Nothing is cheaper than mine to mouth coal

[Owen Lucas]

And as I wrote in our 2022 report on implications of labor + enviro injustice in Xinjiang's solar industry, Chinese clean tech success also comes from economies of scale, innovation, subsidies, and experience operating industry w razor-thin profit margins.

Totally worth it if I can get my iPhone for cheap. /s

 

[PandaBear]

Or the slave labor china uses, the suicide nets at foxconn.

As someone who have been to the Foxconn factories before I'll tell you this: they are suicidal magnet because they were the only companies whose life insurance cover suicides.

When you are one of the biggest employer of the country, that pays on time, have as many overtime hours you want to work for, and on par wages (I wouldn't call them the best pay but they are on-par compare to other not much more dangerous and stressful work out there like hazard worksites), they do attract people, and among them will have those who think death is the way out especially if their families get paid a lump sum.

There is a good reason suicide is typically not covered in life insurance.

 

[PandaBear]

Typically the most expensive part of the energy is regulation, so if you don't need to connect to the grid (like you are just powering a factory nearby), don't need to worry about emission (nobody lives near you), and have no need to worry about harming the land (like you are building your stuff on a colony / occupied land your population in ruling will not live in, like Bikini Atoll), then you will have the cheapest energy.

I can see in the near future someone would wage war against another country and then instead of sending human to occupy it, send in drones and war machines remotely controlled, then build a power plant using the conquered energy source, and build a data center to power productivity at the expense of an occupied land. Since human lives are no longer involved they will be really reckless and the result very uneven.