[lysium]

What are you talking about? Germany would be more energy independent if it had adopted solar and wind power when Greenpeace was advocating it fourty years ago, like China is showcasing today!

[lnsru]

The question is not if renewables can replace nuclear. Obviously it is technically possible. The question is how many times bigger should be installed peak power of renewables. 20x? 50x? And of course if it’s economically viable. Because China does not gamble with renewables. They build nuclear capacity at unprecedented levels.

[triceratops]

> Because China does not gamble with renewables. They build nuclear capacity at unprecedented levels.

You have that backwards. In 2025 China installed 100x as much solar as nuclear.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46638024

[clarionbell]

Check latitutes of largest cities in Germany, and compare them to largest cities in China. Have you noticed how all of major German cities are much further north than major Chinese cities?

You can't ignore physics and climate.

[notTooFarGone]

Your argument is basically "It's only 80% as efficient as another country" so it has to be bad?

what if it's already 50% better than any alternative? Solarpunk is alive and well and economies of scale of panels and batteries will make it even more affordable and viable.

China connected 5 solar panels every second of last year. This is happening.

[ethanwillis]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_China#Pr...

[ekianjo]

They would depend on china instead of Russia. huge improvement! /s

[Xylakant]

There is a significant difference in term of dependency when it comes to solar vs gas/oil. Solar panels are not consumables when int comes to energy production- oil and gas are. China can shutdown the supply of solar panels, but not the energy generation with existing panels. This gives you time to start building other supply channels.