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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)

#411

Post by mpweiher »

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.

That's his usual MO.

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

#412

Post by bluGill »

celsoazevedo wrote: post #216
bluGill wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It makes me sad - most of them are fairly poor and so don't use much energy. I want those people to have the wealth to consume as much energy as me. (My city is also 100% renewable but since I live in the us we don't show near as well on the charts overall.

Is the glass half empty or half full? If they're able to produce clean energy to cover a large part of their needs, then that's a reason to be happy. We can also hope their quality of life improves without having to waste as much energy as people in the US do. The amount of electricity, gas, etc, used just to heat or cool down houses... if they can be smarter and do it while using less energy, then good for them.

Needs vs wants. I don't need most of what I use energy for. I could wear really thick coats on those -30c days in winter. Instead of indoor plumbing I could have a bucket of water that I need to draw from a well just before I use it (so it isn't frozen)... Living like that on a camping trip is even fun for a few days, but I'm glad to spend most of my time in a house where I can use a lot of energy on wants.

Now granted as they improve their quality of life I hope they can take the best technology I have. There is no reason they should build poorly insulated houses just because that is a phase we went through 100 years ago - before we knew better. (they will undoubtedly make plenty of mistakes without following ours - for that matter I what our children will think about us...)

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

#413

Post by leonidasrup »

ViewTrick1002 wrote: post #382
leonidasrup wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nuclear power plants can and do load follow. According to the current version of the European Utility Requirements (EUR) the NPP must be capable of a minimum daily load cycling operation between 50% and 100% Pr, with a rate of change of electric output of 3-5% Pr /minute. https://www.oecd-nea.org/nea-news/2011/29-2/nea-news-29-2-lo... The problem with integration of solar and wind with nuclear power is that it doesn'…

Meanwhile to achieve load following in France they sync the fuel cycles of the entire fleet and then let the plants take turns across the week. You have it the other way around. The marginal price for renewables are zero so consumers buy that first. Which means nuclear power, like the coal plant I linked, is forced to load follow. Which craters their earning potential. Nuclear power is literally the worst combination…

All the new EPR builds went terribly bad, long over planned time, over budget.

Some argue thats because European Pressurised Reactor is design that merges German Konvoi reactors with French Framatome N4 design. A design that is trying to please both German and French regulators.

https://www.decouple.media/p/epr-the-reactor-that-tried-to-p...

https://www.decouple.media/p/state-of-the-atom-2025

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

#414

Post by mpweiher »

ekianjo wrote: post #286
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 Not in China apparently

Or anywhere where you actually build them in any quantity.

France built 50+ reactors in 15 years. Their entire nuclear industry cost just €228 billion.

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

#416

Post by pfdietz »

littlestymaar wrote: post #300
pfdietz wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just political reversal risk; there's the risk of technological obsolescence. It's very much a stretch to assume a nuclear plant will remain operationally viable (in the sense of being competitive) for 40 years, never mind the 60 or 80 years sometimes mentioned, because the competition isn't standing still.

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.

> The only credible competition against a state funded nuclear plant is hypothetical next gen geothermal power though.

If we extend renewables and batteries on historical experience curves they could become incredibly cheap, with solar well below $0.01/kWh. Nuclear couldn't even make an operating profit in an environment with solar that cheap.

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

#417

Post by mpweiher »

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".

So why are the Swedes investing heavily in nuclear energy again, after nixing the nuclear exit they had on the books?

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

#418

Post by Thlom »

birktj wrote: post #105

This is a bit of a weird list. This looks at the percentage of electricity generation that is renewable. But some of these countries are net importers. I think the final row in the table from the report [1] is more interesting. It compares the generation of renewable energy as a percentage of demand. There are quite a few countries that don't quite have 100% renewable generation, but generate way more than 100% of th…

Should also compare with total energy consumption. Lots of countries have good electricity generation numbers, but use gas or oil at the consumer level for heating (and cooking) and oil products (diesel, gasoline) for transportation. Electrification matters.

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

#419

Post by swiftcoder »

leonidasrup wrote: post #401
ViewTrick1002 wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meanwhile to achieve load following in France they sync the fuel cycles of the entire fleet and then let the plants take turns across the week. You have it the other way around. The marginal price for renewables are zero so consumers buy that first. Which means nuclear power, like the coal plant I linked, is forced to load follow. Which craters their earning potential. Nuclear power is literally the worst combination…

If you are now (in the year 2026) optimizing only for costs of producing electricity then you end with electric grid which has more or less structure of Chinese electric grid - big chunk produced with domestic fueled base-load fossil fuel power plants+nuclear power plants, as much hydro as you can build, little bit variable renewables. If for example Germany would optimize for costs of producing electricity then they…

> Chinese electric grid - big chunk produced with domestic fueled base-load fossil fuel power plants+nuclear power plants, as much hydro as you can build, little bit variable renewables

This is not an accurate representation of China's power generation mix. Yes, they are only about 40% total renewables thus far, but less than 5% of that is nuclear.

Their hydro contribution is double that of nuclear, and both wind and solar are drastically higher still.

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

#420

Post by Thlom »

chinabot wrote: post #208
librasteve wrote: post #204

I see that Norway is big on renewables - great that all that Oil & Gas revenue can be used to build hydro & wind to salve their conscience.

Interesting looking at the data, that Norway generates 4x the electricity of NZ and they are roughly the same size and population I assume it exports most.

A lot of the electricity is gobbled up by a few aluminum plants, but in addition to that Norway is a very electrified country. We don't use gas at the consumer level at all (except for grilling 2 months of the year, lol) and are rapidly moving transportation to electricity.

In a normal year we are a net exporter of electricity, but it's only around 10% that is exported.

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