Apologies for the hiatus it’s been too long I know. I’ve recently had a couple of videos published (last month) on the Global Post a online news website in the US.
Click the image to watch the video
The first video was looking at solar power in China and something that’s been in the news a great deal regarding the trade war over solar panels. I decided to take a different angle on the story and focus on one man, Huang Min, who has started a revolution in solar technology in the city of Dezhou in Shandong 500km away from Beijing
Huang Min started off life as a oil engineer working for a state owned company but the birth of his daughter made him rethink his life and he, like any parent wanted a better future for his daughter; few however would go to such extremes.
Huang started to worry about the environment and the future for his daughter and became interested in solar power after reading a book. A few months later he was experimenting and built a prototype solar water heater. Within a couple of years Huang gave up his job as an oil engineer and started to sell water heaters and this business grew and grew to become China’s largest manufacturer of solar water heaters but still Huang wasn’t done.
Huang was set on building a vision for the future and build it he did. It started with the largest solar powered office building in the world, then with the hope of hosting the world solar conference Huang built a solar conference center which was successful in hosting the World Solar conference in 2010. To date Huang’s Solar Valley project now includes, the worlds largest solar office building, a conference centre, a manufacturing plant, a university, several villas, tourist park and apartment complex. The solar valley project has been described “as a clean-tech version of Silicon Valley” by the Washing ton Post
It is quite an inspiring place to visit and to me the most interesting and possibly important part of the Solar Valley was the newly built apartment complex. Designed to showcase eco architecture and provide a model plan of green living, I hope it gets repeated throughout China and the world. However I have my doubts if you look at the recent US presidential race and debates green technology and green energy was barely mentioned and it’s disheartening to think that the opportunity to build green economies are being ignored by the US and Europe.
Click to watch the video
The second of the videos was a look at China’s high-speed rail and it was a very frustrating experience. Weeks and weeks my researcher and I made calls to several companies that were behind the new 500kmh train trying to gain access or even an interview with representative. After weeks of calling and emailing I tried another tact and started it look for universities and ended up interviewing two experts at Beijing Jiaotong university an economist how is critical at the level of investment that China has made in high speed rail and a safety officer who was involved in the 500kmh train.
Sorry for the lack of updates but I’ll be posting I hope on a weekly basis in the future.
