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China, in 2023 alone, installed more solar capacity than the US has ever done in its entire history, surpassing expectations.
(lemmygrad.ml)
Sources:
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US Total Capacity: 73.5GW (as of January 2023)
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US Q1 2023 Newly Added: 6.1GW
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US Q2 2023 Newly Added: 5.6GW
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US Q3 2023 Newly Added: 5.5GW (90.7GW Total)
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China Q1 2023 Newly Added: 33.66GW
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China Q2 2023 Newly Added: 44.8GW
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China Q3 2023 Newly Added: 50.48GW (128.94GW Total)
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China 2022 Newly Added: 13.21GW in Q1, 17.67GW in Q2, 21.72GW in Q3, 34.8GW in Q4, 87.4GW Total
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China 2023 Newly Added (Bloomberg Prediction): 150GW, evenly split as 37.5GW for each quarter
That's only uplifting when you ignore the fact that China also approved more than 50GW in new coal power plants in just the first half of 2023...
In the end the two biggest economies in the world massively fail. One because it's controlled by fossil fuel lobbyists and the other because it doesn't give a shit and just builds up every available energy production.
China at least has the excuse of being so incredibly huge that they actually need an "all of the above" strategy to meet energy requirements.
We're over here burning coal for little to no reason. We could replace those plants whenever we want. We just don't, because coal lobby.
Electricity is cheap as shit in China, there is a lot of “need” that is not necessary
Electricity should be affordable.
And waste should be eliminated.
And on a per capita basis, China consumes less than half what Americans consume. Sure looks like they're reducing waste.
Last I checked, China's been developing every energy source known to man (except O&G, because they don't have a domestic supply of O&G except in the contested waters of the SCS)...
China is the world leader in new nuclear development, new hydro development, solar panel manufacturing, wind turbine manufacturing, solar panel deployment, wind turbine deployment, electric vehicles, and carbon capture+storage.
Maybe if other economies would help pick up the slack? China's been firing on all cylinders towards green tech for decades, but it turns out that urbanizing and industrializing 1 billion people to a Western standard of living is really fucking energy-intensive. Meanwhile, everyone else is just sitting on their ass and watching.
Three times as much solar being built as coal is still great, especially for a developing economy. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.
It's China even still a developing country really
The costal part is pretty much developed, but the rest of the country is still industrialising.
You described the US in both scenarios.
What makes you think Americans will forego cheap energy if China and Russia don't?
What makes you think that renewable energy isn't the cheapest energy right now?
You don't have to ignore anything, China has an actual concrete plan for transition off fossil fuels. Initial stages still require coal to produce power to build out the infrastructure. A study in the second link found that China's use of coal is perfectly in line with the plan in the first link.