Renewables (especially solar) & batteries are on an unstoppable path to global domination. The simple reason? Cost. Thanks to economies of scale, they are now the cheapest source of energy - and they still have far to go in getting even cheaper. By the early 2030's, they will be vastly cheaper than the alternatives.
The electrification of the economy that this is driving in China is on the scale of the 19th Industrial Revolution in Europe. What today is China, will tomorrow be the world. Many in the rest of the world seem caught in the tailspin. In particular, clinging to outdated narratives courtesy of the Fossil Fuel industry.
But that's a big mistake. From now on, the only way to credibly plan for and model the future is to talk about it as what it really will be - a place where renewables and batteries will provide almost all energy.
Peak Oil Is Coming: And petrostates are not ready for it
Latest I can find in a quick Google search is 2024 at about 190000 Twh.
What's happening here is the all too common confusion that I also am prone to making between power (given in Watts) and energy consumption/generation (given in Watt-hours).
To make an approachable comparison, for our purposes, power is like your internet speed, while energy consumption is how much data you spent.
It's specially confusing cause the title says they're producing 1 TW of panels, and 'producing' immediately makes me think of energy. It would be better if it said something like 'producing panels capable of generating 1TW', which is also more truthful since you're not getting their full generation capacity all the time.
PS: I even confused the two while writing this post lmao