Passage Going Solar in China
Going Solar in China
In the Anhui province of China, 166,000 floating solar panels are strung together atop the rippling surface of a lake. It is the largest solar-power farm in the world, an immense blanket of renewable energy strong enough to power 15,000 homes.
The floating solar-power farm, which harvests the sun’s rays for power, was first conceived by the Sungrow Power Supply Company after heavy rains flooded a collapsed coal mine and created a lake. Sang Dajie, a former coal miner from the area, is now an electrician for the farm, which occupies the original mine site where he used to work. Now, instead of working under the dangerous conditions at the mine, he spends his days maintaining the solar panels on the water. “The coal mine,” says Dajie, “was very hot and the air was bad. . . . But here I feel safe. The new energy is safe.” People in China rely primarily on the burning of coal in massive power plants to create electricity. While the burning of fossil fuels, like coal, is a reliable source of energy, the process releases massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, creating air pollution and harming Earth. Solar power, on the other hand, is clean and safe for the environment.
Solar panels are typically placed on rooftops or in open fields, but experts in China determined that the newly formed lake was a great spot for the solar-power farm. Solar-power farms over water are efficient because the water keeps the panels cool. A water-based solar-power farm can potentially generate more power than one based on land. Additionally, with the solar-power farm on the lake, the land in the surrounding area remains available for farming, which is another source of income for Anhui residents.
Originally, China displayed minimal interest in solar energy. The use of solar energy was limited primarily to rural areas that had no access to a power grid. Without access to other means of electricity, people in these areas used solar panels as an alternative to lighting candles and kerosene lamps. China began to manufacture solar panels for other countries in the late 1990s when the German government offered its people financial incentives for installing solar panels. The heightened demand for solar panels was instantaneous, and Chinese businesses were quick to seize the opportunity. Soon the governments of Spain and Italy also offered incentives for using solar technology, and Chinese manufacturers were ready for the increased demand.
Between 2008 and 2013, China improved its manufacturing technology and processes so much that it effectively lowered the worldwide cost of using solar energy by 80 percent, further increasing demand. However, a point came when Chinese manufacturers had become so efficient at producing solar-power equipment that they outpaced the demand. The manufacturers were producing two solar panels for every one solar panel they sold. In order to make manufacturing a profitable industry again, the Chinese government offered its own financial incentives to Chinese citizens for using solar energy. Now, projects like the floating solar-power farm are putting those surplus panels to use, in addition to providing jobs and cleaner energy.
A second solar-power farm has already been constructed near the massive one in Anhui as part of a government initiative to build more low-emission power plants. The goal is to meet 20 percent of the country’s energy needs with renewable, clean energy sources by the year 2030.
As Sang Dajie puts it, “I’m glad we are reusing this area to create a better future.” China’s dedication to increasing its production of renewable energy through solar power demonstrates that patience, time, and flexibility can result in transformation.
Question
China’s role in the increase of solar-energy use around the world is illustrated in the article mainly through the inclusion of
- Ainformation about where Chinese businesses sold solar panels and other materials for solar-power farms.
- Bexplanations of how solar-power use in China demonstrated that solar power could replace other energy sources.
- Cdetails about how the Chinese government encouraged its citizens to use solar energy.
- Dfacts indicating that Chinese manufacturing processes helped make solar power more affordable.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks how the article illustrates China’s role in the growth of global solar-energy use.
A. Incorrect. In paragraphs 4 and 5, the author explains that Chinese businesses manufactured solar panels to meet demand from European countries; however, the paragraph does not specify that those countries used the panels in solar-power farms.
B. Incorrect. Although paragraph 4 does explain the early use of solar power in China, the paragraph only explains the developing Chinese business of making solar panels. It does not suggest that solar-power use in China, as opposed to solar-power use in other countries, demonstrated that solar power could replace other energy sources.
C. Incorrect. In paragraph 5, the author explains how the Chinese government offered incentives for its own citizens to promote solar energy, but this action served only to increase solar-power use in China. No connection is made between the incentives offered to Chinese citizens and the global increase in solar-power use.
