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Photos capture the breathtaking scale of China's wind and solar buildout
- greggsy 10mo agoAlso worth checking out some of the mega projects on Open Infrastructure Maps like this one in central China. https://openinframap.org/#9.12/36.0832/100.4215/A,B,L,P,S https://openinframap.org/#9.12/36.0832/100.4215/A,B,L,P,S
- hbarka 10mo agoThis planet-scale map of the global electricity network is incredible.
- aembleton 10mo agoOpenStreetMap (the DB behind this map) is incredible. It has so much useful information inside it.
- forgotTheLast 10mo agoI expect to see it on the front page of HN by the end of the day
- croisillon 10mo ago4 years ago, 47 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29948473 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29948473 7 days ago, 93 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46536866 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46536866
- c-flow 10mo agoMeanwhile, in London, UK, local council doesn't allow you to put anything on your rooftop that doesn't gel with the Victorian look..
- raphaelj 10mo agoThe UK is actually world leading in wind electricity generation (especially offshore). So it's not all bad.
- sdoering 10mo agoNot quite accurate anymore. The UK was indeed the world leader from 2008 until around 2021, but has since fallen to second place behind China. China now has over 41 GW installed (>50% of global capacity), while the UK sits at ~15 GW (~22%). [1][2] Still impressive for a country of that size, but "world leading" is technically no longer correct. [1] https://www.renewableuk.com/energypulse/blog/uk-wind-and-global-offshore-wind-2024-in-review/ https://www.renewableuk.com/energypulse/blog/uk-wind-and-glo... [2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1489147/uk-offshore-wind-power-generation/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1489147/uk-offshore-wind... ps.: Per capita it's also not #1 — Denmark and the Netherlands both have higher offshore wind capacity per person.
- gehsty 10mo agoI guess we are. But who are the plants owned by, who built the and where did the components come from, are we also switching them off because our grid cannot handle transmit huge volumes of renewable energy from Scotland to London, and turning on gas power plants to make up for it. You also have situations, like today, where a German developer has handed back a seabed lease for 3GW of offshore power because they didn’t get a contract for power from government (CFD) and their lease fees are approx £400m/yr if they want to continue developing the windfarm. This is after spending £1B already on lease fees with nothing to show for it.
- youngtaff 10mo agoThe interconnection problem is being solved by several large cables down the east coast Leasing the seabed before you win a CfD auction is a commercial risk but they probably didn't win because their bid price was too high
- 10mo ago
- ranguna 10mo agoTechnological, manufacturing and energy advancements aside (congrats China on those), the pictures look beautiful. Amazing work from the photographer.
- etra0 10mo agoCame here to appreciate the same. Not only it truly captures the scale, but does it in a great way.
- btbuildem 10mo agoSame sentiment! The one photo from Mongolia is going as my desktop background
- dingnuts 10mo agoAre you joking? It looks just as ugly as mountaintop removal to me. They could preserve all that scenery by just building out nuclear. That's without mentioning the horrible ecological impact of blanketing an entire ecosystem in panels.
- jiveturkey 10mo agoYeah! Pretty sure the person silhouette in the first photo is fake, so we can understand the scale. Great touch.
- Lucasoato 10mo agoWhy aren't we doing it in the rest of the world as well?
- ben_w 10mo agoThe rest of the world is, in fact, doing it as well.
- estimator7292 10mo agoBasically everyone is except the USA
- rsynnott 10mo agoChina's willing to provide lots of capital for this, which has sped it up, but this is generally happening at a slower pace in most developed countries (and many non-developed ones, for that matter). It's even happening in the US, despite ol' minihands actively trying to stop it.
- otikik 10mo agoWow, pictures look great, well done Mr Weimin Chu
- margorczynski 10mo agoWouldn't it be better to just go with nuclear? Isn't this a gigantic waste of space and overhead to maintain it? And how "renewable" are the materials used to produce these?
- comrade1234 10mo agoThere's two big parts of the earth that are uninhabitable because of nuclear. Anyway, they are going with nuclear too.
- account42 10mo agoThey are uninhabited by humans currently. They are not uninhabitable as shown by animals and plants living there. And they can also not be called "big parts of the earth" by any stretch of those words. Especially Fukushima is more of a political issue than a safety one.
- natmaka 10mo ago> animals and plants Scientists are on the fence: https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/food-environment/2022/scientists-cant-agree-about-chernobyls-impact-wildlife https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/food-environmen... > Fukushima is more of a political issue A very, very expensive political caprice, if any: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_nuclear_accident_cleanup https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_nuclear_accident_cle...
