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A comparison of Beijing air quality between 2020 and 2025 will show drastic differences -- it's gotten much better. China's coal usage is relatively flat. Th
by bryanlarsen 8mo ago
A comparison of Beijing air quality between 2020 and 2025 will show drastic differences -- it's gotten much better.
China's coal usage is relatively flat. They've increased their capacity, but they've been decreasing their capacity factor (aka what percentage of the time the plants are running) at approximately the same rate. They used to run their plants 24/7. Now they run only at night. They've started adding batteries to the grid so in the future the coal plants will only run after a stretch of cloudy days.
- spwa4 8mo agoThe data I'm finding says that it's still increasing, especially in India. They expect it to start dropping in 2028-2030 due to the buildouts you're mentioning but for now that isn't happening. Claim is that it's about strategic safety for both countries. Coal is easy, and they have plenty of it (unlike oil, which neither have in any quantity).
- bryanlarsen 8mo agoThey're doing both solar and coal because of security. They're doing 5X as much solar than they are of coal because solar is cheaper. They're doing the coal because the need something for the night. But now that batteries are becoming cheaper than coal for that, they'll do more batteries and less coal.