3 ms·
And yet China is building new nuclear plants just as fast as it's building solar and wind. It's almost as if the "grinding halt" was political in nature.
by int_19h 4mo ago
And yet China is building new nuclear plants just as fast as it's building solar and wind. It's almost as if the "grinding halt" was political in nature.
- lukan 4mo agoSource needed, a quick search if mine showed very different numbers: "China aims to reach 110 gigawatts (GWe) of nuclear capacity by 2030." "China installed over 430 GW of renewables in 2025" In other words china installed last year alone 5x the energy capacity in solar and wind, what the are planning to have in 2030 https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profiles/countries-a-f/china-nuclear-power https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profil... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_China
- SJC_Hacker 4mo ago110 GW at a 90% capacity factor vs 430 GW at maybe 20% capacity factor
- lukan 4mo ago430 GW a year on 20% (which it is not, as china has lots of desserts with no clouds) would still be a way bigger number than 110 GW that are planned to be reached in a few years.
- SJC_Hacker 4mo agoYeah my bd, the capacity factor was mor like 15% for solar PV (utility scale), according to their own data https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/energysource/china-builds-more-utility-scale-solar-as-competition-with-coal-ramps-up/ https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/energysource/china-bui...
- lukan 4mo agoThen here I might stand corrected, but it does not change the basic equation nore the invalidation of the claim above, that china is building nuclear like it builds solar and wind. It does not. Not even close.
- Moldoteck 4mo agowhat has installed capacity to do with price? Check recent chinese solar parks prices and power. Normalize that power with chineze weather capacity factor. Do the same for their nuclear which is roughly 2.5bn/unit China does expand ren more than nuclear but the reason is not economics but the capacity to scale (as well as inland ban)
- ViewTrick1002 4mo agoVastly slower. China is on one hand building enough renewables to soak up the entire grid expansion and displace fossil fuels. On the other hand their nuclear share is declining. It peaked at 4.7% in 2021 and is today down to 4.3%. Entirely irrelevant. For each plan they put out they lower their nuclear targets and push them further into the future. Going from a French like buildout 10-15 years ago to having it as a token investment today.