Why did renewables become so cheap so fast? (2020)

Re:Why did renewables become so cheap so fast? (2020) by thaumasiotes on Sunday February 27, 2022 @12:37AM (#30485711)

> IIRC at that time coal power and other industrial production had to be stopped for a couple of months in the surrounding provinces to make the games happen and people (importantly top bureaucrats who lived in Beijing) decided they liked the clean air.

I think this undersells the demand for clean air. It's a huge political issue in China, one which animates people on the street even though the people of China are legendarily passive on political questions. If the government saw any way to clean up the air without impoverishing the country, they'd be all over it. You don't need to face reelection to appreciate a free win.

A brief experience of clean air in Beijing is a small thing compared to the constant massive demand for cleaner air everywhere.

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Re:Why did renewables become so cheap so fast? (2020) by pfdietz on Sunday February 27, 2022 @07:13AM (#30487638)

I remember visitors from China about ten years ago asking why the air in the US was so clean. I explained it was lower population density and the Clean Air Act. The latter has been so enormously successful (estimated benefit some 40 times the estimated cost) that not even Republicans object to it.

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