When I was driving in Xinjiang I saw this thing on the horizon and thout it was an inland sea. It was only as I drove nearer that it resolved into solar panels, but even then the illusion that it was actually a body of water continued. I swear it took 20-30 minutes to drive past.
Of course this pales in comparison to the literal forests of wind farms that cover huge swathes of Xinjiang and which take hours to drive past and consist of the biggest wind turbines I’ve ever seen.
The green energy infrastructure in Xinjiang is genuinely one of the most jaw dropping things I’ve ever seen in my life. Possibly the most.
Be genuinely honest, what did it seem like for the local uguyrs? Do you think the west interpretation of what’s going on there true or an exaggeration?
There’s a channel on YouTube named Little Chinese Everywhere who was in Xinjiang about a year ago. You can see what life is like on the ground there for people in her videos.
Thank you, I’ll check it out
That’s absurdly cool. But my doomer alarm went off when it says this farm feeds 2 million households- that means they’d need 300 of these to satisfy residential energy demands alone
doomer alarm went off when it says this farm feeds 2 million
Agriculture uses like 50 million square km of land
Alone, yes, but not in combination with hydroelectric, wind, and their recent nuclear innovations
what the fuck you were not kidding that is fucking wild. Way to go China.
I’ve slowly been slipping more pro china talking points into the myriad political conversations I have with libs and I sense that the grip of western propaganda is slipping. Like the whole green belt around that desert. Sometimes you can break through the thought terminating cliches by showing them something as awesome as this. Like they are literally trying to save us from ourselves and our stupid capitalist bullshit.
I have a dumb question - on windy days do the cells get covered in desert dust and sand? Is there a way to clean them off if that happens?
Cleaning them is a lot less important with the new generations of solar panels, but if they wanted to they could always use a hose or a brush or whatever. I’ve managed a couple of smaller solar farms where they don’t get touched at all unless you need to pick off a dead seagull or something and the yield is pretty constant.
Most of the sand and dust will also be blown away by the wind.
That’s definitely a thing, but the buildup isn’t too fast so it just becomes a regular maintenance item.
I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
