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Comment by ineedaj0b | Hacker News Reader

We don’t need offshore wind or onshore. Wish the US focused more on Solar. Seems to be the smartest path forward.

China understands and is gunning for Nuclear and Solar. Geothermal and wind are nice but too location dependent.

Wind and solar are highly complementary. Wind tends to be peak during evening and morning, and is often stronger at night than during the day. Wind is cheaper than overbuilding solar and adding batteries.

Everyone hates living near the turbines. They are loud, an eyesore, kill birds in droves, and cause annoying flickering.

People don’t mind solar as much.

Wind cannot compete on solar for price especially with China reducing solars base cost each year.

China is building out immense offshore wind capacity - more than 41GW operational currently, about half of global capacity.

https://www.offshorewind.biz/2025/02/07/half-of-global-opera...

The big solar plant they made in between Cali and Las Vegas one, it wasn't online more than a few years? It shut down...

You're thinking of an actually quite small solar-thermal plant, which is bankrupt because solar-thermal is a dumb idea.

If its a dumb idea, why waste billions of dollars on it? Do you know how much pollution that shutted down plant is? It was HugE I've gone past it. So much waste for a "dumb idea"

This is what's wrong with Americans in one succinct example. "Look at all the pollution from this field of mirrors" he thinks while driving on the freeway to Las Vegas.

It shut down because it can't compete cost wise with ... solar. Specifically solar photovoltaic.

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