What is energy?

The most basic definition is Newtonian, namely that the energy E of a moving mass m is half of m times the square of the velocity v. i.e. E= 1/2 m v^2,

There are all forms of energy related this this, e.g. wind energy is moving air, heat energy is moving molecules, and hydro power is moving water.

We can speak of potential energy in terms of energy stored in various forms that can convert readily into kinetic energy.

First we have gravitation potential for which a mass at a height readily increases its velocity as it drops.

Second we have electric potential for which a charge at a higher voltage readily flows to lower potential, generating a current.

Third, we have magnetic potential for which a magnetic pole may be attracted by another magnetic pole.

Fourth, we have barometric potential such as energy stored in a compressed gas tank. Also we can have elastic potential for which a mass such as a stone may be accelerated as we release a stretched elastic band.

Fifth, we may have mass converted into energy, such as in the sun when hydrogen atoms slam into each other at high temperature and fuse to form helium, and in the process loses mass and gain significant heat energy.

Sixth, we may have energy stored in the form of chemical bonds, or more properly the electric potentials of chemicals. Our current economy runs primarily in fossil fuel such as coal, oil, and natural gas

We also have energy in the form of waves, e.g. sound waves, water waves, and light waves. We shall focus on solar energy, the most abundant energy available almost everywhere and any time where and when the sun shines.

The first part of the course describes these 10 forms of energy: kinetic (motion, fluid and heat), potential (gravitation, barometric, electric, magnetic, chemical, and nuclear) and wave (primarily light).

The second part of the course describes how one form of energy can be transformed into another form. We shall explore the technologies of energy conversion and storage. We shall describe the technologies for solving today’s energy and ecological crises.

I understand that this is a huge subject and this course is intended only to convey the basic and essential. I want to educate the general public concerning the nature and importance of energy. As the motto of Monarch Power Corp suggests we should live:

CLEAN ENERGY LIVING: BE RENEWED.

The first unit we learn is the Coulomb, the basic unit for electric charge. The basic equation is Coulomb’s law that relates the force F between two electric charges Q1 and Q2 separated by a distance r, given by F=kQ1Q2/r^2

The second unit is the Volt, the basic unit for electric potential. The basic equation relates work W by W=VQ to move a charge Q across an electric potential V.

The third unit is the Ampere, the basic unit for electric current. Ampere’s law define current similar to how Coulomb’s law define charges, namely that the force per unit length between two currents I1 and I2 is proportional to the product of these current divided by the square of the distance between these parallel currents.

The fourth unit is the Watt, the basic unit for power. From the equation for work W=QV, we derive the relation P = dW/dt = dQ/dt x V = IV.

This course is based on EEE202, a course I have taught at Arizona State University.

The catalog description of the course is: Electrical Networks I Introduction to electrical networks. Component models, transient, and steady-state analysis. Lecture, laboratory.

You may find it useful to learn more by reading the textbook of the class: Basic Engineering Circuit Analysis, 9th edition , by J. Irwin, R Nelms. The textbook has a pretty interesting web site for students. You need to read assigned sections of the book under course document for each class.

I have put under each lecture (except this one) the PowerPoint file I use while teaching the lecture at Arizona State University. Also, each lecture has a problem and posted solution. Please work the problem after you view the lecture.

In due time, I shall also post three quizzes for you to gauge how well you have learned the material.

Enjoy and learn. Stay hungry (be curious), stay foolish (be questioning).

This course is an introduction to basic communication techniques, including data sources, analog communications, digital communications, channel and source coding, and modern wireless communications. Examples of modern communication systems.

The textbook that you can use to obtain detail information is: Communications Systems Engineering, second edition, by J. G. Proakis and M. Salehi, Prentice Hall, 2001. However, the book covered much more material in much greater details than needed.

The material includes:

Chapter 1 (introduction)

Chapter 3 (analog communications)

Chapter 6 (information sources and coding)

Chapter 7 (digital communications)

Chapter 9 (channel capacity and coding)

Chapter 10 (wireless communications)

Chapter 2 (Fourier techniques) and chapter 4 (random processes) are given cursory treatment when needed, and if you are weak in those areas, you should review the material which I assume you know from the course prerequisite EEE303 and EEE350.

The lecture topics are listed in the course document area. There are the PowerPoint files which were converted from the Word files. Please refer to the PowerPoint files. The Word files are left there for reference.

Sometimes, the chapters listed for reading contain too much or too advanced material which could be read in a cursory manner.

Ultimately, the material covered is that presented in class, so missing classes is missing out on what defines the subjects to be tested. Reading of assigned text sections indicated in the course document area is a MUST! You should do the reading and the homework as soon as the material is covered in class. The schedule is tight, but if you complete the work conscientiously, you should be able to do well. Participation in class is strongly encouraged.

