Green energy, including generation, but also storage, transmission, ev chargers, smart grid technology, etc would be the obvious thing to invest in that I would expect to have a much higher payoff.

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busterarm 2 days ago | parent [-]

Are they really? Is this one of those "just because people say so" beliefs?

The countries adopting these the most are declining economies. It's places that are looking for something to do after there's no more oil left to drill up and export.

You know where fossil fuel use is booming? Emerging (e.g., growing) economies. Future scarcity of such resources will only make them more valuable and more profitable.

Yes, this is a dim view on the world, but until those alternatives are fundamentally more attractive than petrochemicals, these efforts will always be charity/subsidy.

If you're expecting that to be the area of strong and safe returns on investment, I've got some dodgy property to sell you.

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nicoburns 2 days ago | parent [-]

Isn't it China that adopting renewable more rapidly than anywhere else and also has a booming economy? Although they're also investing in non-renewable energy sources.

My understanding is that "green" investment portfolios which were intended as "ethics over return on investment" have actually outperformed petrochemical stocks for years now, and it's more ideology than economics that's preventing further investment (hence why you see so much renewable energy in Texas which is famously money driven)

	▲	MisterMower 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		They are bringing neatly one new coal power plant online per day. To the extent they’re building any renewable energy capacity, it’s nuclear power, and some PV farms with their excess solar panel production that can’t be sold internationally. The Chinese are smart: they want reliable, cheap energy, and know what it takes to get it. Renewable energy in the form of wind and solar are direct subsidies for the oil and gas industry. Wind and solar are intermittent and you have to build a proportional amount of natural gas power plants to maintain a stable grid. Every new PV farm creates demand for another natural gas power plant. The IRA subsidies for renewables were extremely lucrative. That’s why you see renewable energy projects in Texas. Government money spends just as good as profits from oil and gas. “Renewable” energy exists where the subsidies are, and in some rare niche cases like geothermal power in Iceland. Many of these wind farms won’t produce more energy than it took to create them.