| ▲ | raincole 7 hours ago |
| In 2025, > 90% of new energy capacity built in the US is from renewable [0]. So the US isn't building that much solar not because they're not building solar, but that the US has been generating and consuming so much energy per capita that there isn't that much incentive to increase energy capacity dramatically. [0]: https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/clean-energy/us-new-win... |
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| ▲ | ZeroGravitas 6 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| The US has done well historically, roughly on par with China on per capita renewable rollout, slightly ahead of China between 2019-2023 but probably falling behind now. China being so big and populous makes it hard to make simple comparisons. edit: looked it up, US is still ahead of China as of 2024: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/renewable-electricity-per... Bear in mind that pre 2000 is likely hydro, in the early years of solar and wind that confused matters if lumped in together but I think it's now obvious when the new tech kicks in. |
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| ▲ | raincole 5 hours ago | parent [-] | | Not only that, but Chian actually also built quite a lot of coal capacity in the past five years [0]: https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/chinas... while the US has been retiring coal. But no one talks about it because it doesn't provoke the only important narrative: "It's a shame that the US isn't doing that!" | | |
| ▲ | ben_w 5 hours ago | parent [-] | | > no one talks about it People regularly talk about how much new coal capacity China has been building. Quite often this is followed by "capacity, sure; they're not using all that capacity, those plants exist and are mostly not running", or some variation thereof. I've never bothered fact-checking the responses, but this conversation happens is most of the Chinese renewables discussions I've seen in the last few years. | | |
| ▲ | hnmullany 5 hours ago | parent [-] | | Coal generation production in China did decline in 2025 vs 2024 - but that was the first year for it to happen. | | |
| ▲ | balops 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | Nuclear on the other hand is outpacing any renewable in China. With many plants being built or plans to be built between now and 2050. | | |
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| ▲ | rozab 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| These are new electric power plants. The US is still ramping up oil and gas production, and is now producing more than ever before. No signs of transitioning away from fossil fuels for transport, industry, export. https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/fossil-fuels/chart-the-... |
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| ▲ | appointment 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | That's production, not consumption. The US exports huge amounts of oil and gas now. The EU/Russia sanctions and the Red Sea blockade are a huge gravy train for American oil and gas companies. | |
| ▲ | timeon 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | > The US is still ramping up oil and gas production This also happens in China. With better ratio for renewables but still. Globally there was more energy from coal than before. Much more was from renewables but in context of climate change absolute numbers of CO2 are what matters. EU is also reverting it's green targets because of this new situation. So near future does not look good. |
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