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THE Wind Power Thread pt 3 (merged)

Discussions of conventional and alternative energy production technologies.

Re: THE Wind Power Thread pt 3 (merged)

Unread postby Tanada » Fri 12 May 2017, 17:16:27

ROCKMAN wrote:So wind power doesn't work every where in the world. So what? You can't grow wheat in Antarctica...so growing wheat is a bad proposition? Standard bullsh*t approach: offer a completely ridiculous proposition and then show how f*cking smart you are by shooting it down.

Folks can throw out whatever theoretical numbers they want. As explained many times before: Texans don't give a sh*t about AGW, climate change or going green in any manner whatsoever "for the children". LOL. If wind power wasn't economic there would not be a single turbine spinning in Texas today. And is wind power green? Trust me: if Texas wasn't producing 12% of its electricity from wind we would be burning some fossil fuel (NG and/or coal) to generate the same amount of power. Whatever amount of energy it takes to implement wind power can't begin to compare with the AGW produced by burning those fossil fuels for the next 20+ years.


I personally favor renewable's for 15 or even 20 percent of the grid power, but I am not blind to the reality of things either. Wind consumes tons of rare earth metals, steel and concrete and solar PV does the same just counting the foundations/racks/rare earth metals in the panels. Despite three decades of very substantial subsidies for both solar and wind electricity the percentage of total electric power on a global basis they produce has barely budged and remains in the single digits percentage wise. The reason is pretty simple, while some favored locations do very well because they are particularly cloudless or particularly windy those conditions are not as common as certain advocates would lead you to believe. Also during that same 30 years period China, and now India and Indonesia and Turkey have been busily opening up coal burning power stations because pollution spewing or not, they are cheap, and the electric grid in all those large population countries has been rapidly expanding. Even worse the German population panicked over Fukushima and told their government to close all their nuclear power stations ASAP and that caused them to build or reopen a handful of very large coal power plants as well as building lots of renewable's.
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Re: THE Wind Power Thread pt 3 (merged)

Unread postby Subjectivist » Fri 12 May 2017, 19:35:18

If you can't afford power to keep the lights on you sure can't afford the power to run and maintain the robots, nor the goods those robots manufacture.
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Re: THE Wind Power Thread pt 3 (merged)

Unread postby Tanada » Fri 12 May 2017, 22:09:08

Squilliam wrote:
This study presents roadmaps for each of the 50 United States to convert their all-purpose energy systems (for
electricity, transportation, heating/cooling, and industry) to ones powered entirely by wind, water, and sunlight
(WWS). The plans contemplate 80–85% of existing energy replaced by 2030 and 100% replaced by 2050. Conversion
would reduce each state’s end-use power demand by a mean of B39.3% with B82.4% of this due to
the efficiency of electrification and the rest due to end-use energy efficiency improvements. Year 2050 end-use
U.S. all-purpose load would be met with B30.9% onshore wind, B19.1% offshore wind, B30.7% utility-scale
photovoltaics (PV), B7.2% rooftop PV, B7.3% concentrated solar power (CSP) with storage, B1.25% geothermal
power, B0.37% wave power, B0.14% tidal power, and B3.01% hydroelectric power. Based on a parallel grid
integration study, an additional 4.4% and 7.2% of power beyond that needed for annual loads would be supplied
by CSP with storage and solar thermal for heat, respectively, for peaking and grid stability. Over all 50 states,
converting would provide B3.9 million 40-year construction jobs and B2.0 million 40-year operation jobs for
the energy facilities alone, the sum of which would outweigh the B3.9 million jobs lost in the conventional
energy sector. Converting would also eliminate B62 000 (19 000–115000) U.S. air pollution premature mortalities
per year today and B46 000 (12000–104 000) in 2050, avoiding B$600 ($85–$2400) bil. per year (2013
dollars) in 2050, equivalent to B3.6 (0.5–14.3) percent of the 2014 U.S. gross domestic product. Converting
would further eliminate B$3.3 (1.9–7.1) tril. per year in 2050 global warming costs to the world due to U.S.
emissions. These plans will result in each person in the U.S. in 2050 saving B$260 (190–320) per year in energy
costs ($2013 dollars) and U.S. health and global climate costs per person decreasing by B$1500 (210–6000) per
year and B$8300 (4700–17 600) per year, respectively. The new footprint over land required will be B0.42% of
U.S. land. The spacing area between wind turbines, which can be used for multiple purposes, will be B1.6% of
U.S. land. Thus, 100% conversions are technically and economically feasible with little downside. These roadmaps
may therefore reduce social and political barriers to implementing clean-energy policies


http://web.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jaco ... tesWWS.pdf