I went to San Men Xia of Henan to consider building the Monarch Solar Electric Vehicle (SEV) there. I would like to put together an assembly plant in China, with most components of the SEV sourced from suppliers. I also have taken with me a business plan to solicit investments.

I made good progress on these goals. I talked to the Party Secretary on investing and incorporating Monarch Power (China) in San Men Xia. He promised to give his utmost support, with tax vacation, infrastructure and export support, and custom service right in San Men Xia. He helped me analyze the pros and cons of manufacturing in San Men Xia compared with my other consideration in Guangdong province. Location is crucial. Guangdong has higher labor and land cost, but better access to ports and roads. San Men Xia is inland and the gateway to west (Xinjiang), north (Inner Mongolia), and southwest parts Tibet and Yunnan) of China, where the Monarch SEV and Monarch Lotus can find a welcoming market.

I also talked to a venture capital fund there and presented my business and investment plan. The ball is rolling on that front also. We plan to raise 5 million USD in China for production facility and production, and another 5 million USD in the United States for production development, marketing, and sale.

Inside China, I would like to form strategic partnerships, for low cost outsourced manufacturing of first the Monarch Lotus and later the Monarch SEV. Bringing these products to the market requires local partners for marketing, sales, and service. We are considering the Suda Communications Group for these purposes.

The Monarch Lotus and SEV are designed with low cost manufacturing as our focus, second only to the focus to bringing the most desirable and appealing products for the mass. We are keen not to burn our limited capital on factory floor, heavy equipment, nor a large manufacturing workforce and inventory. We also realize that we are not capable to bring the SEV to full certification, nor start an assembly line, nor maintain a dealership for sale and service. We therefore focus on technology development and rely on car manufacturers for bringing our SEV to the market.

Suda plans to invest billions of RMB in the EV business, and I had plan to source our SEV manufacturing to Suda. Here Suda is finishing the ground work on 900 Chinese acres (>100 acre) of manufacturing plant. Eventually the EV complex shall use up 3000 Chinese acres of a large industrial park of San Men Xia.

Ground preparation for Suda EV manufacturing

I have reached a preliminary agreement for Suda to produce the Monarch SEV. Suda may use their manufacturing floor to build a limited number around 100) of beta prototypes of the electric vehicle. Before the beta prototype, Suda is funding the alpha prototype of 2 SEV and 5 Lotuses. For Monarch, we plan to finish 10 alpha SEV prototypes mid 2013 and 100 beta prototypes mid 2014 before going into production of 10,000 SEV in 2015.

Suda has much bigger plan to produce their EV based on about 20 retrofitted cars with Suda EV technologies. They have operated their cars for more than a year with excellent test results.

Suda electric car converted from a Suzuki gasoline car

The following is an artist rendition of the complete Suda Assembly plant, with car frame welding, chassis pressing, electric drive train production buildings, and with the largest final assembly line at the bottom. On the bottom left, you see the corporate R&D, dormitory, and recreational facilities for staff. On the top right is a EV testing racecourse, and the top left parking lot for EV inventory.

Suda Electric Vehicle Plant

The models that Suda may build is shown in the following bill board on the construction site. In the center is the retrofitted EV that Suda now operates. The new models to be produced are now designed in Shanghai. Two major car models are considered: a hatch back model and the regular sedan model. Suda is also considering to produce a smaller NEV size car. They do not have the utility car market in sight, which is where our strategic partnership can be very helpful to them.

Suda car models to be built

Another bill board is informative of their investment plan. The title of the billboard is “Henan Suda EV Corp plans to produce annually 200,000 pure EV and 500,000 subsystems of EV controller, motors, and battery management”.

Investment plan for the Sudan electric cars

The billboard states the three phases of constructions started last year and finishing in 2014. The first phase of 800+ Chinese acres would complete the factory floor for the stated production plan of 200,000 cars and 500,000 drive train subsystems. The second phase of 1500 Chinese acres involves the R&D as well as EV testing facilities. The third phase of 1200+ Chinese acres involves a large logistic center for parts and other supporting infrastructures.

Total investment as stated is around 5 billion RMB, with annual revenue reaching 3.5 billion RMB. Suda is already the largest tax payer in San Men Xia. If this ambitious plan is brought to fruition, Suda shall help to double the economy as well as dominate the tax base of the city.