- vachina 10mo agoNuclear still have to deal with nuclear waste. > gigantic waste of space Good thing China isn’t running out of space
- uncletoxa 10mo agoThe latest generation of Nuclear power plants are full cycle, produce close to nothing amount of waste
- ollybee 10mo agoChina has also just launched a megawatt scale wind generator a the helium-lifted balloon, the S2000 , they have active thorium rector the TMSR-LF1 and GW/h Vandium flow battery. The scale , speed and breadth of what they are doing is incredible and I think missed my people
- noosphr 10mo agoEven the people who understand the scale don't understand the purpose. The Chinese grid isn't renewable or non-renewable. It's built to keep the lights on for anything short of a thousand year catastrophe. Their 2060 plan has enough non intermittent base load that they can run the whole country off it for a decade. That half of your grid capacity is there 'just in case' is something no one in the west can wrap their head around. China building out massive solar and wind farms isn't because wind and solar are the future. It's because they can tick off their 30 year plan 25 years ahead of schedule and focus on the hard parts next.
- movedx 10mo agoI feel like energy is the most critical aspect to any economy and military. It's the beginning of anything and everything you want to achieve.
- kccqzy 10mo agoIt totally is. I don’t remember where I heard it from but there’s a saying that all poverty is energy poverty. Not enough food for your citizens? That’s because you don’t have enough energy to run the Haber Bosch process for fertilizer production.
- dfee 10mo agoshort of the defense of energy infrastructure, of course.
- siscia 10mo agoWhat's the hard part?
- roxolotl 10mo agoIt genuinely makes me so sad to see the US not doing the same. Having grown up to the constant beat of “energy independence” as the core goal of a party it seemed obvious that the nearly limitless energy that rains down from the sky would be the answer. But instead we’ve kept choosing the option which requires devastating our, and other’s around the world, community. That’s not to exclude the harsh reality of mining for the minerals required to build these, nor the land use concerns. But it’s difficult to compare localized damage to war and globalized damage.
- mgaunard 10mo ago[flagged]
- Kallikrates 10mo agoThe mountaintop panels add shade to those regions and actually reverse desertification, increases water retention and create useful agricultural land.
- mgaunard 10mo agoMountaintops are already cold and shaded places by definition. And regardless of whether it's beneficial for humans, it's still changing the local ecosystem.
- raincole 10mo agoIn 2025, > 90% of new energy capacity built in the US is from renewable [0]. So the US isn't building that much solar not because they're not building solar, but that the US has been generating and consuming so much energy per capita that there isn't that much incentive to increase energy capacity dramatically. [0]: https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/clean-energy/us-new-wind-solar-batteries-2025-trump https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/clean-energy/us-new-win...
- rozab 10mo agoThese are new electric power plants. The US is still ramping up oil and gas production, and is now producing more than ever before. No signs of transitioning away from fossil fuels for transport, industry, export. https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/fossil-fuels/chart-the-us-hits-new-highs-for-oil-and-gas-production https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/fossil-fuels/chart-the-...
- SPICLK2 10mo agoI find the idea of blanketing mountainous wilderness in relatively short-lived e-waste just awful. Surely there are much better terrains for solar panels?
- zemvpferreira 10mo agoYes let us wait for an optimal aesthetic solution for another 50 years while we choke on our own fumes. Plenty of time to rearrange the deck chairs.
- SPICLK2 10mo agoChina already has one (if we're insisting on solar power generation) - 700,000 sq. mi of desert. It's also not just aesthetic - flat terrain is just so much more practical.
- lm28469 10mo ago> flat terrain is just so much more practical. Outside of peak summer it's much more optimal to have a south facing slope actually.
- Koffiepoeder 10mo agoAdditionally, solar panels can become too hot and that reduces their efficiency. Also, deserts are famously known for dust. Since it rarely rains, you get a dust buildup, further compromising solar efficiency in deserts. I'm not saying that deserts are a bad place for solar. What I'm trying to say is - it's often worse than people think and it requires special infrastructure.
- barbazoo 10mo agoI love how they’re just building and building, adding more and more capacity and people here are arguing whether it’s in the right location. It’s laughable.
- ehhthing 10mo ago
- soundworlds 10mo agoBeautiful!
- motbus3 10mo agoI know nothing about the topic. Although it seems a better alternative than coal or petrol, is it free of side effects for the nature? I wonder if the heat that would be spread around the atmosphere and back to space can actually gradually serve as a trap for heat? Does this question make any sense at all?
- spiderfarmer 10mo agoSure, everything has downsides. Even breathing. But none of the alternatives have downsides that are as big as taking carbon from the soil and pumping it in an already stressed ecosystem.
- appointment 10mo agoNo it doesn't make sense. Every photon that hits the Earth is eventually either absorbed as heat, reflected back into space or both (eg. partially absorbed and partially re-emitted as lower energy photons.) There is no net global increase in heat from a wind turbine or solar panel. (There might be slight local shifts.) The only way this could change net heat if it significantly altered the reflectivity of the surface, and in practice the affected area is too small to matter. As an exaggerated example, I found an article [1] that calculated the area that would need to be covered by solar panels to generate power equal the total global electricity consumption to be 115,625 square miles, approximately equal to the state of New Mexico. [1] https://www.axionpower.com/knowledge/power-world-with-solar/ https://www.axionpower.com/knowledge/power-world-with-solar/
- master_crab 10mo agoOne of the solar farms is in a tidal flat. Are those solar panels meant to be waterproof? I’d imagine they may not last as long from sea salt exposure too.
