Comment by toomuchtodo
6 months ago
California obtains almost 80% of their daily needs from solar, and is the world’s fourth largest economy. Almost the entire US could run off of solar and batteries based on current utility scale costs of both technologies (but will likely continue to use a mix of nuclear, renewables, batteries, transmission, demand response, and fossil gas for filling in the gaps as learning curves continue to deliver cheaper low carbon energy).
It's simply a matter of will (or in the case of the US, lack thereof).
https://blog.gridstatus.io/caiso-beats-the-heat/
https://blog.gridstatus.io/caiso-batteries-apr-2024/
https://docs.nrel.gov/docs/fy04osti/35097.pdf
https://elements.visualcapitalist.com/how-much-land-power-us...
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/31072025/inside-clean-ene...
https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/solar-electricity-e...
https://electrek.co/2025/06/20/batteries-are-so-cheap-now-so...
https://cleantechnica.com/2025/04/26/there-is-one-clear-winn...
No they don't. They get 56% of their power from coal:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_China#...
And they onboarded more coal plants in 2024 than any time in the prev 10 years:
https://www.carbonbrief.org/chinas-construction-of-new-coal-...
Perhaps you replied to the wrong comment? The one you replied to speaks to California, not China.
US coal plant phase out tracking at https://coal.sierraclub.org/coal-plant-map and https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=64604 | Europe at https://beyondfossilfuels.org/europes-coal-exit/
(existing coal is more expensive than new renewables and storage in the US and Europe, I cannot speak to the cost in China)
> And they onboarded more coal plants in 2024 than any time in the prev 10 years:
Which is a statistic missing the forest for the trees.
In 2025 the Chinese coal consumption has in absolute terms decreased while they have kept building.
New built renewables are able to both absorb all new demand and reduce coal usage.
Sure, it would be better to not build coal plants sitting idle and instead spend the money on renewables and storage.
Through selectively quoting facts you make it seem like China is expanding their coal usage which is incorrect.