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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)

#341

Post by oblio »

dalyons wrote: post #229
mpweiher wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most expensive electricity in the contiguous United States. By quite a margin. By contrast, Georgia, which has to pay for the "disastrous" Vogtle 3/4 nuclear construction project, pays less than half that. Remember: disastrous nuclear projects are significantly better than renewable successes.

Supply costs have surprisingly not that much to do with Californias silly electric rates. They load into the retail rates all kinds of disaster recovery costs, environmental blah blah costs, distribution upgrades, social programs, the list goes on. Plus straight old fashioned corruption in a state sponsored monopoly. You can get some idea of the BS that gets loaded in by comparing some rates from municipal grids like…

> Plus straight old fashioned corruption in a state sponsored monopoly.

Why don't they just nationalize it?

At that point there wouldn't be a huge incentive to raise prices and increase profits and state control would demand lower prices for residents.

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

#342

Post by gaigalas »

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.

Brazil has the most advanced biofuels program in the world, by far.

Ethanol alone accounts for roughly 1/5 of all energy in Brazil, with almost 50% of light-vehicle fuels being renewable.

For heavy vehicles, biodiesel is gaining in. Ethanol started in the 70s, the biodiesel program is much more recent (10-15% mixture in regular diesel).

It's not just electricity here, we're doing serious work on the fuel front.

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

#343

Post by oblio »

array_key_first wrote: post #258
mpweiher wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most expensive electricity in the contiguous United States. By quite a margin. By contrast, Georgia, which has to pay for the "disastrous" Vogtle 3/4 nuclear construction project, pays less than half that. Remember: disastrous nuclear projects are significantly better than renewable successes.

Electricity is cheap in Georgia because Georgia is generally not a desirable state for business. Electricity, along with a lot of others things, is expensive in California because it's California. There's a lot of talent in California, a lot of inertia, and a huge economy.

> Electricity is cheap in Georgia because Georgia is generally not a desirable state for business.

Are you insulting the great state of Georgia???

Paraphrasing a quote about North Carolina from American Crime Story, season 1, episode 9:

> [...] may I state first of all what a pleasure it is to be [...] once again in the great state of Georgia. My heart gladdens [...] when I stand in one of the original 13 colonies.

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

#344

Post by littlestymaar »

ViewTrick1002 wrote: post #321
littlestymaar wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 deli…

Wow, there's literally not a single accurate sentence in your comment. Not a single one!

I'm stopping here since you don't seem to be interested in facts at all.

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

#345

Post by littlestymaar »

mastermage wrote: post #331
littlestymaar wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only credible competition against a state funded nuclear plant is hypothetical next gen geothermal power though. Nuclear won't save the planet, as few countries can develop a nuclear industry. But for countries that have one, it should be a no brainer if not for irrational nuclear bomb fears.

looking at the current Geopolitical Climate this does not seem like an Irrational Fear. And I do not mean the fear of a reactor meltdown. But if you refine Uranium for a Powerplant you can also Refine it for a bomb.

Any country that can make a nuclear bomb could decide to make one whether or not they chose to have a civil nuclear industry (Israel being the prime example).

And in the current geopolitical climate, expect more countries to build a bomb.

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

#346

Post by adrianN »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #147
jdlshore wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The economics of new nuclear plants don't make sense. They take too long to build and cost too much. By the time a new plant is ready, alternate sources (likely solar + battery and long-distance HVDC) will have eaten its lunch.

> They take too long to build and cost too much. The global average to build one is ~7 years. People have been saying they take too long to build as an excuse for not building them for what, two decades or more? It seems to be taking longer to not build them than to build them. > By the time a new plant is ready, alternate sources (likely solar + battery and long-distance HVDC) will have eaten its lunch. Neither of t…

Wind generally works well when solar output is low. That greatly reduces the amount of seasonal storage you need (although you still need some).

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

#347

Post by leonidasrup »

cheema33 wrote: post #245
raptor99 wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whew, very glad that a leading scientific voice like DiCaprio is speaking of this to world leaders. Solid foundations.

> Whew, very glad that a leading scientific voice like DiCaprio is speaking of this to world leaders. General public does not know the scientists by name. When they say something, few people listen. When a famous person says the same thing, many more people listen. That is the world we live in. I'll take DiCaprio or any famous person promoting a good cause any day.

Mark Jacobson for example proposes “low-cost solutions to the grid reliability problem with 100% penetration of WWS [wind, water and solar power] across all energy sectors in the continental United States between 2050 and 2055”

https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1510028112

This proposal uses unrealistic assumptions, for example it uses "copper plate model" to model electric grid of United States - it assumes that the future electric grid could transmit electric energy without any capacity limitations and the buildout of this grid would be cheap.

The proposal assumes gigantic buildout of hydropower to be used as backup solution for the times when solar and wind could not generate enough electricity. To be precise: increasing hydro capacity by 13x, which would result in water discharges that would regularly dwarf historic 100-year floods and wash away population centres on America's major river systems.

With unrealistic assumptions you can get any result you want.

Mark Jacobson has done PhD research on the role of black carbon and other aerosol chemical components on global and regional climates, under atmospheric scientist Richard P. Turco - who developed and popularized the science of nuclear winter. Because of this I think Jacobson is trying to get world of nuclear weapons, nuclear technology and nuclear power by any means necessary, even if this means publishing unrealistic proposals.

Jacobson's push toward 100% WWS is not a realistic solution to decarbonize world, it's just way to give politicians and celebrities arguments against nuclear power. "We don't need nuclear technology anywhere in the world, because in future we will have 100% wind, water and solar power energy".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Solutions_Project

Jacobson should say load and clearly the truth: I don't have realistic proposal to decarbonize world, I just want the world to get rid of nuclear bombs.

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

#348

Post by ZeroGravitas »

runako wrote: post #287
offmycloud wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

California is not anywhere near 83% renewable for total electricity generation. [1] Are you just adding up nameplace capacities without capacity factors? 1. https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=66704

One thing about power generation stats like these is they are incredibly sensitive to examination dates given the rapid growth of (especially) solar. That EIA site cuts off in August. The same EIA report shows solar grew 17% from 2024-2025. You can plug in your own assumptions to the solar growth curve since then, as well as your assumptions about the natural gas curve given the ride natgas has been on since August.…

Behind the meter solar, on both homes and factories, is about 5% in California and that gets missed from these stats too.

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

#349

Post by direwolf20 »

ambicapter wrote: post #75
direwolf20 wrote: post #46

Earlier 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.

Nuclear takes a week to restart after a shutdown, due to xenon poisoning. It's not reliable base load.

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

#350

Post by direwolf20 »

jdlshore wrote: post #294
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nobody wants to hold 30-80 year debt on giant capital projects that could be rendered obsolete. There isn't really an "obsolete" after it comes online because things get built when expected revenue exceeds construction costs + operating costs, but once built (or close enough to completion) they continue to operate as long as revenue exceeds only operating costs because by then the construction cost is in the past.…

I think you’re misunderstanding the economics at a fairly basic level. The cost to build is funded through debt that’s paid off over time. The construction costs aren’t in the past; they’re in the present, and in the future, in the form of debt payments. Think of it this way: if you buy a house, the “operating cost” is fairly small: upkeep and painting, mostly. Does that mean you can buy a house, move out of your apa…

What happens if the operating company can't pay the debt? The bank repossesses the facility. Now what does the bank do with a solar facility? Does it (A) let it rot, losing massive value, (B) run a bulldozer through it, destroying massive value or (C) find a way to operate it, receiving profit from doing so?
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