China Installed More Solar Panels Last Year Than the U.S. Has in Total::China installed more new solar capacity last year than the total amount ever installed in any other country.

  • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I seem to have been working on old info, as China has decommissioned 70 GW of coal plants, but it looks like they also just approved a whole lot more of them.

    From Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/chinas-coal-country-full-steam-ahead-with-new-power-plants-despite-climate-2023-11-30/#:~:text=After 2025%2C it is unclear,and are phasing out plants.

    In the third quarter of this year, however, China permitted more new coal plants than in all of 2021, according to Greenpeace, even as most countries have stopped building new coal-fired power and are phasing out plants.

    Well, shit.

    Anyway, I’m glad for the solar and nuclear capacity (LOTS of it!) that China’s been building. I’m glad to hear that we are spinning down coal capacity, but I’d be interested to learn what we’re replacing it with. It seems like natural gas is all the rage these days, and that still produces GHG emissions.

    • Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip
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      1 year ago

      the coal is approved because on how power plants function. dirty energy is usually used to level out power spikes in demand, but not as a main source after you have a remeweable source. its a tually very hard to go 100% renewables.

      • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        It’s less about balance and more about raw needs. Providing power to a billion people is hard and they are building everything to meet the growing demand.

        • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
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          1 year ago

          I thought China’s population has stopped growing and is actually on a track to start shrinking rapidly?

          • redcalcium@lemmy.institute
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            1 year ago

            But at the same time, quality of life is rapidly improving which means energy usage per capita will eventually ramp up to similar level with average western citizen’s energy usage.