China leads the world in electrification, with a 30% electrification rate—far ahead of the U.S. and EU at ~22%—dominating sectors like transport and industry.
Massive investment in electric vehicles, high-speed rail, and renewables has positioned China as a superpower in clean energy technologies, with renewables now making up 10% of GDP.
Despite progress, China’s ongoing coal expansion complicates climate goals, as the country remains the largest greenhouse gas emitter, raising doubts about its transition timeline.
China had emerged as the world’s second-largest economy and the United States’ archrival nuclear power. However, the country was still highly dependent on other countries for its energy needs. China’s oil and coal imports were surging to record highs, exposing the country to potential supply disruptions amid growing geopolitical tensions.
There is still the question on how the electricity is generated. China has made great strides in increasing nuclear electricity capacity. But it takes much longer to build a nuclear plant than a coal plant and China’s need for electricity is great now. I suppose the coal plants will eventually be shuttered as the nuclear plants ramp up [1].
According to a study, China’s electrification rate has hit 30%, significantly ahead of the U.S. and the EU and US where the electrification rate has plateaued at ~22% in recent years.
The above aggressive pan is needed. Though the amount of electricity generated by nuclear means is on the rise; the demands of China economy requires much more. The percent of nuclear generated power has emain stagnate since 2018.
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I would certainly think so. It’s geographically larger than the US (by about 25%, I think), and has 9,000 miles of ocean coastline. By way of comparison, California has about 900 miles. (Lots more with Florida & the East Coast, just trying to give a frame of reference.)
Hard to imagine that a country that size, with as much ocean frontage as that doesn’t have some reasonably brisk winds for exploitation somewhere.
Possibly. Waste heat rejection is non-trivial issue for data centers. Also, most data centers need to be located near population centers due to latency problems (that’s not an issue for all types of data centers).
Finland believe it or not is experiencing a data center boom due to inexpensive, low carbon electricity and cool temperatures.
The ocean front part isn’t relevant. Here’s a world map showing wind potential. The US has a better overall potential than China, largely thanks to the the middle of the country. The south does poorly in both.countries.
Interesting. I just assumed that shoreline meant decent wind, given the lack of obstructions and the differential between water and land temperatures. Plus the race to build in the ocean, even thought the land based ones take almost no space; you can put them on farmlands and farm right underneath. Or on hillsides and valleys, obviously except for NIMBYs.
Texas has been a major beneficiary of renewable energy and the accompanying low energy prices. However, Texas legislators have pragmatically decided each new watt of renewable energy must be matched by a watt of fossil fuel energy.
RE: China. Google tells me solar PV generation (not capacity) in 2024 was 834.1 gigawatt hours, with 277 GW of new capacity in 2024
“I will do anything that is basically covered by the law to reduce Berkshire’s tax rate. For example, on wind energy, we get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That’s the only reason to build them. They don’t make sense without the tax credit.”
~ Warren Buffett
