Creating a clean economy will not be easy. It will require sustained, consistent, and large-scale investment across many sectors, including transportation, building systems and appliances, energy generation, and of course the electric grid itself. … As a percentage of GDP, China, Germany, and even Brazil are investing at a rate three times greater than the U.S. …
China is … making longer-term, sustained commitments that are much larger. The country is already in the process of building 16,000 miles of high-speed rail (roughly 16,000 more than the U.S.). And China is bringing together 16 state-run companies to put one million electric cars on the road within a few years. …
As an indication of how serious China really is, the country has built the largest solar and wind production industries in the world in just a few years. …
But it was the country’s ten-year plan that made some jaws drop. Between now and 2020, the country will invest 5 trillion yuan in the clean economy. That works out to about $75 to $100 billion per year for 10 years running (smart grid investment alone is estimated at $60 to $100 billion over the next decade). Imagine the U.S. Congress passing the equivalent of the highly controversial stimulus package 10 times over (not likely).
- Excerpts from Harvard Business Review