Following 35% growth, solar has passed hydro on US grid • Hacker News Board

Re: Following 35% growth, solar has passed hydro on US grid

#191

Post by daymanstep » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 9:09 PM UTC

jmyeet wrote: post #106

margalabargala wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you exclude the enslaved, the south had a higher GDP per capita than the north. That doesn't tell the whole story though. If you own 100 slaves, you need to spend nonzero resources maintaining them, or else they will starve and then you have zero slaves. So the owner has less wealth than the equivalent person in the North that has the same income but zero slaves. You can't directly compare GDP per capita excludi…

Except that slaves also make new slaves that can be sold. I really dislike this idea that slavery was just a cultural aberration and not economic. For one thing, that lightens the moral stain of slavery adjacent activity, most notably colonialism and the exploitation of the colonies. This never went away. Economic colonialism exists to this day. We just call it “outsourcing”, “offshoring” and “subcontracting”.

Offshoring generally improves the lives of the people who get the offshored jobs. Usually foreign companies pay more and have better working conditions than the local companies.

Re: Following 35% growth, solar has passed hydro on US grid

#192

Post by ceejayoz » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 9:09 PM UTC

telotortium wrote: post #154

ceejayoz wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s plenty of diesel available to us that doesn’t require stabilizing an authoritarian Central American nation and rebuilding their oil industry first.

I think Venezuela and Iran are more about restricting the oil to China in case of a conflict rather than providing energy for the US, although getting ahead of an anticipated demand increase from AI data centers is probably a contributing motivation.

I don't think interdicting Venezuelan oil in a US/China conflict would be too much of a challenge for the US, given... geography. It certainly doesn't require us to control the country or its oil industry.

Re: Following 35% growth, solar has passed hydro on US grid

#193

Post by lazide » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 9:10 PM UTC

richardubright wrote: post #43

jp191919 wrote: post #34

I wonder why existing hydro isn't utilized to it's potential. For instance, the Grand Coulee Dam has the highest capacity of any power station in the US of almost 7 MW but usually puts out about a third of that.

Looking at the data for lake that goes through the dam, it seems like they keep it at the same level. So it probably CAN make 7MW with more flow, but generally only flows at a state that puts out 2.

There is no way it’s max is 7MW. They likely meant 7GW.

7MW is the amount of power you can get from a couple of diesel gensets, waaaay smaller than even a small power plant

[https://www.cat.com/en_US/products/new/power-systems/electri...]

Re: Following 35% growth, solar has passed hydro on US grid

#194

Post by mikestew » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 9:13 PM UTC

wang_li wrote: post #186

mikestew wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such as you have to be able to read and write and do math at some certain level. Yes, we should implement this as it’s never been tried before! Oh, wait… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_test#Voting Perhaps instead of reading’, writing, and ‘rithmetic, maybe we should test one’s knowledge of history, eh?

Maybe you should learn to read at a level that you understand what I wrote? Smugness based on an intentional misreading just makes you look dumb.

Plenty of illiterate people manage to stay out of jail, you’re implying that you weren’t suggesting literacy tests for voting, so I’ll just admit to being at a loss as to your point. But if you care to take another whack at how you would suggest “we ban ill educated people”, I’m all ears.

Re: Following 35% growth, solar has passed hydro on US grid

#195

Post by BLKNSLVR » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 9:13 PM UTC

floatrock wrote: post #153

dzonga wrote: post #126

The trump administration by refusing to admit the superior metrics of solar, they're just burying their heads in sand. As admitting that solar is now a superior and cost effective means of energy means admitting that the US is no longer top dog. As empires are built on mastering a source of energy. the Portuguese | Dutch - mastered wind to power their ships. the British mastered coal to power Industrial Revolution. A…

Chinese also have battery manufacturing, whose rapidly falling cost-curve is what is missing to enable 24/7 solar. American empire ruled with the petrodollar. Chinese will rule with the solaryuan if we don't get our shit together.

Even if the US gets it's shit together it's already lost the solar and battery fight. It will have to win the next one - which it might do with AI.

