Posted on 05/22/2025 10:38:37 AM PDT by BeauBo
This summer, solar power generation globally could exceed electricity from nuclear power plants for the first time ever, as solar capacity soars and sunlight and daylight hours are long in the northern hemisphere.
Global solar power generation jumped by 34% in the first quarter of 2025 from the same period in 2024, according to data from Ember cited by Reuters columnist Gavin Maguire.
If the pace of growth is sustained though June, July, and August, solar output is set to top 260 terawatt hours (TWh) in the summer months. This would beat the average 223 TWh of global nuclear power generation from 2024, Maguire notes.
Last year, record growth in renewables led by solar helped push clean power above 40% of global electricity in 2024, Ember said in its Global Electricity Review 2025 last month. However, heatwave-related demand spikes led to a small increase in fossil generation, too, the clean energy think tank said.
“Solar generation has maintained its high growth rate, doubling in the last three years, and adding more electricity than any other source over that period,” Ember’s analysts wrote in the report.
More than half, or 53%, of the increase in solar generation in 2024 was in China.
(Excerpt) Read more at oilprice.com ...
At Night?
Respectfully, decentralized solar is best because we can figure out better than the utility on what's best for our particular power needs. Particularly if there's no net metering and we get rid of subsidies. (For the record, my power utility does not do net metering and the tax credits I got artificially inflated the prices I paid up front anyway, so IMHO they don't help the consumer nor impact his decisions on if or how much. All the tax credits do is give extra money to the solar suppliers.)
Here's what I mean by decentralized solar (or DIY solar) being best for figuring out power needs. I'm the end consumer of my power. I'm more familiar with my power consumption habits and how much I may or may not change them over the next decade. (i.e. The power utility has no clue if my wife and I are planning on having kids and consume more power in the near future, or if my kids might be grown soon and move out and I'll consume less power, or I may soon get an EV, etc.). And if I'm not knowledgeable about those things today, I darn sure will be before I spend my money on a solar system. Me having skin in the game incentivizes me to make sure it's worth it. (Very much like us conservatives argue about health care would be less expensive if the govt got out of it and the only one paying would be the patient, or his insurance he pays for, being the same person who decided to go to the doctor.)
Things like net metering disincentives the solar buyer from making sure he's being efficient with his solar (including his decisions on whether or not to buy solar and battery storage and how much). Net metering is the policy some states force (though I believe even the most bluest of states are backing away from it) a utility to pay the solar user for excess power sold to the grid. With net metering, the power utility would buy power from me at the same rate per kWh that they sell power to me when I need it. Thus, I would treat the grid like it's my battery and store to the grid a lot of power during the day, then pull from the grid the power I need at night as though there's no cost. In that situation I might even make a lot of money from the grid (incentivizing me to buy more solar than I needed).
Because I don't have net metering, I was incentivized to buy some battery storage, and also to set up a system to charge my EV most of the time with free power before selling power to the grid (reducing the power I'd later pull from the grid). My solar inverters do that for me automatically. No bureaucrat figured that out for me. The utility didn't figure it out. I did because I have skin in the game. When solar power comes in, my inverters operate under the algorithm: 1) first dibs goes to power the home's electrical panels (load), if there's excess, then 2) charge the home batteries until they're at least 70% (enough to power the home through the night without the grid). If there's still more excess then 3) power the extra electrical panel that one of the EV charger circuits is tied to (use the excess power to charge the EV up to whatever the EV is set to charge to, which is usually 80% to give my wife and me about 4 days' of driving). If there's still more excess solar then 4) charge the home batteries to 100% (power not just tonight but part of tomorrow night if tomorrow is a rainy day). If the home batteries are 100% charged and there's still power coming in from solar, then 5) sell power to the grid and get a few cents per kWh.
Plus the farther we drill into the earth the more likely we can use geothermal energy to heat and power our homes and grid.
The country of Iceland runs almost completely on geothermal power. Could we power all of Hawaii on this? They have one geothermal plant on the big island.
How about Wyoming, Oregon, Washington state or any other place where there are volcanoes?
Let’s see demand at midnight.
“ 34% in one year?.. that’s one hell of a big jump in one year.”
Yes, that is why I wanted to post this - for general situational awareness of what is happening.
This very rapid growth is occurring mainly in China and to a lesser extent in Europe.
China is installing a tidal wave of solar panels, as well as increasing domestic coal production significantly, to reduce their dependency on oil imports. They also lead the world in the adoption of electric cars, also reducing oil demand.
They are moving quickly, but it is still a mid-long term project.
Now they celebrate feigned progress in the green agenda.
May be smarter than you haha.
Higher income, higher education, made my money in main street manufacturing industry. Chess championship, broke my age many times for 18 hole rounds at multiple courses. How about you?
That is my point. This push towards green energy in United States is very premature.
“You cannot have a reliable grid with wind and solar and batteries because they have no inertia”
Batteries can respond faster to disturbances than rotating masses.
Just so everyone understands why their electric bills keep going up.
We’re at 70% of power from solar on an annual basis.
The Georgia max residential grid-tied system was 10 kW back when we bought it. So be it.
Then Georgia went from instant net metering to monthly net metering so realistically we only net to zero in May and September. Loads are low, weather is cooler, and sun is still good.
But during a day like today we’re exporting a LOT of power with the prospect of earning only $.07/kWh, when the retail price in $.12/kWh. Not concerned about getting a check from the Coop. I like reducing my overall power bill by 35% (including amortizing the system) AND since we have a battery we can run when the grid is down, which happens frequently out in the sticks where we are.
While we still own two ICE vehicles, I did buy an electric truck (Ford Lightning) and right now it is outside charging ‘for free’ off the sun. THAT is a winner.
Unless those solar panels are made in China, and their “kill switches” trigger a blackout.
I drive locally but 4000mi./yr.
I still have two 20 yr old VW TDI m/t s/ws that get 50 mpg.
80 gal/yr = $300.
Alabama Power pays us 2.91 cents to 4.93 cents per kWh we sell, depending on time of day and month of the year. Yet, we're charged 15 to 16 cents per kWh (after adding in fuel rate rider per kWh). So I'm way incentivized to minimize my grid pull before I sell power.
We drive our EV crossover 18K miles per year on home charged miles (plus 6K miles charged away from home). That's 1,500 miles per month of home charged miles.
End result? My past 12 power bills totaled $933. That's $73/month. For an all-electric, 2,300 sq ft home.
For 8 months out of the year: March - October, I rarely pull from the grid. Most of the 4,386 kWh I pulled from the grid in 2024 was in Jan-Feb, and November-Dec. I sold 4,208 kWh to the grid, but the real cash savings was the fact that I didn't have to pull from the grid 17,987 kWh of the 22,373 kWh I consumed.
$73/month power bill. No natural gas bill. And almost no gasoline cost (what little we drive the gas pickup). While driving 1,500 miles/month in the EV.
“An example is a power outage. If 20,000 houses lose power, try bringing them back online all at once with wind solar and batteries. Not gonna happen. “
Even the smaller units can handle that with ease.
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