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China Earth

China is Building 74% of All Current Solar and Wind Projects (ft.com) 87

Almost three-quarters of all solar and wind power projects being built globally are in China, says a new report that highlights the country's rapid expansion of renewable energy sources. From a report: China is building 510 gigawatts of utility-scale solar and wind projects, according to data from the Global Energy Monitor, a non-governmental organisation based in San Francisco. That compares with about 689GW under construction globally, GEM said.

A rough rule of thumb is that a gigawatt can potentially supply electricity for about 1mn homes. "China is [...] leading the world in global renewable energy build-out," the report said. "It continues to add solar and wind power at a record pace." China's expansion of clean energy sources is important for efforts to fight climate change, given the country's dominant role in global manufacturing.

China is Building 74% of All Current Solar and Wind Projects

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  • 1. Solar panels have no moving parts

    2. The sun shine is more dependable than wind

    3.???

    4. Profit!!!
    • But they don't work at night. Of course, wind doesn't work when it is calm. The combination tends to work well.
      • But they don't work at night.

        That's what flashlights are for - duh. :-)

      • Re:I prefer solar (Score:4, Interesting)

        by AleRunner ( 4556245 ) on Thursday July 10, 2025 @02:38PM (#65510566)

        The combination tends to work well.

        True as long as you have good grid connectivity so you can ship wind power in from a distance, which China is also building. Dealing with these variable sources is getting better and better. Storage over 24 hour periods and possibly even weeks also seems to be moving towards being a solved problem with new technologies coming online. Find a mineshaft or a hill, lift a weight from the bottom to the top, then store it nearby. Lower it down when you need energy back. Alternatively, pump water out of an underwater concrete dome or pump water up a hill and so on. It's also possible to convert iron oxide into iron powder that can later be burned for energy. That's all before you start talking about more expensive but convenient solutions like batteries.

        China will now have a vast amount of energy that they can start testing those solutions on as well as finding industrial processes that can run intermittently when there's super cheap energy available. That converts this from a tactical gain into a strategic one. Once those industrial processes are mostly based in China they can keep learning to optimize them at scale in a way nobody else will be able to.

        When we look back in 30 years time at what caused America to fall, energy prices, spending too much on nuclear, and failure to compete in renewable energy is my best guess.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Moryath ( 553296 )

          When we look back in 30 years time at what caused America to fall, energy prices, spending too much on nuclear, and failure to compete in renewable energy is my best guess.

          "Being run by Inbred Klan Fuckwit Republicans" will be pretty high on the list too.

        • When we look back in 30 years time at what caused America to fall, energy prices, spending too much on nuclear, and failure to compete in renewable energy is my best guess.

          America could fail for spending too much on nuclear? Do you know how much China is spending on nuclear right now?

          If America fails then it will be because they did not spend enough on nuclear power. Consider that any nation considered a military "superpower" they must have nuclear powered aircraft carriers and submarines. That list is very short.

          Why would a nation seeking to be a military superpower not spend gobs of money on nuclear power? If it works so well for ships at sea then why not for factories,

          • You do know that the use cases, and designs of naval reactors are wildly different than commercial pressurized water reactors, yeah?

            For fucks sake.

            • Probably barely aware of what enriched uranium is and would have difficulty working out why you can use more highly enriched uranium in subs than civilian reactors.

        • No-one is talking about the clean energy gap, the new infrastructure gap, the healthcare gap, the employee's rights (annual holidays, data privacy, protection from harassment) gap, the journalism (See: Fairness doctrine) gap. In short, the attributes of a third-world shit-hole, that billionaires in the USA ensure will never be fixed.
    • We have lots and lots of solar panels in Belgium. Some politicians had a lot of fun subsidizing them. Result? Overproduction of electricity on sunny days. To the extent that you have to pay to put energy on the grid. So you have to diversify, spread the risk.
      • by Jeremi ( 14640 )

        Result? Overproduction of electricity on sunny days. To the extent that you have to pay to put energy on the grid.

        Between Bitcoin and AI, "too much electricity" shouldn't be an insurmountable problem for anyone. Either of things will happily consume as much electricity as you can throw at it, and want more. Of course, if you think those things are a waste of power, you could start using excess power to synthesize fuel to sell.

    • Having no moving parts, is not an inherent advantage. Solar panels do decay and need to be replaced over time, just like wind turbines do.

      Sun shine is NOT more dependable than wind. The sun is guaranteed not to shine at night, every night. In windy places that are used for wind farms, the wind tends to blow constantly. West Texas is a great example, the wind rarely stops, and usually blows at about 30 mph. It does slow during the day, when the sun is shining, but picks up at night, when the sun is not shini

  • It's India now right? The new evil that we can use as an excuse to do nothing? God damn India ruining the planet! How dare they. Why would I do anything when we have Chin... err India!

