"US firm’s landmark solar deal with China loses steam; One year later, many doubt pact will be completed" by Keith B. Richburg, Washington Post | September 5, 2010
BEIJING — With great fanfare, an Arizona-based energy company signed a preliminary agreement with China last fall to build the world’s largest solar power plant in the Mongolian desert.
The deal was hailed as the first major example of the United States and China cooperating on a big-ticket energy project, and the largest move made by an American company into Asia’s fast-growing alternative energy market.
The agreement became a centerpiece achievement of President Obama’s visit to China last November.
But nearly a year later, the deal has not been completed and there is growing skepticism as to whether it will happen.
Chinese competitors in the solar business have complained openly about the American company, First Solar, getting such a lucrative contract. A planned June 1 date to break ground was missed.
And government officials from the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia, where the plant would be built, say they plan to open the project to competitive bidding.
Many solar industry insiders now say the deal — outlined in a “memorandum of understanding’’ — was mainly a showpiece for Chinese officials to demonstrate support for one of Obama’s signature initiatives, strategic energy cooperation.
What happened to the Mongolian solar farm project reads like a cautionary tale on the pitfalls facing American firms trying to enter the Chinese market, particularly in a sector such as alternative energy where there are many indigenous competitors....
Related:
"Last year, China invested about $34 billion in solar panels, wind turbines, and other alternative energy technologies, nearly twice as much as the United States, where spending fell sharply"
Yup, the Chinese cut deals and work on the future while we destroy and plunder the planet, AmeriKa!
Also see: Chinese Oil Spill Slimes AmeriKan MSM
About the same time First Solar was signing its preliminary agreement for the Mongolian project, China was making an aggressive push into the American alternative energy market.
A Chinese consortium invested $1.5 billion in a 36,000-acre wind farm in West Texas, with all the wind turbines to be made in China.
So CHINA is INVESTING in ALTERNATIVE ENERGY HERE as the U.S. spends the money on wars, Wall Street, and Israel.
Can your government have failed you any greater, Americans?
Murray King, managing director for greater China for APCO Worldwide, a business advisory firm, said it was not unusual for Chinese leaders to race through with signing ceremonies for major business deals around the time of high-level foreign visits — and to have many of the deals never go through.
A memorandum of understanding in China “is a first date,’’ King said. “And not all first dates lead to marriage.’’
First Solar left standing at the alter?
Related: Evergreen Grows Tall in China
