eating cultures around the world, people learn to classify small handful of animals, edible, and all the rest of the classify as disgusting. w series about our complex relationship with animals. the great debate, what's, you know, on youtube, dw documentary. the . we are building the road to a greener future space with solar panels of wind turbines and electric cars, countries around the world, and need them to fight climate change. but so far, it's one country that's at the center of producing china. can countries go green without china? that's what we'll explore on this episode of made need of use business magazine.

i'm not easy, not, thanks for joining us in this. so we will also be exploring how startup here in germany could be winning the solar race or europe like dig up, its very own rare 1st. and why wind turbines are so hard to recycle the solar is the cheapest source of electricity and history. on the one hand, that's thanks to technological advancements. but it's also because solar panels are being produced on a mass of scale and europe, and jumpstart at the trent. a 3rd of all solar panels of worldwide used to be produced on the continent. most of them here in germany, because the german government started subsidizing the panels and the 2000. since then, solar has become a lucrative business with serious competition. and today, you're is losing 80 percent of all solar panels are now manufactured in china.

cheap labor and energy heat. make chinese panels much more affordable and popular. but a business from the german state of brandenburg wants to challenge china because they can't beat them on price. they are aiming for efficiency. its energy from the sun, gem and subsidies help bring the technology online then. so to manufacturing these to china. now, new technical innovations could help they were ton represented here is the world's largest, most efficient source. so just time for a trial run on just one machine today. so the cameras, these next generation, so the sales of say to, to go into series production. that being held as a technological revolution,

one that would increase energy output by 20 percent our concept was to make a different source of material that would be less expensive to produce. would also be better adapted to the suns, spectra, colors and the sun spect. and then we decide to combine it with the existing technology silicon by layering a 2nd solar cell in a very same layer on top. this pilot plant to be expanded to deliver up to $10000000.00 solar cells a year. and demand is high on going invest, everyone's talking about green hydrogen is what the hydrogen has to be produced somehow. that's quite energy intensive. so the solar industry would be a good partner for that. and all that likes to get pop, not the history of solar energy in germany has been one of ups and downs. it will began with general state subsidies. those funds have it's

a beginning for about the very start 20 years ago. it's unfair. many got the ball rolling by promoting renewable energy and helping to massively reduce costs and the fees because of indirectly at least set low to a solar them. but it took a while, so not boom could fluid. all right, so now for that size, that gemini soon lost its manufacturing, it wants to no naji was established. german factories could no longer compete as in form. if you're not gonna have to run this number of mistakes remain, you know, 1st of all the ground work that had been late, early on, i was beginning around the year, 2000 was allowed to just tremble and die. alas, i think the entire market collapse done by and germany just sat back and watched as many companies moved away from the many of them to china. less than it was on the see not. ready the largest photovoltaic manufacturers are now in asia. europe wants to regain some of its energy independence. but how likely is that as fits so

should be assigned us verification. so late for us to catch up with the china is production capacity. taken off the baltimore top of the crew, but there are things we can do, for example, by manufacturing, very innovative systems that are also very efficient all cuz if it's in isn't after a promising stops and then a dry spell, germany is once again, investing news. so to technology the upswing was also one view which is symposium invalid which brought together local officials and energy companies. looks at p. these chief financial officer results so that the brandenburg pilot project receives nearly 11000000 euros in public financing. nearly a 100000000 years were invested in the pilot pond to know, and the company has even bigger plans and store your planning. we're planning about 5 gigawatts of solar cell production stuff and also modul manufacturing to go along with that. we're still evaluating various locations to evaluate ian subsidies and

other incentives also play a role in those evaluations. many countries hope that cutting edge technologies can tip the scale and let's say the level, the new york's, the dig a factory be built in year. it will the us get this going to allow the, the u. s. is already given some concrete numbers in the installation reduction activated where there is mention of one trillion dollars and amount. that's hard to imagine. i know many of the time and should the you try to compete with that discussions and negotiations underway behind closed doors and the stakes a high for now at least energy from the sun is the cheapest and most important tool for renewable energy. the foundation of europe is green transition. the only rest on chinese solar panels is also almost entirely depends

