<
https://reneweconomy.com.au/china-races-to-build-worlds-largest-solar-farm-complete-with-photovoltaic-sheep/>
"Chinese government officials have shown off what they say will be the world’s
largest solar farm. It’s on a Tibetan plateau and covers 610 square kilometres,
which is the size of Chicago.
China has been installing solar panels far faster than anywhere else in the
world, and the investment is starting to pay off.
A study released Thursday found that the country’s carbon emissions edged down
one per cent in the first six months of 2025 compared to a year earlier,
extending a trend that began in March 2024.
The good news is China’s carbon emissions may have peaked well ahead of a
government target of doing so before 2030.
But China, the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, will need to bring
them down much more sharply to play its part in slowing global climate change.
For China to reach its declared goal of carbon neutrality by 2060, emissions
would need to fall three per cent on average over the next 35 years, said Lauri
Myllyvirta, the Finland-based author of the study and lead analyst at the
Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
“China needs to get to that three per cent territory as soon as possible,” he
said.
China’s emissions have fallen before during economic slowdowns.
What’s different this time is electricity demand is growing — up 3.7 per cent
in the first half of this year — but the increase in power from solar, wind and
nuclear has easily outpaced that, according to Myllyvirta, who analyses the
most recent data in a study published on the UK-based
Carbon Brief website.
“We’re talking really for the first time about a structural declining trend in
China’s emissions,” he said.
China installed 212 gigawatts of solar capacity in the first six months of the
year, more than America’s entire capacity of 178 gigawatts as of the end of
2024, the study said.
Electricity from solar has overtaken hydropower in China and is poised to
surpass wind this year to become the country’s largest source of clean energy.
Some 51 gigawatts of wind power were added from January to June.
“This is a moment of global significance, offering a rare glimmer of hope in an
otherwise bleak climate landscape,” he wrote in an email response. It also
shows that a country can cut emissions while still growing economically, he
said."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