- vages 10mo agoI would suspect they are floating on pontoons.
- Y-bar 10mo agoYou can see the pillars they are built on in for example https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-13/china-s-shandong-to-build-massive-solar-farms-out-to-sea https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-13/china-s-s... (direct link to image: https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iy93Jvbye2e0/v1/-1x-1.jpg https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iy93Jvbye2e...) Solar panels are meant to be water proof, after all they are meant to survive rain storms and melting snow and coastal weather.
- gs17 10mo ago"meant to survive rain storms" doesn't really mean the same as "meant to survive flooding", especially not "meant to survive flooding with salt water". For example, a car survives outdoor weather year-round, but you probably wouldn't want to buy one that was submerged in a flood zone. This plant seems to be floating, though, so they stay above water regardless.
- Y-bar 10mo agoDo you have any specifics about the implementation that makes you say that the engineers have not considered this?
- anon84873628 10mo agoPutting aside the salt water, you'll also just have lots of crud and debris on the panels if they get over topped, which then requires cleaning. Unless the rain in that area is strong and consistent enough. Seems like a weird location to me, but what do I know.
- lvl155 10mo agoChina is far more incentivized to champion renewable considering that they do not have the same access as the US. US is also on a path to quite literally invading other countries to extract crude and other resources. I don’t think China is in a position to do this, yet. If China invades Brunei or arrests Bolkiah, they will face irreversible repercussions. All that said, I don’t think wind and solar are the answers. Geothermal and fusion will need to be the solution.
- Dumblydorr 10mo agoWhat is the question to which fusion and geothermal is the answer? From a climate perspective those will come too late to aid our planet much until decades of further change, if fusion even comes at all. Seems to me like wind solar batteries and nuclear are the answer, what’s actually being built now in a big way, not pie in the sky like fusion.
- pfdietz 10mo agoFusion is the answer to "how can we extract R&D money for decades without ever actually delivering anything." There is little prospect it's going to be competitive, particularly DT fusion. The engineering/economic obstacles are profound even if all the plasma physics problems are solved. Most of the efforts being touted are obvious nonstarters.
- thorncorona 10mo agoThat is what they say about self driving cars, and there are services which are commercially available right now.
- pfdietz 10mo agoSo, no technology is impossible? Every dream can come true? That's what I'm getting from the logic of the argument you're making there. Sometimes technologies really do have showstoppers. There are fundamental reasons to think fusion is not going to be competitive. I know of no fundamental reason self driving cars would be impossible. The analogy doesn't work.
- xerp2914 10mo agoMeanwhile POTUS has his head stuck in the sand [0]: > “All you have to do is say to China, how many windmill areas do you have in China? So far, they are not able to find any. They use coal, and they use oil and gas and some nuclear, not much. But they don’t have windmills, they make them and sell them to suckers like Europe, and suckers like the United States before.” One of the most factually BS statements ever. [0] https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattrandolph/2026/01/12/china-does-in-fact-have-wind-turbines-a-lot-of-them/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattrandolph/2026/01/12/china-d...
- neogodless 10mo agoAnd that's despite the breathtaking scale of BS from a single source!
- triceratops 10mo agoEnough biomass to power half the country sustainably.
- globular-toast 10mo ago> Heidu Mountain Scenic Area Not so scenic any more... I get it, electricity good, but man are we destroying places just to get this stuff. In the UK I reckon within my lifetime it won't be possible to go to the sea any more. I mean, the sea how it used to be, without wind turbines in it. Fossil fuels gave us too much. If only we could figure out how to want less.
- danw1979 10mo agoMy local beaches on the Yorkshire coast have some of the biggest wind farms in the world. We’re never going to reduce energy consumption. It’s a balance between gas and wind here, just pick how many wind turbines you want, and burn gas to fill in the gaps. Your ruined horizon is my safer future for my kids. I like seeing them there. I wish there were more.
- globular-toast 10mo agoEvery generation thinks they're building a safer future for their kids, including the boomers. If you want to talk about safety then you need to take sustainability seriously.
- carefulfungi 10mo agoIn the US, "Boomers" made the environmental movement mainstream, created the EPA, started cleanup of superfund sites, and passed the clean water and clean air acts. There are waterways where I live that are swimmable for the first time in generations because of the Boomers. It's not an either/or proposition.
- jshier 10mo agoBoomers didn't create the EPA, that was the Greatest and Silent generations. Boomers were no more than 25 in 1970 and hardly in power. Some of them may have been in the activists pushing for change but they didn't actually pass the legislation.
