Bloomberg has an interesting article about 'Big solar companies supplying more e

Bloomberg has an interesting article about 'Big solar companies supplying more energy than major oil companies Solar Power's Giants Are Provident More Energy Than Big Oil'.

First of all, prior knowledge.

Joule is a unit of energy consumption. 1 W lightbulb consumption per second. The 18th power of 1 row 10 is called exajoule (EJ). 1 exajoule is the energy amount of 170 million barrels of oil.

The total amount of energy that will reach Earth from the sun for a year is 3,766,800 exajoules. Humanity needs about 560 exajoules per year (as of 2012), which is about 90 minutes from the sun. Humanity has yet to come up with a way to effectively convert solar energy.

The energy industry has "seven sisters Seven Sisters." Alias of big 7* energy companies. (*Exson, Chevron, Shell, TotalEnergies, BP, ConocoPhillips, Eni)

Exxon, Chevron, Shell and BP will be familiar, even if the others are unfamiliar. But have you heard of the next company?

Tongwei, GCL Technology Holding, Synte Energy, Long Green Energy Technologies, Trinasola, JA Solar Technologies, and Jinkosola.

If you are unfamiliar with most of them, you are not good at reading the world's energy industry.

The former is a traditional international oil company. The latter is a solar company and both are Chinese companies.

One exajoule of energy can supply electricity to Australia, Italy, or Taiwan for one year. Exxon and Shell produce about 8.3 and 6.2 exajoules per year, respectively. However, not all oil from the well is electric. Only about a quarter is converted to useful power.

Energy production from solar power companies in China is comparable to that of traditional international oil companies. Currently, Tongwei, the largest polysilicon producer (based on solar panels), produces energy at a level similar to that of BP, ConocoPhillips, and ENI. As announced by Tongwei in December last year, if a 400,000-ton polysilicon plant is newly established in Inner Mongolia, production will double. In that case, it can overtake Exxon's production.

The amount of useful energy produced each year by major Chinese solar companies is comparable to that of international oil companies. (Attachment 1)

Now that the 'super major' oil companies and Chinese solar power companies are on the rise, what will happen in the future? In short, Chinese solar power companies are the rising sun and international oil companies are the setting sun.

The two are in full competition. International oil companies are making every effort to secure reserves to continue producing for the next 10 years or so. Chinese solar companies are also building new factories that will produce similar amounts every year until their existing facilities age.

The total amount of energy China's solar companies can produce without large reinvestments has already outpaced major oil companies. (Attachment 2)

The prospect is that the gap between the two will widen further. The solar panels sold by Long's Green Energy this year will produce electricity for decades. It has a 25-year warranty. Meanwhile, most of the oil and natural gas sold this year will be exhausted within a few months.

In the long run, energy produced annually by Chinese solar companies is likely to far exceed the energy of oil reserves secured by international oil companies. (Attachment 3)

The United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States, which mined a lot of coal during the First Industrial Revolution, led the international order. Since then, as oil has become an alternative energy, it has brought power and wealth to oil-producing Russia and Middle Eastern countries, and the United States' global leadership has expanded. The hegemonic power of that era was a country that could control the flow of international energy.

Currently, China's seven major solar companies have more shares in energy production than the seven major global oil companies that dominated the 20th century. The U.S. anxiety to curb the growth of China's solar industry must be understood in this respect.