Source: Dialogue Earth
As extreme weather becomes more frequent and severe, China's distributed solar infrastructure—which relies on millions of individual homeowners and small businesses to generate power—faces mounting physical and economic risks that centralized grids don't encounter. Mr. Zhang's decision to dismantle his panels during typhoon season illustrates the calculus: the cost of storm damage and lost generation days may outweigh the economic returns that justified the initial investment, potentially slowing China's transition away from coal just as grid demands intensify. Decarbonization strategies built on assumptions of stable weather patterns break down precisely when climate volatility accelerates, requiring redesign of both hardware durability and subsidy structures.