From the DAILY CALLER

Owen Klinsky
Contributor

China’s top energy officials dampened hopes that the country’s carbon emissions have already peaked Thursday following July reports the country would stop increasing emissions after this year, according to Bloomberg.

China’s carbon emissions were largely reported in July to be on track to decline or plateau annually this year following data suggesting a reduction in coal usage and an increase in green energy output. However, Song Wen, the head of law and institutional reform at China’s National Energy Administration, downplayed the rumors Thursday, adding that even meeting China’s original carbon emissions target of peaking by 2030 will require “great efforts,” Bloomberg reported.

“We should not forget that China is still a developing country, pursuing modernization for a huge population,” Wen told Bloomberg at a press briefing Thursday. “Great efforts are still needed to achieve the goals of peak carbon and carbon neutrality.”

Wen’s comments come the week before an expected meeting between President Joe Biden’s top climate aide John Podesta and China’s top energy official Liu Zhenmin to discuss environmental collaboration efforts and reducing greenhouse gas emissions beyond just carbon dioxide, such as methane and nitrogen oxide. Both methane and nitrogen oxide are associated with the burning of coal. (RELATED: Biden Admin Official Spurring Green Airplane Initiative Owns An Oil Well)

China accounted for two-thirds of the world’s new coal plants in 2023 after approving an average of two plants per week the year prior, according to The New York Times and a study from the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air. The country was responsible for roughly half of global coal production and consumption as of February 2023.

“When it comes to coal, given that China is such an overwhelming part, whatever happens there really defines the global trend,” Li Shuo, the director of China Climate Hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute, told NYT in April.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Over-generous subsidies and guaranteed over-the-market prices are the only explanation for rooftop solar. Having millions of mini (occasional) rooftop generation stations (aka domestic residences) never made any sense. Producing notionally ‘useful’ power for 5 or 6 hours a day – weather permitting – never made any sense, but nothing about the grand wind and solar ‘transition’ ever does.

In Germany, solar panel manufacturers are being wiped out by flood of cheap Chinese imports. Suffering the highest power prices in Europe, has rendered Germany thoroughly incapable of competing with China’s cheap (coal-fired) power advantage.

Notwithstanding Chinese competitiveness, Australia’s Federal government (a group of energy illiterate Greens and left-wing lunatics) is poised to throw billions of Australian taxpayer dollars at manufacturing solar panels in Australia. Notwithstanding our high and increasing labour costs and our staggering and crushing energy costs.

The guidance on how that is likely to pan out, our glorious leadership need look no further than California.

California led the charge on state-subsidised domestic solar, including backing their own solar panel manufacturing industry with even more subsidies and tax breaks.

Now that California is awash with electricity generated by hundreds of millions of panels on millions of homes for a few hours either side of high noon, the subsidies and ludicrously generous feed in tariffs are being slashed. The predictable result: California’s solar panel makers are totally busted.

Major Solar Company Files For Bankruptcy After California Strips Subsidies
Daily Caller
Nick Pope
6 August 2024

SunPower, a major rooftop solar company, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday, the company announced.

SunPower filed for bankruptcy in Delaware after a string of corporate struggles, changes to California’s rooftop solar subsidy programs and high interest rates weighed down its business, according to Bloomberg News. Before it unraveled, SunPower was among the leading solar companies in the U.S.

SunPower will look to sell some of its assets to Complete Solaria while the company and some of its other subsidiaries file for bankruptcy announced, SunPower said in its Monday announcement.

“In light of the challenges SunPower has faced, the proposed transaction offers a significant opportunity for key parts of our business to continue our legacy under new ownership,” Tom Werner, SunPower’s executive chairman, said of the bankruptcy and the Complete Solaria transaction. “We are working to secure long-term solutions for the remaining areas of our business, while maintaining our focus on supporting our valued employees, customers, dealers, builders, and partners.”

In 2023, state policymakers changed California’s rooftop solar subsidy programs and weakened the incentive for companies to push rooftop solar by reducing payments to homeowners who sell back excess power the panels generate, according to CalMatters.

Those changes negatively affected SunPower’s business, culminating in its bankruptcy filing, according to Bloomberg.

Prior to its bankruptcy, SunPower showed signs of distress. In 2023, the firm defaulted on a credit deal and restated its earnings before getting a new CEO, restructuring and stopping new solar shipments and installations in 2024, according to Bloomberg.

SunPower did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
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