China's quiet energy revolution: the switch from nuclear to renewable energy
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Re: China's quiet energy revolution: the switch from nuclear to renewable energy
#2On HN, there are a lot of nuclear proponents. Any comments from them on this article? Just curiosity from me because I don't know much about this topic.
Re: China's quiet energy revolution: the switch from nuclear to renewable energy
#3I've always found these articles about China adopting green policies and shifting its industries towards green energy sources to be suspicious. If they were true then why are China's emission ever increasing year after year: https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/china
If their share of renewables / nuclear energy were increasing then there would be a decrease in C02 emissions per capita, but that has never been the case even with the increase in announcements in "green" mega projects over the years.
Re: China's quiet energy revolution: the switch from nuclear to renewable energy
#4I've always found these articles about China adopting green policies and shifting its industries towards green energy sources to be suspicious. If they were true then why are China's emission ever increasing year after year: https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/china If their share of renewables / nuclear energy were increasing then there would be a decrease in C02 emissions per capita, but that has never been the…
is this so hard to explain?
- CO2 comes from sources other than energy (electricity) production.
- Overall energy usage is increasing, outpacing % growth of renewables.
Re: China's quiet energy revolution: the switch from nuclear to renewable energy
#5On HN, there are a lot of nuclear proponents. Any comments from them on this article? Just curiosity from me because I don't know much about this topic.
Nuclear is slower and more expensive to deploy than solar or wind. Nobody should dispute that. We should deploy the latter as quickly as possible. In addition, we should build nuclear plants, certainly until we’ve phased out coal and oil for primary generation.
The article describes China scaling back new plants at a slower pace—about 5 a year instead of ten–but that’s still a multiple of anything we’re doing.
Re: China's quiet energy revolution: the switch from nuclear to renewable energy
#6On HN, there are a lot of nuclear proponents. Any comments from them on this article? Just curiosity from me because I don't know much about this topic.
The article makes it pretty clear the shift was prompted by their ongoing failure to meet their nuclear goals as well as a dropping cost of renewables, not by a philosophical choice to embrace only renewables.
Re: China's quiet energy revolution: the switch from nuclear to renewable energy
#7I've always found these articles about China adopting green policies and shifting its industries towards green energy sources to be suspicious. If they were true then why are China's emission ever increasing year after year: https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/china If their share of renewables / nuclear energy were increasing then there would be a decrease in C02 emissions per capita, but that has never been the…
From the article: "Previously China expected that its energy emissions would peak in 2030, but revised forecasts are now indicating that this could happen as early as 2024, 5-6 years ahead of target."
Re: China's quiet energy revolution: the switch from nuclear to renewable energy
#8China is building a lot of coal power plants.
https://energyandcleanair.org/publication/chinas-new-coal-po...
And industrializaing vast swaths of land by covering it with solar panels.
https://www.facebook.com/XinhuaSciTech/videos/solar-panels-o...
Re: China's quiet energy revolution: the switch from nuclear to renewable energy
#9It is telling that a country with basically none of the American barriers to nuclear (NiMBYism, slow construction) is also shifting focus to solar and wind. It’s just simpler. You can put up a solar panel tomorrow and start generating power.
A solar panel is a self-contained prefab power generating unit. Even with all of the advancements in nuclear, we still don’t have anything like that.
Re: China's quiet energy revolution: the switch from nuclear to renewable energy
#10It’s very difficult to estimate the true cost of nuclear power because so many resources are spent on safety features rather than the basic stuff essential to power generation.
New construction cost per energy out can vary by 5x, even against the grain of expected purchasing power parity advantages:
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-britain-is-building-...