Earlier quoted context omitted.
Its local environmental damage versus global environmental gains
Same as nuclear, right?
No, you don't have to change any ecosystems to build a NPP. No idea why you would think that in the first place really.
Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)
311–320 of 512 posts
Re: Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)
#312Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I think it's also worth pointing out that nothing really changed because of climate change, the decision to rely on hydro was made in the 90s. Why do you think it is worth pointing this out?
Mostly because when the title says "seven countries now generate...", it sure makes it look like there was some sort of a recent development made in response to climate change, and not something that would've been the case regardless.
Correct for the others, but Ethiopia was only added to this list after GERD (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Ethiopian_Renaissance_Da...) came online, which is a fairly recent development.
Re: Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)
#313Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well hydropower is the "easy" level of the decarbonization game. So it's not really surprising first countries to leave fossil fuels behind are also countries with mountains and rivers.
> not really surprising first countries to leave fossil fuels behind are also countries with mountains and rivers What's surprising is countries sharing natural resources are among the pioneers, despite the geopolitical implication... like Ethiopia testing the Egyptian waters by building dams on the Nile.
Maybe you should lookup when these damns were built. I wouldn't be surprised if in 1970 there were also 9 countries who didn't use any FFs. Same 9 countries of course. If you can build hydro you do. Problem is, we already have them everywhere they can be. And even now, hydro is only about 10% of all electric power production worldwide.
Re: Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)
#314> Albania, Bhutan, Nepal, Paraguay, Iceland, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo produced more than 99.7 per cent of the electricity they consumed using geothermal, hydro, solar or wind power. Let's head to electricitymaps.com ! Albania ( https://app.electricitymaps.com/map/zone/AL/live/fifteen_min... ) - On 2026-04-12 16:45 GMT+2, 22,67% of electricity consumed by Albania is imported from Greece, which gen…
> So, the lessons for all other countries in the world is pretty clear: grow yourselves some mountains, dig yourselves a big river, and dam, baby, dam !! You're forgetting corruption. Many countries can easily go 100% renewable, but there is no profit for dictators/politicians to do so. Most of africa, or the middle east, yet you still have many regions without electricity or water, so that people worry about food fo…
"Many countries can easily go 100% renewable"
Sorry but no. There are several major issues with that if you want your power to stay on all the time. Storage would be needed which even for the smallest countries on this list would require over a years worth of worldwide battery production. And grid stabilization would be almost impossible and that's just for starters. All 9 of these countries are mostly hydro. The renewables in this case are almost incidental. Also these dams were built decades ago for reasons that have nothing to do with the environment.
Re: Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)
#315> Albania, Bhutan, Nepal, Paraguay, Iceland, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo produced more than 99.7 per cent of the electricity they consumed using geothermal, hydro, solar or wind power. Let's head to electricitymaps.com ! Albania ( https://app.electricitymaps.com/map/zone/AL/live/fifteen_min... ) - On 2026-04-12 16:45 GMT+2, 22,67% of electricity consumed by Albania is imported from Greece, which gen…
fun fact for Paraguay: the Itaipu Dam is one of the largest in the world located between Brazil and Paraguay, where each country gets 50% of the production. But 50% of that production for Paraguay, a country of 7 millions inhabitants, means that it cannot consume that much, so it's essentially reselling that energy to Brazil, a country with 30x more inhabitants. Paraguay only uses about 1/3 of its share (and thus res…
Another fun fact: There's a second big dam that supplies Paraguay: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yacyret%C3%A1_Dam
It's also a two-country joint venture, this time with Argentina. And again, Paraguay uses much less of the electricity than its bigger partner.
Re: Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)
#316Earlier quoted context omitted.
If risk and disposal is factored into coal, gas, solar power, what would be cheaper? Nuclear has recyclable fuel processes and fail safe systems available.
That cost doesn’t even factor in disposal because no one knows the true cost yet. Not sure what risk you think come from renewables and storage?
> That cost doesn’t even factor in disposal because no one knows the true cost yet
There's still some cost factored in, unlike any other industry where the government is expected to clean up after the fact.
> Not sure what risk you think come from renewables
The grid collapse risk (See what happened in Spain last year, which caused 8 deaths, more than every nuclear power plant accidents in the Western world combined…). Grid operators are currently investing a trillion Euro in the EU alone in order to adapt the grid to the new challenges caused by intermittent and distributed energy sources, and this will never be accounted for in renewable electricity prices… (hence the paradox: the more “cheap energy” is being deployed in Europe, the more expensive the electricity prices become).
> and storage
"Storage" doesn't exist yet as a most people imagine it. Batteries can help ease a few hours of peak load/low supply but that's pretty much it, pumped storage is very situational with limited deployment capabilities. So the risk is that the technology simply never materialize.
Re: Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)
#317Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do we have many countries around where wind is not a thing?
And sun isn't uncommon. I was chatting with a person in Auckland, NZ. He said it was a cloudly day and he was producing much more solar power than he needed. His take: the panels are the cheapest part of the system so they just over-provisioned. We can all do that - it aint hard
Our rainy day production is still a fifth * of our peak in Kerala, India. Wish all inverters support 5x overprovisioning, current ones support 1.5x and suffer lower life. Seems 1.1x is the recommended provisioning guideline.
* UK internet stranger said he gets negligible output when it rains
Re: Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)
#318Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can batteries store enough energy for dunkelflaute in winter? I don't think it's possible with the current technology.
I mean, who cares? Fire up the gas plants in the one week a year you have weather anomalies. We’d still be 90+% carbon free which would be incredible. The last gap can be solved at a later point as technology evolves
My friend, renewables only have a capacity factor of .1 (10%). That means those "gas plants" (really coal, and the worst quality coal on the planet too) are running 90% of the time. There is a reason why France's grid makes 7x the power for the same CO2 emissions as Germany.
Re: Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)
#319Earlier quoted context omitted.
And this is an expected problem with renewables that can be engineered around. It's unlikely the whole world has a drought at once during a calm night, so developing ways to transmit power long distances will be important.
Or just use nuclear as base load, and battery storage as much as you can.
For countries that can reliably get to 99% hydro, save for some exceptional droughts, "build nuclear" is about the worst advice you can give them.
Re: Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)
#320> Albania, Bhutan, Nepal, Paraguay, Iceland, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo produced more than 99.7 per cent of the electricity they consumed using geothermal, hydro, solar or wind power. Let's head to electricitymaps.com ! Albania ( https://app.electricitymaps.com/map/zone/AL/live/fifteen_min... ) - On 2026-04-12 16:45 GMT+2, 22,67% of electricity consumed by Albania is imported from Greece, which gen…
(I'm kidding, but I'm sure someone has a pie-in-the-sky geoengineering startup
about to disrupt topography using either AI, blockchain, or both.)
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qattara_Depression_Project#Fri...