{"id":388982,"date":"2025-07-15T19:54:05","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T17:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=388982"},"modified":"2025-07-15T19:54:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T17:54:07","slug":"china-is-building-the-renewable-future-building-coal-fired-power-stations-because-it-has-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=388982","title":{"rendered":"\u201cChina is Building the [Renewable] Future \u2026 building coal-fired power stations, \u2026 because it has to \u2026\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essay by<\/strong> Eric Worrall<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building communist coal power stations is apparently OK and necessary, but it is very wrong when President Trump does it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As Trump turns his back on renewables, China is building the future<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Alan Kohler<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The data centres that operate both AI and cryptocurrency are already massively increasing electricity demand and investors are obviously expecting them to keep doing so \u2014 exponentially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the BRICS summit in Brazil last week \u2014 it stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa \u2014 went in the opposite direction to the United States on climate change, committing to \u201cintensify global efforts to contain global warming\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s join the dots: America is pivoting back to fossil fuels and pulling out of renewable energy while the rest of the world continues to do the opposite, China is grappling with too much renewable energy<\/strong> while investors are bidding expectations to record highs for the new industries whose data centres are eating the world\u2019s electricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his Independence Day speech, Trump declared: \u201cCoal is back.<\/strong> You can\u2019t use the word \u2018coal\u2019 unless you precede it by saying \u2018clean beautiful coal.’\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China is also building coal-fired power stations, but only because it has to;<\/strong> the idea of saying \u201ccoal is back\u201d and calling it clean and beautiful at the same time as more than one hundred people were dying in a Texas flood<\/a> is insane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xi now more important than Trump<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result of all this is that China<\/strong> \u2014 a ruthless autocracy \u2014 appears destined to take global leadership from the US<\/strong>, in trade, the means of producing energy and, possibly, in \u201csoft power\u201d, or moral leadership, as the US withdraws from foreign aid and multilateralism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, it\u2019s entirely appropriate that\u00a0Anthony Albanese is meeting Xi<\/a>\u00a0again before he meets Trump for the first time. \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2025-07-14\/trump-us-xi-china-trade-renewables-tariffs\/105526196<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

If China is \u201cgrappling with too much renewable energy\u201d, why do they \u201chave to\u201d build any coal plants? Is it because the renewables China built are useless for meeting China\u2019s energy needs?<\/strong> Sadly Kohler didn\u2019t expand on this point, let us know why he thinks new coal plants are necessary in an environment of excess renewable capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, we already know renewables are not fit for purpose. Researchers commissioned by Google admitted no known renewable technology could solve the world\u2019s energy needs, way back in 2014. They even considered hypothetical radical improvements to current technology such as self-erecting wind turbines and still came up short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Shocker: Top Google Engineers Say Renewable Energy 'Simply won't work'<\/a><\/blockquote>