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Wind and solar generated more power than gas globally in April 2026

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Re: Wind and solar generated more power than gas globally in April 2026

#361

Post by defrost »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #358
jphil529 wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really curious about the difficulty of doing a self install with Solar. I'm moderately handy (built a Sauna from no plans) and confident with electrical. Any gotchas?

I don't have solar myself but I worked for a solar tech company for a couple of years I think the biggest gotcha we dealt with was that you can't (or shouldn't) just wire solar into your house and call it a day. You have to let your electrical company know, there are permits and inspections that need to be done before you wire your solar into the public grid. There may also be some relevant bylaws you should know abo…

Alternatively, in Australia at least, "bureaucracy" streamlines the issues and at various times and locations offers rebates and schemes to reduce significant upfront costs and fold those into payments over time included in bills.

Globally, this of course varies.

Re: Wind and solar generated more power than gas globally in April 2026

#362

Post by ZeroGravitas »

wallst07 wrote: post #348
ZeroGravitas wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Texas barely scrapes into the top ten red states by percentage of wind and solar, despite its ideal geography.

Texas produces more wind and solar than any other state, what are you talking about?

Not by percentage. They're just bigger and generate more electricity total.

So you could flip the stat and say they produce more fossil energy than any other state.

I can't quickly find 2025 stats but in recent years they've been 50% higher than the next state in both coal and gas fired electricity (in absolute terms).

Wikipedia has tables sortable by column by source by total and percentage from 2022 to get a rough idea:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_electri...

Texas was 33% or so wind plus solar last year. There are 6 states who had a higher percentage just from wind 3 years ago.

Re: Wind and solar generated more power than gas globally in April 2026

#363

Post by bluefirebrand »

cycomanic wrote: post #112
fp64 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not against solar, my primary issue is that in northern Europe there's not much sun at some times. Energy storage and "smart grid" are not there yet, in my view, but maybe should have come first. Hydrogen (electrolysis) sounds a bit wild and impractical to me.

That doesn't really make sense, you need the ability for significant overproduction before you start thinking about storage. The other way around is just wasting money. We are just starting to get there, but still have significant fossil fuels that we can replace even by just building out solar more and just having more over production.

Not necessarily. A large component for solar+storage is using the storage to offset the time that the energy is available. It's not just storing for overproduction

For instance, most places will have peak energy usage in the evening, when everyone gets home from work, starts the laundry, turns up the thermostat and makes dinner and such, kind of all at the same time

If you can store the solar energy at noon and use it at 6pm when everyone has come home from work and started making dinner, then you can prevent a demand peak from ramping up fossil fuel plant

So you aren't necessarily just aiming to store the overproduction, you're using the stored solar when it's more useful

Re: Wind and solar generated more power than gas globally in April 2026

#364

Post by pfdietz »

jl6 wrote: post #193
tialaramex wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I expect that a zero-fossil world does a lot more steel recycling. Today steel is insanely cheap. Not so very long ago steel was this wonder metal, too expensive to mass produce, and today the pennies most people don't want as change when buying things here have steel inside because no other metal would be cheap enough given the value of the coins. They're jacketed because people expect them to look like tarnished co…

Steel is cheap for two reasons: unaccounted externalities of the use of coal in the process, and massive scale. Coal-free steel is possible, but we don’t currently do it at scale, so there is work to do. Recycling will make sense if steel becomes much more expensive, but a future with really expensive steel is not what we should be aiming for.

The issue holding back steel recycling is contamination, most notably with copper. This forces recycled steel to be "downcycled" into lower value uses like rebar, or the recycled metal to be diluted with freshly reduced metal. A means to remove copper from molten steel is needed; there are some ideas for this being pursued.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S09213...

Re: Wind and solar generated more power than gas globally in April 2026

#365

Post by ZeroGravitas »

wallst07 wrote: post #345
dalyons wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no, sadly its somehow become part of the global culture war. Fossil is right wing manly dominant power, renewables are woke and womanly and left. Its all electrons how did we get here jesus.

Do you realize you are part of the global culture war by posting your comment? Did you know Texas produces more solar energy than California? https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05032026/inside-clean-ene...

Your comment, as appropriate for a culture war is both subtly misleading and also just flat out wrong.

Quote from your own article:

> And if we look at the sum of utility-scale and small-scale solar, California remains ahead.

The more subtle misdirection is obvious from the first sentence:

> Texas, which already leads the country in electricity generation from natural gas, coal and wind, has passed California to become the leader in utility-scale solar.

So they lead on gas, coal, wind and (utility) solar in absolute terms. Which points to them being big and/or power hungry rather than particularly green.

Important to call this out as fans of hands off government highlight Texas as their champion for renewables rollout when they are solidly mid-ranking by percentage. And they had government support for wind under previous Republican governers and all but one federal governments.

Re: Wind and solar generated more power than gas globally in April 2026

#366

Post by smartbit »

belorn wrote: post #87
erelong wrote: post #9

I know some people who are adamantly against solar and wind (personally I like both but I can see some shortcomings - for example I have heard that ai datacenters are using gas at times because of its flexibility) So what are some of the best talking points to "sell" solar and wind to the unconvinced? Or will they just adopt it once it's seen everywhere?

A few different things would help. First would be to be clear and unambiguous when it comes to building gas/oil thermal power plants in order to deal with the intermittence problem of solar and wind. Political strategies in wind and solar is built on trust, and people will quickly become unconvinced when politicians are dishonest/ambiguous about the requirements that is needed to support a grid with a high ratio of w…

Both users and companies could be incentivized to lower their consumption of electricity by increasing the price astronomical during periods of scarcity. A minimum of 1 Ampere per household without surcharge and beyond that enough to pay off the infrastructure. Taking a sauna or charging your car during peak times would costs, let’s say, €500. Assuming that in the north of Sweden there is ample Hydro energy, in the north the surcharge would be lower than in the south.