Re: Following 35% growth, solar has passed hydro on US grid

#196

Post by triceratops » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 9:16 PM UTC

thfuran wrote: post #148

triceratops wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then we move on to carbon capture at scale.

And have Dubai make a few new islands out of diamonds?

With enough energy you can do literally anything.

Re: Following 35% growth, solar has passed hydro on US grid

#197

Post by KaiserPro » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 9:17 PM UTC

elliotbnvl wrote: post #90

I have a goal of setting up solar on my property in the woods that goes directly to a wall of batteries, maybe Tesla, maybe something else. But definitely not going back into the grid. Does anybody have suggestions or advice on how to do this? Who are the best companies doing this right now in New England? What products are folks using to store electricity? Are there any good resources for this kind of thing?

I'm the other side of the pond, but

tesla isn't great value any more. For a while powerwalls were the shit And the powerwall three is nice, with direct DC charging as well as islanding.

But, only 13kwh still, and internet dependency, and very expensive.

I currently have enphase micro inverters and a power wall 2. It was the right mix at the time.

But, if you have the space, which I think you do, An insulated shed for a 19" rack, and choose any one of the many battery unit makers. Its about $200 per kwh now (in UK prices, I'm not sure what tarrifs are doing for you)

then get a frame for your solar (or build a barn and roof it with solar, its cheaper than 12mm plywood at the moment.)

Have micro inverters, they are more expensive, but solid state, less likely to catch fire, do MPPT better, and are not a single point of failure.

You'll need backup for when solar doesn't cover your daily needs, so either grid or some other power source.

Re: Following 35% growth, solar has passed hydro on US grid

#198

Post by mlsu » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 9:22 PM UTC

dzonga wrote: post #126

The trump administration by refusing to admit the superior metrics of solar, they're just burying their heads in sand. As admitting that solar is now a superior and cost effective means of energy means admitting that the US is no longer top dog. As empires are built on mastering a source of energy. the Portuguese | Dutch - mastered wind to power their ships. the British mastered coal to power Industrial Revolution. A…

It's just so breathtakingly OBVIOUS. And it has been for a decade. Yet we have done nearly nothing.

I mean it doesn't really matter, does it? Even with 200% tariffs solar panels will still be cheapest. The entire global supply chain will move towards electrification.

The only question is whether we will be left behind or not.

Re: Following 35% growth, solar has passed hydro on US grid

#199

Post by nerdralph » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 9:23 PM UTC

dzonga wrote: post #126

The trump administration by refusing to admit the superior metrics of solar, they're just burying their heads in sand. As admitting that solar is now a superior and cost effective means of energy means admitting that the US is no longer top dog. As empires are built on mastering a source of energy. the Portuguese | Dutch - mastered wind to power their ships. the British mastered coal to power Industrial Revolution. A…

Panels prices bottomed about a year ago below many manufacturer's cash cost, and have gone mostly sideways since. https://www.pvxchange.com/Price-Index

If silver stays above $70/oz, prices will likely go up by 5-10%.

Until Perovskite tandem technology matures, there's unlikely to be any significant reduction in PV module prices.

Re: Following 35% growth, solar has passed hydro on US grid

#200

Post by helterskelter » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 9:24 PM UTC

legitster wrote: post #29

ertgbnm wrote: post #22

I am reminded by the perhaps revisionist history but still applicable belief that slavery was really ended by industrialization making abolition economically advantageous and not actually a socially driven movement. (In reality it was certainly a convoluted mixture of the two I'm sure.) I hope we are in a similar era with regards to climate change. Surely there's a lot of money to be made in harnessing effectively un…

> I am reminded by the perhaps revisionist history but still applicable belief that slavery was really ended by industrialization making abolition economically advantageous and not actually a socially driven movement. (In reality it was certainly a convoluted mixture of the two I'm sure.) More or less. Adam Smith famously wrote that slavery was economically detrimental way back in 1776. It still took nearly 100 years…

The south wasn't really situated for industrialization at the time. They didn't have enough rivers that could turn a water wheel effectively. (That's what I've heard anyway)