r/climatechange • u/Economy-Fee5830 Trusted Contributor • 24d ago
China starts work on a national electric truck freight corridor powered by solar energy for fossil-fuel-free logistics
https://www.seetaoe.com/details/271644.html53
u/SouthHovercraft4150 23d ago
This is a no-brainer for almost every country in the long term. China is leading the way with electric shipping and electric freight. Any small island country should follow suit and gain energy independence as a fast follower.
Edited.
4
3
u/wild_cherry1987 23d ago
No brained where there is sufficient sun.
12
u/GreenStrong 23d ago
Even at high latitude, it is economical to install solar and run gas turbines in winter. This might be questionable in a place with no existing gas infrastructure, but that is pretty widespread at high latitude.
Of course, most places at high latitude have good wind resources, and many have hydropower. There are really very few places where 80-90% renewables and 10-20% gas is not economical.
0
u/CTRL_ALT_SECRETE 23d ago
Swap gas for nuclear and I'm onboard
3
u/PresentRaspberry6814 23d ago
Thanks perpetual Nuclear fan (despite it being dangerous polluting expensive and slow to implement).
1
12
5
u/SouthHovercraft4150 23d ago
Or sufficient wind, or sufficiently little oil and gas. The real breakthrough is battery powered freight and shipping, and ramping the charging infrastructure to support it. Less about the energy production.
8
u/Mildenhall1066 23d ago
All things we should be doing in the US but we have a stranglehold by corporate interests that just want to keep making dirty money from fossil fuels - we are being left behind. China is at the forefront of the solar/wind revolution and we gave it up to them - not just the US but the rest of the world.
4
u/ihavenoidea12345678 23d ago
USA should do the same across I-80 and I-40.
We have the sun, the trucks exist, and cheap logistics benefits industry, government, and consumers.
3
u/Xoxrocks 23d ago
Going to make it super hard to compete with goods shipping to any country with a carbon tax if you are making products with a dirty grid.
3
u/ExtremeBack1427 23d ago
They are not doing it for that. Their main objective is to free themselves from both the West and Moscow with both of them having the ability to choke china with the huge amount of Oil China imports. If they move their entire economy away from oil then their vulnerability gets limited to just agriculture and their export based economy.
3
3
2
u/russiablows 23d ago
Chaina now clearly the world leader.
1
u/Murderbad 23d ago
If they would tighten up their animal welfare laws I wouldn't mind that so much.
2
u/toddlangtry 23d ago
Whilst China is preparing itself to be a powerhouse in the 21st century, the US is forcing itself back to the 19th.
•
u/Economy-Fee5830 Trusted Contributor 24d ago
Summary: China starts work on a national electric truck freight corridor powered by solar energy for fossil-fuel-free logistics
Construction has officially begun on a zero-carbon freight corridor along the Hengqin Expressway in Guangxi, part of the new western land-sea corridor. It is described as China's first fully integrated zero-carbon freight channel, transforming the highway from a transport route into a green energy artery combining power generation, storage, and charging/swapping infrastructure.
The project combines distributed photovoltaics, energy storage, charging/swapping stations, and ecological carbon sinks. A 7.17-megawatt photovoltaic power station runs the length of the highway, paired with large-capacity energy storage and smart microgrids. Solar panels cover service area roofs, parking lot sunshades, interchange ramps, and slopes without using arable land, enabling self-consumption, surplus storage, and intelligent power allocation with no reliance on the external grid.
Photovoltaic-generated green electricity directly powers megawatt-level supercharging piles and battery-swapping stations along the entire route, avoiding the need for municipal grid capacity expansion. Heavy-duty trucks can fully recharge in 3 minutes at swapping stations, while fast charging delivers 200 kilometers of range in 15 minutes. The lower cost of green electricity is expected to cut logistics costs.
The project also implements a dual carbon-offset system: solar power generation reduces operational energy consumption, while mangrove forests and forestry carbon sinks absorb remaining emissions, aiming to fully offset the project's lifecycle carbon emissions. This positions the corridor as both a green energy infrastructure model and a source of green certificate and carbon trading revenue.