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

arstechnica.com

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

#241

Post by Braxton1980 »

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…

Mississippi declaration of secession.

"“Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery — the greatest material interest of the world....Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth.”

Georgia

"“The prohibition of slavery in the Territories… is destructive of our rights and interests.”

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

#242

Post by jandrese »

_whiteCaps_ wrote: post #121
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?

A few things that I've needed to deal with in my off grid setup: I like the MidNite solar controllers. LiFePO4 batteries are great, with a few caveats: - you must use batteries from the same batch, ie you can't upgrade capacity piecemeal, to avoid degrading the new ones - cable lengths are important because even small differences in resistive losses between batteries can mean that one battery is doing more charging /…

Not being able to charge below freezing shouldn't be a problem if you keep the batteries indoors. Is there a reason why you wouldn't? Fire concerns? Or is it just a space issue?

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

#243

Post by jandrese »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #140
crystal_revenge wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That entire talk didn't once mention the phrase "energy density" which is the real reason we rely so heavily on hydrocarbons. Additionally this talk makes the usual mistake of conflating "electricity" with "energy". While the US does have fairly high percentage of energy in the form of electricity it's still only around 33% of the US energy needs. And still we see that "green energy" only supplements not replaces our…

> That entire talk didn't once mention the phrase "energy density" which is the real reason we rely so heavily on hydrocarbons. For planes. For no other major use of hydrocarbons is it the primary concern.

Transatlantic shipping also. Planes require highly refined fuel though, while ships can burn most anything flammable, even really crappy biofuels. Hardly anything is worse than heavy fuel oil.

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

#244

Post by aaronbrethorst »

ceejayoz wrote: post #224
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not entirely sure what point you’re trying to make. The invention of the cotton gin increased the use of slaves; it didn’t decrease it. https://freedomcenter.org/voice/eli-whitney-cotton-gin/

> The invention of the cotton gin increased the use of slaves; it didn’t decrease it. Because the efficiency increase in that part of the process meant we could grow so much more cotton to be processed. It wasn't very profitable before that, because slave labor wasn't very efficient at the process. (This led, eventually, to more automation of the planting/harvesting process.)

Clearly, you are much more clever than I am because I still have no idea what your thesis is supposed to be.

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

#245

Post by jandrese »

whatever1 wrote: post #30
toomuchtodo wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is global oil oversupply of ~2M-3.7M barrels/day. China destroys ~1M barrels/day of global oil demand for every 24 months of EV production. Iran needs $164/barrel to break even on their budget, $86/barrel for Saudi Arabia, ~$60 for US shale (per Bloomberg). China has already potentially hit peak oil and ~>50% of new vehicle sales are battery electric or plug in hybrids. Oil is over, regardless of this admin's p…

Gasoline might be on decline (but the gas car fleet will take decades to turn over), but for literally everything else there is no viable alternative. Trucks, ships, airplanes, freight trains, even heating for older buildings. So no, we need our refineries for a good part of this century. Likely we will keep just the integrated ones (chemical + fuels).

Trains are one of the easiest forms of transport to electrify. Yes, the US is going to drag its heels on doing so, but the rest of the world is already moving on.

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

#246

Post by dylan604 »

thrance wrote: post #232
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With a bit of social pressure we should be able to extinct the fossil fuel industry Taking Europe versus China, California versus Texas, it seems like social pressure is less effective than markets. Let markets build the power source they want to build and lo and behold you get lots of solar and wind and batteries.

If we let the markets have their way, Earth becomes unhabitable. Coal and oil plants aren't being shut down. In fact, we have more than ever with additional ones on the way.

We'd also still have industry dumping raw waste directly into our waterways. I'm not so sure that this wouldn't have killed more people faster than unregulated coal/oil plants.

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

#247

Post by NewsaHackO »

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…

So solar energy falls from the sky, but what about the resources it takes to make the panels?

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

#248

Post by dylan604 »

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…

> The trump administration by refusing to admit the superior metrics of solar, they're just burying their heads in sand.

I don't think I agree with this as it suggests they are doing it because they can't be bothered about it. Instead, they are doing it specifically because their (and/or their friend's) pockets are getting filled. To me, the latter is much more sinister.

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

#249

Post by iknowstuff »

NewsaHackO wrote: post #247
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…

So solar energy falls from the sky, but what about the resources it takes to make the panels?

Insignificant and recyclable forever

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

#250

Post by pelcg »

kmax12 wrote: post #122

if this type of data is interesting to you, here’s a site I’ve built that tracks like grid data across the US and Canada: https://www.gridstatus.io/live We have generation mix, load, and pricing data. Both real time and historical

Never seen this before and looks great.

How often does this get updated?

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