Wind and solar generated more power than gas globally in April 2026

Post by adgjlsfhk1 » Thu, Jun 04, 2026, 4:54 PM UTC

engineer_22 wrote: post #170

ceejayoz wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finland: > The net result: Pornainen fulfilled all of its municipal climate targets with a single installation. Oil use dropped 100 percent, emissions fell 70 percent, and woodchip combustion was cut by 60 percent. According to the Mayor of the Municipality of Pornainen, Antti Kuusela, the municipality now heats all its public buildings, including a new sports arena opening in September 2026, entirely through this di…

They are buying electricity and storing it as heat and time-arbitrage it to when the heat is needed, they make no mention of the electric power source. In any case, during the depth of winter, when it's needed most, they're still burning carbon. Previous paragraph to your quote: >During the coldest, most expensive stretch, the wood chip boiler became the primary unit, and the sand battery supplemented it. Remarkably:…

Post by jl6 » Thu, Jun 04, 2026, 4:55 PM UTC

tialaramex wrote: post #187

jl6 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All true, but also remember that in a zero-fossil world the supply chain for solar/wind also needs to be decarbonized, which involves things like making green steel, which is not such a favorable efficiency story (the way to overcome it is simply to generate massive amounts of electricity cheap enough that you can eat the inefficiency).

I expect that a zero-fossil world does a lot more steel recycling. Today steel is insanely cheap. Not so very long ago steel was this wonder metal, too expensive to mass produce, and today the pennies most people don't want as change when buying things here have steel inside because no other metal would be cheap enough given the value of the coins. They're jacketed because people expect them to look like tarnished co…

Post by thewhitetulip » Thu, Jun 04, 2026, 4:57 PM UTC

Post by jimbokun » Thu, Jun 04, 2026, 5:08 PM UTC

marcianx wrote: post #118

martijnvds wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every kWh your panels make from sunlight that you use immediately (or store "behind the meter"), you don't have to buy from the grid. And not buying something tends to be cheaper than buying :)

Building it out and maintaining it isn't free. And per a friend who's been selling consumer solar installations for years in the North East and gotten disillusioned: the equipment maintenance, repairability, and replacement story isn't great at the company they last worked at and results in a lot of environmental waste. One of the reasons they left. Of course, this is just second-hand information - I don't personally…

Post by baby_souffle » Thu, Jun 04, 2026, 5:10 PM UTC

tootie wrote: post #131

dimitrios1 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am against it for one reason only, but it's very solvable, IMO, and it's the amount of space they take up. I live next to 200+ acres of solar farms. A part of me cries a little when I see so much beautiful land and trees cut down and these lifeless panels taking up so much space. We have so many buildings, and structures already (think parking decks, tops of apartments, homes, offices, even parking lots) that we co…

Sure but compare that to the amount of land used for oil and gas extraction. The difference is that mines and drills can only go where there's stuff to extract and solar panels can go anywhere. Including near residential areas. That's also due to the fact that they are so environmentally neutral.