- 10mo ago
- zipy124 10mo agoIt is incredible to see just how many big-oil talking points there are in this thread. From renewable energies resource costs, to their land use impact. I didn't realise just how effective their propaganda was in the tech space till reading this thread. That is not to say that these projects should be free of criticism, but anyone who believes these negatives are remotely close to the damage that fossil fuels are doing needs to re-evaluate their world view.
- raverbashing 10mo ago[flagged]
- SirFatty 10mo agoAnd a talking point in the other direction is to refer to people as "boomers".
- fuzzfactor 10mo agoIn case you haven't noticed, it's the non-thinkers of all generations who willingly bury their head in the sand. Most people don't normally think it's the boomers in particular unless their powers of observation are somewhat limited. Which is understandable, you don't reach maturity overnight. Edit: not my downvote btw
- raverbashing 10mo agoI'm not disagreeing with you so much but > Most people don't normally think it's the boomers in particular Interesting because most of the critiques, especially to electric cars come from boomers. Also to Solar and Wind, the kind of silly criticism like "Why are we filling our barely-arable lands with Solar?!" Now we'll watch how the European car manufacturers get swallowed by Chinese electrical manufacturers.
- fuzzfactor 10mo agoI think what you're seeing is the criticism from those in the older generartions who are well-published and media savvy with decades more experience than average in that regard. Some of the old-timers can be expected to be better connected when it comes to available incentives too. Not unlike anybody else who gets more attention from pointing out any possible controversy rather than more mundane non-critical analysis. But not so much in the prevailing common sense of the actual baby boomers who for the most part are older and more ambivalent about these energy technology milestones and take them in stride pretty easily along with all the other progress over the decades they have seen. I am with far more people over 70 all the time who wish they could afford a Tesla or some extensive solar panels than those who have negative feelings about it. But you've also got negative "influencers" in older generations trying to appeal specifically to those who lived through similar (outdated or nearly forgotten) experiences, especially when the target demographic is known to be one that votes more often than average. Looks to me like it's even more selected younger voices among those who stand to gain so much more over an upcoming lifetime without any upset from alternative energy that are doing more actual complaining. Like the incentive coming from somewhere is overwhelming, I can't deny.
- avsteele 10mo agoBeautiful pictures. To be clear: China runs on coal and will for the foreseeable future. https://www.iea.org/countries/china https://www.iea.org/countries/china https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/coal-consumption-by-country-terawatt-hours-twh?tab=line&country=~CHN&mapSelect=~CHN https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/coal-consumption-by-count...
- JensKnipper 10mo agoBy showing only your provided data it seems. But when looking at the share of primary energy consumption from renewable sources it looks totally different! https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/energy?tab=line&facet=none&country=~CHN&hideControls=true&Total+or+Breakdown=Select+a+source&Energy+or+Electricity=Primary+energy&Metric=Share+of+total&Select+a+source=Renewables https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/energy?tab=line&facet=n...
- avsteele 10mo agoThat metric doesn't answer the same question. It isn't saying 18% of their needs are being met by renewables.
- JensKnipper 10mo agoIf you look at the growth rate of renewables it should be pretty clear that coal will not play a major role in the foreseeable future. Why is it not saying 18% of the needs are being met by renewables? That's exactly what it does
- avsteele 10mo agoThis is not energy output (production, usage), it is that plus an adjustment for the in->out energy efficiency. It would only == production if all energy sources in the mix has the same factor. Because fossil fuels have higher in/out losses this is number is larger than usage. This metric is generally used to track decarbonization. Using the IEA number you can see the hydro+solar+wind production is about 9.5% of the total, not 18%. ChatGPT or you favorite LLM can explain in greater detail, just send it the plot image and ask.
- fuzzfactor 10mo agoWhen you're not trying to act like the "richest" country in the world, the sensibility of asource of energy is a complete no-brainer. Even though associated costs exist, a free source is the lowest of its kind you can find.
- joejohnson 10mo agoMeanwhile the US is using its remaining carbon budget to bomb and burn in one last effort to expand its dying empire. Eventually this system will fall, and the west will realize they wasted all their energy (literally) on non-civilian hardware that needs massive amounts of cheap oil.
- hotz 10mo agoDepressing to look at.
- Steve16384 10mo agoNot as depressing as if it was coal power stations and coalmines blighting the landscape.
- MaxHoppersGhost 10mo agoChina is building more coal plants right now than the entire world combined so don’t worry they have those too.
- dalyons 10mo agoAnd yet their coal usage has plateaued for the last few years, and actually likely started to decline in 25.
- goodpoint 10mo agoNo, they are beautiful.
- btbuildem 10mo agoYou mean in context of a complete regression in the West, right?
- rsynnott 10mo agoI mean, somewhat less depressing to look at that hospital wards full of people with COPD, which is the realistic alternative, IMO.
