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sl8

(14,604 posts)
Wed May 22, 2024, 07:24 AM May 22

Corn, millet and ... rooftop solar? Farm family's newest crop shows China's solar ascendancy

https://apnews.com/article/china-solar-energy-transition-shandong-renewable-34ec874e5b0ac1b3e370f928337ae752

Corn, millet and ... rooftop solar? Farm family’s newest crop shows China’s solar ascendancy



China is the runaway leader in supplying the world with the hardware to gather solar power. Shandong Province is taking an early lead in the country’s solar energy development. But the country’s grid is getting more than it can use in some places. Experts say China must quickly adapt to oversupply to remain leading in the global solar race. (AP Video: Olivia Zhang, Tian Macleod Ji, Ng Han Guan)

BY HUIZHONG WU AND HAN GUAN NG
Updated 9:09 PM EDT, May 20, 2024

JINAN, China (AP) — Shi Mei and her husband earn a decent enough living by growing corn and millet on their small farm in eastern China’s Shandong province. In 2021, they diversified by investing in solar energy — signing a contract to mount some 40 panels on their roof to feed energy to the grid.

Now, the couple get paid for every watt of electricity they generate, harvesting the equivalent of $10,000 per year that Shi can track through an app on her phone.

“When the sun comes out, you make money,” Shi said.

The Shi family is on the leading edge of a solar boom in China, which has long dominated global solar manufacturing but didn’t always install a lot of it at home. That’s changing as the government focuses on the urgency of cutting its worst-in-the-world greenhouse gas emissions at the same time it grows its green economy. China wants one-fifth of its power to come from renewables by 2025, and it’s offered a wide range of subsidies to local governments and businesses.

[...]


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Corn, millet and ... rooftop solar? Farm family's newest crop shows China's solar ascendancy (Original Post) sl8 May 22 OP
Cool. I just have to reject the idea of a solar race as if climate progress mahina May 22 #1
Yes, it's a multi-part challenge... Think. Again. May 22 #2
China's rapid economic development is powered by coal. hunter May 22 #3

mahina

(17,928 posts)
1. Cool. I just have to reject the idea of a solar race as if climate progress
Wed May 22, 2024, 07:28 AM
May 22

Last edited Wed May 22, 2024, 12:38 PM - Edit history (1)

Is a zero sum endeavor.

Think. Again.

(10,030 posts)
2. Yes, it's a multi-part challenge...
Wed May 22, 2024, 07:48 AM
May 22

...we need to be reducing (and eventually eliminating) CO2-emitting energy sources as well as building up non-CO2 emitting replacement energy sources.

hunter

(38,467 posts)
3. China's rapid economic development is powered by coal.
Wed May 22, 2024, 11:06 AM
May 22

There is no "solar ascendancy."

The language we use is important.

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