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jarnhestur t1_jd8omww wrote

Reply to comment by Erin-DidYouFindMe in Maine's Energy future by mainething

Agreed. But taking a single picture of some solar panels stuck on the middle of a random road with no context doesn’t really prove anything.

China’s power grid is a mess, and still relies a lot of coal. Yeah, they are doing solar, but let’s not hold them up as some kind of leader in it. Their rural infrastructure is incredibly archaic.

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Erin-DidYouFindMe t1_jd8rmlu wrote

...Not really sure what the issue is?

China went through their industrial revolution 110-or-so years after us. We've had almost a century to expand our infrastructure into our rural communities.

The things you're complaining about - it being a mess (underdevelopment, lack of robust infrastructure) and them using coal - both of those things are solved by the work their doing with solar panels, like in the picture above.

Hope that clarifies. Let me know if you'd like any other information.

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jarnhestur t1_jd8xyte wrote

I don't think holding up China as an example of how the US should further develop our power grid is very smart or even applicable.

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Erin-DidYouFindMe t1_jd8ypls wrote

China, Korea, Japan, and Nordic Countries are all doing this (or nearly identical) systems, many modeled off of the Chinese model you see above. China is - for all intents and purposes - the most prolific solar producer in the world.

Your feelings about the Chinese are blinding you to the solutions that are being created.

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jarnhestur t1_jd99g1q wrote

https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/chinas-energy-crisis-sees-worlds-top-emitter-investing-more-coal#:~:text=China%20is%20in%20the%20midst,coal%20investments%20to%20meet%20demand.&text=Two%20months%20of%20scorching%20heatwaves,into%20an%20energy%20security%20crisis.

https://chinadialogue.net/en/energy/chinas-power-system-needs-to-modernise/#:~:text=Experts%20say%20the%20crisis%20highlights,can%20quickly%20cause%20electricity%20shortages.

China's power grid is an absolute mess. Also, China is one of the worst worst polluters. This isn't a feeling issue - it's a reality issue.

​

This isn't about solar power - I'm all for solar power. However, holding the Chinese power grid up as what we should be aiming for is... laughable.

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Erin-DidYouFindMe t1_jd9dwti wrote

> This isn't about solar power

That is the topic and I'm not deviating it to argue about something that no one is disagreeing with...

> Holding the Chinese power grid up

No one is doing this.

Saying China is doing a good job at building up their infrastructure isn't saying they have the best grid ever, its just stating a fact that their renewable energy and infrastructure spending is both modern-oriented and proven efficient towards their goal of creating a robust, green power grid. As proven by several European countries, Japan, the US, South Korea, and even super rural places in Africa. China is just doing a lot more of it - in part because they need to, to get off coal and make their grid more robust.

China is also working on curtailment efficiency (Mongolian parts wasted about 10-12% because the solar panels are producing more than the curtailment can handle) and are doing so, in part, by developing a combination of centralized and decentralized "mesh network" solar panel grid system that's shown to be highly effective. A model the US should be more oriented towards.

Again, for a country that went through their industrial revolution 100 years after us - who are, in effect, 100 years behind us in power grid infrastructure building and development.

By... doing things like what is specifically in that picture and in this post.

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