D. CORRECT. Paragraphs 4 and 5 explain how growing demand for solar power encouraged China to improve manufacturing; this “lowered the worldwide cost of using solar energy by 80 percent” (paragraph 5). The affordability of solar energy contributed greatly to the increased global use of that energy source.
Question analysis
This evidence question on “Going Solar in China” asks what the article mainly uses to illustrate China’s role in the growth of solar-energy use around the world. The choices name four kinds of information about China and solar power, so students must check each against paragraphs 4 and 5 and against the question’s worldwide focus.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Identifying how a text illustrates an idea is common grade 7 evidence work. The relevant facts sit in two neighboring paragraphs in plain prose, and each choice is a general description that must be traced back to the text.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Evidence in several places minor
- Reading between the lines minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 13, 598 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 76 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The question turns on three words in the stem, “around the world,” and the most tempting wrong choice fails only that test: the government’s incentives are real but aimed at Chinese citizens. The sales to European countries are harder to set aside, since supplying them is a kind of role, but the article never says where panels were sold or mentions other materials. The one detail with a worldwide reach is the 80 percent fall in cost.
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Three of the four kinds of information are in the article, European demand in paragraph 4 and the 80 percent cut and citizen incentives in paragraph 5, so each must be tested against “around the world.” (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Evidence in several places minor Working it out
The details sit in different paragraphs, rural panels and European incentives in paragraph 4, cheaper manufacturing and incentives at home in paragraph 5, and must be sorted by where they had their effect. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Reading between the lines minor Working it out
The article states the 80 percent cut and adds “further increasing demand,” and students must see that cheaper solar power everywhere is China’s part in the worldwide growth. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Note that the question is about solar-energy use around the world, then find the detail each choice describes and ask whether it shows China affecting that worldwide use.
Traps
- True but not the answer: A choice says something accurate about the text that does not answer this question.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Recalls Chinese firms making panels when Germany, Spain and Italy offered incentives, but the article never lists where they sold, mentions other materials or says the panels went to solar farms.
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Treats rural Chinese panels used instead of candles and kerosene lamps as proof to the world that solar can replace other sources, a lesson paragraph 4 never draws.
C True but not the answer (King et al., 2004; Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Chooses the government’s incentives, which paragraph 5 does describe, but they were offered to Chinese citizens and raised solar use inside China, not around the world.
Working it out, step by step
See what the question asks
This asks how the article shows China’s part in the rise of solar power “around the world.” Those three words are the key. The right detail must show China changing solar use in many countries, not just inside China.
Find the worldwide detail
Paragraph 5 says that between 2008 and 2013, China improved how it made solar equipment. It did this so well “that it effectively lowered the worldwide cost of using solar energy by 80 percent, further increasing demand.” Demand is how much people want to buy something.
Work out what 80 percent means
A drop of 80 percent means the cost fell to one fifth of what it was. Something that cost $100 would now cost about $20. When solar power gets that cheap, more people everywhere can pay for it. Affordable means cheap enough to buy. So China’s better factories helped solar power spread across the globe.
Check every choice
- A does not fit. Paragraph 4 says China made panels for other countries. But it never mentions “other materials for solar-power farms,” and the demand there grew from those countries’ own incentives.
- B does not fit. Rural areas used panels instead of candles and kerosene lamps. The article never says this taught the world anything.
- C does not fit. The government’s rewards went to Chinese citizens, so they raised solar use inside China only.
- D fits. Cheaper manufacturing made solar power more affordable everywhere.
Name the answer
Watch out: C is tempting because paragraph 5 really does describe those rewards. But they were for people in China. That fails the test of “around the world.” So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong choice, since the incentives are a real detail in the article. But they reached only Chinese citizens. D is about a change felt everywhere: China made solar energy far cheaper to use worldwide. That is how China helped solar use grow in other countries.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Going Solar in China” as printed (page 174)
