This is not good for the climate. A Chinese company has developed a 100% Chinese-made gas turbine. Expect a lot of these to be used around the world and for gas use to increase dramatically.
Posted by Idle_Redditing@reddit | collapse | View on Reddit | 44 comments
Detachabl_e@reddit
I mean, gas turbine electricity is generally cleaner than coal fire plants. And it's not like this stymies China's solar or wind infrastructure production. Ideally, developed economies would be subsidizing renewable investment worldwide such that coal & gas aren't as economically viable, but that's not the world we live in right now.
Idle_Redditing@reddit (OP)
They leak and the infrastructure to provide the gas leaks. Leaky compressors, valves, joints connecting pipes, etc. Most of the gas is methane and it is a far more potent ghg than carbon dioxide. It's why I don't consider the gas turbines to have lower ghg emissions than coal.
Meanwhile infrastructure for collecting, moving and using gas is building up at an alarming rate.
Alaishana@reddit
Yes, maybe.
But gas turbines are one of the most important ways to supplement solar and wind, bc they can spin up in the blink of an eye.
Until we have enough batteries or other ways to store and retrieve energy instantly, gas turbines are a must have.
You can't compare to coal, bc gas turbines serve a different function. Coal can take DAYS to get up to speed, it's baseload, not supplementary.
Idle_Redditing@reddit (OP)
I'm talking about gas being bad.
Humanity should be using far more nuclear power and aggressively building out far more than is being done right now. Nuclear power can also load follow. It's only about 2 1/2 pages long.
If batteries were used for covering peaks and charged with nuclear then far fewer would be needed than what it would take to make up for the intermittency of solar and wind.
Alaishana@reddit
Nuclear power is baseload.
Gas is not.
Idle_Redditing@reddit (OP)
The link is about nuclear power being capable of load follwing. It is done although not all reactors are equpped to do so.
mdwatkins13@reddit
Don't worry China already solved the energy problem without contributing to the climate crisis and is currently building it. Will be fine 2027/2028 and will kill the petro dollar. Infinite energy reactor
https://youtu.be/ig2ghowz3xY?si=eIwkb_GIKISC-HNc
adversecurrent@reddit
Westoids: but at what cost?
thehourglasses@reddit
Highlighting externalities shouldn’t be a team thing since these effects impact everyone. Folks with integrity and intellectual honesty will admit that the West, particularly the US, is on the hook for a significant amount of historical emissions, and because of this, hold these nations to a high bar in decarbonizing. We are massively disappointed in the current situation and attitude of our leaders, but that doesn’t mean China or anyone else gets a pass.
wolacouska@reddit
I don’t see how a domestic gas turbine design is noteworthy. This post just seems like vapid China bashing.
Maybe they’ll be a little bit cheaper, but mostly this will be bought by people who were going to import some other gas turbine anyway.
unnamedpeaks@reddit
China bashing? The linked YouTube channel is about how far ahead China is in so many ways
daviddjg0033@reddit
China has record coal production - the number of coal fired plants built since 2000-2025 is more than a century worth of emission
nugstar@reddit
Similarly exported embodied emissions should also be considered.
thehourglasses@reddit
Yes. It’s a closed, global system. Nation specific emissions are just gibberish accounting. Outsourcing your emissions to another country doesn’t suddenly mean you’re doing something good or sustainable.
LiquidRoots@reddit
Capex in gas turbines hadn’t been the primary problem. Changes nothing in running costs. China also doesn’t have much gas.
LakeSun@reddit
Only if companies have unqualified accountants.
Solar, wind and batteries are far cheaper across the globe.
Idle_Redditing@reddit (OP)
Until the costs of being intermittent and fundamentally unreliable are taken into account. Using Lazard's LCOE for intermittent power sources like solar and wind is dishonest as it was never intended for intermittent power sources.
soundsliketone@reddit
I feel like the variable that continues to get overlooked with this topic is peak oil. Is China seriously going to ramp up oil production when we are already at a dramatically unsustainable rate of use and will run out of oil probably before the end of the century.
switchsk8r@reddit
is peak oil a looming issue? i just assumed that even if oil was harder to extract humans would keep doing it and streamline it.
soundsliketone@reddit
It's not just that it would be harder to extract. There's only a finite amount of oil in the ground and it takes millions of years for the earth to produce it. The quality is going to decline and the price will continue to go up.
switchsk8r@reddit
when mentioning oil do you include shale oil and other products? that's the only part of 'peak oil history' im aware of when peak oil was staved off cause of extraction of "dirtier" petroleum products. again im very not knowledgeable on peak oil.
