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jimmydorryyesterday at 3:42 PM1 replyview on HN

China "won solar panels" because they subsidised the production to the point that their companies could sell panels cheaper than they cost to make, and then these companies were allowed to dump them below cost into the western markets to destroy all the local innovation. Germany and the US in particular just sat back and watched that happen.

However, market share doesn't really translate into the economics of large scale generation. The projects that are marginal (or negative) in the US and rest of the world for that matter, are costed using whatever the cheapest panels or materials available are. Whether they are local or not does not matter. You are conflating two unrelated things here (local manufacturing capability and power generation e.g. actually deploying renewables).

China meeting arbitrary targets is also beside the point. They are building a tonne of solar and wind, but they are also building more coal too. (Refer to my previous comment in how they along with many other G7 and developed nations are investing more in coal than they were in 2020).

GP made some specific claims which were demonstratably false. The points you raise here aren't particularly related to those.


Replies

dalyonsyesterday at 9:07 PM

they're building that coal in the role of gas peaker plants - backup power. It will probably never be used at any significant % of capacity, as the solar and battery revolution continues to astound in its speed.