• JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
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    14 days ago

    Daytime energy is soon going to be free in much of the world. The advances in green tech, especially solar and batteries, are real. Much faster progress than even the optimists were predicting a decade ago. The revolution is reaching a tipping point where it becomes self-sustaining and requires no state subsidies. I am not a tech utopian, and this alone will not save us. But there’s no denying it’s good news. It’s all happening far too late but it does look like humans are going to kick their fossil habit after all.

    Inconvenient footnote: thank China.

    • perviouslyiner@lemmy.world
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      14 days ago

      It’s gotten so good that China might be restricting output to keep the prices high…

      (their onshore wind, and pumped hydro storage, are also great success stories, as is the EV industry there)

      • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
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        14 days ago

        Indeed. China is such a paradox. An absolute anathema in terms of culture and politics. It’s almost impossible for us Westerners to grasp how a people could accept that level of authoritarianism, how they could value their personal freedom so little. And yet, and yet. Without China we would be royally screwed. They are pulling the weight of the green transition basically alone. So personally I’ve decided to hold off on China-bashing for now.

        • cm0002@lemmy.world
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          13 days ago

          Westerners to grasp how a people could accept that level of authoritarianism,

          So personally I’ve decided to hold off on China-bashing for now.

          You just did, according to .ml users, because ACkShuLly cHiNa iSnT aN AuThoRitArIaN CounTRy

    • crystalmerchant@lemmy.world
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      13 days ago

      Optimistic of you to assume pricing is cost-plus not willingness-to-pay. US utilities (and their foreign counterparts) will only too gladly keep charging you

    • Zonetrooper@lemmy.world
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      13 days ago

      Is there a good place to ask about independent (non-grid-connected) solar for an otherwise grid-connected structure? I’d love to set something like this up, but can’t find any systems which don’t require wiring into the gird.

    • Bosht@lemmy.world
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      12 days ago

      People can talk shit on China from a geopolitical stance and I’ll agree with them, but yeah, they picked up the slack where other countries were lacking when it came to green progression. Technically our (US) own fault too. Greed ruling over progression really fucked us.

    • kreskin@lemmy.world
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      13 days ago

      Capitalism only encourages innovation when its profitable. Its a bit of a flaw.