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Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)

the-independent.com

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Re: Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)

#321

Post by ViewTrick1002 »

littlestymaar wrote: post #316
ViewTrick1002 wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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……

It is not included.

In my part of the world the authorities can demand a clean up bond as part of giving permission to build the project. That is done to ensure that you can’t skimp on your responsibilities.

Then I just see misinformation on the Iberian blackout. Please go ahead and tell me how thermal planes not delivering the expected reactive power was caused by renewables.

Please tell me how renewables can’t deliver reactive power when the US and all other sane grids have required them to do it for close to a decade.

And with that we’re solving high 90s% of the grid. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good enough when we still need to solve agriculture, construction, aviation, maritime shipping, industry and so on.

All ignoring that storage on larger scales already exists.

Re: Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)

#322

Post by ViewTrick1002 »

belorn wrote: post #252
ViewTrick1002 wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tiring with arbitrary limitations to exclude major accidents of a fleet in the hundreds. The difference between renewables and nuclear power is who gets harmed. When dealing with nuclear accidents entire populations are forced into life changing evacuations, if all goes well. For renewables the only harm that comes are for the people who has chosen to work in the industry. And the workplace hazards are the same as an…

> For renewables the only harm that comes are for the people who has chosen to work in the industry. We are definitively not including hydro power and their dam projects in that category.

On a whole hydro has saved lives due to managing rivers which previously caused devastating floods.

The reason a ton of dams exists is not to make power, it is manage the river. Making power is a secondary concern.

But when we’re done with climate change we should of course restore as many rivers as possible due to the ecosystem damage they cause.

Re: Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)

#323

Post by mastermage »

kalleboo wrote: post #278
belorn wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lets put down some Swedish numbers. During the coldest winter month, solar energy produce (as per statistics from the solar industry in Sweden) somewhere around 3-7% of the amount produced during the warmest month. Households also consume around 2-4 times the amount of energy during the coldest month compared to the warmest month. Sweden is a country where only a small minority have air conditioning installed at home…

The nice thing is Sweden has lots of hydro, which works as natural long-term energy storage. Every bit of solar you generate means water is kept in the dam for use later in the year. You also can't ignore wind power which should be part of any plan to "overbuild".

All of the discussions here conveniently ignore the existance of Wind. Which fortunately has higher yield in the months when there is less sun.

Re: Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)

#324

Post by whatsupdog »

indigo945 wrote: post #320
phtrivier wrote: post #27

> 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.) Well, there was that plan to use scores of nuclear bombs to alter the geography of Egypt in such a way that the Mediterranean could be drained into the Qattara Basin [1]. I think the story is somewhat well-known now, but it proves, at least, that pie-in-the-sky geoengineeri…

> And given that nuclear bombs essentially were the blockchain of the 1950s

They were not destructive enough.

Re: Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)

#325

Post by beAbU »

ptman wrote: post #69
neves wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it means that it has been oil free since the 70's. Brazil, a continental country, has more than 80% of its energy from renewables

Oil free for electricity generation. The media in my country (Finland) also likes to brag about 90+% fossil-free electricity generation. But electricity is under half (30%?40%?) and the rest of that energy isn't fossil-free.

I presume the other half is residential heating?

Re: Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)

#326

Post by valgaze »

indigo945 wrote: post #320
phtrivier wrote: post #27

> 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.) Well, there was that plan to use scores of nuclear bombs to alter the geography of Egypt in such a way that the Mediterranean could be drained into the Qattara Basin [1]. I think the story is somewhat well-known now, but it proves, at least, that pie-in-the-sky geoengineeri…

https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/453701

“Use of Nuclear Explosions for Excavation of Sea-Level Canal Across the Negev Desert”

Re: Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)

#327

Post by jcattle »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #302
jdlshore wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, let’s say that we use solar + battery to cover everything but Nov, Dec, Jan, when the days are too short. Solar is cheaper than nuclear the rest of the time, so (due to the way energy markets work) we pay solar producers the cost of nuclear generation, creating strong incentive to build out more solar + battery. So we end up using nuclear 1/4 of the time. But unfortunately, nuclear’s cost is in the capital expe…

> Solar is cheaper than nuclear the rest of the time, so (due to the way energy markets work) we pay solar producers the cost of nuclear generation, creating strong incentive to build out more solar + battery. The way energy markets work is that prices change based on supply and demand. So you build a lot of solar and then the price goes down at times when solar generation is high. (There isn't really enough solar in…

Hey, just wanted to say thanks for your comment. I'm usually very apprehensive against nuclear (still kind of am) but I think one of my main points against was that "base load" (i.e. inflexible generation) would be bad in countries with high intermittent generation.

But I guess the whole calculation of 100% renewables is overprovision+storage. This wouldn't change with nuclear in the mix, nuclear would just generate all the time at whatever price it can get, just bringing the point of overprovision for renewables closer.

Then in countries in more extreme latitudes the calculation of if nuclear is worth it just becomes how cheap and viable the (long and short-term) storage part will get over the lifetime of a new nuclear reactor.

If storage gets so cheap that a nuclear reactor would be consistently in the red, even in the depths of winter, then it wouldn't make sense to build one today.

But I haven't done any calculations on that yet. For example for the Netherlands or Germany which still have a high reliance on gas but a large portion of solar+wind, how expensive nuclear could be for it to make sense to build a new reactor. And under which scenarios of development of storage prices it would potentially seize to make sense.

Re: Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)

#328

Post by jondea »

hunterpayne wrote: post #318
dalyons wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A single energy source having a capacity factor of 10% does not imply that gas plants will have to run 90% of the time.

It ignores storage, over-provisioning, aggregation of uncorrelated sources etc.

Not to mention that wind typically has a much higher capacity factor than 10%.

I don't know what the true number is, but I think this is a low effort take.

Re: Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)

#329

Post by mrroper »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #283
mrroper wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

12 Billion in loan guarantees doesn't get paid in bills and isn't an accounting trick that costs nothing: https://www.cbo.gov/publication/60682

That's a really big and generic article. What are you saying this loan guarantee cost?

Comparing two numbers because you have them is like looking for your keys at the nearest lamp post because there's light.
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