In Europe, wind and solar overtake fossil fuels

Post by nradov » Thu, Jan 22, 2026, 6:16 PM UTC

philipkglass wrote: post #243

SamPatt wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'm a renter, been all my life, I'd be happy to pay more in taxes if it means more solar panels for everyone except me. That's because you're rich like most people on HN. Environmental protection is a luxury good. This has been proven time and time again. A great reason to prioritize growth and wealth creation. Poor countries don't make those tradeoffs, they're worried about survival not what percentage of their ene…

Solar hardware is so affordable now that it's booming even in poorer countries. The most remarkable recent example is Pakistan, which has seen explosive growth of rooftop solar power, most of it receiving no government subsidies: Pakistan has imported almost 45 gigawatts worth of solar panels over the last five or six years, which is equal to the total capacity of its electricity grid. Almost 34 gigawatts have come i…

Post by Moldoteck » Thu, Jan 22, 2026, 6:17 PM UTC

nindalf wrote: post #162

spants wrote: post #15

The UK has some of the highest energy costs in the world due to the stupid Net Zero taxes. Our economy and manufacturing is suffering.

This is a glib statement that disregards a massive amount of complexity. Energy is not expensive because of Net Zero taxes. Here's a breakdown of the average UK electricity bill over time [1]. The Renewables Obligation, that subsidised wind and solar at a time when they were infeasible without subsidies, was a scheme that ran between 2002 and 2017. It was stopped once renewables became cheaper than the alternatives.…

Post by bjackman » Thu, Jan 22, 2026, 6:18 PM UTC

matthewdgreen wrote: post #198

ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Solar prices in the US are criminal, protecting oil and gas who bought all the politicians. >Canada here. 7.6kw on our roof for $0 out of pocket thanks to $5k grant and $8k interest free loan. This very well may be true, but taken at face value Canada seems to be paying you around $7k to install solar panels on your roof (that's 8k interest free loan is losing out to inflation + any interest it would have earned). D…

If you're a renter/condo then you're probably getting excess solar generation delivered to you from homeowners with nearby solar roofs. So presumably there is some benefit to you in terms of cheap generation.

Post by Moldoteck » Thu, Jan 22, 2026, 6:19 PM UTC

doublerabbit wrote: post #141

mekdoonggi wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A quick search says the UK produced 18,314 GWh of solar last year. And this was mostly funded by private investment? It seems like for some infrastructure investment, the government is getting long-term renewable power. If the solar isn't making money, why is it growing 30% annually? What is stupid about nuclear? It's a huge amount of clean, secure energy. Would your preference be dependence on Russian/US oil natural…

> What is stupid about nuclear? It's a huge amount of clean, secure energy. It's not the stupidly of the reactor producing. I don't agree with it personally, but hey whatever, it's a thing. The stupidly of it is that we are small island. Claim what you wish about how safe they are but like anything: errors and malfunctions. Cyber sabotage and all that. If an reactor were to implode we're eff'd. We don't have landmass…

Post by bjackman » Thu, Jan 22, 2026, 6:20 PM UTC

_aavaa_ wrote: post #178

testing22321 wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if I was a renter/condo owner I'd be annoyed that everyone is subsidizing your free solar however. As a non car owner are you annoyed everyone gets subsidized roads? Are you annoyed corn farmers get subsidies for growing corn? Would you be annoyed if people got subsidized life saving health care? It feels like the US can’t have nice things because people are hell bent on others not having nice things. What a shame.

> As a non car owner are you annoyed everyone gets subsidized roads? Yes, and people should be annoyed by this given the underfunding, poor urban planning, and outright hostility by many local governments against anything that dares encroach on the sanctity of car culture.