Solar power has begun to transform the world’s energy system

China seems to be taking the joke rather seriously [1]

> The 277 GW of utility-scale solar capacity installed in China in 2024 alone is more than twice as much as the 121 GW of utility-scale solar capacity installed in the United States at the end of 2024.

So they took all the solar installed in the USA since forever, and build it in a year. Twice.

That being said, they're _also_ building everything else:

* PWR nuclear [2] (sadly, they managed to make EPR work faster than the E in EPR, but we're getting there.) Here market and investment and regulation are the hitters. "Fusion nuclear" will always be 50 years away ; until we get SMRs, "Fission nuclear" will always be a couple of years late and a few millions over budget.

* indeed, Thorium nuclear [3] (although it's far from powering any air-conditionner in any pig shed any time soon)

* and looooooots of coal [4]

So basically, China has understood that the answer to "what kind of electricity source should we build ?" is "YES".

The faster they replace "new coal" by "new anything else", the better we are as as species, since they're the world factory - so the lifecycle of _everything_ improve when they improve their grid.

Of course, here's to hoping they're not lying they way off...

[1] https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=65064

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taishan_Nuclear_Power_Plant

[3] https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/01/1115957/old-new-...

[4] https://www.carbonbrief.org/chinas-construction-of-new-coal-...

I’d also point out that China is teetering on the edge of a financial meltdown, having also built complete ghost cities, so some of these investments may not look very smart in just a few years. Don’t confuse investment with malinvestment, in other words. Throwing money at everything, much in direct opposition to market forces, has never really been shown to be a winning strategy.