Eminently doable. The point which needs to be stressed above all else is the fact that doing something in a bits and pieces way is fundamentally different compared to going 'all in'. Compromising with respect to dependencies lowers the value of the whole proposition significantly. In other words if you only move 1/4 of the way towards a new paradigm you get less than 1/4 of the benefit. In addition to this, if people are busy saying that for various reasons we must transition off of fossil fuels, but that the alternatives are no good then in essence you're effectively saying 'we can't stop the train, so we may as well enjoy the wind in our hair before it goes off the rails'.



I will put this as politely as I can. The authors of that propaganda piece are full of beans and the emissions that result from them. Do a life cycle cost analysis of putting enough wind turbines in and around Chicago and Detroit to deal with both icy cold winters and hot muggy summers. Compare that life cycle cost of putting two brand new nuclear reactors near each city. Notice that the nuclear power alternative provides all the energy needed 24/7/365 with about a tenth of the money and materials needed, and the number of employees to maintain and operate four nuclear power stations is also about a tenth of the number needed to maintain thousands of individual wind turbines and the grid storage necessary for those days when the wind just ain't blowing hard enough. Pick the solar PV option or heck add it in and you will discover we get this white fluffy stuff a lot in winter that covers up the panels and requires either heating to melt the snow or someone risking their neck to climb up on the roof and clear them. Solar also needs a LOT of grid storage for those long dark winter nights.

Like I said earlier, Renewables are a fine supplement to the grid for 15% to 20% of the power consumed. Beyond that you are way better off building a nuclear plant for your carbon free energy. Just an observation but Australia is mostly desert or tropical and both Australia and New Zealand have very small populations per square kilometer, which makes it a lot easier to put up enough renewable to satisfy demand. The state of Ohio (11,610,000) where I live has twice the population of the country of New Zealand (4,596,000) and we are not a particularly high population state. In fact you can also compare Australia (23,780,000) with the three states of Ohio (11,610,000), Indiana (6,620,000) and Illinois (12,860,000) and you get 31,090,000 just in the three states that lie north of the Ohio River and south of the state Michigan and the Great Lakes of Erie and Michigan. The major cities in the set are [Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Toledo,] Ohio, [Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Gary] Indiana, [Chicago, Aurora, Rockford] Illinois and at least a dozen more population centers with 100,000 plus population.

Rounding off Illinois is 58,000 square miles, Indiana is 36,000 and Ohio is 45,000 = 139,000 square miles combined 31,000,000/139,000=223 people per square mile population density.
Australia 23,780,000/2,970,000=8 people per square mile.
New Zealand 4,596,000/103,483=44.4 people per square mile.

New Zealand and Australia both have lots of coastlines where wind turbines do best because of the temperature coefficient of land vs water which causes wind fairly constantly. Australia also has a great deal of very sparsely populated desert where Solar PV and heck even Solar Thermal work just fine. Those same conditions do not apply to my region, we have a lot of cloudy rainy days in spring and fall and lots of snow in winter and we go from 16 hours of daylight per day in June to 8 hours of daylight in December. Solar and Wind are fine supplements, but they will never ever suffice for continuous grid power at a price we can afford to pay, especially when Nuclear is so much more cost efficient in materials and manpower and produces even less CO2 if you take into account all those concrete foundations needed by the renewable options.
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Re: THE Wind Power Thread pt 3 (merged)

Unread postby kiwichick » Sat 13 May 2017, 07:45:39

re Germany .....they just hit 85 % of their electricity supply from renewables .....obviously with favourable conditions .....and over a short period of time

the wind/solar intermittency argument neglects the fact that there are baseload renewables ......geothermal and wave/tidal are both effectively baseload
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Re: THE Wind Power Thread pt 3 (merged)

