Yesterday I ran a report on how Koch industries and other carbon power industries and oligarchs whose wealth depends on carbon energy are using misinformation to influence rural Americans to block the development of solar power. And there are a number of Republican members of Congress who don't even believe human-mediated climate change is real. As a result, although the Biden administration is doing everything it can to move us out of carbon energy, in Republican-controlled states the United States is falling dangerously behind in the conversion out of carbon energy.
In contrast here is what is going on in China. My takeaway from all this is that America, as it has in healthcare, education, and a host of other trends is becoming a second-class power largely because of the work of MAGAt Republicans, and the third of the country who align themselves with MAGAt views.
Photovoltaic panels at a solar farm operated by Yellow River Power in Gonghe County, Qinghai province, China, on Monday, Sept. 27, 2021. China, the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter, can’t meet its environmental goals without connecting its abundant sources of renewable energy with its coastal megacities. Credit: Qilai Shen / Bloomberg
Wind turbines and solar panels are now generating almost enough electricity to power every home in China.
Wind and solar output jumped 21% last year to 1,190 terawatt-hours of electricity, the National Energy Administration said at a briefing on Monday. That’s not far off total residential power consumption of 1,340 terawatt-hours, the NEA said, which was a 14% increase on the prior year as more people spent time at home because of the government’s stringent virus restrictions.
The near match underscores two important things about China’s power system. One, of course, is the rapid growth in renewables as the country sinks hundreds of billions of dollars into meeting climate goals and reducing its reliance on expensive fossil fuels.
But tempering that is a second point: the relative insignificance […]
