Dad, are we fucked?
No, that would be https://asiatimes.com/2025/12/chinas-jiutian-drone-carrier-t...
Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout
581–590 of 612 posts
Re: Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout
#582Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Old" as in "we built it and discovered it's not wanted". The French basically gave up on the idea of fast reactors (as did the Japanese, although their fast reactor program appears to have been an excuse to obtain a stockpile of separated plutonium in case they need to make bombs). There's no market for them. The Russians have continued to try, but they're selling LWRs. The big problem with fission is that it's too…
>There's no market for them In an economic sense, when compared to burner reactors, this is correct. As the rise of wind and solar has shown however, political will and popularity matter more than pure economics. Burner reactors are more of a 22nd century technology, assuming the grid storage problem doesn’t get solved by then and we just go full renewable on economics. But nothing is set in stone
What nonsense. What solar and wind have shown is the overwhelming importance of economics. They are dominating now because they have become cheap, not because of some sort of "triumph of the will". And they have become cheap because they are inherently the kind of technologies that has good experience curves. Unlike nuclear.
Re: Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout
#583Dad, are we fucked?
No, that would be https://asiatimes.com/2025/12/chinas-jiutian-drone-carrier-t...
> With a maximum take-off weight of about 16 tons, a 25-meter wingspan and an operational ceiling of 15,000 meters, Jiutian can remain airborne for roughly 12 hours and reach targets up to 7,000 kilometers away
Okay, you're right... their military capabilities are still laughable. Thanks for the reassurance, that'll help me sleep at night a bit better.
Re: Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout
#584Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
"Recycling now recovers >95% of raw minerals" Not of plastic - recycling rates are decreasing. This is largely due to the excess ethane begin produced as a by-product of US fracking. The ethane is converted to ethylene, then to polyethylene as a cost below that of collecting, cleaning, and processing used plastic.
True. The situation for both off-gassing and plastic recycling is rather bleak.
Sorry for being vague; I was only referring to economically valuable minerals used in electric batteries.
Aqua Metals has previously said they'll be able to reuse battery quality graphite (from batteries) as well (vs releasing it as CO2). But my recent scan of their progress wasn't very encouraging.
Learning more about Redwood Recycling stack is on my to do list.
Re: Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout
#585Earlier quoted context omitted.
have democrats not made similar statements about Trump, him being a danger to democracy and such?
In 2008-9 Republicans did not even make the pretense of Obama being a threat to democracy. (Which would have been absurd in a way it isn't for Trump, who tried to overthrow an election he lost .)
I remember when some lady called Obama "Muslim" (in the same tone of voice as she'd say "demon" or something) and Mitt Romney took the microphone from her and said "no, no, we disagree politically but he's a good man."
Shows how poorly those politicians understood the constituency they were fomenting. He was boo'd for it by people that had come to see him specifically, and about 15 years later, republican voters built a scaffold outside the Capital they were breaking into while chanting about hanging the Republican vice president.
I feel like American politicians often play with fire without understanding its nature as something that burns.
Re: Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout
#586Earlier 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.
bs. obama fucked up healthcare even more, bombed everyone (even americans) and deported more than trump. color bait.
He did that before he was elected?
Re: Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout
#587Technological, manufacturing and energy advancements aside (congrats China on those), the pictures look beautiful. Amazing work from the photographer.
Yeah! Pretty sure the person silhouette in the first photo is fake, so we can understand the scale. Great touch.
Re: Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout
#588Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's the hard part?
Demography. They're soon going to run out of "young" workers, which mean they have to invent the robotics of the 2100s to ensure the few remaining people will have machine to harvest crops and wage wars. Also, they're soon going to run out of women, so they need to perfect artificial wombs. The few remaining party elites will want to live practically forever, so biology will be on the programs once fusion and robots…
> Our only hope for beating China, at this point, would be to recreate an "opium wars" situation where the whole population becomes dumb and stop caring. (A bit like what tiktok and X are doing to use at the moment, but with much more social control.)
Might be more accurate to say that the PRC has successfully done an opium wars situation to the USA with e.g. fentanyl precursors.
Re: Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout
#589Earlier quoted context omitted.
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...
Existing wind turbines turbines are not recyclable - new wind turbines are. Except, that's not even true. Some existing wind turbines are not recyclable. Except that's not entirely true either! The tower portion of the turbine is usually steel, and easily recyclable! The nacelle, too. It's the base and the blades that can't be recycled. Except that's not entirely true either! Existing turbine blades are made (mostly)…
None of this is economically profitable, which is why right now it ends up in massive landfils. The concrete base is reinforced with steel beams and weights so much that you can't move it.
Also sorry but I would require a citation for "new wind turbines are recyclable". That the tech exists doesn't mean that all installed turbines have it.
Re: Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout
#590Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Cement co-processing is not exactly recycling as the original material (fiberglass) can't be reused for its initial purpose.