{"id":63134,"date":"2012-08-31T06:07:02","date_gmt":"2012-08-31T10:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=63134"},"modified":"2012-09-06T08:44:34","modified_gmt":"2012-09-06T12:44:34","slug":"engineering-alum-leading-multinational-clean-energy-efforts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2012\/08\/engineering-alum-leading-multinational-clean-energy-efforts\/","title":{"rendered":"Engineering Alum Leading Multinational Clean Energy Efforts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Zhongxue<\/a>
Zhongxue Gan ‘\u0080\u009992 MS, ‘\u0080\u009995 Ph.D. shows guests from Masdar City, Abu Dhabi around the ENN Eco-city.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Zhongxue Gan ’92 MS, \u201995 Ph.D. is chief scientist for one of China\u2019s largest renewable energy companies, which is committed to building stronger relationships between China and the U.S.<\/p>\n

It might be said that Zhongxue Gan\u2019s life as a scientist and researcher was preordained. After all, the very meaning of Zhongxue in Chinese is \u201cloyal to learning and study.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is a mission Gan \u201992 MS, \u201995 Ph.D. takes seriously, and one that has propelled him from the farmlands of northern China\u2019s Hebei province into the laboratories of UConn\u2019s School of Engineering and ultimately, to his current post as chief scientist for one of China\u2019s largest renewable energy companies.<\/p>\n

Gan serves as vice chairman of the board and chief technology officer for the ENN Group, an international clean energy conglomerate with more than 100 subsidiaries in over 100 cities across China and overseas. With assets of $7 billion and more than 27,000 employees, ENN continues to expand its operations globally, including an investment of $4 billion to $5 billion toward the development of a clean energy ecological center on 9,000 acres in Nevada\u2019s Mojave Desert.<\/p>\n

\"De-ling<\/a>
De-ling Zhou, second from right, a former UConn postdoctoral researcher and COO of ENN Solar, joins ENN senior executives at the ceremony celebrating the connection of one of its solar plants to the grid.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The project includes construction of a 720-megawatt solar energy farm, a 1,000,000-square-foot solar panel manufacturing plant, and an industrial park. Once fully operational, the Mojave Green Center is expected to create 2,000 high-paying manufacturing jobs and provide reliable green energy to about 200,000 homes.<\/p>\n

Gan, an American citizen who launched his U.S. professional career building advanced robotic controls for the ABB Group in Windsor, Conn., says the expansion is part of ENN\u2019s commitment to promoting clean energy solutions and building stronger relationships between China and the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past, we would manufacture solar panels in China and then just sell the products to the United States,\u201d says Gan, who was inducted into UConn\u2019s Academy of Distinguished Engineers in 2010. \u201cThis time, we decided to invest money in Nevada so we can build a manufacturing base, increase local employment, and build revenue for the area. We want to create an example to show how Chinese and American people can work together to resolve a situation. That was our driving force.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gan moved back to China in 2004 to lead ENN\u2019s burgeoning research division. At the time, ENN was mainly a supplier of natural gas, delivering heating and cooking fuels to 5.6 million households and 18,000 industrial and commercial customers. Gan, who today holds 17 U.S. patents and has 40 more patent applications pending in China, led the company\u2019s expansion into renewable energy, and he brought along several of his UConn School of Engineering colleagues to help in the effort.<\/p>\n

UConn expertise in China<\/h2>\n

<\/strong>Today, including Gan, more than half a dozen UConn engineering alums and former postdoctoral fellows are currently serving in different leadership positions at ENN, among them: Yunquan Sun \u201996 MS, \u201904 Ph.D., president of ENN Group North America and vice president of ENN Solar Energy; Qing Tang \u201994 Ph.D., vice president of ENN Solar Energy; Weiping Wang \u201998 Ph.D., president of ENN Medical; Zhenqi Zhu \u201995 Ph.D., deputy general manager of ENN Intelligent Energy; former UConn postdoc De-ling Zhou, COO of ENN Solar Energy; and former UConn postdoc Xinbo Huang, director of new product development at ENN Solar.<\/p>\n

Gan says each individual brings with them advanced knowledge gleaned from their studies at UConn, with specialties ranging from mechanical engineering to solar cell development to chemistry, materials science, and systems analysis.<\/p>\n

In recent years, ENN has emerged as a world leader in the manufacture of large, thin-film solar-energy photovoltaic panels; it has developed advanced microalgae technologies for the creation of biofuel; and its \u201cSys-energy Efficiency\u201d platform \u2013 a brainchild of Gan and his research team, which uses smart energy technology to maximize energy production and distribution systems while reducing harmful emissions \u2013 has become one of ENN\u2019s trademark technologies.<\/p>\n

\"Gan<\/a>
Gan and his ENN research team\u2019s development of technologies that process algae into clean-burning biodiesel fuels are gaining international attention.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rather than have separate systems operating independently when producing, transmitting, storing, and recycling energy, the \u201cSys-energy\u201d approach links all the processes together. Using state-of-the-art control systems, Sys-energy Efficiency ensures that minimal amounts of energy are wasted, and energy resources are used to maximum efficiency.<\/p>\n

