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Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout

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Re: Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout

#101

Post by jgalt212 »

kiba wrote: post #97
delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was just about to make precisely the same comment. The fear, uncertainty, and doubt about renewables here is ridiculous, and I expected better. I suppose everyone watched too much Landman . China is rocketing ahead in every domain possible, from resource and financial independence, to infrastructure in terms of high-speed rail, bridges, roads, advanced fission reactors and bleeding-edge fusion research. Heavy indus…

I expect China to overbuild and the west to underbuild.

You say that and OpenAI is signing compute deals in excess of 20X current revenues.

Re: Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout

#102

Post by ZeroGravitas »

master_crab wrote: post #43

One of the solar farms is in a tidal flat. Are those solar panels meant to be waterproof? I’d imagine they may not last as long from sea salt exposure too.

China has has Megawatt-scale floating PV at sea too.

Re: Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout

#103

Post by delta_p_delta_x »

spiderfarmer wrote: post #96
delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was just about to make precisely the same comment. The fear, uncertainty, and doubt about renewables here is ridiculous, and I expected better. I suppose everyone watched too much Landman . China is rocketing ahead in every domain possible, from resource and financial independence, to infrastructure in terms of high-speed rail, bridges, roads, advanced fission reactors and bleeding-edge fusion research. Heavy indus…

The EU is moving towards 50% sustainable with lots of countries that at 60-75%, while the USA is at 25%. Europe is also at least a decade ahead. And since renewable + batteries is now cheaper than nuclear, we should spend our money and time wisely.

> And since renewable + batteries is now cheaper than nuclear, we should spend our money and time wisely.

Eggs in one basket. Renewables are good, but it gets cloudy, it becomes night, it might not be windy. Nuclear will output power come rain or shine, and like I said, it's not like China isn't investing in advanced fission. They're throwing money at everything to see what sticks. They're working on SMRs, molten salt, thorium, and more.

Re: Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout

#105

Post by cyp0633 »

SPICLK2 wrote: post #40
ehhthing wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modern solar panels last around 30 years, so I wouldn't exactly call it "short-lived". Economically, I'm sure the locations chosen were optimal. You'd imagine that actual mountainous wilderness would be a much more expensive terrain to blanket with solar panels, compared to flat areas. If there were other choices, economically they'd better options.

Given the vast amount of flat, well-lit terrain within the borders of China, it should be clear that the pictured projects (and the other "blanket a mountain in solar panels" projects that are easily discoverable) are not about the economics of power generation.

At least it's better than sending peasants into the mountains and building solar panels on the flat field that has been growing crops for thousands of years.

Re: Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout

#106

Post by avsteele »

JensKnipper wrote: post #88
avsteele wrote: post #77

Beautiful pictures. To be clear: China runs on coal and will for the foreseeable future. https://www.iea.org/countries/china https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/coal-consumption-by-count...

By showing only your provided data it seems. But when looking at the share of primary energy consumption from renewable sources it looks totally different! https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/energy?tab=line&facet=n...

That metric doesn't answer the same question. It isn't saying 18% of their needs are being met by renewables.

Re: Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout

#108

Post by margalabargala »

dzonga wrote: post #80
roxolotl wrote: post #21

It genuinely makes me so sad to see the US not doing the same. Having grown up to the constant beat of “energy independence” as the core goal of a party it seemed obvious that the nearly limitless energy that rains down from the sky would be the answer. But instead we’ve kept choosing the option which requires devastating our, and other’s around the world, community. That’s not to exclude the harsh reality of mining…

it seems us is fighting yesterday's war wars / empires etc are built on mastering an energy source the Brits on Coal the US rose on Oil China is rising on renewables my worry is can renewables be quickly brought online to power industry / power hungry Data Centers etc at a reasonable cost

> my worry is can renewables be quickly brought online to power industry / power hungry Data Centers etc at a reasonable cost

I mean, clearly the answer is yes. The problem is political, not economic.

Re: Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout

#109

Post by andrewinardeer »

delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #87
zipy124 wrote: post #74

It is incredible to see just how many big-oil talking points there are in this thread. From renewable energies resource costs, to their land use impact. I didn't realise just how effective their propaganda was in the tech space till reading this thread. That is not to say that these projects should be free of criticism, but anyone who believes these negatives are remotely close to the damage that fossil fuels are doi…

I was just about to make precisely the same comment. The fear, uncertainty, and doubt about renewables here is ridiculous, and I expected better. I suppose everyone watched too much Landman . China is rocketing ahead in every domain possible, from resource and financial independence, to infrastructure in terms of high-speed rail, bridges, roads, advanced fission reactors and bleeding-edge fusion research. Heavy indus…

Whoa boy. I caught Landman for the first time today because my partner was watching it.

Oil, cigarettes and alcohol were all clearly being pushed and promoted. Pretty sure it was episode four where a women rather matter-of-factly stated that one alcoholic beverage when pregnant was perfectly fine - inso much that it was good because it helped her body generate breast milk. Such a weird statement to shoe-horn into this soap opera.

Coupled with BBT chain smoking the coffin nails, the rampant shit-canning of renewables and incessant self promotion of how large and wonderful the fossil fuel industry is the money behind the show was as subtle as a sledgehammer.

Plus the sexual objectification of women in this show is ludicrous.

It's 2026. It seems everything old is new again.

Oh, and the

Re: Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout

#110

Post by CalRobert »

c-flow wrote: post #3

Meanwhile, in London, UK, local council doesn't allow you to put anything on your rooftop that doesn't gel with the Victorian look..

For more amusement, look to Limerick, in Ireland, whose council tried to mandate all new homes have chimney stacks.
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