Published December 07, 2010
I've been watching China's ascent in cleantech for a couple of years. In that time China's potential to leapfrog the U.S. has gone from talk to substantive examples of leadership. Even so, I've been surprised by the increasing frequency with which China is pushing ahead in new fronts of cleantech development.
Earlier this week, the latest surprise came from energy secretary Steven Chu, who's been talking up China's green progress in an effort to boost Washington's resolve on clean tech policy.
In a talk at the National Press Club, with characteristic forceful clarity (PDF of slides), Chu illuminated the growing list of sectors where China's emerging leadership threatens U.S. players, and added leadership in supercomputing as the most recent Sino-superlative. China's success in these technologies represents a "Sputnik Moment" for the United States, Chu said.
"When it comes to innovation, Americans don't take a back seat to anyone -- and we certainly won't start now," said Secretary Chu at the event. "From wind power to nuclear reactors to high-speed rail, China and other countries are moving aggressively to capture the lead. Given that challenge, and given the enormous economic opportunities in clean energy, it's time for America to do what we do best: innovate."
China's ascent to the top of the list for supercomputing speed reveals a new front in this race. Last month China's Tianhe-1A, developed by Chinese defense researchers, became the world's fastest supercomputer, with a performance level of 2.57 petaflop/s (quadrillions of calculations per second, for all the geeks in our audience, based on a standard test), substantially eclipsing the U.S. DOE's Cray XT5 "Jaguar" system at Oak Ridge national labs in Tennessee, which runs at 1.75 petaflop/s. Third place is also held by a Chinese computer.
Supercomputers may seem long way from grid-competitive solar panels, long-range electric car batteries, or other cleantech gizmos, but advanced computational simulation is the keystone of most leading-edge scientific research, including nuclear energy, nanotech and materials science, proteomics and other advanced biotech applications. Basically, any very advanced science these days needs big computing horsepower. Leadership on the fastest-computer league tables has been traded off many times, between U.S., Japanese and European computing centers. China is a relative newcomer to the race, but is clearly the new elite.
Chu highlighted several crucial technologies -- mostly in the areas of power generation and transportation -- where China is already outpacing U.S. efforts, adding the U.S. must innovate or risk falling far behind. The following is from the DOE:
1 comments:
Assignments are challenging because it requires an in-depth understanding of everything that you have learnt in class and applying it in order to impress your professor. Your assignment submissions will have a lot of weight in the grades that you ultimately receive at the end of the program. And good grades are important to improve your employment prospects. To achieve this, it is therefore important to submit top quality assignments. However, assignment writing is not that simple and requires practice and a lot of experience. Any student who is looking for python homework help should immediately get in touch with Help in Homework.
Post a Comment