Guy, J. (2019, August 15). Solar power is now cheaper than the grid in hundreds of Chinese cities. Retrieved November 11, 2019, from https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/15/business/china-solar-electricity-scli-intl/index.html.
China has taken great steps in the advancement of their solar power industry. This article discusses a few of those steps along with their costs and benefits. China has now pledged to invest about $367 billion to renewable energy. Also, in about 344 cities solar energy was found to be cheaper than that of the grid. However, these great accomplishments come at a cost. There have already been problems arising in China due to solar panel waste. A few protests have already broken out led by Chinese citizens in response to this careless mishandeling of hazardous waste.
This article was quite a bitter sweet read. I was excited to learn about how well China is doing to improve their renewable energy, but saddened to learn of their waste problems. However, this is definitely a step in the right direction. The hard part is over, China has already begun building up the infrastructure of their renewable energy. All they must do now is install regulations ensuring safe disposal of hazardous materials. If only more super powers took the same steps as China towards clean energy, global warming would become less and less of a threat day by day.
I like your spin on this Whitman. Crazy that China is putting so much into renewable energy, and at the same time building a humongous coal plant. But something we don’t think about is that solar panels age out… and contain toxic material. China will have to figure that out- good seeing prices drop. The trick is storing that power. Hopefully with that much invested they will figure it out and share it with us.