- lambdaone 10mo agoPower is quite literally power, in both the physical and political senses. The Chinese know this, and Europe is catching up fast. American private enterprise knows it too. Battery storage isn't quite where it needs to be, yet, so there's still some need for fossil and nuclear power, but when it is, decommissioning the remaining fossil power system is a no-brainer, and those with the biggest existing solar and wind estates will benefit most, and fastest.
- MarceliusK 10mo agoOn the one hand, the geometry is beautiful and almost serene; on the other, it's a reminder that decarbonization at this scale is still an industrial transformation of landscapes
- Ericson2314 10mo agoSolar fucks up the landscape far more than wind
- expedition32 10mo agoIf the US ever blocks Chinese ports the lights will be kept on. Although I'm sure that situation will end with a mushroom cloud.
- carefulfungi 10mo agoOr massive industrial hacking that destroys enough transportation, farming, and supply chain integration that there is mass starvation when food delivery and production stalls - and it all comes crumbling down.
- overfeed 10mo agoIt would be interesting to see how Carrier Strike groups fare against hypersonic weapons, as well as witnessing what the modern fighting doctrine is when there is no absolute air superiority.
- jbl0ndie 10mo agoThat looks significantly more like a long-term energy strategy than grabbing oil from Venezuela and Greenland.
- MaxHoppersGhost 10mo agoIf you think there is oil in Greenland I think you should not contribute to these types of discussion for lack of knowledge on the topic.
- senordevnyc 10mo agoWas curious, so I did a 30 second search: "The US Geological Survey estimates that onshore northeast Greenland (including ice-covered areas) contains around 31 billion barrels of oil-equivalent in hydrocarbons – similar to the US’s entire volume of proven crude oil reserves." Source: https://theconversation.com/greenland-is-rich-in-natural-resources-a-geologist-explains-why-273022 https://theconversation.com/greenland-is-rich-in-natural-res...
- MaxHoppersGhost 10mo agoAnother 30 second search would show you that their oil is not readily available and is unproven. Otherwise Denmark would already be an even wealthier petrostate like Norway.
- senordevnyc 10mo agoOK, so...there is oil in Greenland, and your snarky response was actually completely incorrect. Got it.
- MaxHoppersGhost 10mo agoHe’s correct there is oil but there is oil everywhere. Whether it’s feasible to extract it is another thing. Do you really think if they had worthwhile oil reserves that someone wouldn’t have thought to extract it? So I would say Greenland doesn’t have any oil which means they don’t have any worthwhile oil to extract. Regardless, the US isn’t taking over Greenland for its oil. That is just ridiculous and there would be far easier targets to go after if that was the case.
- CuriouslyC 10mo agoOne neat thing is that solar/wind farms can be multi-use. You can position panels to provide shade and wind-break to provide micro-climates for plants and animals.
- btbuildem 10mo agoThe fact that parking lots in the south of US aren't just covered in those makes no sense at all. Vast expanses of mostly empty pavement, bathed in sun all day? Shaded parking? No?
- nomadpenguin 10mo agoThe Cincinnati Zoo covered all their parking lots with solar panels last year. Your car stays cool in the summer, and there's motion activated lighting under the panels after dark. It's awesome.
- tim333 10mo agoThey've got some impressive power cables too https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20241113-will-chinas-ultra-high-voltage-grid-pay-off-for-renewable-power https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20241113-will-chinas-ul...
- 1970-01-01 10mo agoThis is more or less what we thought the 21st century infrastructure would look like in the 20th century. The only minor detail is it was supposed to happen in this country first.
- neko_ranger 10mo ago[flagged]
- DontchaKnowit 10mo agoWhat makes you say that? This sounds like denialism to me
- gehsty 10mo agoChinas policy around energy works and it has allowed them to become the world’s engine for renewable power. They get the benefit of energy efficiency and being a critical trade partner for every country in the world. My experience is that the UK (for example) doesn’t really know why it is building offshore wind. Is it to reduce bills to consumers (OFGEMS remit), is it to create local jobs in manufacturing (Clean Industry Bonus Scheme), is it to stimulate national wealth by ownership of projects (British Energy). It’s a mess unclear picture for me. It would be nice if politicians could spend some time trying to work together, cross parties a come up with some sensible resolutions and long term plans instead of trying to score points for soundbites and clips.
- youngtaff 10mo agoWe're building offshore wind to provide clean power, that will be cheaper than gas and we won't have to rely on largely autocratic countries for that gas Got a long way to go as electricity is only a portion of our energy consumption - heating and transport are still largely fossil fuel based ATM
- gehsty 10mo agoBut at its core, what is the most important? The cfd auctions are competitive on price, but things like clean industry bonus and supply chain plans expect some local content. You can’t compete on price and also use expensive UK suppliers.
