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Comment by pfdietz | Hacker News Reader

Coal consumption has peaked there. Solar is growing explosively.

Yes and:

Recent Volts episode has great overview of China's electro-tech build out, world is at or near peak fossil fuel across all sectors and countries (with 1 notable exception), etc.

Clean electrification is inevitable - A conversation with Kingsmill Bond of Ember Energy. [2025/11/21]

https://www.volts.wtf/p/clean-electrification-is-inevitable

Which begs the question of why AI DCs can’t be powered with their own solar they build out themselves.

No fundamental reason not to power them with renewables, either off-grid or with a small capacity grid connection. The argument that they need to run at full load 24x7 sounds more like a business requirement than a technical one. LLMs in particular with their stateless nature seem like an ideal candidate for global distribution.

The capital cost of the AI hardware is high and it depreciates quickly, being worthless in 5 years (or less). To make a profit, it needs to be run 24/7.

It’s sort of like how airlines like to fly their airplanes as much as possible.

Dont you think its a bit naive to be saying something peaked when it hasnt even been a year?

The economics are pretty strikingly in favour of renewables and batteries, and one thing China does not have is cheap natural gas.

In the past 5 years do you think China has added more solar or more coal power?

Why would that matter? PV and storage costs change very rapidly, so going even five years into the past would be very misleading.

If they can change rapidly how can you confidently assert the peak was this year?

Because coal use was increasing before this year, but the increase was very small this year. So, continued rapid installation of solar/wind/storage will likely lead to a decline in coal use next year.

What, you think continued rapid decrease in cost of solar and storage will somehow make this not happen?

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