China’s Decarbonization Is So Fast Even New Coal Plants Aren’t Stopping It

foreignpolicy.com

Edit: some lemmy instances mangle the gift token on this link.

Shortened version still works

13 comments

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- Its a gift link; most folks wont need that
  
  Gift links only last a couple months, usually?
  Edit: It also complains about me using Firefox and fails to load. Fuck that.
I do not think the world will like a century dominated by the CCP quite so well as it likes rapid decarbonization, but I guess we take what we can get .
- I'm not a fan of the CCP either, but maybe other countries should have fucking done something then.
  
  People should show their dislike of the CCP by installing their own massive solar PV fields.
- If countries are careful to buy solar modules instead of things like inverters and other grid interconnection hardware with more complex electronics, it'll limit Chinese power in a way that you can't limit the ability of an oil or gas supplier to cut you off.
  
  Good advice. I was actually thinking simply about being the center of the global economy and how that typically makes a nation a superpower. Technological espionage is a whole other issue.
- I'm doubtful it'll be any worse than a century dominated by the US, they're all doing the same evil shit.
"I'm a doctor so I can smack people in the face. It's not a problem because I will heal them afterwards."
Are there any non-CCP measurements that support this assertion?
- Yes, but with more uncertainty; they've definitely stopped the fast increase in emissions and did about 3/4 of all wind and solar installations worldwide last year
Behind those numbers is a rapidly changing energy landscape that could lead to a much less carbon-intensive future.
The word could is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. On paper, China has already built enough PV to power half the country, but uses less than half of their built power. China is building new coal plants, which should be widely reported, but that's half the story. The other half is acres and acres of dark PV.
Always look at these propagandistic graphs and check if they're a report of energy used or things like 'installed' and 'capacity' -- because they're certainly not using it. China chooses to continue to fuel its industrialization with coal.
The coal for 'local control' angle sounds new and curious. What does it say about their TWs of potential 'solar capacity' when they still have blackouts when local private coal plant operators skimp on their coal deliveries? Are they building solar projects in regions where it isn't needed and leaving regions where it is needed under-supplied due to government incompetence? Are they installing potemkin solar farms that are built with panels that didn't meet standards for export and will never be reliable? Are they trying to get as much coal out of the ground as they can before other countries force them to stop? I'd be impressed if a journalist could find the answer to these questions.
Electric vehicle and train increases would be much more inspiring if the former wasn't the case. It's much better for the respiratory health of people in city centers, but for the purposes of carbonization, they're effectively machines that run on coal.