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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

#281

Post by manacit »

margalabargala wrote: post #211
viewtransform wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

California power generation profile yesterday showing solar and battery proportion. https://engaging-data.com/california-electricity-generation/...

Is California enough to drag the rest of the country with them, though?

Grid-connected PV in Texas has grown between 33% and over 100% every year since 2008, which outpaces the growth of solar in the US in the same timeframe.

California's percentage of solar generation as a share of the entire solar generation in the USA has shrunk every year since 2016.

It's not been accurate to say that California is dragging the rest of the country with them for a long time when it comes to energy generation.

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

#282

Post by tadfisher »

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.

It's because "free market" is and always has been a misnomer. Free to ignore externalities, yes. But our shared ecosystem is not seen as a market participant, so it can't charge the true cost of burning hydrocarbons.

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

#283

Post by Buttons840 »

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…

Also, the US has a lot of influence over the flow of oil in the world. A world of cheap solar energy removes that influence.

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

#284

Post by pksebben »

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.

I think you've misunderstood the term 'petrodollar'. Petrodollars are the American currency in circulation abroad because we bought other people's oil (principally Saudi), not exported our own.

The 'export' that made the US powerful was finance and political manipulation - toppling socialist / populist leaders to install puppets and controlling economies by manipulating trade.

I think your original point kind of stands, though - we are seeing a decline and independence from our supply chain is going to be a deciding factor in 'who's the next top dog', but I think the decline is going to be a lot uglier than a simple "they have it now and we don't" - it's going to be all the thrashing about that an aggressive international power does when the grift no longer works.

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

#285

Post by nazgul17 »

05 wrote: post #171
jmyeet wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s an effort to whitewash the horrors of chattel slavery that is really disgusting. Estimated on the economics of slavery (that I’ve read anyway) seemingly ignore that slaves can make new slaves. This is the dark side of slavery that seems to be rarely discussed. That is, the mass rape of slaves over centuries by their owners. There was even an economic incentive for this because lighter skinned slaves were more…

> We would line in a very different country if, after the civil war, every slave owner was strung up from a tree and their estates were redistributed to the formerly enclaved. Yeah, but not for the reasons you think. A country that would just kill a significant share of its citizens for something that used to be legal very recently is not going to end up just fine. Moreover, due to normal distribution of human traits…

Do we actually know that goodness/evilness is 0% inheritable?

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

#286

Post by nostrademons »

wasabi991011 wrote: post #252
nostrademons wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW most experts now favor approval voting [1] over ranked choice. Approval voting has similar advantages as ranked choice in allowing 3rd-party candidates and favoring moderate candidates. It avoids the chaotic behavior that RCV can exhibit [2] where shifts in the order of voters' down-ballot preferences can very significantly alter the outcome of the election [3]. And it's also much easier to explain to voters ("I…

Not to be cynical, but what does it look like when most candidates aren't acceptable to a majority of people?

What does what look like? Approval voting? The unacceptable (usually extreme) candidates fail to get votes and so get booted out of office, with their places taken by more moderate, common-sense candidates.

FPTP, particularly with partisan primaries, has the misfeature that you need to rally the base in order to win the crowded primary field. This leaves only extremist candidates heading toward the general election. In a country like the U.S. where voting is not compulsory, this turns off the moderate electorate, who are forced to choose between two extreme candidates that both seem batshit crazy, and encourages them to stay home.

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

#287

Post by joe_mamba »

jacquesm wrote: post #263
roenxi wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Adam Smith famously wrote that slavery was economically detrimental way back in 1776. It still took nearly 100 years to abolish slavery... Slavery had basically been a thing for all of human history up to that point, and based on my discussions on HN many smart people don't believe a lot of what Adam Smith said. There are still a lot of basic economic ideas that would make people much wealthier that struggle to get…

Ah, the master of bad takes is at it again. > Slavery had basically been a thing for all of human history up to that point, Except that of course it wasn't. > and based on my discussions on HN many smart people don't believe a lot of what Adam Smith said. And many smart people do. > There are still a lot of basic economic ideas that would make people much wealthier that struggle to get out into the wild. Yes, such as…

>Except that of course it wasn't.

Except that it definitely was.

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

#288

Post by GuinansEyebrows »

dyauspitr wrote: post #165
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…

Why though? For a business owner I can’t imagine a better situation than his workers working for free and having to do 16 hours a day under pain of death. This probably wouldn’t work with 80% of the populace enslaved but would work very well with 10-15% enslaved.

> For a business owner I can’t imagine a better situation than his workers working for free and having to do 16 hours a day under pain of death

you really can't imagine a better situation than humans owning humans?

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

#289

Post by tadfisher »

morepork wrote: post #187
paxys wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not 100 sq miles but 100 mile x 100 mile, which is 10,000 sq miles. And that assumes peak efficiency. Factoring in degredation you'd have to multiply this by 2. Not "just" by any stretch of the imagination. This is larger than Rhode Island and Lake Erie combined. Aka a pipe dream. Might as well "just" build a dyson sphere while we are at it.

Or alternatively, a hundred 10 mile by 10 mile installations. Or on average 2 such installations per state. Hardly seems anywhere near comparable to a Dyson sphere

There are 13,000 square miles of dedicated parking lots in the United States. Covering these gets you a double-whammy of keeping heat out of the ground and generating power.

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

#290

Post by [deleted] »

yoyohello13 wrote: post #272
dylan604 wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

It such obvious corruption. Trump ordered the pentagon to buy coal power specifically.

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