I would like to see a large industrial base for renewable energy generation and use in San Men Xia. The location provides low labor cost and cheaper material cost. San Men Xia produces locally automotive quality aluminum. It also has ample supply of coal. Molybdenum is produced abundantly about a hundred miles away, providing raw material for chromoly tubing production used in the Monarch SEV. I am also looking into if polycarbonate is produced cheaply in the local petrochemical industries. Also, cheap and good quality solar cells are produced in the adjacent province of Hebei by Yingle, perhaps the largest solar manufacturer in China now.

Overall, I am moving forward in three commercial objectives for this trip: sourced manufacturing in China, incorporation of Monarch Power (China) for technology transfer and business development, and fund raising for Monarch Power.

Henan EV Conference organized by Governor

My trip to China was by invitation of Suda Communications Group (sdjtjt.com) as foreign expert to report on International Development of Electric Vehicle. The report was given in the Henan Conference of the Alliance of Electric Vehicles. The Vice Governor of Henan province gave the introduction speech on government support and policies on electric vehicles.

Henan Vice-Governor gave speech on EV policies in Henan

After his speech, the Party Secretary of the City of San Men Xia, which hosted the conference in San Men Xia, gave strong support to transform the local mining (mainly aluminum, gold, and coal) industrial base to sustainable and renewable industries. San Men Xia, which literally means Three Gates Gorges, rose in the late 1950s around a dam built with the assistance of the Russians. With cheap electricity, alumina smelting then emerged, together with gold and coal mining. The city is polluted, and there is a strong drive for the city and its surrounding 3 million population to move into green technologies.

Party Secretary of San Men Xia giving speech on EV development

I am one of the two foreign experts brought in to report on electric vehicle technologies and commercialization. I focused on the US market, as well as how renewable technologies could help making China clean and green. I compared three EVs already sold in the US, including the Tesla Roadster, the Nissan Leaf, and the GM Volt. I also compared the technical and market positions of these three cars with the Suda electric vehicles to be built in San Men Xia.

I presented foreign expert report on electric vehicles

As seen in the picture, I held up for the audience a 1/16 size model of my Monarch SEV (Solar Electric Vehicle), currently in alpha prototyping. I wanted to illustrate a new technology and market position for EV. I also introduced the Monarch Lotus for solar electricity and water purification, as well as for charging EV.

Afterwards, Professor Cao and his Suda team of EV experts reported on local EV development, particularly on new motor, battery, control and signaling, vehicular design, and EV manufacturing at Suda.

Professor Cao of Suda introducing the Suda EV

I would like to comment on the state of EV technology and policy in China for the remainder of this blog. Most EV sold in China are either very small, i.e. electrical motorcycle, bicycle, or goods carrying tricycle; or very large such as electric bus and high speed trains. The much touted BYD electric sedans, made famous because of Warren Buffett 10% investment in 2009, have not been successful in volume sale.

Most EV sales are based on cheap lead acid battery technology. It is 1/3 the price of lithium batteries, though lead acid batteries lasts only 1/3 in terms of charging cycles and weighs 3 times as much for the same energy storage. The reason is primarily that EV buyers are motivated only by low upfront price. Even though the government tries to phase out the highly polluting use of lead in batteries, consumers are buying large number of EV (more appropriately classified in the US as Neighborhood EV or NEV) for as low a price as 30,000 RMB (less than $5000 USD, or half the price of the American built GEM NEV).

The central government tries to promote the use of lithium batteries in EV through generous EV subsidies, often directly to EV manufacturers that pass on the cost savings to the consumers. Currently, a 60,000 RMB subsidy is given per EV, which at an exchange rate of 1USD=6.3 RMB) is noticeably higher than the maximum $7,500 per EV to purchasers of EV in the US. This central government subsidy is given to more than 10 cities, eventually to cover all EV sale in China.

The Henan provincial government gives a separate subsidy of 50,000 RMB, still higher than the US federal subsidy. I am not sure if EV buyers can obtain both the provincial and central government subsidies, which would be too good to be true. Nevertheless, I believe that this subsidy, both in the US and in China, could pay for the lithium batteries provided that the battery size does not exceed the maximum storage capacity subsidized. In the US, EV subsidies is based on battery size, with maximum $7,500 subsidy capped at 17KWh. However, range considerations often require much larger size batteries, for example 24KWh for the Nissan Leaf, and more than 50KWh for the Tesla Roadster and the BYD e6.

Eventually such subsidies eventually shall be phased out both in China and the US (which allows subsidy for first 200,000 EV sold for each EV model). Subsidized or not, I believe that designing EV with at most 20KWh makes sense in weight and cost reduction. To achieve a good range with reduced battery size, EV must reduce overall curb weight. Here the use of new material and design aerodynamics is important. Monarch SEV is designed using light weight material, using either 10KWh or 20KWh batteries, for a range of up to 200 miles.

