Damn, they've been playing the hell out of factorio,
Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout
441–450 of 612 posts
Re: Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout
#442It's very easy to do things like this when pesky things like property rights or environmental laws or labor protections don't get in the way. In the U.S. and EU, if the government takes your land, they have to reimburse you for it, and you can fight them every step of the way. In China, the government can take your land and if you complain, you can spend the rest of your life in a labor camp.
That's simply not true. People are compensated generously for land that is seized. I have friends that have had it happen, and you get a lot more money than if you were to sell the property - so it's a bit like winning the lottery. The amount of room for appeal is dictated by the nature of the seizure and the government "level". (ie if it's a national interest project you have little recourse, but if it's the city government then it's likely different)
Re: Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout
#443Earlier 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.
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
Also ridiculously far ahead on grid connected battery storage.
https://elements.visualcapitalist.com/top-20-countries-by-ba...
Australia > all of Europe (yes all of Europe, not just EU) combined on that one.
Re: Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout
#444Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Fracking. Before fracking people were worried about "peak oil", and being dependent on unfriendly governments for our basic energy needs. Then with fracking we realized we are actually sitting on huge available oil reserves, and peak oil quickly became a quaint outdated concept.
That may be part of it, but as your parent comment mentioned, the Republicans weren't only worried about peak oil and being dependent on unfriendly governments, but also about climate change. Of course, none of these three problems went away, the point where fossil fuels will be exhausted just got pushed further into the future, and the fact that it will take more and more effort and environmental damage to get to the remaining resources is also undeniable.
But yeah, I guess your answer still applies indirectly: Fracking -> stronger interests by US oil companies -> money to the Republican party -> fossil fuel friendly regulations.
Re: Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout
#445Earlier quoted context omitted.
~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-...
And as a follow on for anyone curious about "can't you just store it and make bank" Australia now leads the world in per capita grid storage. https://elements.visualcapitalist.com/top-20-countries-by-ba...
Re: Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout
#446Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Well, those things sound very quaint compared to what Trump did and does, no matter if you take his first or his second term...
Re: Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout
#447China 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
I think a major factor is politics - when China's leadership sets out to do something, they go out and get it done. Look at China's high speed rail (now more than the combined rest of the world), renewable energy growth, and their recent investment in chips. They commit to it, and make incredible progress - far outpacing everyone else. China's leadership seems to plan for the long term in infrastructure.
Compare that to something like the California High Speed Rail, or our every 4 year tug of war for elections (and mid term elections). Everything is short sighted "wins" for the next reelection, of one party vs another party, instead of making actual progress.
Its almost like when there is a good benevolent leadership in charge, for a long term, then progress comes much faster. (Singapore, China, ?)
Re: Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout
#448Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
I recommend John Boehner's book. He complimented Obama often, stated he & his team were far more ready than McCain to work with Bush on the economy. They were smoking buddies.
Re: Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout
#449Earlier quoted context omitted.
One point that gets very little coverage is that fossil fuels are a limited resource. Once they used they are gone. The materials for renewable energy are still in a usable form.
CO2 can be converted to methane. It just isn't profitable to do so yet. After the fossil fuels are depleted, it will be a viable niche for storable energy where renewables aren't practical.
Why is this conversion desirable?
Re: Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout
#450It 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…
Its crazy that in 1999 "home solar" was a fancy, new millennium idea, and now we're still barely any closer. Honestly, I think building regulations should mandate solar energy for homes.
Some of our neighbours had home solar, wind, and battery storage in the 1990s.
They had a huge specially-made array of lead acid batteries, a backup wood-fired stove for cooking when their power went out, a refrigeration setup where they had to child-lock the fridge during an outage so visitors wouldn't open it and spoil their milk, and no grid connection (which wouldn't have easily allowed residential exports until the late 90s anyway). They also had no cooling other than a fan and windows, and wood heating.
It's honestly pretty impressive how far we've come. Particularly in Australia, where we're world leaders in home solar capacity but are lagging behind in utility-scale renewables, it's really breathtaking to see the country go from 44kWh to 1880kWh per capita capacity in 15 years based mostly off incentivised rooftop solar.