Solar generates more energy in US than coal for first time

Post by mrspuratic » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 6:00 PM UTC

Filligree wrote: post #41

harmmonica wrote: post #22

Question for those in the know... See lots of press about balcony solar in Germany, and California recently introduced a bill to allow it (I'm guessing other states already allow it; not sure if the CA bill has a chance of becoming law). But how far are we from a more plug and play home solar system that becomes a primary energy source as opposed to a limited secondary source? And what are the issues with it actually…

There’s a legit grid stability issue for solar in general, balcony or no. Usage varies second by second, so the grid relies on physical inertia in the form of rotating turbines. Panels have no inertia; therefore, the more you have the less stable the grid gets. That is however something which can be fixed by grid-scale batteries. Or home systems, for that matter, if they have batteries and some equivalent of Victron’…

Post by toomuchtodo » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 6:02 PM UTC

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #40

horsawlarway wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LFPs are cheap and safe, with very good cycle counts. Sodium seems to be actually hitting real commercial production volumes (ex - GM just announced a sodium ramp up days ago, CATL has been producing them for a while). I expect we'll see sodium mature a good bit over the next decade (right now - it's just not quite as good as LFP, but it has a lot of promise in temperature extremes and cheap input materials) So sure…

I think it's your last point that's actually the strongest. There's always gaps between theoretical and practical, but to see China investing so hard in the future while the US digs in it's heels is infuriating.

Post by Marsymars » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 6:02 PM UTC

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #42

SoftTalker wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Storage is the issue. You still need to supply base load (well, all load) at night.

Contrary to popular belief, solar panels don't generate zero power on cloudy days. They typically generate 10-25% of their maximum output on the cloudiest of days. Most cloudy days are not maximally cloudy. We don't need solar panels everywhere to get even close to ~100% renewables (with nuclear, wind, new geothermal, and hydro). The areas where you put them are distributed enough that it would be exceptionally rare…

Post by harmmonica » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 6:03 PM UTC

trial3 wrote: post #28

harmmonica wrote: post #22

Question for those in the know... See lots of press about balcony solar in Germany, and California recently introduced a bill to allow it (I'm guessing other states already allow it; not sure if the CA bill has a chance of becoming law). But how far are we from a more plug and play home solar system that becomes a primary energy source as opposed to a limited secondary source? And what are the issues with it actually…

i think it’s kind of the opposite: balcony solar is good for power companies in the same way that them asking you to turn off your lights is good for power companies: if each customer is using less overall power they can serve more customers with existing infra. that obviously depends on time of use and the sun etc, but balcony solar in the USA can’t come fast enough. my electricity in NYC is almost $.40/kWh, a limit…

Post by colechristensen » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 6:04 PM UTC

thelastgallon wrote: post #38

dnautics wrote: post #26

The US currently is at per capita GHG emissions approximately at the the same level as it was in 1910. https://ourworldindata.org/profile/co2/united-states Despite not being in the paris treaty, the us needs only a 10-12% reduction to meet the paris accord requirements on schedule (43% decrease by 2030).

US consumers and businesses buy almost all their stuff from China. China's massive footprint of Coal should be added to US emissions.