Lmao isn't that the thing you can see on a lot of solarpunk pictures?
this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2025
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It's kind of funny how China is now showing what solar punk would entail in practice, and turns out it needs a massive industrial base as a prerequisite.
But at what cost??
Slrpnk people amusement. Or lack of it, something tells me they probably still won't look more positively at the only country who is trying to implement their ideas.
I'm just waiting for someone to waltz in and bless us with some enlightened analysis about how China is actually building these to suck all the air from Xinjiang and Taiwan.
Why the hate on solarpunk? Its just a utopian vision that is generally positive and socialist. Even if the anarchism part of it won't work, still better than the dystopian nightmare we live in now.
Its just a utopian vision
That's why
still better than the dystopian nightmare we live in now
But it can't come to fruition. If someone just treat it as fiction stress reliever, sure why not, but a lot of people take it way too seriously.
Communism is another utopian vision. But we should still strive to reach them, even if only half of the ideas of utopian visions are implement, it will better the current reality. Solarpunk as a movement as a vision for example promotes sustainable renewable energy tech which is inarguably something the world needs more of.
Communism is another utopian vision.
No it isn't, not under marxism.
But we should still strive to reach them, even if only half of the ideas of utopian visions are implement, it will better the current reality. Solarpunk as a movement as a vision for example promotes sustainable renewable energy tech which is inarguably something the world needs more of.
That't the problem of utopianism though, it isn't happening. To happen ot even get close it would need socialism as prerequisite and as China already shows, it's completely redundant, only thing remaining is empty aesthetics. But then, why not actually support countries that do "promotes sustainable renewable energy tech which is inarguably something the world needs more of" but most solarpunk people i know or know of are anarchists fully on the "China bad" bandwagon.
Then maybe the solarpunk people you know did not understand what they stand for or much of anything really. All i am trying to say is all movements going towards the left are helpful to some degree, it would be smart to unite more and reach a form of socialism. Instead of fighting over which utopia might work or not, since in the end a utopia can by definition never be reached. Marxist communism also just stops short of advocating for the utopian vision communism, but it surely is the aim.
Spoiler: it will most likely never make a dent to the current wind industry.
If you actually read the article, you'll see that it's not meant to replace the current wind industry.
Reading the article?!? The Internet has no time for that, sir! /s 🤣
Joke aside, the article says:
“Once these systems are built in large numbers, the power they produce could be as cheap as from normal wind turbines.”
My answer is: don't hold your breath. I'm in that industry and it will take a veeeeeery long time until the costs are on par with current systems.
I'm referring to this bit:
Developers say airborne power generation system ideal for disaster relief and isolated locations, such as islands and oilfields
The goal is to set these up in remote areas or for temporary measures where traditional windmills would be impractical.
I know. Many are trying to do similar things. But this concept will take a very long time until it works well enough.
Historically, China has a pretty good track record bringing this kind of stuff to fruition faster than people expect.
That's partially a cognitive biais. You mostly remember the ones that survived and forget about the plethora that didn't.
For instance: China, like many countries, also has lots of h2 trials that failed.
Time will tell. But saying that costs will be equivalent to that of conventional wind turbine is putting a lot of pressure on"will", which is doing all the heavy lifting...
I never said every project China does succeeds. You have to try lots of things when you're pushing the envelope, some will be dead ends. However, China has managed to make a lot of things others abandoned succeed.
Such as?
They have managed to take over many industries mostly though their focused resources allocation, extremely large internal market and some dumping.
But what technology have they developed, that others failed?
Thorium reactors, rail guns, 6g comms, quantum networks, using solar power at scale, refining rare earths,production of over 75% of the world's lithium-ion battery cells.. These are just a few examples.
Here's a study from last year outlining why China is technologically advancing more rapidly than the west. https://itif.org/publications/2024/09/16/china-is-rapidly-becoming-a-leading-innovator-in-advanced-industries/
For all these examples, they are either pretty much on par with other countries (or slightly ahead), using dumping to kill the competition (PV) or focusing their resources on strategic tech -batteries- (like any authorian regime ever did).
I'm not saying is not saying they are not innovative or a technologic power.
But saying they have brought new tech (that Europeans or Americans had discarded) is not really correct.
Thorium reactors are a clear example of such tech, 5/6g and quantum networks are another. The Europeans and Americans are not able to build anything equivalent. For the other tech I listed, China is far ahead in terms of scale and penetration of deployment. There is a qualitative difference between what China and the west are able to do rooted in China's massive industrial base and far larger population.
Can we use these all around Trump's golf courses?
I'm sure those windmills will keep him cool
Something so unstable couldn't possibly replace wind turbines. Unless it can handle being tossed about in hurricane force winds.
Maybe a benefit of this style would be they could just deflate them during hurricanes.
Yeah, that does seem to be the prevailing wisdom.