this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2026
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Overall, I agree. I run my own yard offgrid with solar and battery, but I still end up firing up the generator a fair bit in winter because the demand periods don't match the production peak.
But it seems like that's just a scaling problem, and it seems like a few billion spent on batteries is a less technical solution than a fission plant, depending on the design and scale. But it hasn't really happened yet, even in China where the parts are produced. They're further along, but they're still firing up coal and nuclear at a scale unmatched by the western countries right now, alongside record solar production. So something in that theory isn't lining up.
The price stuff is only relevant for new production, there's not yet a financial reason to replace all existing plants with renewables.
As for China, I'm not fully sure why they aren't. Either it's internal lobbying, making decisions against the public interest, or it could be China wanting to keep their market control.
There is still limited supply, for example building solar cell fabs is a very involved process. China might well be able to use their entire production internally for a long time before fabs scale past their demand. And in the mean time, the rest of the world would first see price increases or shortages, and then build their own fabs taking chinas market control.
There is also the very short-term thing where they are replacing oil with coal due to the Iran war (best war in the history of war, maybe ever).