"The notice, which has been posted on the provincial government’s website, revealed that Sichuan had only “encountered [such] extreme high temperature once in 60 years” and that the average rainfall had fallen by 51 per cent from the same period in 2021.“The sharp drop in water inflow from major river basins has caused a sudden drop in the output of hydropower generation,” the notice reads.“The contradiction between power supply and demand in the province is very prominent.”The extreme move is all the more alarming as Sichuan is a major hub for lithium mining, solar panel production and semiconductors, meaning a week-long shutdown will have a major impact on a slew of household-name companies, including Apple and Tesla, and will likely cause the costs of raw materials to rise."
