3 ms·
This is misleading, because China has no gas, and they use coal power as dispatchable source with lower capacity factor (similar to gas elsewhere). Coal+gas el
by myrmidon 2mo ago
This is misleading, because China has no gas, and they use coal power as dispatchable source with lower capacity factor (similar to gas elsewhere).
Coal+gas electricity is basically the same fraction in China than in the US.
But countries like Germany or Spain are significantly ahead in this regard, with much higher fraction of electrical energy coming from solar/wind.
See:
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/electricity-prod-source-stacked?stackMode=relative&country=USA~CHN~DEU~ESP https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/electricity-prod-source-s...
- skybrian 2mo agoBurning natural gas instead of coal should result in about half as much carbon emissions theoretically, although methane leaks will narrow the advantage.
- myrmidon 2mo agoAbsolutely. Gas is a lot less problematic than coal. But my point is that it fills (in China) a very similar role for the electric grid and countries don't get to choose what fossils are in their soil. The US using relatively more gas than coal is not any kind of laudable achievement, it's simply whats cheaply available. Norway does not get any credit in my book for being full renewable either (because they have "free" hydro power literally everywhere).
- skybrian 2mo agoMaybe they should get some credit for taking full advantage of whatever assets they have? It's better than not using them.