- raffael_de 10mo agoFor a German none of those photos are particularly remarkable or impressive. Especially wind mills - they are all over the place. Outside of cities and forests it would be difficult to not see at least one ... and they like to flock. For example: - https://www.google.com/maps/place/Energiepark+Witznitz+MOVE+ON+Energy/@51.1665991,12.4199912,3932m https://www.google.com/maps/place/Energiepark+Witznitz+MOVE+... - https://www.erneuerbareenergien.de/energieversorger/stadtwerke/onshore-windmarkt-enercity-kauft-365-mw-wind-portfolio-der-norderland-gruppe https://www.erneuerbareenergien.de/energieversorger/stadtwer... - https://www.erneuerbareenergien.de/energieversorger/stadtwerke/onshore-windmarkt-enercity-kauft-365-mw-wind-portfolio-der-norderland-gruppe https://www.erneuerbareenergien.de/energieversorger/stadtwer...
- MiSeRyDeee 10mo ago> Last year China installed more than half of all wind and solar added globally. In May alone, it added enough renewable energy to power Poland, installing solar panels at a rate of roughly 100 every second. When did German achieve that?
- atomic_reed 10mo agoHow can German achieve it? It is 1 person? How can Germany achieve it? It is 10x less people? So what if you read his emotions correctly? It’s not like your response will change his mind? In a world of 1 > 0, someone needs to be looked down upon. Why not look down on me? Why can’t others look down on China? And why would looking down based on “truth”, which you seem to so much value, change anything?
- AuthAuth 10mo agoAll this praise around China's buildout is just encouraging others ignore a problem to sell the solution. When the major nations started coming together to reduce emissions it was agreed that they would all aim to reduce emissions. However China did the opposite and purposefully scaled coal at record rates for nearly a decade and implemented no environmental regulations so as to outcomplete the nations who were transitioning and to be the ones to sell the solution. So now that its 2025 and they are finally starting to deploy some solar and wind im just not impressed. Its a dirty move and going forward I doubt we will see global trust in tackling these kind of problems again.
- maxglute 10mo ago>it was agreed that they would all aim to reduce emissions No, it was agreed during Kyoto that developed nations would reduce emissions, and developing nations (aka PRC, India) would not. Developing nations could keeping scaling fossil to industrialize until Paris where all countries had to submit climate plan (again not explicitly to reduce), and PRC's was to peak emissions by 2030s, which they're on trend to do early. PRC did what was legally permitted / agreed upon, and if developed nations want to cope / be butthurt and label following the agreement as dirty and not cooperate in the future global projects because they're not financial beneficiaries then that's on them. Also "some" solar and wind is ~ROW combined, which surely is very unimpressive. > sell the solution Selling solution to problems is solving problem, selling solutions to problems cheaply is solving said problem faster. As if developed economies did not decarbonize by selling clean tech solutions... which btw PRC bought. PRC simply doing globe a favor by selling real climate solutions at cost and scale that makes global difference, instead of scaling retarded paper solutions like carbon credits from countries that primarily scales spreadsheets.
- avsteele 10mo agoLots of this is right, but > and PRC's was to peak emissions by 2030s This appears to be wrong. Peak is supposed to be before 2030. They will not hit it. https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/china/targets/ https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/china/targets/
- chairmansteve 10mo agoThey are going for energy security. Not relying on middle eastern oil. A lesson Europe could learn.
- Barrin92 10mo ago>A lesson Europe could learn. We've learned that lesson. Not to toot our own horn too much but we to a large extent kickstarted the thing in Germany with very little reward for it. 50% of Europe's energy produced is now reneables[1]. China's progress is incredibly impressive, but they are also the largest consumer of middle eastern oil in the world. Not really to their own fault, countries are going to be dependent on oil for a long time to come. (it's used in many more things than energy production) [1] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20260114-1 https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/d...
- seydor 10mo agoAmericans keep drilling baby drilling for oil that is becoming less and less necessary
- hollowturtle 10mo agoAll I see is missed opportunities to build a bunch less nuclear power plants and call it a day, without messing up with the landscape. Am I the only one? I believe if we Europeans and Americans start building nuclear power plants again we could finally compete. Renewable energy is not constant and has a storage problem
- Computer0 10mo agoAt least half of people I talk to are strongly opposed to nuclear energy. How many are opposed to the current sources of energy as well? I wonder.
- hollowturtle 10mo agoAgree they oppose nuclear, perhaps because of the fear of the unknown radiation or whatever. Reality is all nuclear incidents combined are nothing compared to the health problems oil and gas created(not to mention political implications). To me filling a giant space with solar panels or installing giant bird killing turbines is such a moronic move when you can have unnoticeable small nuclear power plants
- kibwen 10mo ago> bird killing turbines If you think wind turbines are a significant cause of bird deaths it shows that you have no clue what you're talking about. Please don't bother commenting on this topic again.
