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DrJuanZoidberg t1_j0t7xe5 wrote

Reply to comment by Kryosite in The IEA says humanity used the greatest amount of coal in 2022 in all of human history, and that this level of consumption will continue until at least 2025. One-third of all global coal goes to generate electricity in China, and India's coal use is growing at 6% per annum. by lughnasadh

The ideal locations for green energy being “too far away” is a terrible excuse considering places like Quebec get over 90% of their energy needs through renoua les and all the big dams are out in the middle of nowhere in the subarctic. You pay a bunch of guys to build the dam things, route the pylons and cables back to the population centres and build a town there for the workers who do shifts of 2 weeks on - 2 weeks off. If a place with only 8 million people can do it, it should be a piece of cake for China considering they seem to have a enough workers to build entire empty cities and skyscrapers for fun just to tear it down again

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Kryosite t1_j0tdtar wrote

I'm not sure you understand the sheer scale of China.

Having more people doesn't mean your energy needs are easier to fulfill, it means you need more energy, and you can't just build more dams, because you're limited by your rivers. Quebec has 8 million people, Guangdong Province has 126 million. The biggest dam in China, The Three Gorges dam, is literally an order of magnitude larger than the largest dam in Quebec, the Daniel-Johnson Dam (at 27.2 million cubic meters to the DJD's 2.2 million). On top of that, the distances they need to build and maintain transmission cables across are more like if you had to use transport that power from Quebec to Vancouver, not from an isolated part of Quebec to the rest of Quebec.

Also, if we're comparing the provinces most reliant on renewables, Tibet derives 97% of its energy from renewables, more than Quebec.

China isn't magic, and it isn't evil for evil's sake, and it isn't deeply mysterious in its motivations, it's a major nation-state pursuing all the things major nation-states do, it's just very very big.

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DrJuanZoidberg t1_j0ucvqt wrote

I understand the scale difference, I was being pedantic about the point raised that “while China has excellent locations to build solar and hydro-power, those spots are generally in the north and west” and therefore far from the population centres.

Of course China’s energy needs are massive and it will take time to meet them, but presenting long distance between power sources and population centres as a hurdle is ridiculous considering my example with Quebec (which gets 95% of its energy through hydro alone and the rest through wind). Obviously the real hurdle is the sheer scale of what needs to be built since it will take long no matter how many workers you send to those far flung regions, but if it’s still a viable option.

I also never said anything about China being evil. I complimented their capacity to build things considering they have a knack to build skyscrapers and cities figuratively overnight to the point where their speed outruns demand leading to empty skyscrapers.

If anything, I believe in China’s capabilities to completely switch to green more than you

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