After Winning The Earth Solar Battle, Middle Kingdom Looks To Solar In Skies

China Solar- Sky is the Limit!

It would be an understatement to say that Middle Kingdom has won the battle for the solar industry. Out of the top 10 global solar panel companies, eight are based out of China with the country to host over 50% of the world’s solar panel capacity. Even the solar factories in the South Eastern countries are owned or controlled by the Chinese firms, giving them a vice like control over the global solar value chain and production. The relentless support given by the Chinese government has allowed the Middle Kingdom’s solar companies to become giants vanquishing other countries.

The Western companies have been almost completely vanquished with barely one or two surviving the continuous onslaught of the Chinese solar giants. The country has started to control even the upstream parts of the supply china such as polysilicon and wafers in a a very decisive way. The massive scale and low costs means that few non-Chinese companies can even think of challenging the dominance that has been established by the Chinese.

With their dominance on earth near complete, the Middle Kindgom is looking to dominance of the skies. The country’s China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp is planning to develop a solar energy powered drone network which will based in the near sky altitude.

These drones will provide multiple uses to the Chinese government. The normal use will be in telecommunications where these drones could provide sky based communication infrastructure for communications to far off areas as well as communication during emergencies such as natural disasters. The other more potent uses will be military which can use it not only for resilient communication and control but also for spying. This solar drone network will have better capabilities than satellites as they are based closer to earth and can provide better resolution as well as communication abilities.

Note China has already started to compete with the USA on drone technology and is already a supplier of military drones to Middle Eastern countries. The country’s military drones are far cheaper than American ones and also do not have to face export restriction. China’s first solar-powered UAV, the Caihong (rainbow) has already completed its first successful near-space test flight in June.