I strongly believe people and organizations would accommodate, just like during winter times in the north of Sweden one wears a different coat than in the south. But with the current system one isn’t incentivized to adapt power consumption to cost and hence more & more costs are made to build power lines from the north to feed the south of Sweden. And the same for standby fossil fuel plants.

Also prepaid electricity bills with automatic cutoff when exceeding, remaining 1 Ampere. Similar to the days when homes/tents would be heated by burning wood, during summertime one needs to collect enough firewood for the whole winter. Different times but in concept nothing new.

Re: Wind and solar generated more power than gas globally in April 2026

#367

Post by DanielHB »

scope2093 wrote: post #264
jrmg wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting solar installed on our house, providing well over 100% of our energy needs overall (including car), has left me low-key kind of angry that we, as a society, are letting so much energy just uselessly fall onto structures and the ground when we could be harvesting and using it. Especially in the US, and especially in homes, we tend to have dark roofs. Sunlight falls on these, heating the building up, then we bu…

I agree. The momentum seems to be building up though, at least in (east) Europe, so there is a glimpse of hope. Fun fact: we still don't have AC in our house (it's a new-ish building, built 4 years ago) because it's decently insulated (and we live near the mountains). As in your case, our solar produces way over 100% of what we need, so I'm considering just getting AC to use the sun to cool the house if needed :)

I live in Sweden and there is very heavy insulation, however it makes it unbearable at the end of the summer days (sunset around midnight). I am lucky my current place the bedrooms get the morning sun, not the afternoon sun like my old place.

In my old place I would often sleep in the living room sofa because of the heat.

Re: Wind and solar generated more power than gas globally in April 2026

#368

Post by DanielHB »

HerbManic wrote: post #308
jrmg wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting solar installed on our house, providing well over 100% of our energy needs overall (including car), has left me low-key kind of angry that we, as a society, are letting so much energy just uselessly fall onto structures and the ground when we could be harvesting and using it. Especially in the US, and especially in homes, we tend to have dark roofs. Sunlight falls on these, heating the building up, then we bu…

For years, maybe 20 now, I have seen a few people that seem reputable in terms of their positions and data they project that says that we should not have as many solar panels as we do. It is restrictions on rare materials etc. Some of them are probably paid to have this position, others seem genuine. And yet, look at what is happening. Year after year the exponential growth continues without a blip! It is one of thos…

Limitless energy would likely bring more ecological gains in other areas. For example vertical indoor farming with artificial lights. If energy was free it is vertical farming would be massively cheaper than it is today.

Vertical indoor farming is far more sustainable than outdoors farming.

It would also push electrifying other types of transportation that is harder to electrify like airplanes and ships. For example, if energy is free flights in smaller electric planes with more connections would be far cheaper than getting direct flights in jets.

Free energy also means cheaper recycling, currently aluminium scrap gets shipped around the world to places that have cheap energy (like iceland with geothermal power) for recycling. With free energy you would be able to do it locally.

Re: Wind and solar generated more power than gas globally in April 2026

#369

Post by DanielHB »

foxyv wrote: post #107
erelong wrote: post #9

I know some people who are adamantly against solar and wind (personally I like both but I can see some shortcomings - for example I have heard that ai datacenters are using gas at times because of its flexibility) So what are some of the best talking points to "sell" solar and wind to the unconvinced? Or will they just adopt it once it's seen everywhere?

Solar/wind is the cheapest form of power generation by far. You just can't beat it because they don't have any fuel costs. Gas peaker plants will always make sense until we have enough grid scale batteries. They will hold on for now until the price of natural gas hits rock bottom. But with the current advances in low cost battery technology I see them becoming less and less necessary. They would probably already be d…

Most places have a very different mix of electricity sources, things like hydro and imports from places further to the east (where the sun is still shinning) or wind from west-ward. Nuclear provides the same base power all around the day, etc.

The need for peaker plants to offset the need for batteries is greatly exaggerated. The batteries are mostly required for grid frequency stabilization due to renewal intermittence (clouds passing through, wind slowing down), not so much for overnight storage in most locations.

Of course this varies drastically from place to place, Hawaii for example can't really import energy production from other places.

Re: Wind and solar generated more power than gas globally in April 2026

#370

Post by imtringued »

DanielHB wrote: post #368
HerbManic wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For years, maybe 20 now, I have seen a few people that seem reputable in terms of their positions and data they project that says that we should not have as many solar panels as we do. It is restrictions on rare materials etc. Some of them are probably paid to have this position, others seem genuine. And yet, look at what is happening. Year after year the exponential growth continues without a blip! It is one of thos…

Limitless energy would likely bring more ecological gains in other areas. For example vertical indoor farming with artificial lights. If energy was free it is vertical farming would be massively cheaper than it is today. Vertical indoor farming is far more sustainable than outdoors farming. It would also push electrifying other types of transportation that is harder to electrify like airplanes and ships. For example,…

>Vertical indoor farming is far more sustainable than outdoors farming.

It's not. "Vertical indoor farming" is heavily biomass constrained and this won't change even with infinite energy.

Have you ever paid attention to the types of crops grown in vertical farms? "Leafy greens" is a phrase that is used almost exclusively in the context of vertical farms and nowhere else. Most people talk about the specific vegetables they've had in their salad, not a broad category of vegetables that can be used for salads.

"Leafy greens" are "interesting", because they have an incredibly high water content, meaning less biomass is needed to produce the same volume of produce and they tend to have small root networks, which means that most of the biomass is edible and can be sold. They also tend to be small in the vertical direction, which allows more vertical stacking.

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