This report is a transcript, for the video found here:
Bullets:
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The Trump Administration is canceling wind and solar projects across the United States, even though those represent by far the lowest-cost sources of new electric power.
China has embraced all forms of energy generation to fuel its historic urbanization policies, and their factory and industrial sectors.
While China’s power demands are enormous and still growing, its energy supplies grow even faster. This results in falling prices for consumers and businesses.
Report:
Good morning.
We do refer to this chart a lot. On the one hand, it’s almost impossible to believe, for example, that just 25 years ago, Western Europe produced three times as much electricity as China. The United States generated four times as much. Today, China generates more electricity than the US, the EU, and India combined. In the meantime, the US produces just a bit more power today, compared to 20 years ago. The EU is producing less.
China has an all-of-the-above approach to energy. In solar energy, China generates 42% of all the solar power worldwide, growing at 42% per year over the past ten. In nuclear, China is in a close second place for plants in operation, but has more nuclear power plants under construction than the rest of the world, combined. Hydro power: China on top again, producing more electricity from hydro than the next four countries combined. They also lead in wind power, growing at 19% per year and bigger than the next ten countries, combined.
And because it was such a comprehensive, national effort to build out China’s power generation, and the technologies for it, we’ve seen a global collapse in the cost of electricity generation.
Over ten years ending in 2019, the cost of solar plunged. The only up arrow on this chart, the only power source that has risen in cost, is nuclear power.
The cost of wind power, over those 10 years, fell 70%.
And so even while China urbanized at the fastest rate in human history, and even as China built their factory sector to be the biggest in the world, the cost of electricity here continues to fall. The energy demand across China is enormous, but energy supplies are growing even faster.
So we get headlines like this, Guangdong is one of the hottest and humid places there is—anywhere, not just here–I was there a week last month and if you’re outside, getting back inside and next to an air conditioner is all you’re thinking about. The factories and warehouses go on forever, there are over a hundred million people in high-rise buildings using AC and elevators and driving electric cars, which all make Guangdong China’s biggest consumer of electricity.
But the electricity costs in Guangdong are about 4.2 cents per kilowatt hour, sometimes lower.
This is a map of electricity costs in the United States, and the lowest prices for electricity are in the mountain west, where not a lot of people live, and not a lot of factories are. North Dakota, 8.42 cents, and Idaho at 8.5 cents, are roughly two times more expensive than China’s biggest province. We’ve noted before that affordable electricity is a key driver of competitiveness. Texas is an energy state, with a comparable climate to Guangdong even, and they’re at two and a half times. California is over five times.
So we don’t have nearly enough affordable power. And that is what makes the new Trump administration’s energy policies so mystifying. The cost to generate wind power, fell 70% over that 10-year period.
Now, onshore wind in the United States is the lowest-cost source of power, even without subsidies. Offshore wind is more expensive than on land, but offshore wind is less expensive than natural gas, or nuclear power. And wind projects are getting canceled. It’s not like we have an abundance of electricity and don’t need more. We desperately need it, we don’t have enough to serve our present needs, let alone what Big Tech wants to power their server farms for AI. Yet wind projects are getting shut down, across the country. Over 3.5 million acres that had been set aside for offshore projects have been rescinded, across a group of states. The Interior Secretary ended all preferential policies toward wind and solar, saying they are unreliable and dependent on Chinese technology, namely, to develop them.
The “One Big Beautiful Bill” included a provision that shut off tax credits for wind and solar projects unless they begin construction within 12 months, but the executive orders signed by Trump paused all the regulatory approvals and permits, which means that the projects cannot begin construction anyway.
This all puts some other Republicans in a weird spot. Once upon a time the Republican party supported a similar all-the-above strategy for energy. To state the obvious, it takes a lot less time to install a bunch of solar panels, or windmills, than it does to build a new coal mine. Or especially to build a new natural gas plant, considering we can’t make new turbines for them before 2030.
Be good.
Resources and links:
Visual Capitalist, Ranked: The Largest Producers of Wind Power, by Country
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-largest-producers-of-wind-power-by-country/
Statista, The World’s Biggest Hydro Powers
r/nuclear, Who’s building the most nuclear reactors?
https://www.reddit.com/r/nuclear/comments/1hyt55n/whos/_building/_nuclear/_reactors/
Ranked: The 15 Countries With the Most Solar Power Installed
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/countries-by-solar-power-ranking/
New York Times, Suddenly, the Trump Administration Tightens the Vise on Wind Farms
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/07/climate/trump-wind-solar-power-projects.html
Average Retail Price Of Electricity By US State
https://www.voronoiapp.com/energy/Average-Retail-Price-Of-Electricity-By-US-State-1618
Despite the summer heat, China’s power prices keep dropping
The Trump Administration and Congress’ Attacks on Wind Power Are Killing Thousands of Jobs and Risk Thousands More
Ranked: America’s Cheapest Sources of Electricity in 2024
https://decarbonization.visualcapitalist.com/americas-cheapest-sources-of-electricity-in-2024/
r/infographics, Cost of energy generation over 10 years
Trump administration cancels plans for new wind energy projects in federal waters
Ranked: Top Countries by Annual Electricity Production (1985–2024)
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-top-countries-by-annual-electricity-production-1985-2024/
Graphics: China’s urbanization plan – 19 city clusters, 10 million more urban residents per year
China sees rising urbanization rate over past 75 years
https://regional.chinadaily.com.cn/Qiushi/2024-09/24/c_1024516.htm
China is ‘world’s sole manufacturing superpower’, with 35% of global output
https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2024/01/31/china-world-manufacturing-superpower-production/
China Is the World’s Manufacturing Superpower
https://www.statista.com/chart/20858/top-10-countries-by-share-of-global-manufacturing-output/
S&P Global, US gas-fired turbine wait times as much as seven years; costs up sharply
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