China’s Renewable Energy Revolution Is a Huge Mess That Might Save the World
In fact, the biggest beneficiaries of China’s renewable energy revolution may well be consumers, both inside and outside China. In sunny Australia, where nearly a third of homes have rooftop solar panels, the country’s energy minister, Chris Bowen, has proposed a “solar power sharing program” to provide three hours of free electricity on sunny days. Solar and battery systems allowed Hawaii to close its last coal-fired power plant, and such systems also help other islands like Jamaica reduce their need for imported fossil fuels.
A country, and in particular a leader, is trying to reverse this trend. Donald Trump hates a lot of people and things, but wind turbines and solar panels seem to hold a special place in his heart. His administration has attempted to cancel major offshore and onshore wind projects, as well as plans for Esmerelda 7, a solar megabase in the Nevada desert that would have been worthy of Western China. Trump and his Energy Secretary, Chris Wright, often talk about American energy dominance, but they cripple the ability of American companies to deploy and build the cheapest sources of electricity in the history of this planet, in favor of a combination of stubborn arguments about the inevitability of fossils and long-term bets on small modular nuclear reactors and, yes, fusion.
Even among billionaires who don’t share Trump’s belief that climate change is a hoax, this latter affinity for cutting-edge, far-flung technologies has long been a hallmark of American climate investment and philanthropy. This attitude is epitomized by Bill Gates, who once called existing green technologies like solar and wind power “cute.” Instead, Gates has always favored a lordly, capital-intensive form of decarbonization, investing dollars in sci-fi technologies that remain in a perpetual state just five years from now — not the quick, messy approach involving sprouting solar panels on every roof and recalibrating electricity pricing systems. (Recently, as it became clear that the transition to renewable energy was going from strength to strength, Gates wrote a memo saying he was withdrawing from climate finance altogether.)
Mao Zedong said that a revolution is not a dinner. It is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another. The green technology revolution – the violence of which is primarily financial, a devastating attack on the asset value of fossil fuel companies – is no dinner party. Nor is it inevitable. It could still be slowed down or slowed down. Yes, it is the result of conscious choices made by individuals, businesses and governments, the most critical of which have been made in China. But it’s happening now, and faster than our systems (power grids, industrial sectors, workforces, geopolitics, etc.) are ready to handle it.
And that’s a good thing too, because there is another force fueled by the melting sun that is also reaching a strength and scale for which we are not prepared: climate change. When Category 5 Hurricane Melissa ravaged Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba and the Dominican Republic in late October, killing more than 90 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless, most government investments intended to protect people from the storm fell short of the challenge. What provided some shelter were solar panels on the roof, which kept the lights on when the sun rose the next morning. A global energy system is the basis of modern life. Despite all this chaos, this system is getting a major upgrade.
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