Posted on 09/01/2025 12:11:08 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
A desert covered in solar panels and sheep could mark the beginning of the end for coal in China.
China is building a ‘city of mirrors’ on the roof of the world.
High on the Tibetan plateau, solar panels stretch across the desert in every direction. They shimmer like a second horizon. Sheep wander between them, grazing on plants that have taken root in the shelter of the glassy rows. Locals call them “photovoltaic sheep.”
The project is billed as the world’s largest solar farm. When finished, it will cover 610 square kilometers — about the size of Chicago — and generate enough power for 5 million households. It’s two-thirds of the way complete, and previous phases are already generating a lot of solar power. And it’s only the latest in China’s relentless sprint to dominate renewable energy.
The solar mega project is part of a wider push by China to shift the nation’s emissions curve — and it seems to be working.
A recent analysis by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air found that China’s carbon emissions dipped 1% in the first half of 2025, continuing a decline that began last year. That may sound small, but experts say it could mean China’s emissions have already peaked — years ahead of its official 2030 target.
“We’re talking really for the first time about a structural declining trend in China’s emissions,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, the Finland-based lead analyst behind the study.
(Excerpt) Read more at zmescience.com ...
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Goodbye, birds.
That’s a lot of silver epoxy.
Looks like the Chinese are as adept at wasting money as anyone, but in this case building scale with which to reduce the unit cost of exports.
Those are not the type of solar plant that focuses on a central tower. It won’t affect birds. Not many birds there anyway.
There is no way China’s emissions dropped 1% last year, the increase in coal plants was huge.
Surprise, China is playing with the numbers, and the Eurogreens are just too happy to play along.
...610 square kilometers... enough power for 5 million households.
Rule of thumb:
Power from the sun (forget technology and electricity for a moment) is 1000 watts per square meter on average across seasons during daytime at terrestrial orbit distance from the sun.
So 1000 watts X 610 square kilometers is 610 megawatts available from the sun.
Start cutting that down for various losses, the primary one being the 20% conversion of sun to electricity. So that big area makes 122 megawatts of electric.
Average US house consumes 900 kilowatt hours per month.
Their big area is 610 megawatts X 10 hours = 6100 megawatt hours per day. X 30 is 183,000 megawatt hours a month.
So we’ll divide that out. 0.9 megawatt hours per month required for a house. Their field has 183,000 megawatt hours in a month. So that is 203,000 US style houses powered.
X 5 people per households and about 1 million people are served. That is rather less than the population of Chicago.
Looks like there are 500 million households in China.
So maybe 1% during the daytime. Good job there.
“ The Tibetan Plateau is noted for having one of the highest frequencies of hailstorms in China, particularly in its central and southeastern regions”
In the US, rule of thumb is something like 2.5 people per domicile. Over a billion people in China...
1,415,667,819 times .4 equals 566,267,127.6, approximate number of domiciles, so, they’re about 1/113th of the way there. And of course, there are industrial uses of electricity... and transportation if China transitions to EVs...
And, with zero storage capacity, the power is only available during peak hours of sunshine.
High cost electricity based on climate junk science.
Anybody have a guess of how many Chinese Political Prisoners will be needed to keep those mirrors clean.
Deserts are dusty places don’t cha know.
High desert country isn’t it. Closer to the sun?
How often and much does it snow up there in Tibet? Would take a LOT of slave peasant Tibetans to manually shovel out Chicago!
Hope they don’t have hail in Tibet.
Icarus had better be careful being this high up. He might crash and take out some mirrors
..........”Goodbye, birds.”
My first thought too. Plus, the thing is hideously ugly.
““ The Tibetan Plateau is noted for having one of the highest frequencies of hailstorms in China, particularly in its central and southeastern regions””
i was wondering about hail ... we have LOTS of hail on the plains of colorado ... i’ve gotten two “free” roofs because of hail, both of which were near replacement anyway ...
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