The two largest economies in the world seem to be on different paths when it comes to energy development. In the US, oil is king and anything which does not enhance it seems to conflict with government policy. In the US, the President does not like windmills, although there are windy parts of every country, however he wants to stop them. The President stopped or slowed down solar installations, although the sun shines everyday of the year.

In an article by Ken Moritsugu and Ng Han Guan of the Associated Press, the second largest economy in the world is China and they are working on the world’s largest solar farm on the Tibetan plateau. It will be the size of Chicago.

China is installing solar panels far faster than anywhere else in the world and carbon emissions are down in the first 6 months of 2025, compared to a year earlier.

China’s emissions had fallen in the past, but that was due to a recession, this time demand for electricity is growing, it is up 3.7% this year.

Lauri Myllyvirta, the Finland based author of the study and lead analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Energy. She analyzes the data and publishes it on the UK based Carbon Brief website. China installed 212 gigawatts of solar capacity in the first 6 months, which is more than the 178 GW installed in all of 2024 by the US. Electricity for solar power has overtaken hydro power in China to become the country’s largest source of clean energy. Wind power contributed another 51 GW.

The Tibetan plateau in Qinghai province is largely desert and the solar panels allow sheep to graze on the plants and act as a windbreak to reduce dust and sand and slow soil evaporation. When competed there will be 7 million panels which is enough power for 5 million households.

Transmission lines connecting Quinghai province to Henan province is operational and another line to connect to Guangdong is under construction.

One can imagine, solar farms of this size have the ability to drive down the costs of solar panels, increase employment and provide for employment and whatever company to have relatively low-cost electricity to sell to urban consumers.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, every company in the world does a SWOT – strengths, weakness, opportunities and threat analysis. One of the strengths of the any location is the weather, why people live where they live. In the early founding of the country, people lived near the sea because ships were the prime mode of transportation, rivers were found and where there are rapids, hydro power can be harnessed for inexpensive electricity. Now companies can be anywhere but capitalizing on the weather seems to be a good idea for the future.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.