Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

electrek.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 346 posts

Re: US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

#161

Post by reactordev »

HWR_14 wrote: post #85
londons_explore wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a future with solar and batteries, daytime and nighttime electricity pricing cannot be equal - else nobody would bother to have a battery (grid scale or at home). Rules and regulations could solve that problem (meter not allowed to go backwards, solar companies are forced to pay some kind of battery credit, etc), but the free market will always outcompete. Therefore, I forsee the future lies in 'smart' electricity…

And then a storm hits texas and without realizing it you run up a $30,000 electricity bill in a single night of not freezing.

TX is its own energy grid so - that’s what you get for being “The Lone Star”

Seriously though this was a huge issue a couple years ago with the freezing and blizzards that hit Texas.

Re: US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

#162

Post by creato »

JuniperMesos wrote: post #13
consp wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We see that quite often here in the summer as the energy price sometimes drops to minus 60ct/kWh (more often it hovers around -5 to -10). It is pretty much "please use everything now" to avoid grid issues. It often happens on very clear days with lots of wind.

Mine bitcoin, run LLM inference, smelt aluminum, make synthetic fossil fuels from atmospheric CO2.

This ignores capital and opportunity cost. Building a GPU data center or chemical plant costs a lot. If you only use it 20% of the time, you're effectively paying 5x more for that capital equipment.

Re: US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

#163

Post by bluGill »

daemonologist wrote: post #112
sandworm101 wrote: post #69

Contrary opinion: too much farmland is being turned over to solar. Our regulatory systems are not working. Land that once produced food now produces electricity. Turning a food farm into solar is too easy (ie cheap). The land is flat and there are nearby roads and electricity networks. And who is going to tell a farmer how to best use thier land? But the world needs more than datacenters. The world needs food. Solar…

I'll bite: the US dedicates about 5 billion bushels of corn a year to ethanol production [0], which is basically solar with extra steps. At a generous yield of 190 bushels/acre [1], this is 26 million acres dedicated to ethanol production (WRI puts it at 30m [2]). Depending on who you ask, it would take somewhere between 2.5 [3] and 13.5 million acres [4] of solar to supply total US electricity demand, including stor…

that ethanol leaves leftovers that are used for other things so your numbers are misleading.

Re: US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

#164

Post by diego_moita »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #153
slashdev wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Vancouver, Canada natural gas was completely phased out as of the beginning of 2025 in most new construction.

What is NG good for? Induction cook tops perform better than gas ones, heat pumps do better than gas heaters. The only gap I can think of are just in time hot water heaters.

> What is NG good for?

Mostly a myth by cooks that think it "heats faster" or "heats with a better distribution of heat".

It is foolish, but many still think so. I personally believe that the only kind of cooking that benefits from NG are round-bottom woks. But they can be substituted by flat-bottom pans without problems.

Re: US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

#165

Post by rdn »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #153
slashdev wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Vancouver, Canada natural gas was completely phased out as of the beginning of 2025 in most new construction.

What is NG good for? Induction cook tops perform better than gas ones, heat pumps do better than gas heaters. The only gap I can think of are just in time hot water heaters.

If the power goes out I can still cook and heat with gas.

*this is a regular occurence in some countries

Re: US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

#167

Post by rdn »

adventured wrote: post #145
setgree wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are indeed living in more comfortable homes. Americans are migrating to the sunbelt because of ample AC in the summer and the winters are pleasant. that’s a big part of why we have many fewer heat deaths per capita than Europe: https://www.thetimes-tribune.com/2025/08/02/opinion-us-heat-...

Europe is so backwards when it comes to annual heat deaths that they manage to have more heat deaths per year than the US has gun deaths + heat deaths combined. You won't hear about that from Europeans though, it'd make them seem barbaric. 175,000 heat deaths per year in Europe according to the WHO. It's a staggering genocide of technological primitiveness. Imagine having millions of people die because you can't be b…

Can their pension system afford A/C?

Re: US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

#168

Post by xeromal »

cbmuser wrote: post #147

»US electricity demand jumped by 135 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2025, a 3.1% increase, the fourth‑largest annual rise of the past decade. Over that same period, solar generation grew by a record 83 TWh – a 27% increase from 2024 and the biggest absolute gain of any power source. That single jump in solar output covered 61% of all new electricity demand nationwide.« This article equates generation with consumption which…

I'm a luddite so forgive me when I ask this. How does the grid "waste" electricity to avoid overfilling?

Re: US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

#169

Post by [deleted] »

bluGill wrote: post #160
yunohn wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So your implication that other sources of energy currently do not need scaling coordination somehow? I fail to see how that is true, maybe you can provide some insights?

Wind and solar are not in ur control. I can turn on a generator and get power. Some plants might need weeks to start up - but this is in my control. I have no idea how windy it will be in five days.

[deleted]

Re: US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

#170

Post by WesternEdge »

bluGill wrote: post #154
WesternEdge wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it's not happening in areas that keep coal on their grid - Wyoming, Texas, Utah, China, etc. It's primarily the places that try do both solar an fossil fuel retirement that are experiencing high energy prices - California, UK, Europe, Australia, etc.

Texas has the most wind power of any us state. High energy prices happen when you don't do the basics to be ready for a change before making it. Or when you skip basic maintenance until everything falls apart. I'm sure there are many other complex factors I don't know about.

Texas also has the most coal power of any state. As with China, success with renewables appears to depend on a policy of compatibility with fossil fuels rather than opposition.
Post reply on HN