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by dvice ( 6309704 )

      That sounds like you think the problem is solved already. Compare the increase in coal production to increase in solar production:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

      • Re:Buuuut INDIA! (Score:5, Insightful)

        by AnOnyxMouseCoward ( 3693517 ) on Thursday July 10, 2025 @04:31PM (#65510898)
        The problem is far from solved, but look at your chart (or the Wiki itself, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org])! They've moved from ~18% renewables to 32% in 16 years. The increase in absolute quantity of coal still sucks, but you can't say they're not trying. You can say it's not fast enough, not good enough... but damn you've got to give some credits for trying, and not just trying, but likely leading the pack in terms of energy transition.
      • Oh sorry it seems I moved the goalpost the wrong way. I thought rather than complaining about China not doing anything we should complain about another country not doing anything. I didn't realise complaining about China not solving everything completely was the new goalpost.

        Rightio carry on then. CHINA EVIL. *proceeds to turn on the AC with the window open*.

  • 510 gigawats! 1.21 will be enough...
  • by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Thursday July 10, 2025 @02:30PM (#65510540)

    It's like a no-brainer to double down on solar. The government should just offer all unemployed people a job making solar (panels, batteries, installation etc). Then there's no excuse for being able-bodied and unemployed. You know how the United States built tens of thousands of airplanes, tanks, big ass submarines and entire fucking ships during WW2. Why the F can't we do that for solar? The USA .. your grandpa .. built 2700 Liberty ships .. within 3 years. 100,000 military aircraft anually.

    We could easily do this solar shit if we tried.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Rinnon ( 1474161 )

      We could easily do this solar shit if we tried.

      China's government doesn't need to care very much about the political appeal of it's choices. It doesn't matter if the citizens like or dislike solar/wind/renewables. The US Government does need to care (at least to some extent, since they don't want to get voted out [putting to the side any current claims about this point one way or the other]); so lots of energy gets spent on convincing the electorate that solar/wind/renewables are woke shit, which results in candidates who say that solar/wind/renewables

      • China's government doesn't need to care very much about the political appeal of it's choices.

        I don't think that is really true. But are you really arguing the reason China is making more progress on alternative energy is that it has a better system of government?

        • by Rinnon ( 1474161 )
          I hardly think that making more progress on alternative energy projects is the yardstick by which one should measure a system of government; so no I am not.
      • ...to have a Manhattan Project for wind and solar while diverting the Pentagon's $2 trillion budget (its double the advertised amount) into manufacturing and installation. Would be soooooo haaaard to sell those plentiful high paying jobs to American workers.

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        China's government doesn't need to care very much about the political appeal of it's choices.

        Clearly they do, e.g. the COVID lockdown protests which lead directly to a reversal of policy.

        The Chinese government makes an effort to explain policies and sell them to the population. They also don't have the same cultural hang-ups blocking development, with ideas about natural landscapes having to be kept pristine, or rampant NIMBYism. Like we didn't used to when we built national road and energy networks.

        There isn't the big anti-environmental movement in China either, so people don't have weird ideas ab

    • Because solar is woke and gay.

  • MAGA! (Score:4, Funny)

    by TheMiddleRoad ( 1153113 ) on Thursday July 10, 2025 @02:32PM (#65510544)

    Making Asia Great Again.

    • by bjoast ( 1310293 )
      Them damn chinese commies are stealing our wind!
    • Making Asia Great Again.

      Not really. China is also building tons of coal plants. Renewables are NOT displacing coal, the most polluting fossil fuel. China is displacing the more expensive fossil fuels first. They are pursing a lowest cost of power policy, ignoring pollution.

      "[Jul 26, 2023 } It was a bad week for anyone who thought China would cooperate on emissions reduction. President Xi Jinping reiterated that his country would set its own path on the issue and not be influenced by outside factors, according to the Washington

      • Now go and play devil's advocate to find the counter arguments, since they're certainly out there. Perhaps start by using current data rather than years ago.

        Also, leave your bigotry locked up in a cupboard. Let it out later, if you must, once you're done.

  • by oumuamua ( 6173784 ) on Thursday July 10, 2025 @03:34PM (#65510736)
    This may be paywalled: https://www.bloomberg.com/grap... [bloomberg.com] Here is video version: https://www.bloomberg.com/news... [bloomberg.com] TLDR: it was caused by myopic corporate leadership, timid financing, oligopolistic complacency and policy chaos, the US was first out of the stating gates, then tripped , and China took the lead and never looked back

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