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My understanding is that China doesn’t have oil / natural gas of its own and much of the country is not suitable for wind/ solar such that this is an expected d
by poulsbohemian 4y ago
My understanding is that China doesn’t have oil / natural gas of its own and much of the country is not suitable for wind/ solar such that this is an expected direction.
Talking with people in the US energy sector, there seems to be a lot of interest in nuclear but the perennial issue of marketing.
- everyone 4y agoHow can part of the country not be suitable for solar? Does the sun not shine there?
- JumpCrisscross 4y agoChina has solid solar potential [1]. [1] https://seas.harvard.edu/news/2021/10/chinas-solar-powered-future https://seas.harvard.edu/news/2021/10/chinas-solar-powered-f...
- Prbeek 4y agoA lot of people listen to Zeihan and take him seriously
- CyanBird 4y agoToo many people take wherever they hear on YouTube as gospel PV power in China has got several issues, lack of sun is not one of them
- cinntaile 4y agoDon't leave us hanging, what are the issues?
- DiogenesKynikos 4y agoMy understanding, as a non-expert: the best place for both on-shore wind and solar power generation is in the West of the country (particularly in Xinjiang), but most of the power demand is in the East. China is addressing this by building long-distance, ultra-high-voltage connections between the West and East of the country. This article (from 2017, but it gives you an idea of the problem) has a good map: https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2017/01/16/china-powers-ahead-with-a-new-direct-current-infrastructure https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2017/01/16/china-po....
- bryanlarsen 4y agoChina has quite a bit of oil. It's the 7th largest producer of oil in the world. The problem is that it's also the 2nd largest consumer and imports more than it produces.
- oneoff786 4y agoOrdinal stats aren’t too helpful here. For better reference they produce less than half of what Russia produces and less than a third of what the US produces. https://www.worldometers.info/oil/oil-production-by-country/ https://www.worldometers.info/oil/oil-production-by-country/ They consume about 3x what they produce https://www.worldometers.info/oil/oil-consumption-by-country/ https://www.worldometers.info/oil/oil-consumption-by-country...
- bryanlarsen 4y agoHalf of Russian production or 30% of Chinese consumption is a massive amount of oil!
- oneoff786 4y agoIndeed. But 33% of what they need is not nearly enough.
- bryanlarsen 4y agoNo, but they're ramping up oil production at a tremendous rate, are the biggest EV market in the world and have a shrinking population. That 33% number is going to increase quite quickly.
- oneoff786 4y agoDoubtful. Those statements aren’t false, but they won’t hold up to the fact that the Chinese demand for oil is growing too.