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COURSE : OAG5143 – ENERGY TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION
DATE : 15 APRIL 2023 (SATURDAY)
TIME : 2:30 PM – 6:30 PM (4 HOURS)
INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES
- This is an online open-book final examination. Students can refer to online/offline resources including learning materials, textbooks, and other reading materials to answer the questions.
- Answer ALL questions.
- Only ONE (1) duly completed online answer script submission is permitted. Multiple submissions are NOT allowed.
- You MUST upload your answers in ONE (1) PDF file in ULearnX as per given guideline and click submit. The maximum allowable file size is 100 MB.
- Please make sure your answers are clear and readable in the PDF file and name your file as: “your Examination ID_Course Code”.
- Late submission and unclear/unreadable answers will not be accepted. Note : i. There are FOUR (4) pages in this Question Booklet including the cover page. Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS
FINAL EXAMINATION
JANUARY 2023 SEMESTER
Why China Is Dominating the Solar Industry
Between 2008 and 2013, China’s fledgling solar-electric panel industry dropped world prices by 80 percent, a stunning achievement in a fiercely competitive high-tech market. China had leapfrogged from nursing a tiny, rural-oriented solar program in the 1990s to become the globe’s leader in what may soon be the world’s largest renewable energy source.
China’s move eclipsed the leadership of the U.S. solar industry, which invented the technology, still holds many of the world’s patents and led the industry for more than three decades. Just how China accomplished that and why it did is still a matter of concern and debate among U.S. experts.
China’s new dominance of nearly all aspects of solar use and manufacturing—markets that are predicted to expand by 13 percent a year, according to the report—came through a “unique, complex, and interdependent set of circumstances” that is not likely to be repeated.
The timeline of China’s rise began in the late 1990s when Germany, overwhelmed by the domestic response to a government incentive program to promote rooftop solar panels, provided the capital, technology and experts to lure China into making solar panels to meet the German demand.
According to some veterans in the U.S. solar industry, China bought solar companies and invited others to move to China, where they found cheap, skilled labour. Instead of paying taxes, they received tax credits. Chung notes that China’s government was also generous in other ways. Making solar panels is difficult. To make them efficiently, the business requires large, semiautomated factories.
“The Chinese took it and basically ran with it,” said Donald Chung, one of the authors of the DOE report, who studies the solar industry for DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo.
China, according to Chung, had “dabbled” in solar energy only as a source of electricity to help impoverished rural areas remote from its power grid. But then some of its pioneering companies became intrigued by the income that manufacturing solar panels for export to Germany might bring in. When Spain and Italy began their own
- The article describes China thriving in solar energy technology Innovation is due to its “unique, complex, and interdependent set of circumstances”. From the perspective of ‘Supply Push and Demand Pull’ in the Energy Technology Innovation (ETI) System, discuss in details the China’s unique and interdependent approach in developing its solar energy industry. In your discussion support your answer with various evidence in article. [25 Marks]
- From the above article, examine FIVE ( 5 ) major ETI indicators either quantitative or qualitative that indicate the China ETI performance. [25 Marks]
- The article mentions about the United States of America (USA) invented much of the Solar technology and still holds many of the patents, however, nowadays it falls behind China in the solar industry. Based on the definition, concept, and process and system of innovation, explain how that phenomenon happened. [25 Marks]
- Knowledge is the most fundamental resource in modern economy. Based on the Energy Technology Innovation (ETI) system, discuss how the downturn of the United States of America (USA) solar industry will lead to knowledge depreciation and on the contrary, the success of China will help the knowledge accumulation and expansion. [25 marks] -END OF PAPER-