Unread postby Tanada » Sat 13 May 2017, 10:54:45

kiwichick wrote:re Germany .....they just hit 85 % of their electricity supply from renewables .....obviously with favourable conditions .....and over a short period of time

the wind/solar intermittency argument neglects the fact that there are baseload renewables ......geothermal and wave/tidal are both effectively baseload


So is hydroelectric and on a small local scale biomass burning. That is not the issue, my issue is building out to 20% of the grid is entirely doable and I encourage that level of investment. Building beyond 20 or maybe 25% runs into copious headaches that can be avoided by building a set of carbon free nuclear baseload power stations to fill in the other 75 percent of the grid. My goal is to have a carbon fuel free future, not some renewable solar/wind only utopia that is purely theory and totally impractical in the real world.
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Re: THE Wind Power Thread pt 3 (merged)

Unread postby Tanada » Sat 13 May 2017, 11:03:28

Squilliam wrote:
Tanada wrote:

I will put this as politely as I can. The authors of that propaganda piece are full of beans and the emissions that result from them. Do a life cycle cost analysis of putting enough wind turbines in and around Chicago and Detroit to deal with both icy cold winters and hot muggy summers. Compare that life cycle cost of putting two brand new nuclear reactors near each city. Notice that the nuclear power alternative provides all the energy needed 24/7/365 with about a tenth of the money and materials needed, and the number of employees to maintain and operate four nuclear power stations is also about a tenth of the number needed to maintain thousands of individual wind turbines and the grid storage necessary for those days when the wind just ain't blowing hard enough. Pick the solar PV option or heck add it in and you will discover we get this white fluffy stuff a lot in winter that covers up the panels and requires either heating to melt the snow or someone risking their neck to climb up on the roof and clear them. Solar also needs a LOT of grid storage for those long dark winter nights.

Like I said earlier, Renewables are a fine supplement to the grid for 15% to 20% of the power consumed. Beyond that you are way better off building a nuclear plant for your carbon free energy. Just an observation but Australia is mostly desert or tropical and both Australia and New Zealand have very small populations per square kilometer, which makes it a lot easier to put up enough renewable to satisfy demand. The state of Ohio (11,610,000) where I live has twice the population of the country of New Zealand (4,596,000) and we are not a particularly high population state. In fact you can also compare Australia (23,780,000) with the three states of Ohio (11,610,000), Indiana (6,620,000) and Illinois (12,860,000) and you get 31,090,000 just in the three states that lie north of the Ohio River and south of the state Michigan and the Great Lakes of Erie and Michigan. The major cities in the set are [Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Toledo,] Ohio, [Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Gary] Indiana, [Chicago, Aurora, Rockford] Illinois and at least a dozen more population centers with 100,000 plus population.

Rounding off Illinois is 58,000 square miles, Indiana is 36,000 and Ohio is 45,000 = 139,000 square miles combined 31,000,000/139,000=223 people per square mile population density.
Australia 23,780,000/2,970,000=8 people per square mile.
New Zealand 4,596,000/103,483=44.4 people per square mile.

New Zealand and Australia both have lots of coastlines where wind turbines do best because of the temperature coefficient of land vs water which causes wind fairly constantly. Australia also has a great deal of very sparsely populated desert where Solar PV and heck even Solar Thermal work just fine. Those same conditions do not apply to my region, we have a lot of cloudy rainy days in spring and fall and lots of snow in winter and we go from 16 hours of daylight per day in June to 8 hours of daylight in December. Solar and Wind are fine supplements, but they will never ever suffice for continuous grid power at a price we can afford to pay, especially when Nuclear is so much more cost efficient in materials and manpower and produces even less CO2 if you take into account all those concrete foundations needed by the renewable options.


There is a significant difference between thinking of the U.S.A. on a state by state basis, and comparing it as an integrated North American whole. Renewables have the same kind of dilemma that nuclear has, but for different reasons. So when you take the country as a whole, and you make significant investment in order to shift production away from the current fossil fuel paradigm it is better to consider the system holistically rather than in a piecemeal fashion. It is the supporting investment that makes or breaks the case for these technologies. With respect to nuclear you need to build a lot of it, and with renewables you need to load balance across a wide region. That is how they did the analysis with respect to renewables because you need to consider a whole basket of changes rather than the concept of plugging X amount of Y type of energy into one local grid. When you consider a smart grid that is capable of load balancing demand as well as supply then you get to the point where you can suck off excess power generation by producing medium value high energy products such as fertilizer, or balance heating/cooling demand with respect to predictable generation patterns. You can also move power from where it is abundant to where it is not.

