Near Beijing, about 250 engineers and researchers from the ENN Group are trying to figure out how to make energy use less damaging to the world’s climate.
In a large greenhouse, hundreds of tubes hold strains of algae being tested for how much carbon dioxide they can suck from the air. Outside, half a dozen brands of solar panels are being matched for performance against the company’s own. Next door, large blocks of earth, carved out of Inner Mongolia, have been trucked in to test for new methods of gasifying coal underground.
The private company is part of a growing drive by China to work out a way to check the rapid growth of its massive emissions of greenhouse gases. The government has closed down old cement and coal plants, subsidized row upon row of new wind turbines and taken other measures.
China produces the most carbon emissions in the world, and the output is likely to continue growing for two decades. When President Hu Jintao pledged at the United Nations last month to lower the country’s carbon intensity "by a notable margin," that was regarded as a step forward.
US Energy Secretary Steven Chu worked at encouraging China to play a leading role in developing clean energy during his four-day trip to China and visited the ENN Group (seen in our illustration). A long and detailed article in the Washington Post covers China’s efforts and suggests that some people are worrying about the threat of China seizing the lead in clean-energy technology.
David Sandalow, assistant secretary for policy and international affairs at the Energy Department, who recently visited Beijing to explore areas for agreement during President Obama’s trip here next month, said, "If they invest in 21st-century technologies and we invest in 20th-century technologies, they will win."