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State-owned power company China Three Gorges Renewables Group will build an 8 GW solar farm as part of a nearly $11 billion integrated energy project.
great, but why are they still building 4GW of coal too?
Because they’re still a developing country with a relatively low baseline power supply per capita (half that of the US).
Second largest economy in the world, “still a developing country”.
The people aren’t worse off because they’re not developed, they’re worse off because their government is even more corrupt.
Their economy is literally less developed. Country size has nothing to do with it; India is on track to surpass Japan’s GDP but no one would dispute that it is much less developed than Japan or any other OECD country.
Their economy is super developed.
The citizens are not reaping the benefits of that development.
No, if it was just a matter of having a well developed economy whose fruits are distributed poorly, then their GDP per capita (literally economic output divided by people) would be high.
But it’s not. It’s among the middle-income countries, just below Malaysia. Which seems about right in terms of the quality of life of the average citizen.
Isn’t most power consumed by industry rather than residential?
Yes. That means Chinese households actually consume less than this graph indicates. In other words, because China’s economy is more manufacturing heavy, this graph makes it look more “developed” than it actually is.