on rare earth from china. rare earth can be found all over the world, but no one has exploited them. like china, the countries lower social and environmental standards make it hard for europe to compete. its production still minuscule. but that's set to change, or laptops, smartphones, wind, turbines, and electric vehicles, technologies that we take for granted today, but they wouldn't exist without rare arts. so what are these exactly? the term rivers is a bit of a misnomer because they aren't really there. strictly speaking the metals, at least in that peer for them, and they aren't necessarily rare either small, there is common in the earth's crust is conflict for example. but large deposits are rarely found in places that can be easily mind already made in not expecting that's how the term where it's came about. because they're not easy to mind. and

there are other issues. various assets are used to extract reference. what's left behind is polluted wastewater that can even contain radioactive elements. across all these mind me, utilities, is that the legacy is really complicated. one across all of our mental social economic elements. it's a very complicated sector with the, with a difficult history. and there is that, and obviously what the substitute wants to do it differently because otherwise we're just going to be the green people who do the same thing that everybody else did before. so the person that has last year, china accounted for more than 2 thirds of all mining production of rare, or it's a result of investment decisions made years ago. next. come to us australia and bring them on. yeah, yeah. yeah,

maybe some team on in this area were quite dependent on others, which includes china, europe, and us like want to become a bit more independent in that respect and trust and nothing you've gone, gone up any good as like they won't be able to become fully independent in the coming years in the you nearly $5000000.00 tons of old electronic devices end up in landfills every year. so could recycling help europe become less dependent on china? yet the waste doesn't contain enough free or it's to make recycling worse while at least using current methods. but when it comes to electric vehicles in wind turbine can soon change got an estimate in prospecting. i'm at the moment, there's increasing use of large electric motors and especially wind turbines. so in the next 5 to 10 years, a big market with a much. but again, one key challenge will be making sure that this recycling is carried out in europe . no holes at the moment. europe doesn't have the know how or facility capacity. so

this waste is usually shipped to south africa or so these days, such as vietnam and malaysia and was processed by the items. and then china turns it into new raw materials will stuff in the back of 500. that's also why it's $44000000.00 tons of china has the 3 largest reserves of railroads worldwide, followed by vietnam, brazil, and russia, which each have about half that amount the, with the help of you funding, estonia is now home to europe's 1st factory to produce the special magnets used in electric vehicle motors, and those magnets need records. producing these magnets close to home is crucial for europe's industry and the factory it. here's district environmental standards. not heavy. the issue of sustainability will become more important in the coming

years. you need to see i need to get ahold of installation so we need to form my own partnership funding to ensure that the raw materials such as where our mind and the most sustainable environmentally friendly way possible. so he says, and then the most socially responsible way possible to law. yeah, because he's not highly about, let's see all the stuff in there. that's fine. many manufacturers of products such as wind turbines and electric vehicles, are now looking for rare or suppliers outside of china. even if that ends up raising the price. and wind turbines are also central to our next report. have you ever looked up at one of them and been astounded by their size? a wind turbine splits can be longer than a boeing 747. but they weren't always so enormous. the 1st a wind farm was installed in the us and 1980. and those early models were much

shorter, more expensive, and less efficient. so it's good news that the wind turbines changed and grew, but it also means that the old models have to be disposed of. and that's where we are running into big problems. a look at this bus stop this bridge and this playground. notice anything. let's take another look. the old made of the wind turbine blades because it looks cool. yeah. but it's also because we don't really know what else to do with them once that one out. we can recycle up to 90 percent of the turbine like to steal it from the towel or the cop up from all the wires. but the gigantic blades mostly get dumped into landfills. a field day for opponents of wind energy, the wind turbine junky, are they just lying around? there's nothing much renewable about these things. but the wind industry won't let that spend their working on making winter event, lights, recyclable, and saving that green image. wind turbine blades are mainly made of glass,

