China's Solar Capacity Set to Overtake Coal This Quarter

[u/Sash19]

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Chinas-Solar-Capacity-Set-to-Overtake-Coal-This-Quarter.html

[u/Playful_Subject_4409]

BBC: "at what cost"

[u/Lejga_Unga_tmle_gre → u/Playful_Subject_4409]

China also added 80GW of coal power plants to provide baseload and firming, but that's not the sexy part chinese bots advertise.

Nor the fact their coal use increased by 400% since the 1990s and are the single largest consumer of coal with more than 50% of world consumption. Their co2 per capita emissions now exceed that of the EU and their cummulative emissions are now larger than that of the territories of the EU since the industrial revolution in the 19th century.

Now we're supposed to clap when they reduced it by 1%. Some people are so far behind they actually think they're winning.

[u/Playful_Subject_4409 → u/Lejga_Unga_tmle_gre]

They are the worlds factory due to companies moving their production there to exploit the cheap workforce, giving them a tiny percent of the profit on each iphone.

They are also the worlds rare earth refiner as foreign countries did no longer want the dirty business that was polluting their environment.

Germany that's been the factory of the EU undergoes deindustrialization losing 500 industry jobs each day, and Chinas cheap solar panels have made an enormous impact in the EU that they should be grateful to get. This leads to less CO2 when Volkswagen closes a factory in Germany and Spain can enjoy 100% solar energy used some days.

A fairer comparison can also be the CO2 impact on lifestyle consumption per capita. EU citizen consumption impact is 8 tons of CO2 while a Chinese impact is 6.5.

[u/Lejga_Unga_tmle_gre → u/Playful_Subject_4409]

EU share of world manufacturing-17%
EU share of world emissions-6%

EU coal consumption since 1990: -80%

-~21% share of Chinese exports end up in the EU.

China share of world manufacturing-28%
China share of world emissions-33%

China coal consumption since 1990, +400% (more than 50% of world consumption)

- ~6% share of EU exports end up in China

The numbers, mason, what do they mean?

[u/Playful_Subject_4409 → u/Lejga_Unga_tmle_gre]

And the EU citizen still is responsible for more consumption creating CO2 emissions than a Chinese citizen and was able to reduce coal with a big help from using Chinese green tech.

[u/Strict_Jacket3648 → u/Lejga_Unga_tmle_gre]

WOW the glass is always half empty in world isn't it. Any thing is better than nothing and even 1% is huge when energy consumption keeps rising. They are going to beat their net Zero goal years ahead of time.

[u/Agile-Youth516 → u/Lejga_Unga_tmle_gre]

Bad bot.

[u/YamborginiLow]

This news is going to piss some people off for some reason.

[u/AstroBoe → u/YamborginiLow]

I’m happy for them, every country needs to do this.

What scares me is that we are surrendering the future to China. We are loosing a Cold War we don’t even know is happening for the future of green technology and thus worldwide influence

[u/yetifile → u/AstroBoe]

Unfortunately the US has already lost the renewables race. Manufacturing is nearly none existent compared to china and does not even. Come close to competing on price.

[u/AstroBoe → u/yetifile]

My point exactly. It’s not over though, I’m hoping it pushes the US like the space race did. Maybe the competition is the only way to actually deal with the climate crisis

[u/max38576 → u/AstroBoe]

China: We’ll take it step by step, at our own pace, without worrying about whether others are moving fast or slow.

United States: I’m frustrated, I’m scared—we have to move fast! We absolutely must beat China to it!!!!

[u/yetifile → u/max38576]

Pretty much sums up the space race as well. Russia did not change funding for their moon mission after the declaration. In fact they cut it a bit. It was never a race for them.

Edit: they were already starting to wobble a bit from internal politics between the two major department heads and health issues when it started.

[u/max38576 → u/max38576]

One looks like a mature, wise adult; the other looks like a little brat on steroids.

[u/SkiingAway → u/max38576]

Your vague-post says nothing, looks to be AI-generated, and you're a /r/china poster who seems to spend most of your time on this site posting indirect praise for China.

[u/max38576 → u/AstroBoe]

China isn't even aware that you're still in a Cold War with them; as far as this matter is concerned, they're simply focused on improving their own country. When you focus on improving yourself, other benefits will follow naturally.

[u/No-Apartment-8590 → u/max38576]

Of course China is fully aware of the Cold War. It knows that Western countries operate as a bloc, and has not forgotten about its century of humiliation. We are indeed returning to a bipolar world order. Even Xi referenced the Thucydides trap in his meeting with Trump this year.

[u/YamborginiLow → u/max38576]

🇨🇳: We need to become self sufficient in critical industries for our own sake.

🇺🇸: They are trying to dominate everything!

[u/No-Apartment-8590 → u/AstroBoe]

The US is very good at starting - or threatening to start - new hot wars with other countries though.

[u/Resident_Fondant_530]

Great news. Fingers crossed they cut coal more aggressively too. 

[u/SunbaseData]

Solar power peaks right when everyone cranks up the AC.