NyriasNeo@reddit
"This is not good for the climate. "
Nope. But it is not surprising. China is also building more coal plants despite its green "leadership". And in a world where "drill baby drill" won, I don't think we have any chance of reversing our trajectory.
UffTaTa123@reddit
China is replacing old coal mines and old nuclear reactors. But their trajectory is clear, to a carbon free future.
https://www.csis.org/analysis/assessing-chinas-new-climate-commitments
Nadie_AZ@reddit
But but but my anti chinese propaganda! What will I listen to while hugging my Winnie the Pooh teddy bear? I was told the evil China man hates my teddy. And then they go and innovate? *sob* But at what cost? *sob*
UffTaTa123@reddit
China was, is and will be a dictatorship that does care a fuck about human rights. It's also a government that is very good at long time planning and executing of projects based on facts and science.
ansibleloop@reddit
This is an understatement - companies are paying non-refunadable deposits for these turbines
The wait list is 5 years
Our attempts at decarbonizing are laughable when this is happening
Guilty-Deer-2147@reddit
China is honestly the only country I'd bet on surviving the climate crisis in some shape or form. Heavily damaged, weakened and will probably still collapse, but I think they will outcast everyone else. They've been doing this whole civilization thing for millenia and the Chinese people are no strangers to famine and suffering.
I don't think anyone else has the brainpower, central planning, and strategic thinking to tackle climate change locally and manage local crises. If I could move there, I would.
BetImaginary4945@reddit
Humans existing and reproducing is not good for climate. What else is new?
Top_Hair_8984@reddit
We're a very bad experiment, we need to go.
antihostile@reddit
We will. Soon.
bbcversus@reddit
Nah, some will go but humans are tough monkeys…
ansibleloop@reddit
Even the billionaire cunts in their bunkers won't survive
They can't escape this planet either - space exploration or colonization is not possible without a stable, functional Earth
Shppo@reddit
4C+ enters the chat
freesoloc2c@reddit
The earth is fine and will be fine and will go right on spinning after humans are gone. They got deep in your head.
canwealljusthitabong@reddit
This is what lazy people say.
UffTaTa123@reddit
110MW? Gigantic?
LOL
If the KI does not knew what it is talking. 110MW is a fairly small power turbine and the price is only one aspect when choosing the manufacturer of a gas turbine. I don't expect that to be used often in the world.
US-Sino@reddit
I looked up the Taihang 110, and its described as rapid startup time suitable for use in peaking power plants. This may actually be useful in helping the economics of further renewable investment until grid-scale batteries get cheap enough to replace them.
ordinary-thelemist@reddit
Nah. Don't worry. It's fine. We all know carbon emissions strictly respect borders and stay where they're emitted.
( /s if it wasn't obvious enough )
digitalgimp@reddit
Now is not the time to hate. Now is the time to innovate. No more trillionaire scammers. We need more engineers and people who want to build a better world.
0r0B0t0@reddit
A huge turbine, a bunch of small turbines whatever. A new gas turbine doesn’t matter, government policy does.
Idle_Redditing@reddit (OP)
You do realize that this is in China don't you? A lot of these will be manufactured and then used all over the world. Especially with how there are currenty waiting lists for gas turbines that are years long.
jackierandomson@reddit
This doesn't strike me as "collapse" related.
That ship has well and truly sailed. Even if we built out no new capacity at all, we're cooked. Hell, even if we stop emitting 100% right now, we're still basically cooked.
StatementBot@reddit
The following submission statement was provided by /u/Idle_Redditing:
China is proven to have enormous industrial capability and the ability to manufacture things on an enormous scale. So many solar panels and electric vehicles were manufactured that the global price dropped enormously, stimulating demand.
It is powerful and can be used for both good and bad things. This company will manufacture gas turbines on a massive scale and fulfill the years-long backlogs for them that other companies are failing to fulfill. Expect massive worldwide increases in the use of gas for generating power, more CO2 emissions and more methane leaks.
edit. The Earth's crust has a lot of methane in it and it is being released more quickly than the Earth's atmosphere and oceans can handle.
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1o2k9g1/this_is_not_good_for_the_climate_a_chinese/nioe8c2/
Idle_Redditing@reddit (OP)
China is proven to have enormous industrial capability and the ability to manufacture things on an enormous scale. So many solar panels and electric vehicles were manufactured that the global price dropped enormously, stimulating demand.
It is powerful and can be used for both good and bad things. This company will manufacture gas turbines on a massive scale and fulfil the years-long backlogs for them that other companies are failing to fulfil. Expect massive increases in the use of gas for generating power, more CO2 emissions and more methane leaks.