conventional sources of energy on the the grid. In addition, the PV industry follows a pro-active, long-term environmental strategy involving recycling and waste management to prevent environmental damage.

For more information on the environmental sustainability of solar energy, please see the following link to a study by Brookhaven National Lab and the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL):

http://www.pv.bnl.gov/keystone.htm

and a recent Science News article about it:

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20080301/fob5.asp

http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/abstract.cgi/esthag/2008/42/i06/abs/es071763q.html

[SolarFriend]

As I have come to find out, our current leaders seem to be even more scandalous that I had imagined previously. I mean: “Naaaahh... crooked government officials??? In Oregon??” Boy, was I wrong... I’m hoping there may be something you may do to help me out here with this matter, as the red tape has covered my voice beyond recognition. Who’s going to listen to a college student afterall... I hope you will.

As of late June, a new Chinese startup company by the name of Centron Solar has opened their headquarters right here in Eugene, Oregon. It certainly doesn’t look very Chinese at first look on their website: www.centronsolar.com, and Centron is registered as a Foreign Business Corporation with jurisdiction Delaware: http://egov.sos.state.or.us/br/pkg_web_name_srch_inq.show_detl?p_be_rsn=1404813&p_srce=BR_INQ&p_print=FALSE

Seems odd that a company who settled with an unpaid intern who was used for free labor, registers their company 2 days after they ask the intern to not show up any more due to limited space (that intern was me.):
http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/business/18590037-41/story.csp

Here are some of the first News articles that burst out on the scene in Oregon revolving Centron:
http://www.centronsolar.com/index.php?action=aboutus.news_events

How does a foreign business corporation “start-up” with that much influence in media? Have a look at Centron Solars

Centron Solar import solar panels from lesser known solar panel manufacturers in China ( www.nesl.cn and www.jetion.com.cn ) Then, they have conspired to brand these solar panels with their logo and model numbers.

For instance, have a look at Centron Solar’s product sheet http://centronsolar.com/index.php?action=products.prod_overview

Centron’s models:

CS-S-175-DJ
CS-S-189-DJ

These two models are actually from Chanzhou NESL Solartech in China, and their rightful model numbers are:

Changzhou NESL Solartech DJ-175D
Changzhou NESL Solartech DJ-180D
http://nesl.cn/Product.asp?Action=View&ProductID=71&Catalog=0

Both these models are listed on the California Energy Commissions “Eligible for Subsidies,” which also applies in Oregon and the Northwest in general: http://www.gosolarcalifornia.org/equipment/pvmodule.html, but Centron’s model numbers are nowhere to be found on that list, yet they are selling them on the U.S market under their “consortium,” which in reality is NESL and Jetion.

Centron’s 220W model which is actually purchased from the Chinese solar manufacturer Jiangyin Jetion Science and Technology :
CS-P-220-JT

Jetion Model number:
JT220(30)P1655×992

*Notice that Centron Solar has kept the “DJ” from NESL and “JT” from Jetion.

For whatever reason, Centron Solar are able to sell their panels with their model numbers to both Nike in Beaverton, and the Oregon National Guard in Portland, and still they are eligible for subsidies? Or are they?
According to both EWEB (Eugene’s utility company) and AEE Solar (Nations larges solar panel distributor;) Because Centron Solar’s models are not listed on the “eligible for subsidies” list, they cannot sell their panels on our subsidized market. However, Centron Solar has managed to sneak their model numbers onto PV Powered (solar power inverter systems headquartered in Bend, OR) string sizing: http://pvpowered.com/usage_terms_string_sizer.php (Look for Centron Solar in drop down box.) There is no trace that Centron Solar is merely distributing modules which have already been approved on the “eligibility” list, not as Centron Solar. Remember, Centron is a “consortium of 30 manufacturers.”

Centron Solar claims that they are a consortium representing 30 manufacturers in China who have come together to create Centron’s product line. This is how Centron Solar launched their product at the Intersolar2009 trade show in SF early July.

Centron solar also claims they can sell their panels 10% cheaper than any competitor on the U.S market, including their Chinese counterparts such as the biggest solar company in China- Suntech. I spoke with a government relations manager for Solarworld USA who said they had done a feasibility report on the production cost of NESL’s solar panels. It was impossible- unless the production cost was subsidized by the Chinese government, thus breaking the FTC’s Imports Administrations anti-dumping laws.
http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=219400273 (Proud to announce the “walmartization” of the U.S solar industry administered and operated by Chinese enterprise.)

