Big changes in the energy landscape: Chinese solar giants shake the status of the 'Seven Sisters' of European and American oil

News from this site on June 18. Over the past 100 years, natural gas and oil have been the driving force for economic and industrial development. Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, Total Energy, Conn. Oil companies such as Philippine Petroleum Corp. and Eni dominate the global energy market. They are called the "Seven Sisters", symbolizing their unshakable status and influence. However, with the rise of renewable energy, this landscape is quietly changing.

This site noticed that David Fickling, a well-known European and American columnist who focuses on climate change and energy issues, pointed out in a Bloomberg article last weekend , we should re-examine the energy giants, because what really provides energy is not the oil or natural gas itself, but the energy stored in the chemical bonds contained in it. Similarly, solar equipment manufacturers offer not just silicon and glass panels, but machines that capture energy from the sun. The above two groups of traditional energy and new energy companies provide the world with new useful energy every year, but in fact, from many aspects, photovoltaic companies have now surpassed large oil companies.

The article stated that the world’s seven major oil giants (Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Shell, French energy giant Total, BP, ConocoPhillips and Eni) extract about 40 exajoules of oil energy from the ground each year, equivalent to about 18 million barrels of oil per day. In comparison, China's seven largest solar companies (Tongwei, GCL Technology, Xinte Energy (part of TBEA), LONGi Green Energy, Trina Solar, JA Solar and JinkoSolar, also known as The solar panels produced by "New Energy Seven Sons" generate about 5 exajoules, which at first glance seems to be far less than the former. However, this figure does not take into account the losses caused by burning the oil, nor does it take into account the lifetime power generation of the solar panel, only its annual power generation. Most modern solar panels have a 25-year warranty, and the oil companies dig up burns away in a matter of months.

Only about a quarter of the energy extracted from oil companies' wells is converted into useful electricity, Fickling estimates. However, Fickling later performed similar conversions using solar energy equipment and was able to draw a simpler conclusion. Therefore, solar energy is an energy source with great potential for conversion into useful electricity.

The results show that calculated in terms of annual useful energy output, Tongwei, currently the largest polysilicon producer, can compete with some of the largest European and American oil companies such as BP, Eni and ConocoPhillips The company is going head-to-head, and some other panel makers aren't too far behind. If Tongwei continues to implement the plan announced in December last year to build a 400,000-ton high-purity crystalline silicon project and supporting facilities in Inner Mongolia, nearly doubling its current output, it may even surpass the "big brother" in the European and American oil industries. "Exxon Mobil.

If you consider what these two types of companies can produce without significant investment - Compare the geological reserves of oil companies with what a solar company can produce before equipment depreciation When comparing products, clean energy is clearly in the lead.

If you look at the long-term energy support that each solar panel produced can bring to the global economy, it is actually equivalent to the oil produced by major oil companies, Fickling said. Several times.

The article finally points out that the first industrial revolution led to the rise of coal-rich Britain, Germany and the United States, and the rise of crude oil It brought power and wealth to Russia and the Middle East while solidifying America's global leadership. Countries that control the lifeblood of these energy flows often become the hegemons of every era.

Today, seven companies in China alone have a greater say in the energy supply of the 21st century than the "seven sisters of oil" who dominated the 20th century. The United States' suppression of China's clean energy technology may be due to concerns about this change in the landscape.

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