Why the world's largest solar farm has created so much controversy...

Why the world's largest solar farm has created so much controversy...
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#solarfarm #solarenergy #renewableenergy #solarenergy #capacity #media

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[RickDenzien]

All we need at our home is 12 more panels to be off-grid in December. Solar + battery backup keeps us off the grid most of the time. I can already see the super power kicking in, keeping our studios & home nice and cool over the summer, plus charging 2 Tesla Model 3 EVs.

[larryevans]

5:55 Crystaline silicon is what what most Chinese solar panels use. It is more expensive in the US because of protectionist measures against China. The top selling US-made utility scale solar panels (First Solar) are less efficient thin film panels, using the heavy metal Cadmium and the rare earth element metaloid Tellurium... which have environmental concerns.

[Xind]

The thing about 'forced' labour in China is, the cost of 'forcing' them and making sure there is no unrest, and also stay under the rader of the mass media is actually higher than just paying for a fair labour.
so it just doesnt make economic sense to 'force labour' anything in China

[rockychan]

About force labour, i suggest you visit to Xinjiang, see for yourself if it exists. The word "probably" can project a negative image when its far from the truth.

[benjaminchen]

Forced labor is something you find in old Indiana Jones movies. Nowadays, common sense tells us that subjecting someone to work yields little productivity. Instead, paying them a decent wage and providing motivation fosters a mutually beneficial situation. They, in turn, have money to spend, creating a win-win scenario for everyone involved. The Uighurs in Xinjiang are regular, intelligent human beings like every other Chinese. Accusing them of being subjected to forced labor would be unfair.

[DynamicUnreal]

In the country I was born in (Dominican Republic) — the electric companies were trying to lobby the government to restrict/ban solar panels because their popularity had increased to 3% of all energy produced and apparently that was enough for them to incur drops in profit.

If even a smaller developing Caribbean country has begun the solar energy revolution, it means that the coming decade will see huge sweeping changes worldwide as the power of solar continues to drop.

[jkselama]

You might want to show some proofs on the forced labor part of the story if you are going to comment on it.

[axscdvfb]

Solar panels in the desert can lower the surface temperature and cast shadows. Maybe they can trap moisture as well, so that some plants can grow there and absorb more CO2.

[WalkOverHotCoal]

While I have always enjoy Electric Viking's videos because they can be informative, and not main stream like the official propaganda websites of various governments. The fact that Xinjiang is mentioned, I was waiting with bated breath to see if Electric Viking would eventually follow the the "official propaganda" of western countries, that "forced labour is used in Xinjiang".

While the accusations just might be true. But if you are unsure, why cheapen your work by regurgitating the lines propagated by people with ulterior motives?

Anyone who knows about technologies is aware that forced labour, or casual unskilled labour aren't cut out for such highly skilled jobs. So why waste your reputation to even contemplate repeating it?

[ivyshy]

the manufacturing of polysilicon is extremely technical. force labor propaganda by usa might be more plausible for cotton pickers, but not for the skilled labor required in polysilicon production. even for cotton picking, this isn't the 1800s. look at where china today. read john deere's earnings reports. uyghur farmers bought a boatload of john deere cotton harvesting tractors so check videos on how things are actually done nowadays. the only people hurt by us sanctions are uyghurs because now they can't sell their stuff on the international market, but that's exactly the goal of sanctions, to cause unrest in a targeted region. it's so easy to pick apart all these western propaganda claims if you spend just a couple minutes looking at alternative sources then deciding which makes more sense. you seem like a smart sensible guy so I hope you can make a trip to china and see things for yourself to separate fact from propaganda. we don't need another war and the us is buttering up people to be accepting of another one.

[mariogirod]

Solar farms makes sense if you have vast relatively barren land areas. If you have more densely populated countries or valuable biodivers land it is more important to have multi use concepts for solar energy production. This includes the classics like rooftop solar or (now mandatory in France) solar roofs for car parking. Additionally you need newer concepts like solar covered chanals and agrovoltaic.(the cimbinatin of solar and farming)

[PD_]

Awesome technology milestone, but imagine the imminent real effect on the standard of living where energy is essentially free, unlimited, and clean, powering their society for generations to come. Mind blowing. Why not the rest of us?

[tireddad]

Sheep are apparently a good win win for solar farms

[manhaysit]

All workers are forced to work because they need money to live. So, forced labour is happened all over the world.

[rayleeaustralia]

I don’t know why Australia is nor embracing this technology. The amount of sun there’s in the middle of no where is enough to power every city, town twice. The government makes so many poor decisions

[mnhsty]

China is going to green manufacturing fast, and what does the US do? We slap ridiculous tariffs on Chinese goods.

[bigeye]

I was finally able to retire a year ago after 40+ years being “force-labored” on a manufacturing job. What a world change of life without the shackle of daily grind. We should all be liberated from “forced labor” and enjoy real life.

[davidkendall]

Thanks Sam for doing these renewable energy stories. Much appreciated and always worth watching. Excellent reporting!

[peter]

A reported correction from Reuters directly suggests it's only 3.5 GW over 33, 000 acres, so that would be 1/6 th of the size, still with 6.1 TWh annual

200, 000 acres is ~809 km2, which is ~0.01% of Australia's total land area of 7 656 127 km2
Urban footprint is ~0.34% of our land area, our cities are 34 times that land area, rural residential and infrastructure is ~0.29%, so ~29 times more, via State of Env report
Native forests we destroy for mostly woodchips ~0.91%, might have reduced in Vic now
Plantation timber is a ~0.34%, same as our urban footprint
Grazing on native plants and grass lands is almost 50% of total land area

If it's 33, 000 acres that is ~133.5 km2 which is ~0.0017% of Australia land area
In comparison to most other land use in Australia that would really be pretty insignificant and small area. Mining and waste is already way bigger than that at 0.17%, 100 times more.

[boettcherbobby]

Renewables are great but ... In the past 10 years, more than 34 gigawatts (GW) of nuclear power capacity were added in China, bringing the country's number of operating nuclear reactors to 55 with a total net capacity of 53.2 GW as of April 2024. An additional 23 reactors are under construction in China.