Both NESL Solartech and Jetion have offices in California, but because no distributor is brave enough to pick up their products- they have designed a way to bypass protectionism and antitrust, through a channel called Centron Solar. This is why they are announching extravagant promises of 350 jobs in Eugene by making the old Hynix building an assembly plant (For the chinese manufacturers NESL/Jetion,) and another 100 jobs in Vancouver, Washington by taking over the old Panasonic building there. Centron Solar claims to warrant their products with 10, 10 and 25 year warranties... this is not Centron Solar that warrants these products, it is the manufacturers in China themselves (look at their websites.) Vancouver, Washington: http://columbian.com/article/20090804/BIZ01/708049969/-1/BIZ

Apparently it is illegal for Centron Solar to carry the UL certification logo, as it is not Centron Solar who has been inspected by UL, it is (again) their manufacturers in China.

This is an absolute atrocity. Our government subsidies and tax payer moneys have become a feeding ground for predatory Foreign Business Corporations like Centron Solar. Centron Solar will send roughly 80-85% profit of their sales straight back into China.From my understanding the stimulus bills in form of renewable energy subsidies are meant to aid recovery of our deficit, stimulate growth in american renewable energy businesses, innovation and creativity. It has been brought to my attention that the people involved in Centron Solar are tied in with government officials who are aiming at profiting from this business. This is an absolute perversion of our constitution and judicial legislature and needs to be stopped immediately. It is imperative that Tobias Read of district 27, also a product line developer for Nike, should be questioned about his intentions with Centron Solar, and purchasing “ineligible for subsidy” solar panels from them? The legal firm representing Centron is Davis Wright Tremaine LLC in Portland, Oregon. Former Washington governor Gary Locke was a noted attorney for this law firm, now he is the U.S Chamber of Commerce Secretary! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davis_Wright_Tremaine It is imperative that secret affiliation and financial interest in this company is exposed promptly. For those who think Solar, let alone Chinese Solar is just an unprofitable pipe-dream, think again. China’s riches man is the founder and CEO of Suntech, a Chinese solar panel outfit which operates in the U.S: http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/10/billionaires08_Shi-Zhengrong_EP46.html

Also, please have a look at Centron’s advisory board: http://centronsolar.com/index.php?action=aboutus.advisory_bd
Greg Evans- Since when did a startup company in the U.S need a political advisor? Let alone the president of the NAACP for Oregon/Washington. The NAACP seem to have an overwhelmingly interest in green development lately, in efforts to destruct our renewable energy sector in order to rebuild it under the realm of “Social Justice.” Obama’s green jobs advisor, Van Jones, has diligently pushed for this political vision and agenda since appointment as “green jobs Czar/Advisor.” Greg Evans is also the Vice President Board member of Lane Transit District, and said this about Centron Solar in the newspapers: “This is very legit, Trust me!” http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/news/cityregion/16800609-46/story.csp

David S Thomson- 13 year veteran of the finance group Siebert Bradford Shank & Co. Lives in Seattle, Washington. He was appointed to lead their transportation finance efforts on the west-coast. Perhaps this is how Greg Evans, and David Thomson know eachother? http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=6858070

It seems odd that Centron Solar has had such immense political and media support before even earning $1 in sales revenue in both Oregon and Washington lately, and made it through media channels to USA today. Centron Solar, besides Bruce O’Neil and Tobias Read of Nike, are being marketed through Polaris, Inc. http://www.polaris-inc.com/index.php?action=about.NewsInfo&rowid=183.

This should provide you with enough facts about what is going on behind the scenes in the Oregon solar industry, and who is aiming to profit from it. However, it is important to consider those who will be hurt as the result of Centron Solar as well (although apparently, our green energy leaders claim we need to de-industrialize and “re-build” our renewable energy sector, so that kids in the LA, NY, TX, OH etc. ghettos can get jobs first.) By allowing Centron Solar to monopolize with their Wal-mart agenda, it will deflate the entire renewable energy sector in this country, and dumping of Chinese products will cause the prices of solar to go down. The same effect Wal-Mart on our businesses here at home will happen with our Solar businesses here at home. We invented solar technology, we should therefore be able to innovate them- according to Bill Keith who was coined the “renewable energy patriot” by Senator Lugar of Indiana, and Phil Angeledes- former Treasurer of California and Chairman of the Apollo Alliance.