China's energy weapons: gigantic clean energy bases
China's draft five year plan released last week includes both the existing northwestern desert bases, and a new emphasis on bases in the southwestern, hydropower-rich provinces, combining solar, wind and hydro.
Great framing!
With the world in a new dangerous place, if one thing is sure, there will be more fossil fuel crises..
nice @fionaharvey.bsky.social !
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
IS WIND STRUGGLING?
Not at all. Global deployment rose by +38% last year💪
- 169 GW installed in 2025
- 95% onshore, 5% off
- Led by China: +47% to 126GW
- Outside China: +17% to 37GW
"This momentum is not fading. We expect similar levels to end of this decade."
about.bnef.com/insights/cle...
20mbpd went thru the Strait of Hormuz pre-crisis.
EV's may "only" displace 1.5mbpd now. But they're just getting starting. Wait until electric trucking takes off;)...
Are electric vehicles denting oil demand? Yes.
By how much? 1.5 million barrels of oil a day, according to EV Curve Futurist.
Caveat: These estimates are hard, but the numbers are certainly adding up.
China's push toward electrification has reduced its oil exposure, meaning its 1.4 billion-barrel reserves provide 120 days of import cushion. Its dominance of clean energy supply chains also gives it growing leverage as hydrocarbon reliability erodes.
Crazy fossil price spikes--- both Brent oil and TTF gas up 15% right now, compared to Friday's close price...
Streaming right now - me and @bryworthington sharing our thoughts on the conflict in Iran and its implications. www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Gh5...
Whaty what what?!!!?? China wow...
20,000 x 1.5MW charging stations to be built by the end of the year.
The electricity is buffered in batteries to minimise grid impact.
carnewschina.com/2026/03/05/b...
i do like this framing to understand how climate change can be soooo catastrophic.
Why is the Korean economy SOOOOOO affected?
Because it imports more of its energy than almost any other country...
Spotted by @laurimyllyvirta.bsky.social 👍
JUST ONE YEAR'S OF SOLAR!?
In 2025, 82MT of LNG went thru the Strait of Hormuz. That's 1200TWh of gas = about 600TWh of electricity generation if it was used in gas power plants.
Meanwhile in 2025, global solar electricity generation rose by about 600TWh ☀️
It's crazy how reliant the world's entire energy system is on one body of water, the Strait of Hormuz, just 20 nautical miles across at its narrowest, and situated in one of the most volatile regions on Earth. Here are the countries most dependent on oil&gas through the strait.
Wow, Thames Water and.. everyone🤮
I highly recommend watching Dirty Business, it's mind blowing.
I had no idea English water companies poisoned us so illegally, so consistently, and so recently..
(tho is a bit unfair casting Labour as impotent on this, change is now happening..)
t.co/dUpNy8WlSl
I'm so glad Italy is not working on any policies to structurally increase gas demand
interesting that new Green MP Hannah Spencer talks almost entirely about public services, cost of living, NHS, the grind of making ends meet....
and hardly ever mentions ecological/environmental issues....
this is the pivot that scares Labour the most
South Africa had x2 the world per capita electricity use in 2000, amid Eskom's coal-obsessed chaos, it's fallen to parity😢
The fast growth of solar, wind and battery should provide the electricity South Africa will need to resume to growth.
... fortunately battery is happening...
One of the world's largest hybrid solar-battery sites - Kenhardt - came online in Dec-2023, providing 150 MW of power 0500-2130.
And under Battery Storage IPP Program:
- 1513 MW / 2,052 MWh is in construction now
- 1.2 GW to award in 2026
With solar's share at 15% for December, that means solar is likely 40% of South Africa's generation at the lunchtime solar peak... so battery is getting critical...
I'd love to see what this means for daily coal power plants running in December?
Renewables generation is actually likely to be underreported...
Electricity demand is well down y-o-y, which may suggest not all behind-the-meter renewables is reported.
Unlike many countries, that's not just solar - some large companies have been building their own wind BTM.
Also helped by record wind and nuclear shares in December...
Wind continues to get built, albeit much more slowly than the government committed, impeded largely by grid access.
Nuclear generation was back after 2 years of maintenance to re-life Koeberg nuclear power plant.
Solar surged to 15% of South Africa's electricity in December...
..pushing coal to 68%, the lowest on record💪☀️🧵
I do wonder how fast this happens.. If things go well, as soon as 2028, Cuba could have one of the highest shares of solar of any country in the world 🤞
That's why I'm scared but also very excited for Cuba.
It does have a route out of the crisis.
There's already enough solar to generate 11% of Cuba's stifled electricity demand, up from near zero at the start of 2025.
It will soon be 22% when the second 1000MW is built.
The sun doesn't need to be 100% reliable, and it doesn't need 100% batteries... the existing oil power plants can generate around the solar.
There's no reason why solar can't rise from 1/3rd of electricity in daytime hours today towards 100%🤷♂️
And in time, with battery, towards 100% in all hours 🤷♂️
The sun is pretty reliable in Cuba...
Just outside of Havana, 1000W of solar delivers on average 180W across all hours in a year, and only 18 days in 2023 were less than 125W...
(I analysed hourly 2023 solar insolation data from here:
re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvg_tools/en...)
The situation is dire: 85%(!) of Cuba's elec is historically from oil, and there is now very little oil.
So many countries have non-flexible electricity supply. E.g. Pakistan has take-or-pay coal contracts.
Cuba doesn't have any limit, in that regard to get to 100% of solar in the daytime.
Peak demand is in the evening dark hours.
With solar meeting of 1/3rd of daytime demand, Cuba needs to get serious on battery. Battery shouldn't be optional when you get that much solar.
The remaining 1000MW to build could really do with a lot of battery.
