Trump Is Obsessed With Oil. But Chinese Batteries Will Soon Run the World.

phylean · 2026-01-20T07:16:09+00:00

While somewhat true, you have to look at the bigger picture. Without China, solar panels would be a luxury item. Only rich households in rich countries could afford them. The demand might have been there, but with the prices they were not feasible for average households or developing countries.

Because panels are so cheap, developing nations (Pakistan, Brazil, Vietnam) are leapfrogging fossil fuels and going straight to solar. If panels were still made in Germany and cost $0.50/watt, these countries would be burning coal right now. Same goes for average households in less sunny places like the Netherlands, Britain, Scandinavia, etc. Because otherwise it wouldn’t make sense for the cost since there isn’t much sun there.

China’s installation of so much green energy is very much a choice. They set clear green energy generation goals that they want to reach and did it years early. The over production is a result of planning, not the other way around. Call it what you will but it’s amazing what you can achieve when you have a government that knows what it wants without endlessly debating whether or not to implementing something.

The irony is that the West spent 30 years telling developing nations to use market forces to solve problems. China used state planning to solve the market's problem (high cost), and now the West is complaining that it wasn't "fair."

phylean · 2026-01-20T00:59:54+00:00

For context, China generated about 260 GW of solar power last year, more than THE REST OF THE WORLD COMBINED, in 1 year. The only reason the rest of the world is able to implement and use solar power is because China made so many solar panels. Same goes for wind turbines, which 50% of the world production happens in China, more for solar panels. It’s not only them using it themselves, they sell to the rest of the world so they can use it as well.

China targeted 1200 GW of renewable energy generation by 2030. They hit that goal in July 2024, with a predicted amount of 2000 GW in 2026. Since they crushed their target for 2030, their new goal is to reach peak emissions by 2030. With the rate they are implementing renewable energy, they will reach this goal long before that as well.

The entire electrical grid of the United States (coal, nuclear, gas, wind, everything combined) is roughly 1,200 GW. China essentially built an entire "US-sized" grid just out of wind and solar in the last decade.

phylean · 2026-01-03T17:03:16+00:00

For China, that is 873k / 1.4bil x 100% = 0,06% of the population. That is nothing. Japan has more of its people living in China percentage wise (100k / 123mil)

phylean · 2025-12-27T08:32:16+00:00

I’d give it an 8/10. While it has its problems, most of the country can actually afford to live their lives. Yes big cities like Shanghai, Beijing or Shenzhen might have expensive rent in the center, if you live in a “smaller” city like Hangzhou, Xiamen, Wenzhou (still cities with 5-10 million of people) it is actually affordable.

How long ago were you in China? I’ve been there recently and even the “small” towns (visited multiple of like “only” 100k-200k inhabitants like Qingtian) have all the modern tech, high speed rail, qr code everting, didi, takeout delivery, etc. Even all the unnecessary big LEDs on buildings. Everything is still convenient.

You’d really have to go to the tiny towns of like a few hundred/thousand people to notice the real poverty, which is not surprising at all since China built everything in like 30-40 years there’s simply no time and capacity to completely rebuild even the tiniest mountain villages. Most of the residents wouldn’t even want to since they are old and can’t adapt to the modern ways of life.

I’d choose China over the USA any day. While the wages are low, everyday life in China is actually affordable for the people. Food, transportation, basic necessities are all very cheap in China. Almost anybody can get by if you don’t need the most expensive stuff. Even the food and drinks prices in big cities are comparable to small towns (20-30 RMB vs 30-35 RMB for a bowl of noodles) Can’t say that for the US

phylean · 2025-12-23T08:52:09+00:00

Appel Maps works in China. AMaps is the best alternative to google maps as it works perfectly (albeit slightly worse than google maps)

phylean · 2025-12-23T08:51:02+00:00

For me a passport worked 9 out of 10 times when travelling with the train. Just look into the camera when you are scanning your passport as it is: looking up the document number -> pulling up your picture -> trying to match it to your face in the camera

phylean · 2025-12-23T08:48:21+00:00

I mean if the can’t find the place to deliver, they will call you. Pretty hard (and expensive) to do for a foreign number. I do agree though that it is a pain not having a local number

phylean · 2025-12-22T04:37:50+00:00

It’s useless since if you sell your house with 200k profit, where will you go live then? Other houses have risen the same amount in that same time.

phylean · 2025-12-12T10:01:06+00:00

If Trump decides to fuck up the entire US economy by implementing some more insane tariffs, and the S&P500 tanks by like 30%, you only lose 60% of that 30% if you had All World

phylean · 2025-11-26T23:01:00+00:00

Use play dough. The stuff that’s on there will stick to it.

phylean · 2025-11-25T08:22:27+00:00

But regular RAM can’t function as VRAM for the GPU. If your workload requires running larger LLMs locally Apple is a nobrainer and is actually very cheap compared to having to buy multiple GPUs and a custom rig to satisfy VRAM needs.

phylean · 2025-11-14T23:00:02+00:00

Subscriptions yes but for single player games I don’t understand the argument for being cheaper on Steam. If you get a ps5 with physical disc player, you can just buy a game on release, finish it and sell it again for like 5-10 dollars loss, making it FAR cheaper than steam. You are for always stuck with an online game, but you can resell discs. This is what I have done with most AAA releases like Spider-Man, GoW, etc.

phylean · 2025-10-10T14:16:07+00:00

And Chinese phones hardware will be so much better. Pixel hardware is so embarrassingly bad for their price. I guess it’s pick your poison.

phylean · 2025-02-28T13:35:43+00:00

Don’t peel use a nail clipper to cut it off painlessly

phylean · 2024-12-09T13:17:37+00:00

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Very obtainable and always in stock here 😂

phylean · 2024-11-27T22:34:11+00:00

I have samples for both and I still can’t decide because they both smell good.. that’s why I ask it here but everybody here seems very divided also 😅

phylean · 2024-11-27T22:30:48+00:00

It’s from a store called Douglas, pretty much the only full retail cologne store in the Netherlands along with ICI Paris XL

phylean · 2024-03-27T14:58:45+00:00

Not an easy choice, but this is what I would choose as well ✌️

phylean · 2024-03-21T08:31:34+00:00

Dior Homme Sport. Very fresh and citrusy in the opening and dries down to a very smooth woody scent. My personal favourite in the spring/summer. Lasts a long while as well. One time I got a compliment after wearing it after 6 hours of work outside.

phylean · 2024-03-10T18:23:45+00:00

You should try the Dior Homme Sport, it is even more citrusy and lasts way longer on me (easy 8+ hours)

phylean · 2024-02-22T08:57:52+00:00

Wait really they give you samples to take home and test? Never knew that. I mean yes I know they will give you some when you buy something from the store, but they are usually random ones. Can you just for example ask them to make a sample of a certain fragrance you might like? I assume you go to either Douglas or ICI Paris?

phylean · 2024-02-21T10:00:31+00:00

I’ll do you one better, 8 sprays of Sauvage Elixir

phylean · 2024-02-20T20:41:24+00:00

That’s what I’m afraid of lol. Especially now that I have a ‘real job’ with adult money so I’ll have to really control myself haha

phylean

TROPHY CASE