- hollowturtle 10mo agoNot as many as cats I certainly know that, it obiovusly was an hyperbole used to underline that all we need is just a nuclear power plant to replace all that wind turbines
- frm88 10mo agoOur study, covering 45 species across 91 countries, reveals that human-induced factors—predominantly electrocution, illegal killing, and poisoning—constitute the major threats to bird mortality, highlighting a critical issue in global biodiversity conservation. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320724000867 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000632072... and from last year, US specific, endangered species: A comparative assessment with data from the 2010 Red List reveals an increase in the proportion of threatened species recorded as being impacted by certain threats. Notably, the incidence of hunting and trapping as a documented threat has increased from 34% to 41% of threatened species. Similarly, the proportion of species assessments with fire/fire suppression, climate change, pollution, invasive alien species and energy production have each increased by 3-5 percentage points. https://datazone.birdlife.org/articles/state-of-the-worlds-birds-2025-annual-update https://datazone.birdlife.org/articles/state-of-the-worlds-b... Wind turbines are a significantly lower threat than windows, look it up!
- snow_mac 10mo agoI love this. I recently found a few solar panels dumpster diving that put out a good load. Just basic scratches and that is all. I am building out my own system to power my house and in the next 2 years will be energy off grid in the city.
- johnlim 10mo agoThis sounds interesting, are you sharing your journey anywhere?
- L_gates 10mo ago[flagged]
- luoc 10mo agoYour uranium grows on trees, mh?
- natmaka 10mo agoUranium requires mining and is recyclable at most once (solar panels components are way better). Recyclable wind turbines blades are appearing (RecyclableBlade, ZEBRA, PECAN...) and even existing ones (today, decommissioned blades are burned in cement plants, thus providing energy) may become so (check the 'CETEC initiative')
- gregbot 10mo agoUranium actually does not require mining. Most uranium is extracted using underground wells where water is pumped underground and the Uranium is extracted from the water. Also extracting Uranium from sea water (which would be basically unlimited) is close to being commercially viable and has received a lot of lab-scale research. Also, Uranium is only recyclable once with light water reactors. With breeder reactors (which have been built in the past) it can be recycled a hundred times.
- rsynnott 10mo ago> Most uranium is extracted using underground wells where water is pumped underground and the Uranium is extracted from the water. ... I mean that's mining?
- gregbot 9mo agoArguably yes! But it avoids a lot of the safety and environmental hazards of traditional methods.
- natmaka 9mo agoSea water: "it is clear that it would be very risky today, to have a long-term industrial strategy based on significant production of uranium from seawater with an affordable cost" ( https://www.epj-n.org/articles/epjn/full_html/2016/01/epjn150059/epjn150059.html https://www.epj-n.org/articles/epjn/full_html/2016/01/epjn15... ) > With breeder reactors After decades of expensive R&D... there is no model of industrial breeder reactor ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeder_reactor#Notable_reactors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeder_reactor#Notable_reacto... ). Can you name one? Russia is by far the most advanced. However, its "BN-800" reactor, which began operating in 2014, is so uninspiring that they abstain from deploying any of them, preferring the classic "VVER" (non-breeder) models, and its planned successor, named "BN-1200M," has been postponed to 2035. This doesn't represent an abandonment of breeder reactors, as this nation is actively exploring another avenue: the "BREST" architecture (lead coolant rather than sodium), with a small demonstration reactor (300 MW) whose construction began in 2021, essentially "back to square one."
- PilotJeff 10mo agoWe are so done, and are going to be forced to instead fight the rest of the world for the remaining oil left if we don’t wake up. It may even be too late.
- toomuchtodo 10mo agoWorry not, you can't change the US but you can leave for a developed country.
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- DavidPiper 10mo agoI would love to see photos like these from Australia too one day. We have so much inhospitable land that would be perfect for solar and wind farms. Suncable is trying to do this on a small(er than China) scale. We are just too politically confused and too deep in the belief that mining is the only thing we can do here.
- chrysoprace 10mo agoI was just saying this to my colleagues after seeing these. Decades of political sabotage has done significant damage to our transition to renewables. I'm hopeful (perhaps a bit too wishful) that we'll see more of a push for renewables in the coming election cycles, but I'm staying realistic as the last 20 years of climate debate has been frankly shameful. At least rooftop solar is so ubiquitous.
- DavidPiper 10mo agoI'm hopeful that the advent of the Teals might generate some momentum here. I believe there are some very large wind farms in progress across NSW too, which is good news. Home solar / battery installations also seem to be on the rise in low density areas (I don't have hard data to back that up though). I'd also love to see solar panels on top of every Bunnings, Westfield, and other warehouses/complexes, as well as above every outdoor carpark, which would have the added bonus of preventing hand roasting in summer.
- rstuart4133 10mo ago> I would love to see photos like these from Australia too one day. You may never see them. Not because we aren't adding renewables, but because South Australia was at about 80% renewable last year (average, not peak) so if you were going to get those sort of pictures anywhere in Australia, you would be getting them from SA now. You probably don't see them because while the countries are about the same size in land area, but China has 50 times the population so it needs about 50 times more power.
