At work, Wang Zhifeng is a scientist specializing in solar thermal power research, but in his free time, he is an avid snow sports enthusiast. He has even covered one of the walls in his office with action shots of him and his family out on the slopes.
By Xinhua writer Yuan Quan
He has combined his two passions to envision an indoor ski resort powered by solar energy on a sunny island in south China. In his eyes, solar power has great crossover potential: It is a source of heating and can be converted into various forms of energy, including cooling.
“The Earth’s energy comes from the sun, so solar power is highly efficient and can be transformed into lower-grade forms of energy, such as electricity, heat and chemical energy, both in theory and in practice,” Wang said.
He works at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ (CAS’) Institute of Electrical Engineering, which is at the forefront of China’s solar energy research, and he has spent decades pushing the boundaries of how humans can harness the sun’s power.
A prime example of this work is his current research on using the oldest energy source — sunlight — to fire ceramics. Through the precise adjustment of the angles and temperatures of solar concentrators, he has created a firing process that achieves zero carbon emissions. Solar-fired ceramics were exhibited at the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), showcasing the innovative application of solar thermal technology in the high-carbon industrial sector.
Wang has no shortage of brilliant ideas, pursuing cutting-edge research both on Earth and in space.
In 2021, he led a solar seasonal thermal storage project that stored summer heat for winter use over an exceptionally long period of 210 days, offering a sustainable solution for the challenge of solar energy intermittency.
This year, he expanded the application of solar energy into the field of lunar exploration, proposing a solar power generation program on the moon using technologies like axis-aligned concentrating solar cell arrays.
Wang and his team made history in 2024 by developing the world’s first supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) solar thermal power generation unit, using solar energy and sCO2 as a working fluid to generate electricity.
“I felt quite anxious when I received the task,” Wang told Xinhua. Back when the project was launched in 2019, no such power plant existed anywhere in the world. Similar initiatives had been set up under the EU’s Horizon 2020 program and the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative, yet none had succeeded.
As the project’s lead scientist, Wang faced skepticism from his peers. However, after five years of dedicated efforts, he led a group of 18 research institutions to overcome the core challenges in equipment design and manufacturing, ultimately achieving sCO2 power generation at 700 degrees Celsius.
“This technology is key to cutting costs and, importantly, to ensuring round-the-clock power from solar thermal plants by tapping into stored heat after sunset or during bad weather,” Wang explained.
The breakthrough made national headlines, with industry insiders hailing it as a huge leap. CAS academician Xu Jianzhong said,
“Without Wang’s dedication and perseverance, China’s solar thermal power sector would not have come this far.”