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US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

electrek.co

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Re: US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

#271

Post by endoblast »

adventured wrote: post #145
setgree wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are indeed living in more comfortable homes. Americans are migrating to the sunbelt because of ample AC in the summer and the winters are pleasant. that’s a big part of why we have many fewer heat deaths per capita than Europe: https://www.thetimes-tribune.com/2025/08/02/opinion-us-heat-...

Europe is so backwards when it comes to annual heat deaths that they manage to have more heat deaths per year than the US has gun deaths + heat deaths combined. You won't hear about that from Europeans though, it'd make them seem barbaric. 175,000 heat deaths per year in Europe according to the WHO. It's a staggering genocide of technological primitiveness. Imagine having millions of people die because you can't be b…

The temperature a few metres below ground level is consistently cool (approx. 15 celcius) year round.

Could this be made the basis of an efficient cooling system?

Re: US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

#272

Post by BLKNSLVR »

WesternEdge wrote: post #94
api wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s just the stickiness of prices, not a problem with solar. Inflationary money is basically an ugly hack to allow prices to fall without falling.

But it's not happening in areas that keep coal on their grid - Wyoming, Texas, Utah, China, etc. It's primarily the places that try do both solar an fossil fuel retirement that are experiencing high energy prices - California, UK, Europe, Australia, etc.

To be clear: Australia has always had fairly high electricity prices, and Australia is also not specifically doing 'fossil fuel retirement', although there are coal plants closing they're closing because they're reaching the expected end of their natural life.

Re: US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

#273

Post by apexalpha »

briHass wrote: post #131
apexalpha wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PV is wildly expensive in the US. Apparently you even need a permit from the grid operator for it. Here in NL they come to your house a week after you call and your panels are up and connected in 4 hours or so.

Labor for anything is expensive in the US. Parts/materials costs in contractor quotes are often padded so they aren't completely overshadowed by the labor portion. In any job where there's specialized knowledge or license restrictions (HVAC) or risk (walking on a roof), the floor for labor rates is usually 2-4x the materials cost. But, the real issue is that almost nobody pays cash upfront for their solar install. Be…

Over here installation takes 4 hours or so, probably less.

How much more expensive can that be?

It's probably much more in the planning process and tariffs on Chinese PV.

Re: US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

#274

Post by hylaride »

microtonal wrote: post #175
tastyfreeze wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gas cooktops are good for still being able to cook when the power is out.

I am not sure where you live, but I cannot remember the last time our power went out (Western Europe). I have gas-cooked since I was a kid (living in an area with a lot of natural gas, so houses were connected to gas since the 50ies), but induction is so much nicer that I'm happy to not be able to cook during a once in a ~10-20 year outage. Also a lot safer (it still happens quite frequently that a house blows up bec…

North America generally has more extreme weather (everything from tornadoes to hurricanes and usually a much larger temperature range) and more above-ground electrical distribution than Europe.

I live in downtown Toronto and we get ice rain that occasionally knocks out power in portions of the city, though I live downtown where most of the lines are buried and I'm on the same electrical sub-block as several hospitals. The last time I lost power was the massive North American blackout of 2003.

Re: US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

#275

Post by hylaride »

endoblast wrote: post #271
adventured wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe is so backwards when it comes to annual heat deaths that they manage to have more heat deaths per year than the US has gun deaths + heat deaths combined. You won't hear about that from Europeans though, it'd make them seem barbaric. 175,000 heat deaths per year in Europe according to the WHO. It's a staggering genocide of technological primitiveness. Imagine having millions of people die because you can't be b…

The temperature a few metres below ground level is consistently cool (approx. 15 celcius) year round. Could this be made the basis of an efficient cooling system?

It's not so easy in dense urban environments where power cables are buried, along with ancient sewer systems, subways/metros, etc.

You are starting to see a lot more external AC (heat pump?) units jerry-rigged into the sides of multi-unit dwellings, though.

Re: US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

#276

Post by eli_gottlieb »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #153
slashdev wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Vancouver, Canada natural gas was completely phased out as of the beginning of 2025 in most new construction.

What is NG good for? Induction cook tops perform better than gas ones, heat pumps do better than gas heaters. The only gap I can think of are just in time hot water heaters.

> heat pumps do better than gas heaters

Well, unless the inverter valve breaks and you've got an air conditioner for two and a half months of winter.

Ask me how I know.

Re: US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

#277

Post by seanmcdirmid »

vlovich123 wrote: post #215
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is NG good for? Induction cook tops perform better than gas ones, heat pumps do better than gas heaters. The only gap I can think of are just in time hot water heaters.

Perform better as in more efficient electrically, not necessarily more pleasant or efficient in the cooking process. For example, when cooking an omelette, a recommended technique is to angle the pan so the liquid part flows towards the hot part of the pan touching the flame as you slowly scrape the curds up to rest at the cooler part of the pan. AFAIK an induction cooktop is unable to simulate this technique. Now ma…

You can find induction wok stove tops on alibaba (China obviously has more vested in electric transition than we do), but ya, standard western stove tops are flat.

Re: US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

#278

Post by seanmcdirmid »

hylaride wrote: post #270
nightski wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I own an induction stove, and overall really enjoy it. But there are certain types of cooking it's not nearly as well suited to (still possible, but not as good). One of those is cooking on a wok. But really it comes down to heating. Heat pumps are not universally better. We are currently sitting at -25C or so which is pretty common in the winter (it can even get a fair bit colder at times). Hardly any of the contrac…

I also own an induction range and love it, but I keep a portable butane stove around for random things gas is better for like woks or cooking that involves a lot of lifting the frying pan. Just make sure things are well ventilated (which should be the case with gas stoves, too).

Wok induction cook tops are a thing you can buy also. It’s just not something that westerners are going to build in.

Re: US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

#279

Post by mritterhoff »

seydor wrote: post #269
njarboe wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you against increasing energy consumption? Increasing energy consumption is what pulled the world out of the feudal, warlord misery of the past. Maybe switch the focus of this feeling towards being against pollution or something that is a negative. Just being against energy consumption is quite regressive and anti-human.

And slavery is what pushed certain empires and colonies to riches, that doesn't mean we keep doing it forever expecting positive returns

Moving electrons around isn't inherently immoral like slavery is. It's odd to compare the two!

Re: US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

#280

Post by seanmcdirmid »

jordanb wrote: post #200
tastyfreeze wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gas cooktops are good for still being able to cook when the power is out.

Gas stoves need electricity for the starter these days. Maybe you can get a really old one with a pilot light. It's far easier to provide a backup for electric appliances using a generator, than it is to store CNG onsite for gas interruption.

A lighter works wonders if your spark igniters ever get shorted by your wife dumping water on the stove.
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