General Discussion

Last edited Sun Mar 1, 2026, 06:35 PM - Edit history (1)

I have serious doubts. And your comment on cost of goods from China is simplistic. Yes, cheap oil helps some, but that's only a small part of the equation.

Do you know that China accounted for more than half of ALL renewable energy installations in 2025? Over 430 gigawatts. They're up to 3.3 TERAwatts in renewable sources now. Over a third of their energy consumption and 3 times the renewable infrastructure as the US.

Edited to take out the harshness. Sorry about that. Cost of good produced is a corner of my world. The things driving Chinese costs right now are still cheap labor, though not nearly as cheap as it once was, massive government subsidies, and extraordinarily high volume. They've addressed their increasing labor costs by introducing huge amounts of automation. And not AI driving automation. Just interesting modifications of off the shelf robotics that's been around for years. "Lights out" production is a thing there now, where the only humans are maybe a couple of techs wandering around somewhere making sure the equipment doesn't catch on fire or the few tasks not yet automated. They're significantly ahead of US and European production facilities in that.