Sometimes you hear stuff and you think, wow they are so far ahead of us, we are not going to catch up. That is what I thought when I read about the following project in China. First Solar today announced a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Chinese government to build a 2 gigawatt solar power plant in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, China.

Pursuant to the MOU, signed in the presence of Chairman Wu Bangguo of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China, the solar project in Ordos will be built over a multi-year period. Phase 1 will be a 30 megawatt demonstration project that will begin construction by June 1, 2010 and be completed as soon thereafter as practicable. Phases 2, 3 and 4 will be 100 megawatts, 870 megawatts, and 1,000 megawatts. Phases 2 and 3 will be completed in 2014 and Phase 4 will be completed by 2019. Did you see that time frame…they will be DONE with this whole thing by 2019, only ten years from now…the first phase (which is massive in it’s own right) will be done NEXT SUMMER. Cape Wind has been in the planning stages for over 7 years now… When done this thing will pump out 2 Gigawatt’s of power, enough for 3 MILLION average Chinese homes.

The deal could open a potentially vast solar market in China and follows the Chinese government’s recent moves to accelerate development of renewable energy.

First Solar, the globe’s largest photovoltaic cell manufacturer, will also likely build a factory in China to manufacture thin-film solar panels, according to Mike Ahearn, the company’s chief executive. “It is significant that a non-Chinese company can land something like this in China,” said Mr. Ahearn in an interview.

“This is nuclear power-size scale,” said Mr. Ahearn added.

…

The company expects the 2,000-megawatt power plant will cost between $5 billion and $6 billion, said Alan Bernheimer, a First Solar spokesman.(via)

That is a hefty price tag, and the government of China is going to pay it. America is the richest nation on the planet and we are building pipelines to dirty Canadian tar sands, China is dropping billions on solar, who do you think will be better positioned to move into the future? (more on China and renewable energy here here here here and here)

“This major commitment to solar power is a direct result of the progressive energy policies being adopted in China to create a sustainable, long-term market for solar and a low carbon future for China,” First Solar CEO Mike Ahearn said at the signing ceremony. “We’re proud to be announcing this precedent-setting project today. It represents an encouraging step forward toward the mass-scale deployment of solar power worldwide to help mitigate climate change concerns.”

The project will operate under a feed-in-tariff which will guarantee the pricing of electricity produced by the power plant over a long-term period.

“The Chinese feed-in tariff will be critical to this project,” Ahearn said. “This type of forward-looking government policy is necessary to create a strong solar market and facilitate the construction of a project of this size, which in turn continues to drive the cost of solar electricity closer to ‘grid parity’ – where it is competitive with traditional energy sources.”

The MOU contemplates that during the implementation of the initial phases of the project First Solar will actively review the possibility of module and supplier manufacturing sites in Ordos, and other considerations required to support a First Solar investment. First Solar also intends to facilitate expansion of the supply chains in China for thin film photovoltaic module production and for the recycling of photovoltaic modules after use.

“We are very pleased to be partnering with one of the solar industry’s global technology leaders in a project of such significance to Ordos’s low carbon future,” said Cao Zhichen, vice mayor of Ordos Municipal Government. “Discussions with First Solar about building a factory in China demonstrate to investors in China that they can confidently invest in the most advanced technologies available.”

The MOU sets forth the agreement in principle of the parties concerning the project and related activities. Final agreement between the parties is subject to the negotiation and execution of definitive agreements among the parties.

The silver lining of course, is that it is an American company First Solar that is getting the contract. However it is only a matter of time before China starts developing these projects “in house” and cutting us out of this growing and lucrative market. It is time we catch up, we have a lot of skilled factory labor sitting around doing nothing in this country, why are we not exporting renewable energy technology to China and India?