Hippy China leading the renewables charge!!!

[HIMBOB]

China which makes up less than 15% of global GDP accounted for 45% of global renewable energy investment last year.

I find it really interesting that China is a centrally lead government, which is not at the mercy of do gooder hippy types. Yet, they threw $126 billion into an industry many regard as built upon the desires of smelly hippies with no understanding of economics or finance .

To me this is a result of the misunderstanding of vested interests.

Many a dullard has claimed renewables are primarily political attempts at appeasing the green voter, yet I think this shows the ignored but powerful factors behind energy policy.

The often overlooked elephant in the room is the owners of fossil fuel reserves. With combined assets of 100's of Trillions at risk, they have the capital and motive to sway public opinion into believing their product is the world's future.



Other interesting facts that imo should be common knowledge.

-the growth of renewable energy doubled that of coal, gas and nuclear combined around the world in 2017. (New Renewable generation overtook new fossil gen pre 2014/15).

-renewables provide about 12% of world electricity.

-by 2050 solar and wind predicted to provide 50% of world electricity. 71% by zero carbon tech (hydro, nuke)


Source, UN ‘Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2018’ report

 

[AznTrojan]

meanwhile this dumbass administration is trying to bring back coal

 

[robotsonic]

China which makes up less than 15% of global GDP accounted for 45% of global renewable energy investment last year.

I find it really interesting that China is a centrally lead government, which is not at the mercy of do gooder hippy types. Yet, they threw $126 billion into an industry many regard as built upon the desires of smelly hippies with no understanding of economics or finance .

To me this is a result of the misunderstanding of vested interests.

Many a dullard has claimed renewables are primarily political attempts at appeasing the green voter, yet I think this shows the ignored but powerful factors behind energy policy.

The often overlooked elephant in the room is the owners of fossil fuel reserves. With combined assets of 100's of Trillions at risk, they have the capital and motive to sway public opinion into believing their product is the world's future.



Other interesting facts that imo should be common knowledge.

-the growth of renewable energy doubled that of coal, gas and nuclear combined around the world in 2017. (New Renewable generation overtook new fossil gen pre 2014/15).

-renewables provide about 12% of world electricity.

-by 2050 solar and wind predicted to provide 50% of world electricity. 71% by zero carbon tech (hydro, nuke)


Source, UN ‘Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2018’ report

Go visit Hong Kong just once if you want to know why this is happening. It's one of China's cleanest cities and is still absolutely filthy with pollution. The entire Pearl river delta is an effluent outflow pipe for Guangzhou, Shenzhen, etc

China is investing in green and renewables out of necessity, they polluted the country so badly during the last 30 years it's actually unlivable in certain places, the air quality, even in the cleanest cities is absolutely disgusting. It really has become quite a big issue in China as cancer (and other illnesses caused by pollution) rates are skyrocketing. It has become a make or break issue for the CCP.

Also hating on the US for talking about restarting coal plants, while China still relies heavily on coal plants and is one of the biggest contributors to global pollution levels due to that reason is laughable, put your agenda away, dude.

 

[ShinkanPo]

meanwhile this dumbass administration is trying to bring back coal

Clean Coal.

 

[TheTimeIsNotNow]

Coal is the future

 

[Orgasmo]

Clean Coal.

Clean coal is like fucking for virginity. It's an oxymoron.

China is actually quicker at adapt to new technologies at the moment, due their rapid development in the past 30 years. They don't have established special interest groups from obsolete energy sectors bogging them down through lobbying, because those sectors did not have enough time to entrench themselves in their political system in the short time span. There is also a lot of growing anger in China over environmental pollution, which forces the communist government to act quickly. Authoritarian regimes tend to destabilize when the population gets pissed, and Beijing knows they need to haul ass on cleaning up.

 

[Darkballs]

The next global power will be whomever wins the energy race.

China is investing heavily in renewable energies and employing hundreds of thousands in the industry.

We are fighting tooth and nail to use energy from the 1800's in defense of much less jobs. That decision is driven entirely by money donated to republican lawmakers who then sell their base a bunch of horseshit about saving jobs. We are doing everything in our power to leave this nation a shittier one for our children.

 

[HIMBOB]

Go visit Hong Kong just once if you want to know why this is happening. It's one of China's cleanest cities and is still absolutely filthy with pollution. The entire Pearl river delta is an effluent outflow pipe for Guangzhou, Shenzhen, etc

China is investing in green and renewables out of necessity, they polluted the country so badly during the last 30 years it's actually unlivable in certain places, the air quality, even in the cleanest cities is absolutely disgusting. It really has become quite a big issue in China as cancer (and other illnesses caused by pollution) rates are skyrocketing. It has become a make or break issue for the CCP.

Also hating on the US for talking about restarting coal plants, while China still relies heavily on coal plants and is one of the biggest contributors to global pollution levels due to that reason is laughable, put your agenda away, dude.

Been to Hong Kong, although breifly.

Now what are you suggesting here, that coal is so dirty they had to go to renewables? Good point but hardly ground breaking.

Personally I think it's because it's cheaper, limitless, quick to build and devoid of supply chain issues.

As to my agenda I just get annoyed at how frequently people can be swayed without the use of facts.

 

[Darth_Inv1ctu5]

China which makes up less than 15% of global GDP accounted for 45% of global renewable energy investment last year.

I find it really interesting that China is a centrally lead government, which is not at the mercy of do gooder hippy types. Yet, they threw $126 billion into an industry many regard as built upon the desires of smelly hippies with no understanding of economics or finance .

