[ExI] not that rare earth

[John Clark]

On Tue, Oct 28, 2025 at 4:35 PM <spike at rainier66.com> wrote:



> *> We have had generators a few percent less efficient for many decades,
> long before anyone ever discovered the REE improvement. *
>

*We need to take advantage of everything we can find just to keep the
massive gap between the electrical generating capacity of China and the US
from growing, and China can take advantage of rare earth elements but the
US cannot. And with rare earth elements wind farms make economic sense,
without them they do not the generators would be too heavy and the towers
needed to support them would be much too expensive. That's why over the
last year China has increased its wind power capacity by 18.3%. China  now
gets 521 gigawatts of clean energy from wind, and they plan to get 1.3
TERAWATTS by 2030! A terawatt is of course 1000 gigawatts.*

*To put that amazing figure in perspective, currently the largest AI Data
Center uses about 0.07 gigawatts although some that are still under
construction will use 0.25 **gigawatts and there is talk of building a
super large one that will use one entire gigawatt. *


> *>>… **H**e **W**ho **M**ust **N**ot **B**e **N**amed animosity towards
>> wind power is so irrational, it's not good for the country and it's not
>> even good politics….*
>
>
>
> *> Sure, but irrelevant.  Governments don’t generate power. *
>

*But Stupid decisions by governments can destroy power. For example, on
August 22 He Who Must Not Be Named issued a sudden and unexpected stop-work
order of the 704-megawatt Revolution Wind-farm that was to be effective
immediately. The reason given was concerns  "for the protection of national
security interests of the United States" but did not specify what those
concerns were. Later when those actions were challenged in court You Know
Who's attorneys said that the reason was "electromagnetic emissions and
fiber-optic sensors would impede the military's ability to defend against a
swarm attack of undersea drones".** On September 22 a** federal judge said
that reason made no sense and granted an injunction ruling that the
stop-work order was "arbitrary and capricious", and allowed construction to
resume. *
<https://www.power-technology.com/projects/revolution-wind-farm-project/>


> *> Investment capital generates power.*
>

*But stupid decisions by government can steer investment capital away from
areas that could be economically and environmentally beneficial, nuclear
energy for example. I remember about a decade ago (maybe closer to two) on
this list I went on a bit of a tirade about the idiocy of the linear no
threshold assumption, the idea that even the tiniest amount of radiation is
harmful, so I was pleased that just yesterday somebody posted this very
good video making the same points that I did. *

*Big Nuclear’s Big Mistake - Linear No-Threshold*
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzdLdNRaPKc&list=WL&index=4>

*You Know Who is supposed to be all about eliminating silly bureaucracy,
tedious paperwork and other roadblocks to progress; so let's make it easier
to build nuclear power plants and faster. And let's stop dreaming up
ridiculous reasons for not building wind farms. I'll tell you one thing,
China certainly isn't worried about electromagnetic emissions and
fiber-optic sensors impending their military's ability to defend against a
swarm attack of undersea drones!!*


> >…*Take Iowa for example, it's a Republican state, it's about as red as
>> you can get and is the home of the very influential Iowa caucuses, but Iowa
>> gets 63% of its electricity from wind power, so being anti-wind power is
>> not going to get you many votes in Iowa.  John K Clark*
>
>
>
> *> Again, of course but completely irrelevant.  Power generation isn’t
> about votes.  It’s about making money. *
>

*Electrical power affects making money and it also affects getting votes,
electrical power is at the heart of everything, without it we'd be living
as we did in the 18th century. And  China generates over twice as much
electricity as the US does, and the gap between the two is not getting
narrower, it's getting wider. *

*> I see no good reason to mix those two very different things.*
>

*I do because electrical power mixes with everything, including political
power, economic power, and military power.  *

*John K Clark *



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