Be alert to new energy and bring new pollution

JinkoSolar, which was shut down due to its entry into the polluted door, announced yesterday that the Haining plant will resume production. Just a month ago, this high-tech company specializing in the R&D, production and sales of solar photovoltaic products caused local mass incidents due to the pollution of liquid waters near the factory, and it also caused people to stay overnight. Be alert to the environmental problems behind the new energy industry. Some experts revealed that although new energy does not have or only a small amount of pollution in the final use, in the process of new energy development and conversion, if it is handled improperly, it will produce “new pollution”.

Reflections on New Energy Pollution Incident

On September 15th, more than 500 people from Hongxiao Village, Yuanhua Town, Haining City, Zhejiang Province, gathered in front of Zhejiang Jingke Energy Co., Ltd. to discuss environmental pollution issues. Because not long ago, the chemicals in the company's waste rushed into the river behind the company, causing the river's fluoride ion to exceed the standard 10 times. Under heavy pressure, the company was forced to announce the suspension of production. In fact, in April this year, the environmental protection department of Haining City had discovered that Zhejiang Jingke Energy Co., Ltd. “diverted rain and sewage is not complete”, causing some sewage to enter the rainwater pipeline and issued a warning to the company.

Ironically, Jinko Energy was also named “2011 Clean Technology Driver” five months ago by the German Institute of Clean Technology. In fact, in the minds of most people, the words such as new energy and clean technology, environmental protection, and reproducibility are indeed drawn to equal signs.

“People have misunderstandings about this.” An industry expert who declined to be named pointed out that the problem of new energy pollution is not what people think. Although there is less pollution in the process of use, the environmental issues in equipment manufacturing and development are not small. watch for. New energy, also known as unconventional energy, is based on new technologies such as solar, wind, biomass, nuclear, geothermal and ocean energy.

Taking solar energy as an example, photovoltaic power generation is a technology that utilizes the photovoltaic effect of a semiconductor interface to convert light energy directly into electrical energy. The key component of this technology is solar cells, which are currently the most widely used polysilicon solar cells. Although solar photovoltaic power generation as a representative of clean energy, has always been regarded as a promising green industry, but the polysilicon production in the upper reaches of the photovoltaic industry chain has been repeatedly polluted: Most domestic manufacturers produce polysilicon, resulting in a large number of toxic by-products of tetrachlorine Silicon is difficult to recycle. The battery assembly industry in the downstream of the industrial chain, due to the extensive use of hydrofluoric acid in the production process, will also produce a large amount of fluorine-containing waste every day.

According to Meng Xianlu, deputy director of the China Renewable Energy Society, polysilicon is a basic material for the photovoltaic industry and is a high-pollution and high-energy-consuming product. In the production of polysilicon, silicon tetrachloride and hydrogen chloride are produced eight times as much as they are. These are two highly polluting toxic liquids, and the cost of their reuse is expensive. At present, half of Chinese enterprises are not installed because of economic problems or The relevant recycling equipment is not completely installed. In addition, the advanced production technology of polysilicon cells has been monopolized by the developed countries such as the United States, Germany and Japan, and there are still serious defects in key technologies such as pollution control, all of which have resulted in low levels of pollution control in the polysilicon industry in China. Therefore, at present, the pollution of certain production links in the solar photovoltaic industry should be highly regarded.

In recent years, the export volume of photovoltaic products in China accounts for about 90% of the world's total. As of 2010, China's photovoltaic cell output accounts for about 50% of the world's total output, ranking first in the world for many years. However, as a large photovoltaic country, we are suffering from the huge pollution pressure brought about by the photovoltaic manufacturing industry. Even academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences bluntly stated that "production of solar energy products has left pollution in China."

The Jinke Energy's “pollution door” incident has caused many public doubts and concerns about the environmental issues of the new energy industry.

New energy is hidden behind new energy

The use of new energy requires the use of a variety of equipment. Routine maintenance also requires the consumption of a variety of materials. During the manufacture, transportation and use of these materials and equipment, some conventional pollutants are discharged. Some need to consume large amounts of energy, and some can also cause pollution during the conversion process. Therefore, there are many kinds of "new pollution" hidden behind new energy sources.

As one of the seven strategic emerging industries, the future development of new energy will focus on the four major industries of nuclear power, wind power, solar energy and biomass energy.

The accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan once again pushed the safety of nuclear power plants to the world public, and the use of nuclear power suffered a major setback. Nuclear power is the way to use the heat energy released by nuclear fission in a nuclear reactor to generate electricity. Nuclear power is a clean, efficient and relatively safe source of energy. Its pollution is caused by a nuclear leakage accident at a nuclear power plant causing leakage of radioactive material, polluting the surrounding environment, and causing public exposure to radiation and radioactive pollution.

With the global warming and energy crisis, all countries are stepping up the development and utilization of wind power. The use of wind energy is mainly driven by wind power and wind power, of which wind power is dominant. As a new energy source, wind power pollution mainly exists in the process of wind power generation. According to Meng Xianjun, in the process of wind power generation, there will be low-frequency noise pollution when the blades of wind power are turned. Apart from having a certain impact on human health, it will also interfere with air flow and affect the safe flight of birds. In addition, when the factory produces blades for wind power, if the poor handling of glass fibers produced by grinding of glass fiber leads to flying everywhere, it will cause air pollution and affect people's normal life.

Biomass energy is the energy form of solar energy stored in biomass in the form of chemical energy. It is directly or indirectly derived from the photosynthesis of green plants. Biomass power generation is a power generation method in which crop straw is the main fuel, which is divided into gasification power generation and direct-fired power generation. Gasification power generation burns straw in the absence of oxygen, generates gas and then generates electricity.

For the pollution of biomass power generation, Meng Xianzhu pointed out that direct-fired power generation that burns straw directly will produce pollutants such as carbon dioxide and fine particulate matter. These pollutants will be released into the air and cause air pollution. In addition, according to Ying Hao, director of the equipment research department of the Chinese Academy of Forestry Chemical Industry Institute, gasification power generation will generate waste water. Although wastewater can be purified through technology, it will increase the company's power generation costs, and more importantly, Even if the effluent is treated, the pollutants cannot be completely removed and there will be a part.

Therefore, some experts have called for the need to be vigilant about pollution in the processing of new energy. Any kind of new energy, even if the end use is clean, but its processing process is pollution, can not be called "clean energy." “So, these pollutions and the energy that is consumed all need to be allocated to new energy, so as to come to the conclusion that a certain technology is clean.”

Enterprises must make their own government

For the conflict between the promotion of new energy and the pollution it produces, industry experts agree that as the highlight of the future development of the energy industry, the development strategy of the new energy industry cannot be changed. The "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" development plan for clean energy also clearly states that by 2015, solar energy will be 10 million kilowatts and biomass energy will be 13 million kilowatts; by 2020, wind power plans will have 150 million kilowatts of installed capacity and 30 million kilowatts of solar energy, and biomass. The power generation capacity will also reach 30 million kilowatts. In addition, according to the data released in the "12th Five-Year Plan" energy planning outline, the "12th Five-Year Plan" non-fossil energy consumption is 470 million tons of standard coal, an 81% increase over 2010, among which, other than hydropower and other renewable energy sources Consumption is 190 million tons of standard coal, an increase of 280% over 2010.

However, in order to really make new energy sources clean and efficient, enterprises still need to make efforts in technology and management, and the government must also strictly supervise the new energy companies' pollution control actions. It cannot be because the new energy companies will open a green light. . Li Shengmao, a senior researcher at China Investment Advisors Co., Ltd., said that although wind power, solar photovoltaic industry and other industries are clean energy industries, there are still environmental pollution in the production process. Therefore, government departments must take measures to ensure that these clean energy industries are truly clean. produce. On the one hand, when government agencies are investing in new energy companies, they must resolutely avoid reducing the environmental protection and governance level of enterprises as a preferential policy to relevant companies and block the pollution of new energy companies from the source; on the other hand, government departments It is necessary to increase the supervision and inspection of environmental protection work in the daily production activities of new energy companies, and formulate detailed penalties for non-compliance to prevent companies from stealing “three wastes”.

In this regard, Meng Xianjun also said that the pollution generated by the new energy industry, to take measures can be completely resolved and controlled. "The pollution is not terrible. It is terrible that companies do not take effective measures to prevent pollution, and the government's supervision may be absent."

At the same time, Li Shengmao believes that the new energy industry is a strategic emerging industry, although it will produce some pollution problems in the production process, but its environmental benefits are very obvious, is a typical low-carbon environment-friendly industries. As the new energy industry is not mature enough in the early stages of development, the related products cannot be closed-loop production, and there will still be “three wastes”. In the future, with the continuous improvement of production technologies, the new energy industry will truly become an environment-friendly industry. .