Some existing coal plants, Gan says, operate only at 20 percent of their potential efficiency. His goal is to make those systems more than 90 percent efficient, while repurposing byproducts from the process and protecting the environment from harmful emissions.<\/p>\n

The \u201cSys-energy\u201d approach, he says, can be applied to small projects, such as maximizing the efficiency of a few solar panels on a person\u2019s roof to keep energy bills down, or larger ones, such as rerouting and putting to use massive quantities of hydrogen and methanol byproducts created in the conversion process.<\/p>\n

ENN\u2019s work on this front has drawn international attention. In 2009, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu toured ENN\u2019s solar panel manufacturing facility and coal-based \u201cZero Emissions\u201d Technology Pilot Plant. There, he observed how the company is using solar energy to grow massive quantities of algae, which gorge themselves on the carbon dioxide emitted from coal-fired power plants and factories. The algae are then processed into clean-burning biodiesel fuels. This integrated use of multiple energy resources and applications is one of the key components of ENN\u2019s holistic approach to renewable energy.<\/p>\n

U.S. interest in ENN remains strong. Last year, ENN chairman Wang Yusuo hosted a visit by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to the company\u2019s headquarters in Langfang near Beijing, and he spoke at the National Clean Energy Summit in Nevada, where Vice President Joe Biden was in attendance.<\/p>\n

Advancing the Future of Renewable Energy<\/h2>\n

As part of its continuing expansion into the United States, ENN Solar Energy has partnered with the National Energy Renewable Corp. to convert a New Jersey landfill into a 4.3-megawatt solar farm.<\/p>\n

And in another development last year, U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton presided over a signing ceremony at which the ENN Group joined forces with Duke Energy \u2013 one of the largest electric power holding companies in the U.S. \u2013 to form an \u201cEcoPartnership\u201d with the city of Charlotte, N.C. Together, the two companies plan to collaborate on the development of green cities in China and the U.S. through solar energy projects, smart grid technologies, and energy efficiency initiatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough the comprehensive utilization of wastelands, such as landfills, abandoned industrial sites, and deserts, we can develop and build substantial ground-mounted solar power plants that advance the future development of clean power,\u201d ENN Solar Energy COO and former UConn postdoc De-Ling Zhou says, referring to the New Jersey initiative and other projects.<\/p>\n

ENN has ongoing research collaborations with UConn, MIT, Harvard, and Stanford. In UConn\u2019s School of Engineering, Peter Luh, SNET Professor of Communications and Information Technologies, is working with ENN Solar on the Mojave Green Center project. ENN also recently entered into a $1.5 million agreement with the School of Engineering to sponsor two to five doctoral students a year over a five-year period. The students \u2013 called \u201cenergy innovators in training\u201d \u2013 specialize in energy technologies and are being co-advised by researchers from both UConn and ENN.<\/p>\n

\"Qing<\/a>
Qing Tang \u201994 Ph.D., third from left, vice president of ENN Solar Energy, works with his R&D team.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Professor Kazem Kazerounian, interim dean of the School of Engineering and one of Gan\u2019s former faculty advisors in mechanical engineering, says the School is interested in expanding its relations with ENN, possibly by providing education and training programs in sustainable energy, biotechnologies, or in other areas.<\/p>\n

The initial link between UConn and ENN originated, Gan says, with Mun Choi, School of Engineering dean and professor, who is currently interim provost of the University. Choi traveled to Langfang in 2010 to participate in a signing ceremony honoring the UConn-ENN partnership. \u201cHe is a visionary man,\u201d says Gan.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrs. Gan and Sun and Professor Kazerounian have established an excellent relationship that is now blossoming into sustainable energy projects ranging from smart infrastructures to energy storage systems,\u201d says Choi. \u201cIt is very exciting for us to pursue sustainable energy projects with a world leader like ENN.\u201d<\/p>\n

Says Gan, \u201cOur philosophy is that we can\u2019t rely on one kind of power to resolve all of our energy problems. We cannot only depend on solar. We cannot only depend on wind. We cannot depend only on renewable power. At the same time, we don\u2019t believe you can eliminate fossil fuels. So our goal is to combine them, integrate the fossil, the solar, the renewable energy \u2013 the traditional and the new \u2013 create a total systemic solution for power generation, transmission, and application, and put controls inside it to manipulate it and make it better.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a heavy charge, but one Gan the scientist, the man \u201cloyal to study and learning,\u201d embraces.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zhongxue Gan ’95 Ph.D. is chief scientist for one of China\u2019s largest renewable energy companies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":64352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[88,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[44],"class_list":["post-63134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-affairs","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-13 11:26:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63134"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64380,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63134\/revisions\/64380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/64352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63134"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=63134"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=63134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}