so common fibers and stuff called a poxy residue. this acts like a plastic super glue that binds them together. you end up with a very strong and resilient material, dumping them into landfills and forgetting about them is a mess of waste materials. so let's look at some ideas on how to stuff it just one way to deal with old blades is by using brute force. we can burn off of the plastic pots, or use strong chemicals to dissolve it, but remains as the fiber that can be used to make new things like casa plains or snowboards. but these processes on perfect all of these take a loss of energy and the products that you get. because the degraded by the various this technology is using by the, the brutal method that you're using to separate the components finish

a strong dose is used to produce a work. so you don't get so much venue from any recycling process has to be economic coupon apple. and this is the roads that recently. a different approach has become popular. turns out the materials and turn on plates are pretty good for making something else. if that cut into pieces and been shredded, that can be used in some and production. you get some energy from the plastic parts of the blade, the rather than as that is heated. it gives off energy and then you're left with this chart. glass remains and that goes into concrete. and so you're able to recover some materials and use them for common materials. and then you're also able to recover some energy. waste management from the old e o has popped up with general electric to do exactly that. on the large scale in the us. they say they've already recycled over 3000 blades this way and that's not

the only benefit by burning shredded into it by lights instead. of cold cement because could save up to 27 percent of c o. 2 emissions, according so when the analysis by a consulting firm, if you have cement industry, which is located close enough to the place that you've got your wind turbine plates, that this is actually something which is for hopper. it's economically advantages and it's environmentally favorable as well. and certainly better than landfill bucks wouldn't be better still if we could use also it on the lights to make new ones we, we need to ensure that we get it into a certain level and get it into the state of the life cycle designs. this is maxine here again, snippet ring leads the sustainability to pop it and see montgomery. so one of the world's largest when to buy manufacturers, they develop what they called the recycle blades, which you might have guessed as

a plates that's supposed to be easily recyclable. that's down to a new type of resume. they've invented red. okay, let me read the saw easily in the middle. so at the end of july and then the solution separate space exceed a residence on the last 5 a you have a comment to you or is so that we can recover the separated materials. so you can use the new product for the moment. these new products of things like suitcases, suitcases will cost nothing. new blake's, the plan is to ultimately close the loop, but small research is still needed. the recycle blades uh, more expensive than traditional ones. how much exactly? a few minutes go may. so i wouldn't say about the already being used in some when projects. unfortunately, use events. got me. so i also wouldn't say how high the sales total of sales is. that is something we cannot disclose, which is a shame, because obviously the more often we use now the more of a dentist slate waste, the solution could make down the line. clear is that it doesn't help with

traditional blades we have to deal with now. so you will not see the impact about until 25 or 30 years, but those plans are being taken down. this is lisa, extremity who's head of sustainability, invest us another leading wind turbine manufacturer that taking a different approach in their recycling strategy. as soon as we have scaled up out solution, we can always start recycling and fox issues plate start putting up many years ago . and that can be taken down now as well as future plates. they say they figured out a way to separate the materials and existing to them plates and make them re usable, including the epoxy resin. it's supposedly done with a chemical solution that breaks it down. vestos doesn't let on much about the new process, just that so far it's only been proven in the lab. then. now the testing, it's in the real world for 2 years to see if it can be scaled up. and what we do know is that the chemical solution s, as nothing exciting,

is chemicals that you will find all the show. another course gives us very good indications that this has up to and this be a very cost competitive. so let's recap. there's a bunch of ideas out there on how to take a blade waste, some that already work at scale and some that still have to prove they do wind power companies across the board of throwing money at this end. while researching the story, i've repeatedly wondered why, if you ask them, they will say something like this sustainability that the call i'll have this is over there. i'm. i'm calling about the mate, which somehow only felt like half the answer. i mean, don't get me wrong for me, things in the dump and forgetting about all the materials that went into making them should not be the way forward, but with all the blades it looks and feels a lot worse than it is. i mean, these things are literally built to not decompose, should be pushy stable. they will just stays

