China Solar Hot Water Capacity Soon to be Equivalent to 40 Nuclear Plants

How far behind is Canada? How about these for eye-opening statistics:

• A solar water heater in China costs less than $200. Without one, a family wishing for hot water would have to buy an electric water heater for about the same price and pay up to $120 per year for electricity. The payback is almost instantaneous.
• By relying on the sun, the citizens of Rizhao have cut carbon dioxide emissions by almost 53 thousand tons per year. Air quality has remained much better than in most urban areas of China, luring foreign investors and increasing tourism.
• Experts project that by 2010 the number of solar water heaters installed in China will equal the thermal equivalent of electrical capacity of 40 large nuclear power plants. Globally, solar water heaters have the capacity to produce as much energy as more than 140 nukes.

These stunning statistics and many more fascinating facts are from this article: http://www.miller-mccune.com/main/article/171

The real question is, why isn't Canada also a leader in this area? Where is our Made-in-Canada solution? Perhaps the answer is contained in a study from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), which points out that "many barriers and fossil-fuel subsidies" are hampering the switch to a green economy. Here in 'green' BC, for example, despite the recent budget that contained a revenue-neutral carbon tax, that same budget also gave over three hundred million dollars to the oil and gas industries. Annually.

Suppose that same money had gone to solar water heaters? (Which can also be used to provide radiant heating for homes.) Even at $1,000 per heater, that's 300,000 solar hot water heaters per year that the government could be giving to people. If the government just subsidised them, far more would be available at a price that would make oil, gas, or electric heating look just foolish and wasteful. And that's just BC, population ~four million. Every household could have a free solar hot water heater in no time!

The current parties are simply not serious about the climate emergency, or about helping Canada shift to a new green economy, or about reducing costs and increasing energy independence for all of us. If they were, they'd be promoting Made in Canada solar hot water heaters.

UNEP article: http://www.wbcsd.org/plugins/DocSearch/details.asp...