Renewables and nuclear are both long term investments. It doesn't make sense to point to the short term, and then say it only makes sense without considering the externalities of the current path. There are long term supporting metrics that alter the cost equations substantially for any society that looks beyond a short term life-cycle. Your new nuclear power plant is still going to be there in 40 years time, and your supporting renewable infrastructure like transmission lines and support towers have service lives of over half a century if built well enough. On the other hand it is expected that if there actually is some real action on climate change towards the rear end of the fossil fuel plants service lives then you will face a considerable unforecasted costs that could completely alter the cost/benefit ratio of current generation development.

What are we arguing here? Are we arguing that people are stupid/short sighted? Or are we arguing about the relative cost/benefit ratios of different generation types?


The further away the intermittent abundance is from the end user the greater the line losses that result from moving that power around. You are also under an illusion about how the USA grid works. there are three grids, each with dozens or scores of large generators with their own sub grids cross connected into the feed network so if the power station down the road from me has a problem the neighboring stations can fill in the gaps from all sides. They are building a few MWe 'solar PV field' about 5 miles from me by taking good productive farmland out of service permanently. The farm was owned by the city and leased out to farmers up until 2 years ago when they decided to cash in on the subsidies by putting the solar field in that location. The power it generates on clear sunny days is great for offsetting summer peak demand, but as I pointed out earlier in winter it output will be very small. The costs however will be there for as long as they want to maintain it which is IIRC 20 years of tax subsidies for the city. If they looked at it strictly on a cost per kWe installed it would be a very expensive source, but it is effectively a tax write off green washing scheme for the college town that built it.

Integrating thousands of intermittent sources is not a cheap or easy solution and for those sub grids where they can make it work more power too them. Again I am in favor of a blended system, but the current paradigm is a goal of 10% renewable and 90% gas fired combined cycle turbines. That is better than coal, but not nearly good enough to fight CO2 emissions.
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Re: THE Wind Power Thread pt 3 (merged)

Unread postby ROCKMAN » Sat 13 May 2017, 16:24:53

T - "Scores" of generating units? Try 500+ in the Texas grid:

"ERCOT schedules power on an electric grid that connects more than 46,500 miles of transmission lines and 570+ generation units

But as I've pointed out before having ERCOT makes the alts work well in Texas and the lack of a grid czar for either the eastern or western US grids makes it difficult to match what we've done. And while we have a density of 105 folks per sq mile we are very bi-model: concentrated big cities and sparsely populated lands both west and south. And a booming growth in electricity demand that requires expanding generation as opposed to justifying replacing existing generators in the other two grids. Oh, and did I mention we are also f*cking rich which allowed us to spend $7 billion of tax payer monies to upgrade the grid (still leaving us about $10 BILLION in our "rainy day fund")? Oh, almost forgot our huge fossil fuel generators to back up the alts when needed.

Yeah, I talk a lot about Texas alt energy. But not really a harsh criticism of the other two grids. We are just the confluence of several significant factors the rest of the country lacks. Like not having NIMBY assholes that don't like the looks of wind turbines. LOL.

"ERCOT: the independent system operator for the region, schedules power on an electric grid that connects more than 46,500 miles of transmission lines and 570+ generation units. It also performs financial settlement for the competitive wholesale bulk-power market and administers retail switching for 7 million premises in competitive choice areas. ERCOT is a membership-based nonprofit corporation, governed by a board of directors and subject to oversight by the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Texas Legislature. Its members include consumers, cooperatives, generators, power marketers, retail electric providers, investor-owned electric utilities, transmission and distribution providers and municipally owned electric utilities."
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Re: THE Wind Power Thread pt 3 (merged)

Unread postby Subjectivist » Sat 13 May 2017, 18:22:28

Kind of presumptuos to assume the grid will just be converted over from AC to DC isn't it? Changing the system over would or will cost a boatload of money, in a country that doesn't even fix bridges or potholes in roads that are not interstate highways because it is too expensive or not politically expedient enough.
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Re: THE Wind Power Thread pt 3 (merged)

Unread postby Subjectivist » Sat 13 May 2017, 21:09:00

Squilliam wrote:DC is good to connect separate local grids because it doesn't matter what phase or alignment the power is on separate sides of the network. It is also good to transmit power over long distances with little in the way of losses. Given the fact that there are billions of dollars every year in the U.S.A. being injected into bubbles like housing or the stock market then giving it a home where it can make real returns on investment would be good, wouldn't it?


