| ▲ | matthewdgreen 4 hours ago | |
My understanding is that China is planning to build a coal-backed renewable grid. Renewables, including storage, will provide the majority of the electricity generation, and then coal will step in when renewables aren't available. This involves building modern coal plants that can be spun up and down as needed, and then paying them not to generate. This is why actual emissions have plateaued and dropped, even as new coal capacity comes online. We are (or were) doing something similar in the US, just using natural gas as the fuel rather than coal. | ||