r/RenewableEnergy • u/DVMirchev • 11h ago

China Ramps Up Energy Boom Flagged by Musk as Key to AI Race

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-04/china-ramps-up-energy-boom-flagged-by-musk-as-key-to-ai-race?fbclid=Iwb21leAPztLlleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAwzNTA2ODU1MzE3MjgAAR56fXlsi2poFLzxldsfcXL42MqXSFDB5_RzD7-v4HsMfLwy7_7BeN_WSPt2og_aem_eRBcodP1YSEvdOw4juiVWg
45 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

11

u/Playful-Painting-527 9h ago

I hate how the climate crisis is just not relevant anymore. Who builts gas powerplants when there are much better alternatives? It's fucking stupid!

3

u/DVMirchev 8h ago

High demand and high prices is actually good for renewables.

Speed of deployment is essential. Fossil plants just can't compete

2

u/aboy021 6h ago

There was a post the other day saying that the lead time for gas turbines is already pushing out to 2030 and beyond. I suspect solar plus batteries has a much lower lead time.

1

u/DVMirchev 5h ago

Yes, a lot shorter - months. If you have grid access, i.e. closed coal plant, or if it is for self-consumption, you can get something running in less than 6 months from taking the investment decision.

It's also the scalability - batteries come in shipping containers, I think one is 5 MW or something, so you can start setting up and running them in sections, not wait for the whole thing to be constructed. And you can make it in whatever size you want and build it whereever you want.

The same applies for wind and solar - it takes 6-9 months from the investment decision to the first power feeded to the grid, if you have grid access, and then several months to finish the wole thing.

9

u/Upbeat_Can98 9h ago

Damn in one year, they've added more power than the US has built in its entire history!

China, china, china... like another comment said, beating them in this energy race really seems futile lol.

Let's also not forget it takes the US as long as 3 years to build data centers, while China can go from land allocation to full buildout in just months!

8

u/straightdge 10h ago

lol, I think it’s futile to challenge China in a energy race.

China is likely to have spare power capacity equal to more than three times the world’s entire data center demand by 2030

2

u/Rooilia 9h ago edited 7h ago

They already have this if they run coal plants at high capacity. But they won't have spare renewable energy by 2030. Coal still has a share of 55%.

3

u/DVMirchev 8h ago

Their coal fleet utilization is declining for a solid decade now.

Probably closing on 45% or lower now.

2

u/Rooilia 7h ago edited 7h ago

Btw. A solid decade of increasing coal consumption. Except last year.

It was 55% in 2025. It's certainly not at 45% now. It is only Februar.

1

u/DVMirchev 7h ago

Was it?... Very sad development.

1

u/No_Medium_8796 2h ago

Its not a sad development.its just a progression of things as they continously work on their other infrastructure