I mentioned in my talk that there are three important factors for successful adoption of EV technologies in China. First, focus on low price which is what China can do well in. China cannot compete base on technologies yet, as it has not establish a brand of reliability, luxury, nor performance for its car industry. I believe it can produce small size EV and flood the US with lithium based EV sold for 10,000 USD. I would be hard to believe that the US would subsidize such cheap Chinese import. It is hard to imagine US consumers would buy lead acid based NEV at $5,000, as they may not be highway worthy.

Second, promote new market segment besides subcompact cars such as electric vans. Both in China and the US, almost half of passenger vehicles sold are light trucks and minivans. I believe that small utility vehicles, for carry people, goods, or vending, are highly attractive besides being a family car. For EV, it is important to reduce weight of the light trucks and vans, which are typically heavier for gasoline versions.

Third, provide ubiquitous charging facilities allowing convenient charging whenever an EV is parked. With smaller size batteries, the time to charge batteries is reduced. I believe once the economics of EV is realized by the Chinese consumers and business, EV charging shall become ubiquitous for convenient charging. This already has happened for using compressed natural gas for taxis in China. High gasoline price has forced practically all taxis in western China to convert to using natural gas, despite high cost of setting up CNG filling stations.

China by itself has a huge internal market for EV, and there is strong motivation for Chinese central and provincial governments to promote EV use to reduce the dire pollution problems in cities. I believe EV shall take off quite quickly in China, if cost reduction and government subsidies are set in motion. Once that is established in China, it is a matter of time before cheap Chinese EV invades the US market, with or without US subsidies.

A side comment on Chinese subsidies for EV import into China. China has explicitly asked for technology transfer of non-Chinese EV technologies to China before Chinese subsidies apply. This smacks of protectionism at best and nationalizing foreign technologies at worst. It is unlikely that an American produced GM Volt or Nissan Leaf shall be subsidized in China, unless they are assembled in China. For that reason, I believe the US would retaliate by not allowing Chinese EV, such as the much delayed sale of the BYD e6 in the US, to obtain the $7,500 tax credit unless it is built in the US.

I would also like to comment on the issue of unfair pricing or below cost dumping of Chinese goods sold in the US. I wonder if such a situation may arise for Chinese built EV. Take the concern of cheap Chinese solar panels undercutting US manufacturer as an example. The US government may soon impose a tariff on Chinese produced solar panels, very likely to be a $0.1 USD per Watt on top of the $1.2 USD per Watt wholesale price. Major panel producers such as Suntech has been losing close to a billion USD. For raw material for solar panels, price cutting for poly-silicon is fierce, from a high of $500 per Kg to as low as $25 per Kg recently from GCL Poly, the biggest producer in the world.

Over investment has always been a major problem in Chinese industries. China has gone from a major poly-silicon importer only two years ago to now dominating the supply of this raw material for solar panels. Over investment could be attributed to cheap government provided or guaranteed loans. Other form of subsidies include cheap land, or the government may secure sale for the producers at the expense of the tax payers. Ultimately, I believe such hidden subsidies if abused are bad for China and the general public. Reduced panel price is good for the American consumers but perhaps bad for American producers.

Chinese EV producers may enjoy a similar advantage. However, the US government is providing similar subsidies to EV and PV producers, albeit in a more transparent and less corrupt manner. I believe that the nascent EV and PV markets should be government assisted much like carbon based energy system has always been. It is important that such assistance are used to build new strategic industries. Pollution cost should be properly accounted for in various forms of carbon tax. Due diligence must be exercised in providing assistance, such as the merit of the technology, market validation, and safeguard against corruption and resource misappropriation.

For more information on the subject, please watch a remake of my foreign expert talk in Henan.

Map of Xinjiang and my stay at Urumqi and Turpan

Xinjiang is a huge province, the largest in China with more than twice the size of Texas. It is mostly desert, but is energy rich in its reserve of coal, oil, and natural gas. Xinjiang is also rich in renewable energy with plentiful sunshine and wind. Xinjiang is at the cross road of Asia. Together with the ribbon length of the Gansu province, Xinjiang comprises almost the entire length of the silk road within China to reach the ancient capital of Xian.

My travel this time started from the provincial capital of Urumqi, representative of Han dominated industries, to the Uighur dominated agricultural base of Turfan, and then onto the Gansu historical sites of Duan Huang Buddhist caves and Jia Yu Guan at the western end of the Great Wall of China. I saw a small but representative part of Xinjiang. In this blog I shall focus on the energy market in Xinjiang.

