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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

#111
post #80

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

Everyone's rising on renewables. Renewable energy is just a victim of a heavily polarizing political atmosphere.

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

#112
post #97

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.

I know which error I’d prefer to be making.

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

#113
post #50

China is far more incentivized to champion renewable considering that they do not have the same access as the US. US is also on a path to quite literally invading other countries to extract crude and other resources. I don’t think China is in a position to do this, yet. If China invades Brunei or arrests Bolkiah, they will face irreversible repercussions. All that said, I don’t think wind and solar are the answers. G…

> Geothermal and fusion will need to be the solution.

China needs power NOW though.

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

#114
post #44
post #20

China has also just launched a megawatt scale wind generator a the helium-lifted balloon, the S2000 , they have active thorium rector the TMSR-LF1 and GW/h Vandium flow battery. The scale , speed and breadth of what they are doing is incredible and I think missed my people

Even the people who understand the scale don't understand the purpose. The Chinese grid isn't renewable or non-renewable. It's built to keep the lights on for anything short of a thousand year catastrophe. Their 2060 plan has enough non intermittent base load that they can run the whole country off it for a decade. That half of your grid capacity is there 'just in case' is something no one in the west can wrap their…

What's the hard part?

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

#115
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…

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

#116
Power is quite literally power, in both the physical and political senses. The Chinese know this, and Europe is catching up fast. American private enterprise knows it too.

Battery storage isn't quite where it needs to be, yet, so there's still some need for fossil and nuclear power, but when it is, decommissioning the remaining fossil power system is a no-brainer, and those with the biggest existing solar and wind estates will benefit most, and fastest.

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

#117
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…

It's incredibly how common it is these days to see valid criticism dismissed as "X talking points" or "Y dog whistle". I guess that's easier than providing an argument.

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

#118

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…

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 thi…

never heard of this show, I wonder who produces it

oh Paramount

the ones that just decimated CBS News, put talentless propagandist Bari Weiss in charge, and censored a critical report on human rights abuses ordered by POTUS

all running on Oracle (tm)

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

#119

> Heidu Mountain Scenic Area Not so scenic any more... I get it, electricity good, but man are we destroying places just to get this stuff. In the UK I reckon within my lifetime it won't be possible to go to the sea any more. I mean, the sea how it used to be, without wind turbines in it. Fossil fuels gave us too much. If only we could figure out how to want less.

My local beaches on the Yorkshire coast have some of the biggest wind farms in the world. We’re never going to reduce energy consumption. It’s a balance between gas and wind here, just pick how many wind turbines you want, and burn gas to fill in the gaps. Your ruined horizon is my safer future for my kids. I like seeing them there. I wish there were more.

Every generation thinks they're building a safer future for their kids, including the boomers. If you want to talk about safety then you need to take sustainability seriously.

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

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 2025, > 90% of new energy capacity built in the US is from renewable [0]. So the US isn't building that much solar not because they're not building solar, but that the US has been generating and consuming so much energy per capita that there isn't that much incentive to increase energy capacity dramatically. [0]: https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/clean-energy/us-new-win...

The US has done well historically, roughly on par with China on per capita renewable rollout, slightly ahead of China between 2019-2023 but probably falling behind now. China being so big and populous makes it hard to make simple comparisons. edit: looked it up, US is still ahead of China as of 2024: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/renewable-electricity-per... Bear in mind that pre 2000 is likely hydro, in the ear…

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