The theory sounds great, but housing bubbles are blown from millions of individual consumers getting individual loans. Restructuring the grid would be hudreds of major loans to major companies which is very different thing entirely.
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Re: THE Wind Power Thread pt 3 (merged)

Unread postby kiwichick » Sun 14 May 2017, 04:15:24

glad I live in a little country in the South pacific , where we already get 70 - 80 % of our electricity from renewable power, from a mix of Hydro, Geothermal and Wind, with a small amount of solar.

We can easily go 100+ % renewable

The US was far from being the greatest country on the planet , even before the last Presidential Election!
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Re: THE Wind Power Thread pt 3 (merged)

Unread postby kiwichick » Sun 14 May 2017, 07:13:30

@ squilliam...............neither
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Re: THE Wind Power Thread pt 3 (merged)

Unread postby Tanada » Sun 14 May 2017, 08:11:54

kiwichick wrote:glad I live in a little country in the South pacific , where we already get 70 - 80 % of our electricity from renewable power, from a mix of Hydro, Geothermal and Wind, with a small amount of solar.

We can easily go 100+ % renewable

The US was far from being the greatest country on the planet , even before the last Presidential Election!


As I pointed out earlier on this thread a country like New Zealand with a population density of 44 persons per square mile has a much easier time of going high renewable percentage for the grid and still providing all the electricity per capita the westernized culture demands. For most of the 20th Century Norway was also blessed with ample hydroelectricity to feed its low population density and for a couple of decades Quebec and Ontario Canada got a respectable chunk of their electricity from wilderness hydroelectricity as well, to the point that the electric bills over the border from here are still called 'hydro' bills out of cultural habit.

Ignoring the impact of low population density is problematic when comparing yourself to countries with 10 or more times the population density you have. We have a few almost purely agricultural states like Kansas with low population density, but they are the exception, not the rule. For China or India or Indonesia population densities are another order higher than they are for the USA making low energy density sources like solar and wind even less useful. In very high population countries they will be fortunate to get as much as 5 percent of grid power from intermittent renewables.
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Re: THE Wind Power Thread pt 3 (merged)

Unread postby Newfie » Sun 14 May 2017, 08:38:17

There is no doubt that adjusting the population density toward some reasonable downward limit makes all kind of desirable things possible.
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Re: THE Wind Power Thread pt 3 (merged)

Unread postby Newfie » Sun 14 May 2017, 08:42:14

There is a guy here in the marina where we are storing the boat for the summer.

He is 70. His knees are shot. His doctor won't agree to knee replacement until he gets his weight under control, down to 200. He has lost 150, has 200 to go.

His decades of excess are now catching up with him and he is being forced to confront the obvious. Painful though it may be.
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Re: THE Wind Power Thread pt 3 (merged)

Unread postby ROCKMAN » Sun 14 May 2017, 13:18:12

Newfie - At 70 yo he's already beat the odds. Going forward it's all lagniappe for him. LOL
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Re: THE Wind Power Thread pt 3 (merged)

Unread postby Newfie » Sun 14 May 2017, 14:24:36

Subjectivist wrote:
Squilliam wrote:DC is good to connect separate local grids because it doesn't matter what phase or alignment the power is on separate sides of the network. It is also good to transmit power over long distances with little in the way of losses. Given the fact that there are billions of dollars every year in the U.S.A. being injected into bubbles like housing or the stock market then giving it a home where it can make real returns on investment would be good, wouldn't it?


The theory sounds great, but housing bubbles are blown from millions of individual consumers getting individual loans. Restructuring the grid would be hudreds of major loans to major companies which is very different thing entirely.


