How much is gasoline in your area?

[CO skier]

Those on using farm land for solar? 70 - 78% of all acres of grain is used to feed livestock and other commodities. Which in turn supplies the beef, Pork, Poultry and vegetables we eat! This does not take into account of Ethanol, Cotton, Tobacco??? and others. You could most likely figure 15% could be used for solar and other things. But we are loosing farm land for development at an alarming rate ALSO.

Good grief. I regularly drive between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River in NE, KS, IA -- certainly representative of the "grain belt" farmland. I have not seen a SINGLE solar panel.

I HAVE seen lots of Wind Farms that have ZERO effect on "acres of grain is used to feed livestock and other commodities."

 

[Brett]

China does not have a major oil and natural gas industry
They import oil and natural gas
It is why they are moving so aggressively to other sources of energy

They still have an influential coal group. It is why they still build coal plants

sure - (but no coal powered cars)

 

[1Kflyerguy]

sure - (but no coal powered cars)



View attachment 123135

At least in California, we have way more electric cars than coal-powered cars, too.

 

[andre10056]

When you're talking about China, it should be recognized that China is aggressively making its move (its "transition) into renewable energy not only because they don't have domestic sources for fossil fuels, but also because they're very well able to develop technology to meet their energy needs rather than relying upon extracting "stuff" from the ground. The country is devoted to education education education and they're now benefiting from the fruits of that emphasis.

Every three years or so, the world's 15 year olds are given an achievement test, translated into the host country's home language of course, which measures students' proficiency in math, science, and reading. I would regard "math" as being the most important fundamental skill in an increasingly technological age, and here are the results of the Math test for 2022:

Singapore 575
China 552
Taiwan 547
Hong Kong 540
Japan 536
South Korea 527
Estonia 510
Switzerland 508
Canada 497
Netherlands 493
Ireland 492
United Kingdom 489
Poland 489
Belgium 489
Denmark 489
Australia 487
Czechia 487
Austria 487
Slovenia 485
Finland 484
Latvia 483
Sweden 483
New Zealand 482
Germany 475
Lithuania 475
France 474
Spain 473
Hungary 473
Portugal 472
Italy 471
Vietnam 469
Norway 468
Malta 466
United States 465
Slovakia 464
Croatia 463
Iceland 459
...................

Source:

PISA Scores by Country 2026

Comparison on national scores on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which measures students' skills in math, science, and reading.

worldpopulationreview.com

Scroll down to "PISA Math" and click on it.

So China with its enormous 1.3 billion population, which of course includes a great many non-affluent people (unlike affluent Singapore), is 2nd in the world. The United States is 33rd. Behind Malta... but at least we're ahead of Slovakia and Croatia!

So that's why American tech companies so aggressively hire Chinese engineers graduating from American universities and graduate schools, hoping that they'll agree to stay in the US under the appropriate visas (including "genius" visas).

And that's why the Chinese can do things like this that we can't (unless we're helped by the Chinese engineers mentioned last sentence):

:

 

[gps60255]

Not arguing the point, was only talking about farmed acres and unless your in Hawaii or tearing up the rain forest in Brazil you can not make more. Not the Rocky mountain. There are many livestock farmers that put solar up next to there buildings to offset the costs of electricity and outages for short term. I believe they received grants for them not sure what percentage? Don't believe you would see many wind farms if it wasn't for the $10,000 per year per unit. There are several counties in Iowa that do not allow any more wind farms. They are spread out only one per 80 acres or so. They do take up to 1/2 acre or more each with access road. which makes it a pain to farm around. Don't forget ladies widow's own most of the ground hear in the Midwest. I'm glad to hear that California has no coal plants. In our area not a very big percentage of cars are electric (battery charged) vehicles but what there is many are charged by coal fired generators. I'm sure as time goes on they will do better on costs to charge them. To each their own.

 

[billymach4]

$3.39

 

[heitmullerj02]

4.29 Mesa, AZ

 

[Brett]

When you're talking about China, it should be recognized that China is aggressively making its move (its "transition) into renewable energy not only because they don't have domestic sources for fossil fuels, but also because they're very well able to develop technology to meet their energy needs rather than relying upon extracting "stuff" from the ground. The country is devoted to education education education and they're now benefiting from the fruits of that emphasis.

Every three years or so, the world's 15 year olds are given an achievement test, translated into the host country's home language of course, which measures students' proficiency in math, science, and reading. I would regard "math" as being the most important fundamental skill in an increasingly technological age, and here are the results of the Math test for 2022:

Singapore 575
China 552
Taiwan 547
Hong Kong 540
Japan 536
South Korea 527
Estonia 510
Switzerland 508
Canada 497
Netherlands 493
Ireland 492
United Kingdom 489
Poland 489
Belgium 489
Denmark 489
Australia 487
Czechia 487
Austria 487
Slovenia 485
Finland 484
Latvia 483
Sweden 483
New Zealand 482
Germany 475
Lithuania 475
France 474
Spain 473
Hungary 473
Portugal 472
Italy 471
Vietnam 469
Norway 468
Malta 466
United States 465
Slovakia 464
Croatia 463
Iceland 459
...................

Source:

PISA Scores by Country 2026

Comparison on national scores on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which measures students' skills in math, science, and reading.

worldpopulationreview.com

Scroll down to "PISA Math" and click on it.

So China with its enormous 1.3 billion population, which of course includes a great many non-affluent people (unlike affluent Singapore), is 2nd in the world. The United States is 33rd. Behind Malta... but at least we're ahead of Slovakia and Croatia!

So that's why American tech companies so aggressively hire Chinese engineers graduating from American universities and graduate schools, hoping that they'll agree to stay in the US under the appropriate visas (including "genius" visas).

And that's why the Chinese can do things like this that we can't (unless we're helped by the Chinese engineers mentioned last sentence):

:

Yes, I don't need to click. Just the "why" part ....
and how it relates to electric vehicles & economics
.

 

[andre10056]

Yes, I don't need to click. Just the "why" part ....
and how it relates to electric vehicles & economics
.

View attachment 123153

Your link (assuming it was meant to be a link) is not working so let me give you a bit of "why" information.

Boston University allows anyone over 58 years old to take its courses, most undergraduate and many graduate (including everything in the MBA program) for pretty much zero (free of charge). You sit in the classroom just like all the other students (who pay $80,000 per year) and the "senior" student can choose to simply watch or to do all homeworks and take all exams.

Among other courses, I've taken extensive mathematics curriculum courses. And I can tell you that the Chinese students, having been so well prepared while in junior high and high school, are the first to finish their exams and bring their exam booklets up to the professor before most other students even get to the halfway point.

Moreover, in the library, they all work cooperatively in teams. Groups of Chinese students enrolled in the same course help each other out and enhance everyone's learning experience. Non-Chinese American students, on the other hand, will never work in teams because the culture is "competition" rather than helping each other out by working together, An American student will be overjoyed if their peer fails a test, while the Chinese students consider it a triumph if everyone excels.

There's no reason why American students couldn't excel in these subjects but, as a society, education is very low priority. Which results in not only American students lagging behind the Asians, but just about everybody else that has a halfway developed country.

When have you heard any politician talking about a science technology engineering math (STEM) educational renaissance in the US? Or free college or extensive scholarships for STEM students?

We will pay for prioritizing other things.