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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

#371

Post by avsteele »

maxglute wrote: post #325
AuthAuth wrote: post #289

All this praise around China's buildout is just encouraging others ignore a problem to sell the solution. When the major nations started coming together to reduce emissions it was agreed that they would all aim to reduce emissions. However China did the opposite and purposefully scaled coal at record rates for nearly a decade and implemented no environmental regulations so as to outcomplete the nations who were trans…

>it was agreed that they would all aim to reduce emissions No, it was agreed during Kyoto that developed nations would reduce emissions, and developing nations (aka PRC, India) would not. Developing nations could keeping scaling fossil to industrialize until Paris where all countries had to submit climate plan (again not explicitly to reduce), and PRC's was to peak emissions by 2030s, which they're on trend to do ear…

Lots of this is right, but

> and PRC's was to peak emissions by 2030s

This appears to be wrong. Peak is supposed to be before 2030. They will not hit it.

https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/china/targets/

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

#372

Post by chrisb »

Saline9515 wrote: post #361
thatsit wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Solar panels etc. will last decades and can and will be recycled afterwards. Further, most materials needed for renewable energy infrastructure (iron, lithium) are highly abundant on earth. Most of the suppliers work to use cheaper (=more abundant) materials in their products, replacing lithium with sodium in batteries and silver with copper in solar panels. Wind turbine blades are produced now using re-solvable resi…

Wind turbines are not recyclable[1]. Besides, the foundations use a massive amount of concrete (nowadays often extracted from the seabed, with all the problematic ecological consequences involved), that stays forever in the ground. [1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S23527...

The linked article is misrepresented.

Two points regarding blade recycling techniques taken straight from the top of the article:

- Cement co-processing and chemical dissolution are primary viable methods, yielding $27.57/ton and $199.71/ton returns respectively.

- Chemical recycling achieves top circularity (PCI=0.7) and notable carbon reduction (−0.475 t CO₂/ton).

Chemical recycling is not yet ready for industrial use; cement co-processing is.

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

#373

Post by atomic_reed »

MiSeRyDeee wrote: post #368
raffael_de wrote: post #254

For a German none of those photos are particularly remarkable or impressive. Especially wind mills - they are all over the place. Outside of cities and forests it would be difficult to not see at least one ... and they like to flock. For example: - https://www.google.com/maps/place/Energiepark+Witznitz+MOVE+... - https://www.erneuerbareenergien.de/energieversorger/stadtwer... - https://www.erneuerbareenergien.de/ener…

> Last year China installed more than half of all wind and solar added globally. In May alone, it added enough renewable energy to power Poland, installing solar panels at a rate of roughly 100 every second. When did German achieve that?

How can German achieve it? It is 1 person?

How can Germany achieve it? It is 10x less people?

So what if you read his emotions correctly? It’s not like your response will change his mind?

In a world of 1 > 0, someone needs to be looked down upon. Why not look down on me? Why can’t others look down on China? And why would looking down based on “truth”, which you seem to so much value, change anything?

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

#374

Post by cn-watch »

dalyons wrote: post #239
madeofpalk wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My "We" is Australia and UK-centric. People have home solar, but it's hardly widespread. It's still a "fancy" thing to have.

~39% of Australian homes have solar as of 2025. Seems pretty widespread

There's so much home solar in Australia that the electricity price goes negative at midday.

https://www.aemo.com.au/energy-systems/electricity/national-...

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

#375

Post by sien »

madeofpalk wrote: post #76
realo wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe his "we" is more USA-centric than your "we". It happens all the time...

My "We" is Australia and UK-centric. People have home solar, but it's hardly widespread. It's still a "fancy" thing to have.

Australia has the highest per capita solar capacity in the world :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_by_country#Global_...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Australia

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

#376

Post by V__ »

tzs wrote: post #354
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…

Up to the 2008 election the Republican party platform called for reducing fossil fuel use, establishing a Climate Prize for scientists who solve the challenges of climate change, a long term tax credit for renewable energy (with specific mentions of solar and wind), more recycling, and making consumer products more energy efficient. They wanted to aggressively support technological advances to reduce the dependence o…

Obama was elected, which made some people very angry:

> Here’s John Boehner, the likely speaker if Republicans take the House, offering his plans for Obama’s agenda: “We’re going to do everything — and I mean everything we can do — to kill it, stop it, slow it down, whatever we can.”

> Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell summed up his plan to National Journal: “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”

Sure Trump took everything to an absurd level of "do the opposite of biden no matter what", but it started back then.

[1] https://www.politico.com/story/2010/10/the-gops-no-compromis...

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

#377

Post by blondie9x »

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…

But what surprises me most in this entire debate is how little we talk about the biological cost of CO₂ itself. We focus so much on the globalized damage to the climate that we’ve overlooked the direct, physiological tax that combustion is levying on our bodies. For some reason conservative governments want us to continue to trade our atmospheric oxygen for carbon dioxide through the burning fossil fuels. I wrote more about this topic on substack:

https://minimallysustained.substack.com/p/beyond-the-greenho...

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

#378

Post by triceratops »

AnotherGoodName wrote: post #330
balops wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I don't understand this? A couple of people responded with clear charts showing nuclear way behind on solar/renewables with solar/renewables growing faster too. It looks like you've been misled but are having trouble admitting that to yourself?

He's a troll. Don't respond.

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

#379

Post by fakedang »

michaelteter wrote: post #349
socalgal2 wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those are nice pictures but I can take the same pictures in the USA. Note: I'm not suggesting China is not doing better here. Rather, I'm going off the title "Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout" and I'm not seeing anything in those photos I haven't seen in the USA. Driving down the 580 from SF to Tracy you pass several hundred windmills. Driving through Mojave the same. Also sola…

The current US “leadership” is working as hard as it can to prevent any progress and to even dismantle some of the gains we have made. Meanwhile, China has made the obvious realization that independence from oil and gas is economically, geopolitically, and environmentally beneficial.

China's betting on renewables while Republicans are betting on nuclear fusion and gutting the NRC.

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

#380

Post by socalgal2 »

mlmonkey wrote: post #342
socalgal2 wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those are nice pictures but I can take the same pictures in the USA. Note: I'm not suggesting China is not doing better here. Rather, I'm going off the title "Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout" and I'm not seeing anything in those photos I haven't seen in the USA. Driving down the 580 from SF to Tracy you pass several hundred windmills. Driving through Mojave the same. Also sola…

Those windmills in the East Bay are decades old. And the Mojave solar concentrator is being shut down, from what I've heard. The article here starts with: Last year China installed more than half of all wind and solar added globally. In May alone, it added enough renewable energy to power Poland, installing solar panels at a rate of roughly 100 every second. Is the US anywhere in this ballpark?

My point was the photos. They aren't convincing to someone who's seen US installations. If that was the goal then the article failed.

A graph comparing China to the US would have been better.

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