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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

#391

Post by derektank »

epolanski wrote: post #332
Retric wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m anti nuclear on cost reasons but that’s excessively pessimistic. Nuclear can use seawater for cooling, and being colder offsets the cost premium of using salt water. Your 2050’s comment assumes a level of dysfunction that’s presumably exaggerated. Averaging 10 years puts you at 2036 and is itself somewhat pessimistic. The cost of canceled nuclear projects is generally quite low compared to lifetime subsidies of n…

> Averaging 10 years puts you at 2036 and is itself somewhat pessimistic. The average time globally is 14 years. The latest point of reference in the west, Vogtle was announced in 2006 and came online in 2025, 19 years later. It took 7 years alone just to start building it. There's no chance this would take less time in Italy, where you need to also find a suitable place, you don't have the know-how and there's an an…

They go over budget because regulatory burdens are very high, not because of any fundamental unknowns in deploying the technology. A motivated national government could reduce the cost substantially.

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

#392

Post by x0b4dc0d3 »

specialist wrote: post #275
jbl0ndie wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only there is no forever when you're talking about a finite resource, like fossil fuels.

They're talking about our nascent circular economy. Recycling now recovers >95% of raw minerals (and will continue to improve). The learning curves for battery and solar tech will more than make up the for the shortfall. Meaning at some point in the near future (2050 IIRC), humanity will have mined all the lithium it'll ever need. Also, in the same time frame, it'll be economical to mine our garbage dumps. Further re…

Source? These are big claims and the collective shouldn’t rely on your recall as fact.

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

#393

Post by x0b4dc0d3 »

fakedang wrote: post #379
michaelteter wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

China knows better than to weaken their position in the global theater by having large dependence on other nations for energy. They are aiming for domination and they are well on their way.

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

#395

Post by x0b4dc0d3 »

MarceliusK wrote: post #127
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…

The rhetoric around "energy independence" always sounded like it was pointing exactly toward renewables, and it's hard not to see the missed opportunity in hindsight

Can’t power the military with renewables. Need nuclear and fossil fuels for that. One doesn’t want to be dependent on foreign nations to power their military.

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

#396

Post by x0b4dc0d3 »

jacquesm wrote: post #168
alias_neo wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK, it's expensive, and it's not the technology, it's everything else. I don't see how that can improve unless the installation costs come down, and I don't know how that could/would happen. I had solar installed last year, at the end of the summer, it cost roughly £14,000 for a system that can produce 6.51kWp and with 12kWh of battery storage (about 10kWh usable). The 465W all-black panels (14 of them) I had…

You were ripped off.

This is the reason there hasn’t been greater proliferation in the US. There’s a ton of premium added on top of cost.

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

#397

Post by x0b4dc0d3 »

softwaredoug wrote: post #314
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's particularly sad, we've known about the greenhouse effect caused by CO2 since 19th century, and now its branded as radical pseudoscience

Fake news!

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

#398

Post by peyton »

tim-tday wrote: post #384
V__ wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

As far as I can tell they hated Obama not for what he did, said or believed. Those things were quite middle of the road. They hated him for what he was.

Didn’t help that he showed up at his first couple Senate meetings gloating about winning the election. And tried to set working hours for his former colleagues. Among other things.

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

#400

Post by gregbot »

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...

Who cares? Those blades and that concrete are totally inert and just sit in the ground after their useful life. The ground already has lots of rocks in it.
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