FULL CHARGE AHEAD

As China advances renewables and the U.S. returns to fossil fuels, the power of engery technology leadership is shifting

- by MICAH MCCARTNEY and ALEXANDER DEMARRAIS

GREEN DRIVE China's green push spans massive solar farms, EV (below) factories like BYD's and Xi Jinping signing lowcarbon cooperation deals (right).

THIS SUMMER, OFFICIALS WITH THE China Green Development Group showcased a sprawling solar park nearing completion in the country's Xinjiang region that covers more than 230 square miles of the Gobi Desert, an area roughly the size of Chicago. The Midong solar project is the world's largest single-solar power producer, potentially generating enough electricity for 5 million households.

In October, China's Dongfang Electric Wind Power Co. announced that the world's largest wind turbine had rolled off the production line at southern China's Fujian Fuzhou Offshore Wind Power Industrial Park.

According to Dongfang, the behemoth structure will be able to power 55,000 households at peak output and its central hub will stand 606 feet high—roughly twice as tall as the Statue of Liberty.

Chinese automaker BYD is nearing completion of a city-sized electric vehicle and battery manufacturing center in Zhengzhou, in China's Henan province, that will be roughly 10 times the size of Tesla's largest U.S. facility.

The expansive EV factories, towering wind turbines and sprawling solar arrays are symbols of China's enormous global lead in renewable energy and clean technology, some of the fastest growing sectors of the global energy market.

“I would describe the gap in terms of competitiveness between Chinese companies and their U.S. counterparts like an NBA game,” Li Shuo, director of the China Climate Hub at the D.C.-based think tank Asia Society Policy Institute told Newsweek. “We're in the fourth quarter and the U.S. team is trailing by 30 points.”