My first impression on my first day in Urumqi was that it was quite sunny and the sky was clear. I was able to see the snow covered Tian-Shan to the south from Urumqi. This was unusual, as the tour guide said dust storm and pollution often make Tian-Shan invisible from a distance. I figure given the vast desert and arid climate, solar energy would be huge in Xinjiang, as well as in Tibet and Qinghai which I visited last year, and the southwest province of Yunnan which I visited a few years back. Tibet is so sunny that it could cause eye damages with the extra strong ultraviolet radiation.

My second impression of Xinjiang was, oh my, it was windy on my second day in Urumqi. I saw downed power facilities blocking streets. Wind power is big in Xinjiang and more so in Inner Mongolia. Wind is less important in the highland of Tibet, where air density can be as low as 50% of sea level, thereby reducing air force in power production.

On the way from Urumqi to Turfan, there were a lot of turbines, more than anywhere else I have seen in my life. Many of them are not seen turning, perhaps because the previous day was very windy. More likely, wind generation may not be as economical compared with say coal or natural gas generation. You readily see a lot of coal fire power plant in Xinjiang. Wind suffers from both location and time problems: wind blows where people do not want to live, when people are not using the most electricity. It takes a grid to take wind generated electricity to cities. At night when wind blows the strongest and demand for electricity the weakest, wind farms are sometimes paid not to generate in order to avoid overloading the grid. Here is a picture of a wind farm next to the Urumqi to Turfan highway. Note it was windy and dusty and the sky was overcast even though there were no clouds.

Wind, wind, everywhere, but not a grid to bring

Turfan produces grapes, irrigated with water brought in from Tian Shan. Departing Turfan, I took a train to Xian and made two stops in between. The Turfan Basin is hot, with part of it below sea level. The next basin the train took us to was the Hami Basin, where the famous Hami melon is produced.

Turfan is also the crossroad of major rail lines going west. At the western border is the town of Kashi close to the Afghan border. The rail line crosses the vast Tarim Basin in South Xinjiang. Before entering the Tarim Basin, Korla is an agricultural basin famous for its sweet Korla pear. Korla is growing rapidly as the major operational center for much of the oil and natural gas found to its west in the Tarim Basin, particularly in Lunnan where the First West-East Gas Pipeline originates, bringing 17 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year all the way to Shanghai.

After visiting Turfan, I stopped by Duan Huang to visit ancient Buddhist caves and sand dunes. I met on the train engineers coming from Urumqi who are setting up a 50MW solar energy farm in Duan Huang. Here is a view of the solar farm they are building, with the Chinese character Huang in view.

A soon to be 50MW solar farm, but the sun is often blocked by sand and coal smog

One major problem they face in Duan Huang is the extreme temperature variation in the desert, making the solar panels flexing from hot day to cold night. More than solar panel cost, the cost for installation and operation are drives up solar energy cost. However, the Chinese government offers generous feed in tariff, which was set at 1.2 RMB per KWh last year and dropping to about 1 RMB this year, higher than 1 RMB paid by household in Chinese cities inclusive of grid transport. The engineers were fascinated by the Monarch Lotus I invented, with reduced installation cost.

Similar to wind, I believe solar power cannot achieve grid parity without government subsidy, particularly when coal and natural gas price remains low. I believe that solar energy is better than wind energy, because it generate electricity where and when needed. I believe that solar energy is highly economical for off grid generation and use. People are willing to pay far more for portable and personal form of power. Portable means local and mobile generation. Personal means power tied to individual needs, such as EV transportation, water purification and heating, as well as lighting.

Our Monarch Lotus is ideally suitable for Xinjiang and Tibet where much of the nomadic population is off grid, off potable water pipelines, and not served by gasoline or natural gas stations. Similar to the plight of some Native Americans Indians, government assistance is required to bring such necessities to remote reserves. The Monarch Lotus can provide such amenities, substantially reducing government infrastructure cost for universal access to electricity, water, and transportation.

Coal is so cheap that it is burnt everywhere, from inside a small Kazakh yurt with chimney spilling out carbon dioxide out of its open top, to local hot water supplier to surrounding buildings, and on large scale in large factories such as steel mills shown below in Jia Yu Guan. While tourism is big in Jia Yu Guan, the biggest employer is a state owned steel enterprise, hiring about a third of the 300,000 population in town.

Steel mills, and coal is burned everywhere

Steel is big in Jia Yu Guan because coal and iron ore are mined near by. Burning coal is so prevalent throughout western China. Here you see a night time view outside my hotel window in Duan Huang. You see the car lights on the bottom right, but you cannot see the two tall chimneys that dominate the view. At night, you can see these chimneys pouring sparks (small white dots in the picture) creating an eerie sight, besides blackening the window sills with soot.

