Solar generates more energy in US than coal for first time

Post by Schiendelman » Fri, Jun 12, 2026, 2:10 PM UTC

oblio wrote: post #58

horsawlarway wrote: post #20

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LFPs are cheap and safe, with very good cycle counts. Sodium seems to be actually hitting real commercial production volumes (ex - GM just announced a sodium ramp up days ago, CATL has been producing them for a while). I expect we'll see sodium mature a good bit over the next decade (right now - it's just not quite as good as LFP, but it has a lot of promise in temperature extremes and cheap input materials) So sure…

I read some interesting things about crazy sounding technologies like vanadium flow and iron batteries. I think we're at most 10 years away from storage being not fully solved, but becoming an enabler more than a bottleneck.

Post by tolciho » Fri, Jun 12, 2026, 3:46 PM UTC

int_19h wrote: post #209

tolciho wrote: post #189

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> have little black particles all over it. Nobody likes that, no matter what the President says. Should you live near one of those big noisy "freeway" things you may note the little black particles over everything in the surroundings but nobody likes to tear down the interstate.

I have two things to say to that. First, I live 150 yards from a major freeway - I-90 in WA, it's three lanes in each direction here. There are no tiny black particles over everything in surroundings, and my outdoors AQI (from my own sensor) is normally in single digits and basically only ever gets above 50 if it's wildfire smoke or the neighbors are burning something. But second, if we developed a reliable and cheap…

Post by coryrc » Fri, Jun 12, 2026, 4:26 PM UTC

cameldrv wrote: post #211

Retric wrote: post #109

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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.

I think the issue is that the tarriffs just don’t really matter anymore because the panels are so cheap that they’re dwarfed by the “balance of system” costs — installation, racking, inverters, cabling, etc.

Post by pstuart » Fri, Jun 12, 2026, 4:44 PM UTC

ssl-3 wrote: post #108

pstuart wrote: post #62

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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.

Post by Marsymars » Fri, Jun 12, 2026, 6:05 PM UTC

int_19h wrote: post #210

Marsymars wrote: post #55

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> They typically generate 10-25% of their maximum output on the cloudiest of days. Most cloudy days are not maximally cloudy. If you're at higher latitudes, this is notably less of a drop-off than you see between high/low season. My friends with residential solar see <10% overall output in January vs July. (~60% drop from fewer sunshine hours, ~80% drop from decreased solar irradiance.)

There's also the angle of the sun to consider, it changes quite a bit in higher latitudes between summer and winter so if you want maximum efficiency you need to tilt the cells accordingly. But I don't think most residential solar does that.