- DavidPiper 10mo ago
- vladiim 10mo agoI like Musk's lens: the sun is 99.8% of the galaxy's total mass and over 99.99% of its energy production. Pretty straight-forward where you want to be getting your energy from.
- throw310822 10mo agoYes, well, if we want to see the big picture, fossil fuels are also stored solar. Musk's statement sounds good but it's pointless.
- mrguyorama 10mo agoWhich is why Musk supported political candidates that want to build out tons of solar and wind power right? No? He doesn't do that at all? Gee maybe he never really cared then.
- shevy-java 10mo agoLooks quite ugly, actually. However had, there is one thing working for China: decision-making steps. I don't have any illusion about the sinomarxist party and I don't suggest that their model - which is a dictatorship, just like the USA has transitioned into now too under an orange-painted TechBro minion - replaces democractic processes. But you do have to ask yourself what the EU is doing here, other than failing in epic ways. You can not assume that current wealth will be retained in the future; and while "green energy" is great, what we in reality see right now is simply price increases. That ultimately means wealth is deducted from a majority, and only a very few profit from this. That is a design-by-failure process now.
- frm88 10mo agoI have installed photovoltaic panels + battery etc on my house. My energy costs have effectively decreased by ~30%.
- gamblor956 10mo agoIt's very easy to do things like this when pesky things like property rights or environmental laws or labor protections don't get in the way. In the U.S. and EU, if the government takes your land, they have to reimburse you for it, and you can fight them every step of the way. In China, the government can take your land and if you complain, you can spend the rest of your life in a labor camp.
- contrarian1234 10mo agoThat's simply not true. People are compensated generously for land that is seized. I have friends that have had it happen, and you get a lot more money than if you were to sell the property - so it's a bit like winning the lottery. The amount of room for appeal is dictated by the nature of the seizure and the government "level". (ie if it's a national interest project you have little recourse, but if it's the city government then it's likely different)
- gamblor956 9mo agoYour friends must have good connections. Their experience was the exception, not the rule. https://oxfordpoliticalreview.com/2025/04/17/protected-land-lost-homes-how-chinas-farmland-protection-policies-lead-to-rural-dispossession/ https://oxfordpoliticalreview.com/2025/04/17/protected-land-...
- asdefghyk 10mo agoRe Wind and Solar Buildout. The NEXT more challenging part is to build the necessary storage and "power network transmission lines" so that the supply can be made ( Large Scale ) reliable - 24/7 , independent of the weather.
- mcswell 10mo agoAnd all the US can do under the current president is steal oil from other nations.
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- brailsafe 10mo agoDamn, they've been playing the hell out of factorio,
- blindriver 10mo agoWhat sort of risk of environmental poisoning comes from having that many solar panels in an area? Is there any risk that it can contaminate the area or are the environmentally safe? I speak this having lived south of Moffett airfield where the entire area was poisoned from the degreasers used on the military planes in Moffett Field. It's one of the largest Superfund sites in the US and there are thousands of families living there. It might seem innocuous but I'm wondering whether solar panels in the environment leak any chemicals.
- richardanaya 10mo agoWhere's the pictures of the coal plants that keep energy going when the wind/sun go down?
- pcchristie 10mo agoHow can we get HQ versions for a desktop background? Incredible photos.
- reeredfdfdf 10mo agoOne can only admire China's progress in this area. These days, if I got to choose between American and Chinese product, I always choose the latter for ethical reasons. I don't want to support anything American as long as its regime remains a puppet to fossil fuel companies.
- remus 10mo agoThe "100 panels per second" number sounded a little high so I did a bit more reading. Apparently this was the peak pace of installation around May 2025, when there was a change in pricing structures associated with solar power so developers were rushing to finish projects so they could get in on the old structure. Average pace across 2024 was closer to 25-30 panels / second (which is still incredibly high!)
- waffletower 10mo agoThe photos demonstrating the scale of China's solar arrays are impressive. The wind farms are beautiful, but don't show a scale unfamiliar to me. Driving through the Columbia Gorge on the Oregon and Washington border, or through the Coachella Valley in Southern California, you will see wind farms of larger scale than depicted here.
- burnerRhodov2 10mo agoDad, are we fucked?
- fragmede 10mo agoNo, that would be https://asiatimes.com/2025/12/chinas-jiutian-drone-carrier-targets-us-pacific-soft-underbelly/ https://asiatimes.com/2025/12/chinas-jiutian-drone-carrier-t...
- burnerRhodov2 10mo ago> With a maximum take-off weight of about 16 tons, a 25-meter wingspan and an operational ceiling of 15,000 meters, Jiutian can remain airborne for roughly 12 hours and reach targets up to 7,000 kilometers away Okay, you're right... their military capabilities are still laughable. Thanks for the reassurance, that'll help me sleep at night a bit better.