At night, chimney spilling sparks of coal burning (dots and streaks seen at top of picture

While sparking chimneys billowing smoke is an ungainly sight, the iron furnaces inside Kazakh yurt shown below looks better, provides cheap and abundant heat for Kazakhs. The top of the furnace is a cooking range top. I hope to replace the furnace and chimney shown in this picture with our Monarch Lotus that rises out of the Kazakh yurt, providing much needed electricity, hot water, and if needed distilled water.

Kazakhs dancing inside yurt with coal furnace and chimney shown bottom right

I believe the social cost of coal burning has been largely ignored by the people and the Chinese government. Burning coal is polluting and dangerous, but it is so convenient and cheap that everyone burns coal whenever heat is needed. I am less concerned with coal running out than with the persistent smog that bothers my lung and eye. The air around Xian is so bad that you cannot escape from that pungent smell and engulfing smog.

It is quite a crusade to convince Chinese to convert from burning coal to collecting solar energy for heating water. Foremost, many Chinese die each year from carbon monoxide poisoning from burning coal in houses without good air circulation. I believe that burning coal and inhaling the very fine coal dust can lead to lung cancer, which if not reduced could kill more Chinese than smoking cigarettes.

Eventually, Chinese can be convinced best by finding cheaper and more convenient way than burning coal. While solar water heating is provably better, coal burning remains the only way for heating houses in frigid weather. Eventually, household heating should be replaced by burning natural gas.

An interesting example of shifting fuel source is found in transportation. Taxi ride is quite a bit cheaper in China than in the US, at about 1/4 the price per distance traveled. While most wages and prices of goods in China are a small fraction of that for Americans, gasoline price can be higher than in some American cities. Therefore, running taxis on gasoline becomes uneconomical. The taxi I rode in Duan Huang stopped by a PetroChina natural gas filling station selling natural gas at 3 RMB per cubic meter as shown in the following picture.

Cheap natural gas (half the cost of gasoline) for taxi, with plenty of gas (methane) stations

The taxi driver has been driving on gasoline after exhausting his 15 cubic meter of natural gas stored. In the above picture, he put in about 15 cubic meter, costing a mere 44 RMB or roughly $7, for which he can drive in the natural gas mode for more than 200 Km. The fuel cost per Km of driving on natural gas is about 0.3 RMB per Km, less than half of that for driving on gasoline. The taxi driver spent 6000 RMB converting his taxi into hybrid mode. He can recover that cost of conversion in a month or two.

This shows that no amount of appealing to social conscience is as attractive as saving money. Taxi drivers can only survive driving on natural gas, even if it means substantially less power than gasoline driving. Natural gas has much lower energy per volume that can be injected into the internal combustion engine for gasoline.

In Xinjiang where natural gas is produced, pump price can be lower than 2 RMB per liter. In the US, city gate price of natural gas is at an all time low of $2 per thousand cubic feet (also referred to as mmBTU) . There are 36 cubic feet in one cubic meter, so $2 per mmBTU translates to 0.45 RMB per cubic meter. No wonder charging 3 RMB per cubic meter for PetroChina is very profitable.

The threat to grid tied solar or wind energy is coal or natural gas fired power generation. Solar PV or thermal generation cannot compete without proper accounting of pollution. Cheap Chinese panels may have caused Solyndra to fail or First Solar to cut production. We may put hope in solar thermal generation using solar tower or solar trough. Bright Source, which uses solar tower with heat storage for electricity generation via heated steam, canceled its initial public offering of stock last week, simply because natural gas generation is becoming competitive.

The biggest bet China places on energy sufficiency is on transporting a vast amount of compressed natural gas through the West-East Gas Pipeline. The first pipeline which became operational in mid 2000′s transports 17 billion cubic meter per year to Shanghai. Since then they have built a second pipeline from Khorgas to Hong Kong, with a spur line to Beijing, that can carry 30 billion cubic meter per year. A third and possibly fourth pipeline is planned, carrying natural gas from Kazakhstan or even Iran.

Natural gas consumption in China could soon exceed 100 billion cubic meter per year, or 100 cubic meter per capita per year. That amount still pales in comparison with energy consumed per capita by Americans. The per capita carbon footprint of an American is 3 tons of carbon dioxide, more than 4 times that of a Chinese citizen on average.

The long term solution to our energy crisis, both in China and the US, resides in conservation and alternative energy sources. Xinjiang is bigger than Texas in size and in energy resources. Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia are the energy source of all China in natural gas and coal. The time has come to find cheaper and better ways to harvest wind and solar energy from these vast provinces.

