Who, What, Where are these "lake(s)"?
Meanwhile China is not really running "ahead" that much. They are pretty much just on the line of normal improvement on a given technology. The starting points for Silicon Solar PV started in the US. US has just been too dumb, lazy, and greedy to progress it.
Same on EVs. Tesla and start-ups got it going. Then the moron MBAs of the US 3 stooges tried to copy the homework and got it wrong. Meanwhile China put in the work, study, did EVs right, and now lead the world.
Thing to truly understand is this == US is actively, intentionally, and measurably getting Dumb(er).
I know folks (rather than listening and understanding and seeking to improve that) want to rant with USA #1!, and MAGA, and Drill, Baby, Drill, and American Exceptionalism! like a bunch of howling baboons, but NONE of that produces anything other more stupid.
Ever see the movie "Idiocracy?" Turns out that was Prophecy more than Comedy.
Consider when the US Great Dumbing began with Reagan pulling Solar Thermal (water heating) off the White House? That was around the start of the Great Dumbing, and also shows up in the massive accumulation of Debt.
US has consistently been getting dumber since.
US prices rising are from the US money going worth less on the way to worthless. It is the bankers method of covering the Debt. Currency Inflation is an intentional hidden tax on poor and middle people.
This is because US does not pay the bills, runs debt, has become too stupid build things, and wastes all US money on goofball military equipment and misadventures and interest on prior debt, all accumulated from the prior stupidity.
The biggest thing (and hinderance) that harms US is the ambient stupid.
They are not. Rapidly deploying Nukes, I mean. They only had 5% (of generation) or less Nukes to start with. On the present path, they will likely stop at around 10%. Since Nukes have to run full time, they saturate their own market quickly and become not-profitable. US maxed at about 20%, with "Peak Nukes" at 104 Reactors. US is now down to 94 Reactors and the 10% that went away are not even missed.
There is not an Arms Race of AI. There is a massive Capitalist Con-Job going on. It is HYPE. For moron "Investors." Think Dot-com Bubble. Or 2008 Housing Bubble. Have you seen a movie called the Big Short? This is a big circle-jerk for lack of a better term. Maybe catch this clip of Big Short? The casino part will probably make sense?
But for Robotics? This part is pretty simple stuff. A typical US John Deere combine from the 1950s (I had a JD 45 and 55 ;P ) is more complex and energy intensive.
Most robotics run mostly on simple DC motors. Sometimes pneumatics and hydraulics. If you play with Tractors some -- you already understand all of this. If you want them to last longer, and have a budget, you can go with Brushless DC and some Variable Frequency AC Motors, but that is still simple.
Really at school we are building them from surplus DC brush motor automotive parts. Like wiper and window motors. I will put up some pictures of the toys we are building at school.
Coal use everywhere varies by season and load(s). US Coal use goes up in Winter and Summer. But we shut them off for entire months (repairs and rebuilds) in Spring and Fall. The Capacity Factor (% run-time) is based on yearly average run-time.
US aint no poster child in this regard. Called Eminent Domain. Done with pipelines for the Drill, Baby, Drill folks. Corporations over Citizens. The American Way.
It was the emissions that got China replacing all the Old Coal Plants. Have you seen sample pictures of the Air Quality (or lack of) in China a decade or more ago? When you can actually "see" the Air, it is not a good thing. So they decided to clean things up.
