This administration is hitting milestones without even trying!
Hehe, it is actually trying very hard not to hit the milestones.
Solar generates more energy in US than coal for first time
101–110 of 260 posts
Re: Solar generates more energy in US than coal for first time
#102don't worry this administration is giving nearly a billion dollar bailout to coal using war powers so congress can't block * https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/04/trump-coal-d...
They could have used it to retrain coal workers or help them transition to some other job instead of a handout to plant and mine owners.
But then normal people would have more money, and centi-millionaires would have less.
Apparently, both are against the US government's policy.
Re: Solar generates more energy in US than coal for first time
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s also from focused efforts to close coal plants, and rapid, massive deployment of solar in the last 20 years, and new technology emerging (better batteries and dispatch technologies) to make solar into a 24/7 resource. For whatever reason, there’s a strong motivation for people to dismiss the gigantic global effort to transition the energy system away from fossil fuels, and claim that all that effort isn’t really…
> For whatever reason, there’s a strong motivation for people to dismiss the gigantic global effort to transition the energy system away from fossil fuels, and claim that all that effort isn’t really doing anything. Because renewable energy is Communism, or something. But seriously: $$$$. The Fossil Fuel industry, before it finally dies, will make big Tobacco look downright merciful. The owners of these companies and…
> The Fossil Fuel industry, before it finally dies, will make big Tobacco look downright merciful.
This should not be surprising when one realizes that this industry is the biggest industry that humanity ever created (in terms of monetary value). Nothing ever is or was bigger than energy from fossil fuels. Predictably, those who profit from this, behave like selfish [...] and fight tooth and nail to keep their profits.
Re: Solar generates more energy in US than coal for first time
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
China’s massive coal footprint is shrinking due to successful, intentional effort under the most recent five year plan, and coal’s presence in China’s power mix will likely continue to shrink, while China ramps up exports of clean energy technology to the rest of the world.
In absolute terms, china's coal footprint is increasing, and will continue to increase in the short term, as of early 2026, they were still opening new coal plants.
Their coal capacity is increasing, but the utilization is continually falling.
Re: Solar generates more energy in US than coal for first time
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
Aye, but that data is up to 2024, here's an update: https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-chinas-co2-emissions-ha...
"flat or falling" let's be honest. The amount of "fall" in that graph is basically in the noise. It's been flat.
It's still a big change from the previous status quo. I've been checking on absolute emissions on various industrial countries for a while now and this is the first time I've seen them actually flat (and not decreasing as a fraction but increasing in absolute terms)
Re: Solar generates more energy in US than coal for first time
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
The main load is during the day when the sun shines anyway, and then the seasonally changing periods before and after, basically ramping when people are getting up, then dropping off while people are going to bed. On the west side of a continent, the power for the ramp can come from the east because the sun shines earlier there; on the west the sun shines later and the east can get power. At night, there are still nu…
High load in the day during sunlight is mostly true for summer heat, but in the winter you have cold evenings which requires base load or storage, combined with solar angle/efficiency being worse in the winter.
Yeah, it's imperfect.
Does that mean that it is untenable?
Re: Solar generates more energy in US than coal for first time
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
i think that is an overly simplistic axiom: the utilities must cover a fixed asset base (poles and wires and transformers), pretty much regardless of how much or whether a household consumes from the grid. the less the utility recoups via billing for energy usage, the bigger the deficit to cover their fixed network costs. they are frequently interested in having you consume energy, to help defray those costs, especia…
that’s true, i was considering only the perspective of the major city i live in rather than networks with lower ratepayer densities where the economics are probably totally different i do think “fully consumed or gated to never backfeed balcony solar at scale” is all i’m referring to, which i naively hope is a smaller regulatory change than backfeeding
> I do think “fully consumed or gated to never backfeed balcony solar at scale” is all i’m referring to, which i naively hope is a smaller regulatory change than backfeeding
I though the point of these systems was you plug them in to your wall socket and they lower your electricity bill. If you want to avoid tieing to the grid you can't have such a simple deployment.
Re: Solar generates more energy in US than coal for first time
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
The whole point about modern gas/coal plants is that it's relatively cheap to shut them down and start them up again. They are backup power, not for providing inflexible base load. Batteries + renewables are taking a lot of market share and flexible backup power is much more important than baseload (inflexible power like nuclear)
Gas is faster to respond, coal, not so much. From the Goog: Starting up a coal-fired power station depends heavily on the plant's current temperature, taking anywhere from 2 to 48 hours to reach full operational capacity. Because of massive metal boilers and turbines, the heating process must be slow to prevent severe thermal fatigue and equipment damage. [1, 2] The startup time is broken down by the plant's previous…
We can keep some of that coal-fired stuff around and use it periodically.
It's OK. Winter happens every year.
When the market needs that power, then the market will have to pay for it.
Re: Solar generates more energy in US than coal for first time
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
Total electricity produced by coal + gas is down over the last 20 years. Total electricity production is up, the difference is from wind and solar. This administration swapped to actively suppressing Wind and Solar via tariffs etc, and yet the trends continued because the underlying economic reality heavily favors battery backed solar.
The numbers for 2014-2024: https://www.eia.gov/electricity/annual/table.php?t=epa_03_01... I doubted what you wrote, but everything you said is correct (for the last 10 years, at least). Over the time period, natural gas increased 740 TWh/year (to 1870) and coal decreased 940 TWh/year (to 650). Electricity production is up ~7%, but that's quite low compared to the growth of everything else. > This administration swap…
Plenty of blame to go around, my understanding of the timeline is:
Trumps first administration put in solar Tariffs with China (25%), Biden administration increased them with China (50%), 2nd Trump administration increased those and applied solar Tariffs to other countries. Though honestly I’ve largely stopped paying attention at this point.
Solar adoption increased through all of that.