Standing in the frozen Tian Chi, with Tian Shan in the background.

I visited Xinjiang, flew to Urumqi from Guangzhou on March 28, then traveled by train through Turfan, Duan Huang, and Jia Yu Guan, and arriving Xian on April 4. In this blog I shall describe the land and people of this vast province, preparing for another blog on the energy and environment of Xinjiang next.

I visited Tibet about 4 months ago. Tibet is the roof of the world, icy and cold, with air thin and dry. Xinjiang is equally big, if not bigger, hot in summer, dusty, and windy. Even though Tibet and Xinjiang are adjacent, its people, religion, and land could not be more contrasting. Tibetans are Buddhists while Xinjiang minorities are Muslims. Tibetans dominate Tibet with few Hans, but Hans are fast becoming the majority in Xinjiang. From my conversation with people on the train from Urumqi back to Xian, Hans find Xinjiang an excellent place to make money, given its vast resources of coal, natural gas, minerals, and agricultural produces. It is truly becoming the wild west of China.

As of the census of 2000, the Uighur remains the largest minority group in China of almost 10 millions, slightly outnumbering Hans in Xinjiang. That could be changing rapidly, as the Han Chinese are flooding into Xinjiang, particularly to the bigger cities such as Urumqi and new resource centers such as Korla, a major production base of natural gas. Here is a video of a Uighur old man playing their traditional instrument at Flame Mountain near Turfan.

Uighur speaks and writes a variant of Arabic close to the Turkish language. They dominate in South Xinjiang as farmers and to a lesser extent as nomads. Here is the picture of a friendly grape farmer who opens his farm to tourists and sells raisins.

Grape farmer at Turfan, a basin below sea level

Water is expensive in Xinjiang, as the grape farmer mentioned that during planting season, he pays 5000 RMB for water to come to his vineyard. Thanks to modern technology, water is now brought to Turfan from Tian-Shan, instead of ancient viaducts from the foot hills close by. In fact, I came back from Xinjiang with the view that purified water is the most urgent need of the land.

After the Uighur and Han ethnic groups, the third largest ethnic group is the Kazakh (or Cossack), a Eurasian nomadic people who often live in yurt. Here is a video of an elegant Kazakh dance inside a yurt close to Tian Chi (Heavenly Lake) and Tian Shan (Heavenly Mountain).

While being Muslims, the Kazakh minority are more nomads and have European roots. With a smaller population of less than 2 million, they live in North Xinjiang close to the Kazakhstan and Russian borders. Their yurt are warm and bright, as you can see in the center is a coal furnace with a pipe chimney going through a sunroof opened on top of the yurt, different from a Mongolian yurt which does not have a sunroof. The Kazakh yurt is an ideal homestead to put the Monarch Lotus, as it can provide not only solar electricity with the Lotus going through the sunroof, but also heat and purified water down the center aluminum column. Here is the external view of the yurt.

Kazakh yurt, with sunroof

I later went to Jia Yu Guan, the western end of the Great Wall of China. Here is a picture of the Ming fortress built there and a Mongolian yurt is shown here for comparison. The Mongolians are small minority in Xinjiang, among the more the 50 minority groups.

Fortress at the western end of Great Wall of China, with Mongolian yurt

The places I went to were dominant towns along the Silk Road to China. I had wanted to visit Kashi close to the Afghan border, but did not because of recent ethnic riots there. Urumqi is pretty much established by various Chinese empires for governing the Western Frontier (named such since the Han dynasty 2000 years ago). The fewer Uighur minority in Urumqi also had serious race riots in 2009 in the Uighur enclave of the Great Bazaar. Here is a scene of a Friday Islamic worship with worshipers overflowing onto the street.

Friday worship at the Great Bazaar, with tight security

I bought dried fruits at the Great Bazaar. I also bought a Tian Shan Snow Lotus (about $30 dollars for about 10 grams) which is good for both men and women. I talked to Mr. Ma, a young Hui minority student who studies Arabic and aspires to go on his Mecca pilgrimage next year. He has a sister who paid pilgrimage last year. The Hui minority are Muslims by religion and converted to Islam from the Chinese ethnic stock. I talked to Mr Ma for two hours for cultural, religious, and historical exchanges.

Mr Ma (name on newspaper in front), a Hui minority medicine shop keeper

After visiting Urumqi and Turfan, I took the night train to Duan Huang, where you see hundreds of Buddhists caves dating back to the Tang dynasty (9th century AD). We have left the huge province of Xinjiang, and now travel through the long sliver province of Gansu. Here is a picture taken in front of a 7 story tall Tang dynasty Buddha. We cannot take any picture from inside the caves.