a base. if somebody problem with landfilling, it's really that leads to make up a lot of space. that will be 43000000 tons of this kind of blades by 2050. well that will be 12000000000 tons of plastic waste and landfills and the environment by then if we drive it in waste, it's very likely not going to be down to wind turbine blades. but that's not the point. impact with plastic waste, it's tiny compared to adults with other bits of waste. it's tiny, but it's really important in the public high. it's sort of iconic. so we've got these huge wind turbines which are making green electricity for us. and people say yes, bought at the end of life, you've got pulse of the structure which you're going to landfill. that she's not greed. so it's hot, she really to improve the nature of wind turbine technology

in the public domain for the winter. the stream solving the recycling challenge is the best way to live up to their image and future proof that business you just saw it in our reports, the solar panels on our roof on the river earth, and our electric cars are from china. and aging isn't only leading in the energy industry, it controls another market that's central to our lives, medicine. and just like in the other sector, it's pricing out the competition of china's clear goal to become the world's number one. also, when it comes to its domestic pharmaceutical industry, the world is becoming ever more dependent on medicine from china. the chinese have been very clever. will the world soon be completely dependent on china for medical supplies? will pharmaceutical exports then being used to leverage always be

cheap. with this motto, the chinese pharmaceutical industry has grown rapidly and the west has helped a lot the, the, the background to the yeah. is that we don't want to spend much money on medicine, even though it's the cheapest form of therapy, and therefore the production costs must be reduced lunch. this important tools cost to double check that was on the assess. the easiest way to do that is to go to countries that have low labor costs, fewer environmental regulations and lower costs for energy and the like. really good question, creating a huge i gotcha film now costs $0.60 in germany as much as a stick of chewing gum experts saying that china now produces 40 percent of all active ingredients in the world. that is the part of an drug responsible for it's the reputed effect. and sometimes china is involved even if it doesn't seem so

for example, the popular teen killer. if you proof and it's produced at these locations around the world, it was in short supply during. 2 10 demik. so it was also produced in india. got the diversity is deceptive because india important, almost all of the active ingredients it needs from china. the chinese have a key competitive advantage over the others. they now also produced most of the raw materials for the drugs, and they do so very cheaply, due to economy of scale, things to its price advantage. china is leasing out foreign competitors, as in the case of several lo, sparren's, which are antibiotics. even a german manufacturer with the state of the art production technology had no chance against china. the manager to buy is a remarkably only a few years ago. we produce f, a low sparren's at the company hooks,

but that's no longer the case. has the chinese have been very clever? yeah, they always under cut the price that hooks was charging until then owner of folks. a private equity company eventually said it's not worth it will stop production. because of the rules. he's just finished and stay with the portal. show 9, what were the consequences? so what is missing and now if you take a closer look at several those bar and there is a key based material and amino so folic per a know, an asset which is produced exclusively and china. so if the chinese decide that they no longer want to supply it to europe via if we were to sign with taiwan in the event of war, then we would be left empty handed, so to speak, in terms of some of those for and antibiotics are like saving drugs, antibiotic codes and leaving, settling ex 9 major and china wants even more. it wants to be at the forefront of new medicines. experts say that china is now researching every 10 strong in the

world. that's in the development phase. and i think they are much more innovation friendly for me. and i think that ultimately these bureaucratic processes and then if they want to implement some things and then they will. so the bureaucratic process is a much faster than ours and some and then on the other hand, money support and funding flows into what are referred to as core industries. and that is sort of going to, uh, and that's kind of interesting, precise wants to bring back pharmaceutical production here and for france, applying for kerosene, a months of pain killer is to be built to cover a 3rd of european demand. but this is only possible thanks to high subsidies step in this. and if that comes, i think we 1st have to reach a consensus on which active ingredients we consider to be important. and that there are a lot of lessons and many different active ingredients floating around for them. i think we also have to be honest and acknowledge all that. it'll be more expensive

than that. and we'll have to agree to pay x amount. we die in. but the doc 18. yeah, that's a single bill would probably be $10.00 to $20.00 euro cents more expensive in germany, if it came from europe instead of china. it's unknown whether a patient's anywhere in the world would be willing to pay more for more independence from china. from green tech to medicine here up as walking a tightrope, the aim making quick progress while becoming more independent of china. this episode looked at how that might or might not be possible. thank you for watching and see you next time the,

the the

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