I think what is meant is to convert the major tie links to HVDC. Large parts of that infrastructure are in need of replacement. The distribution network would remain AC. I don't see where it would require hundreds of loans. And even if it did they would be required to replace the existing aging infrastructure anyway.
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Re: THE Wind Power Thread pt 3 (merged)

Unread postby kiwichick » Sun 14 May 2017, 14:55:51

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Re: THE Wind Power Thread pt 3 (merged)

Unread postby kiwichick » Sun 14 May 2017, 14:57:58

@ T ......are China and India short of land to build solar power on?
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Re: THE Wind Power Thread pt 3 (merged)

Unread postby Outcast_Searcher » Sun 14 May 2017, 16:27:30

Newfie wrote:There is a guy here in the marina where we are storing the boat for the summer.

He is 70. His knees are shot. His doctor won't agree to knee replacement until he gets his weight under control, down to 200. He has lost 150, has 200 to go.

His decades of excess are now catching up with him and he is being forced to confront the obvious. Painful though it may be.

This is a VERY common thing I see in the US. People being morbidly obese (even if much less than 550 pounds), and having knee or hip problems in their 70's. They comment on being warned by their doctors to lose weight before the joints go critical, and state they intend to, but somehow they never get around to it.

Maybe I'm missing something, but to me, PAIN is a very strong motivator. And if it's constant or even frequent, it's not like you're likely to forget the issue.

OTOH, maybe after a lifetime of doctors often being clueless or wrong about MANY health issues, such people don't consider the advice worth the sacrifice.

For me, I'm willing to try something. When my hips, especially my right hip began to get stiff and annoying, but not yet painful, I asked the doctor about it. When I affirmed that I like walking, he suggested I do more of it and more often. For me, nothing succeeds like success - the additional walking worked almost like magic. (And I'm not obese, but will confess to having gradually accumulated 30 pounds over the past 4 decades, so I'm no longer skinny either).
Given the track record of the perma-doomer blogs, I wouldn't bet a fast crash doomer's money on their predictions.
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Re: THE Wind Power Thread pt 3 (merged)

Unread postby kublikhan » Sun 14 May 2017, 16:59:37

Tanada wrote:For China or India or Indonesia population densities are another order higher than they are for the USA making low energy density sources like solar and wind even less useful. In very high population countries they will be fortunate to get as much as 5 percent of grid power from intermittent renewables.
China already passed that threshold last year. Wind & solar combined generated 307 TWh in China. Total generation was 5,920 TWh. For an intermittent share of 5.2%.

Total electricity consumption in China rose to 5920 TWh last year. In 2016, wind turbines generated 241 TWh of electricity. Electricity generation from solar power grew by 72 percent with a cumulative generation of 66 TWh in 2016. The combined new electricity generation from hydro, wind and solar power amounted to 153 TWh in 2016. This new electricity generation by renewables in 2016 in China is almost on par with the electricity generation by all German renewables in 2016 with 186 TWh.
Power statistics China 2016: Huge growth of renewables amidst thermal-based generation

And China is throwing alot of money into renewables to keep growing that share:
Chinese manufacturing has changed the economics of renewable power around the world, making solar generation cost-competitive with electricity from fossil fuels like natural gas and even coal. It has brought change closer to home too, as China rolls out the world’s biggest investment in clean energy—motivated in part by a desire to ease the atrocious air pollution that kills an estimated 1.1 million of its people every year.

“The installation rates are absolutely mind-blowing,” says Lauri Myllyvirta, an energy and air pollution expert at Greenpeace in Beijing. China added 35 gigawatts of new solar generation in 2016 alone. “That’s almost equal to Germany’s total capacity, just in one year.” Every hour, China erects another wind turbine and installs enough solar panels to cover a soccer field.

After years of ignoring the air quality crisis that has resulted from decades of breakneck industrialization, China’s leaders have finally begun trying to solve it. And because coal is the source of an estimated 40 percent of the most dangerous pollution particles in the country’s air , finding alternatives to it has become a crucial priority. China aims to get 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2030, and it recently announced it would spend $360 billion on the effort in just the next three years.
Three Reasons to Believe in China's Renewable Energy Boom
The oil barrel is half-full.
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