Seven story cave housing Tang dynasty Buddha

The Silk route goes through Gansu before entering going into the Xian, ancient capital of China from the Chin dynasty to the early Sung dynasty. The Silk route, besides transporting silk and other Chinese luxury items, is a major thoroughfare not only for European merchants such as Marco Polo but also missionaries such as the Christian Manichean sect and the Buddhist monks from India and from China. The Duan Huang caves is the only artifacts that remain after the region converts largely to Islam. Islamic architecture reflects largely that of the Uighur population.

The land looks alpine in the north inhabited by the Kazakhs, but to a large extent is dark brown desert that looks dreary and dusty. There are snow covered mountain ranges, painted desert and monument valley like landscapes similar to my home state of Arizona. Here is a picture of the Flame Mountain where the Tang Monk was trapped and rescued by the Monkey King from the sinister Iron Fan Princess.

Flame Mountain with slide on my left (not advised)

There are also big sand dunes which I rolled down on. Everywhere there is sand that flies in your eye.

Huge sand dunes outside Duan Huang (sign said no climbing, which I dutifully ignored)

Occasionally you see animals, often goats that can be served on skewers. You also see horses and camels, and sometimes donkeys, also can be served as delicacies. Here are pictures of camels.

Camel train taking you to oasis and sand dunes

The predominant food is of course barbecue of animals and vegetables of all sorts. I did try donkey meat and ate a lot of goats on skewer. Camel and horse meat are hard to come by though.

Delicious barbecue at Duan Huang

The train ride along these famous towns has been quite a journey through history, people, religion, and geography. More important, I came to appreciate the diversity of the land and its people, with a respect for their lifestyle and what the land can offer. I also am concerned with the precarious ethnic strife and unchecked exploitation of the land. It is the wild west, with all its romance, danger, and opportunities.

The Monarch Lotus and my Tesla Roadster made quite a presence at the Arizona State Capitol this Tuesday, in an event that promotes alternative fuel vehicles organized by the Clean City Alliance.

Monarch Lotus in open and closed positions

I had placed an open and a close Monarch Lotus close to my Tesla, in a mock demonstration of how to charge an electric car by focused solar power. The Tesla draws the crowd readily, which I then redirect to the Monarch Lotus.

Dr. Hui explaining the benefits of the battery powered Tesla Roadster

Here is a close up view of the open Lotus with the Arizona State Capitol as the backdrop.

Monarch Lotus in open position

I was very pleased that the open Lotus was standing firm and majestic, and I believe this design can withstand strong wind of 30 miles an hour before it is folded up into the closed Lotus. The strength of the polycarbonate blades, together with the radial aluminum spine, and a steel wire that binds the 18 petals/spines together in the circumference of the parabolic dish makes a very strong 4 meter diameter mirror.

I also showed a Lotus petal that I introduced as the new form of solar panels. Very light at less than 7 pounds each, I asked the audience to pick one up or take a picture of themselves in the reflection. The surface of the panel is made of very strong impact resistant polycarbonate plastic (used often for bullet proving windshields). The aluminum spine down the back center provides stiffness along the axis. Also the spine binds the petals together through a steel wire, redirecting wind force down the 18 spines towards the petal holder in the center.

Monarch Lotus single pedal

We also demonstrated some generation with a 1 meter solar dish that uses 9 triple junction gallium arsenide solar cells. By themselves, these solar cells can achieve an efficiency of more than 30% converting light into electricity. The dish tracks the sun reasonably well using a digital compass and GPS to determine the location of the sun given time of day, orientation of the dish, and the location of the dish. Due to limited accuracy of the digital compass, we achieved an accuracy of sun tracking within a few degrees. This may not be sufficient for photovoltaic generation requiring a solar tracking efficiency of less than 1 degree, but may work well with our new thermal generation with a free piston steam engine.

One Meter Lotus Prototype

I am going to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to collaborate with them to add a desalination engine inside the 8 feet tall aluminum pole, for generating around 10,000 gallon of fresh water every day using the exhaust heat from the Monarch Lotus.

I am also going to San Men Xia in the Henan Province of China to attend a provincial Electric Vehicle review where I shall promote my Monarch Solar Electric Van (Monarch SEV). I shall also plan to start a production line for building the Lotus petals there in San Men Xia.

We are in the planning stages to set up a permanent stand for the Monarch Lotus, just outside my office where I shall park and charge my Tesla Roadster. This shall be the start of a Solar Garden which I described somewhat in an earlier blog entitled Solar Wonderland.

I am also receiving a lot of media request from the news release this Wednesday on the introduction of the Monarch Lotus. Thank you for the interest and please stay tuned.