this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2024
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It's not only a political struggle. Working conditions are tremendously better in Europe, Environmental Protection as well. Manufacturing photovoltaics takes a huge pile of chemicals that need to be handled properly to not cause any harm to the environment - China neither cares nor has any other incentives to actually do this properly, which is exactly why they are so cheap. Theres also the issue of poor quality, that if you're manufacturing something that can have a significant impact on the environment, it should "count" and not be waste 10 years later.
Not only that, China's subsidies are utterly unfair.
Destroying the environment in one part of the world to "save" a different one due to climate change is just ridiculously stupid and simple minded.
Source for this? Cadmium is exclusive to 1 US manufacturer.
The argument is always "solar/wind still use chemicals" and never "this is the net reliance on extractive industry by energy source".
That said, general energy conservation is still important. You can't cut emissions if all your new power just gets funnelled into Grok style AI.
I don't know that processing silicon is a polluting activity. There is heat involved, and some Chinese producers are 100% solar powered for their processing. Though I'm sure bulldozers or shipps/trucks are involved in obtaining sand.
I'm not a fan of any appeals to gatekeep energy use to "just essentials" instead permitting growth that people want, and cleaning up the energy use involved.
There's a huge gulf between essential and wasteful.