Say what you will about the tenets of China’s government; at least they believe in a science-informed industrial policy. When it was apparent a couple of decades ago that western governments had to quickly and completely transform their energy systems, Canada’s government of the day effectively chose nihilism instead of seizing the opportunity of being at the forefront of a profound industrial and economic transformation. That laissez-faire capitalism is failing to rapidly decarbonize Canada’s energy system is not a surprise — it inherently favours the incumbent: the petroleum industry. Without clear, consistent and supportive direction to industry from previous governments, Canada missed out on mastering technologies that are electrifying everything, everywhere: wind turbines; solar photovoltaics; battery storage, and EVs. That Chinese companies are the global leaders in industries essential to the energy transition is not a surprise. Supportive industrial policy and relentless competition within China means companies there have done a lot of learning by doing. With all those opportunities to iterate new processes, the costs of high quality Chinese solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and EVs have dropped dramatically. 1/2 Remainder of text in alt text in next toot in the thread.
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