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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)

#361

Post by leonidasrup »

jcattle wrote: post #319
ambicapter wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Building dams is not without environmental costs especially in water stressed regions. Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has long been a source of tension between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt.

https://www.dw.com/en/gerd-grand-ethiopian-renaissance-dam-s...

Motuo Hydropower Station - will overtake the Three Gorges dam as the world's largest. The project has attracted criticism for its potential impact on millions of Indians and Bangladeshis living downriver, as well as the surrounding environment and local Tibetans.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gk1251w14o

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

#362

Post by tialaramex »

hvb2 wrote: post #144
thangalin wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's dangerous. For millenia. See https://www.jlab.org/news/releases/jefferson-lab-tapped-lead... > Partitioning and recycling of uranium, plutonium, and minor actinide content of used nuclear fuel can dramatically reduce this number to around 300 years.

The word CAN is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. Let's not pretend like the track record of energy production is free of externalities. We CAN also produce almost all of our plastics from recycled ones. We don't, because those are more expensive than new.

One reason new plastic is so cheap is that we wanted the other parts of the oil to run automobiles and planes. So if we stop doing that suddenly recycling the plastic makes more sense too...

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

#364

Post by leonidasrup »

jdlshore wrote: post #108
ambicapter wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or just use nuclear as base load, and battery storage as much as you can.

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.

Build times and costs of long-distance HVDC is comparable to build times and costs of nuclear power plants.

https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/germany-starts-construc...

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

#365

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

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's €1.6tn up to 2040. And it's not being built to fix problems "caused by intermittent sources" so much as a complete overhaul of a grid for 27 countries, some of which are relatively backward, with standardised digital control, plus significant new interconnectors.

The finished grid will be far more robust, better able to handle local outages and issues, and generally more adaptive and open to development in various directions.

As for "cheap energy" raising prices - prices rose a little after Covid, but there's been no constant march upwards. The main driver of higher prices is gas, and eliminating gas dependence, for both for financial and strategic reasons, is a key goal.

The current situation in Iran is likely to increase that motivation.

A key point about renewables is that power doesn't rely on imports from war zones.

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

#366

Post by fi358 »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #355
mastermage wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Yes, it's a mix. It's always a mix. Arguing that "renewables" = "solar" is a classic straw man. So is comparing rooftop solar for a single property to grid solar for a country to a continent-sized grid of mixed renewable sources. Battery and storage tech are barely getting started. Pumped storage is perfectly capable of smoothing out seasonal loads. There's some capex for physical pumped storage - less than for a nuk…

I think the amount of energy needed during wintertime would be difficult to cover with pumped storage or traditional batteries. You have to have suitable geography for pumped storage and also enough (fresh) water available for that. However, instead of water compressed air could be also used, but that has also problems.

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

#367

Post by 0123456789ABCDE »

IshKebab wrote: post #124
bopjesvla wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Netherlands: 86%, dominated by solar & wind The Dutch bureau of statistics reports 50%, of which a plurality (one third) is biomass. The Netherlands is also famously gas-dependent. Natural gas isn’t converted to electricity for heating and many industrial applications. Can’t quickly find stats on production here, but renewables are only 17% of total energy usage. Renewables without biomass are ~12% of total ene…

This is just goalpost moving. Only a couple of decades ago we were at a solid 0% everywhere.

hydro electric dams and wind turbines exist since, at least, the 1880s. [^1][^2]

and if wasn't for ronald reagan, the united states might have achieved 20% solar power energy production before the year 2000. [^3]

these are not new (two decade) technologies.

[^1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroelectricity#History

[^2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power#History

[^3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power#Development_and_de...

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

#368

Post by leonidasrup »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #150
Tepix wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it unnecessary burden? We've had major nuclear accidents despite regulations and that was before 9/11 and dron wars.

What's the fatality rate per GWh of civilian nuclear power in the US vs. other forms of power generation?

Nuclear and renewables are far, far safer than fossil fuels.

Fossil fuels and biomass kill many more people than nuclear and modern renewables per unit of electricity. Coal is, by far, the dirtiest.

https://ourworldindata.org/nuclear-energy#safety-of-nuclear-...

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

#369

Post by ViewTrick1002 »

littlestymaar wrote: post #344
ViewTrick1002 wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Read the report and tell me that the cause is renewables and not reactive power through a Swiss cheese model of mismanagement.

https://www.entsoe.eu/publications/blackout/28-april-2025-ib...

And then you deny the local law in my jurisdiction, because you can’t accept the outcome.

Then you say that this FERC requirement for renewables managing reactive power from 2016 does not exist.

https://www.ferc.gov/sites/default/files/2020-06/RM16-1-000....

Then you say that storage does not exist on any relevant scale. While this is reality.

https://blog.gridstatus.io/caiso-solar-storage-spring-2025/

https://en.cnesa.org/latest-news/2026/1/23/an-additional-664...

Why are you so afraid of renewables and storage? Why can’t you stay with the truth?

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

#370

Post by phtrivier »

LastTrain wrote: post #87
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…

They worked within the constraints of their own topography - good and bad - to make it work. That is too hard for everyone else?

It is indeed harder if you topography writes off certain kind of electricity production.

But of course, good for them that they used their mountains / rivers ! All all power to them to electrify their economies if they have surplus ! And even better if they can use some reservoirs and pump to store, because it means they can diversify their productions by adding wind / solar and store a lot, until batteries of seasonal scale become more widespread.

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