To me this is a result of the misunderstanding of vested interests.

Many a dullard has claimed renewables are primarily political attempts at appeasing the green voter, yet I think this shows the ignored but powerful factors behind energy policy.

The often overlooked elephant in the room is the owners of fossil fuel reserves. With combined assets of 100's of Trillions at risk, they have the capital and motive to sway public opinion into believing their product is the world's future.



Other interesting facts that imo should be common knowledge.

-the growth of renewable energy doubled that of coal, gas and nuclear combined around the world in 2017. (New Renewable generation overtook new fossil gen pre 2014/15).

-renewables provide about 12% of world electricity.

-by 2050 solar and wind predicted to provide 50% of world electricity. 71% by zero carbon tech (hydro, nuke)


Source, UN ‘Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2018’ report

But hey, green coal amirite?

This country is getting raped so hard...

 

[Headkicktoleg]

The air is almost unbreatheable with only like 10% of their population in the middle class. They can't keep producing pollution at the same rate or they will just gas their entire country to death

 

[Videer]

You have to understand that dealing with extreme pollution is pretty much a national security issue for the communist party.

 

[Seano]

meanwhile this dumbass administration is trying to bring back coal

Much of the world still uses coal and we have a lot of it. Sort of dumb not to use it while we have it.

 

[Dolomite]

Their safety standards for battery technology are simply abysmal.

What I mean to say is - the government stamps their seal of approval onto lithium based time bombs as a matter of routine.

 

[snakedafunky]

I am not sure you can consider China a single leading power in renewal energy.
When it comes to actually implement it the EU is much further down the road.
Especially Germany is very far developed already. Also, we recently run into some serious problems.

But if you want to look at an Industrial power that generates a considerable amount of power from renewal sources Germany is far ahead of anyone else. The UK is probably closest. Especially in terms of manufacturing and top-level research and creating good-paying jobs. With the EU behind it, I don't see the momentum changing to China anytime soon.

 

[Squarechoke]

Smart by China to take it that seriously. Not only for the climate but for the financial future as there's enormous amounts of money in the race to clean energy, although they have quite some ways to go before they can compete with the leaders in Europe.

It's pretty funny to see people on the other side of the map praise a leader for not even knowing the difference between weather and climate.

 

[HockeyBjj]

Because they’re kinda out of any other options at this point

I hope the US can get some cost effective renewable energy going before we get to this point

 

[Mark Hunts FIST]

The next global power will be whomever wins the energy race.

China is investing heavily in renewable energies and employing hundreds of thousands in the industry.

We are fighting tooth and nail to use energy from the 1800's in defense of much less jobs. That decision is driven entirely by money donated to republican lawmakers who then sell their base a bunch of horseshit about saving jobs. We are doing everything in our power to leave this nation a shittier one for our children.

Didnt you spend half a day claiming the father from the Time story wasnt reliable? That was you right?

 

[Farmer Br0wn]

The West always needs an Eastern economic Boogeyman.

In the late 70s, 80s, and early 90s, all of the analysts were talking about the massive economic Powerhouse that was Japan, and how the Japanese economy may someday rule the world, and all of you may very well be working for some Japanese person someday. This idea got so ingrained in the National psyche that comedians started making jokes about it, one of the "Back to the Future" movies even humored this concept.

Then the Japanese Market collapsed, and they had "the Lost decade".

Now in the year of Our Lord 2018, the West has adopted a new Eastern Boogeyman, because the previous one fell apart: China.

For over a decade China has been cooking their books so that they could show other nations that they had a fictional 9% GDP growth every year.

When they collapse (not if), the West will simply transfer this concept of an Eastern Boogeyman to a new nation. My bet is on South Korea.

All of these posts talking about how China's going to be the world leader this, or the world leader that, are not going to age very well.

 

[Jorge Luis Borges]

They don't have established special interest groups from obsolete energy sectors bogging them down through lobbying, because those sectors did not have enough time to entrench themselves in their political system in the short time span.

A core problem with centrally led economies is they are far more susceptible to the kind of sclerosis you describe.

 

[Prefect]

meanwhile this dumbass administration is trying to bring back coal

Coal failing has nothing to do with renewables. It has everything to do with the fact that natural gas prices. Natural gas prices are killing nuclear and goal generation.

That said, green energy is remarkably competitive in places with a lot of wind ie high capacity factors. It isn't base loading and you run into ramp rate issues like in California where conventional baseload generation struggles to ramp up when the wind quickly quits blowing over a large region. Solar is dropping rapidly as well. In regions where electricity is expensive, europe, and northeast,west coast, and hawaii are see parity with renewable generation. Parity doesn't fix the fact though that it isn't dispatchable.

The push for green energy in China is being pushed to reduce and move pollution. Aside from building a lot of green generation, there is a 2,400 km of 1,000 kV transmission that is being built to allow inland coal generation to transfer electricity to the coastal areas so the large coastal cities won't be polluted by the coal generation plants. It is about controlling pollution because over those distances it is cheaper to ship the coal to the coast and generate there than to generate in inland and send the electricity to the coast. One thing that is really interesting about shipping coal studies, (shipping coal by wire (electrical transmission), coal by rail, and coal by pipeline (piping coal gas)) is that coal by pipeline is surprisingly cheap even though you never hear about it. The decision on how to transfer coal power usually though is determined by what existing infrastructure is already in place that it can piggyback on. China already has a rail system so that method would have been cheaper but like I said earlier, it is about keeping the pollution away from the coast.