Renewable energy met all new demand for electricity in 2025, according to a new review of global power generation, halting the growth of fossil fuel-powered generation and highlighting the promise of clean sources like wind and solar.

The authoritative Global Electricity Review released annually by Ember, an international energy research organization, says clean sources — especially solar — are growing fast enough and are cheap enough that they are stopping new fossil fuel-powered electricity generation. Electricity from solar and wind increased while there was no change to the amount of electricity produced from burning fossil fuels.

“We're really talking about a large-scale change in how the energy system works. And solar is among the most scalable technologies that can deliver fast change,” said Nicolas Fulghum, senior data analyst at Ember.

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[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 19 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (3 children)

Solar is so stupid cheap to maintain. Just sit and watch to see if a sensor reads bad values. No moving parts. No water boiling. Works best when it's hot too (when lots of AC is being used).

[–] MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Definitely, solar seems to be the best of all options. However, having multiple sources of power as redundancy increases stability, and helps with overlapping coverage. By this I mean, tidal can work regardless of sunshine levels/during night time, so it can cover the off hours of solar production.

Additionally, the coastal regions tend to be more wet and cloudy than other areas, so solar may not be as effective compared to say the prairies.

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Genuinely it isn't a problem on today's grid. Just build solar and the storage methods will come through time. In the meantime existing fossil fuel infrastructure can fill in the gaps.

[–] MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Makes sense, thanks!

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 3 points 3 days ago

The U.S. and Canada share 2 power grids, so their economics is about the same. Demand for new connections in the U.S. is really high, but regulations slow how many can be built. It limits how expensive electricity has gotten, at least somewhat. So unfortunately all that renewables have done is let us use more electricity.

[–] Living_Dead@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It really is, hard part is sorting through the errors and figuring out just what in the world caused the error. The amount of hardware between the inverter and grid is impressive when you have a 100kw+ system. Over 250kw it gets even better because hydro needs to be able to remotely kill your power.

[–] SreudianFlip@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Great comment, I am compelled to translate for non-locals: “hydro” is canadian for ‘the electric company’.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca -1 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Wind or hail storms can destroy acres of solar farms in minutes.

[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago (2 children)

The solar panels on my roof have been there for ten years, through at least five major hailstorms, and still work like new. What a bunch of FUD.

[–] FireRetardant@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yea this could be prevented by having adequate glass protection on the panels in areas where the risk of hail is worth that investment.

Its not like traditional power generation fares any better in extreme weather. The renewables were what survived the ice storm outage in Texas while oil and gas plants went down.

[–] SreudianFlip@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

A more vertical angle or double sided would also mitigate that risk.

Some places just get freak storms with boulder hail. Rare.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

What a bunch of FUD. So the Texas hailstorm was fake news?

Why bother to provide links when Lemmy just substitutes their own convenient versions of reality?

[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

Ok. Here’s that link you wanted.

“hail stow protocols successfully prevented widespread physical damage at several utility-scale solar farms near Fighting Jays that were also exposed to very severe hail.”

https://www.pv-tech.org/reevaluating-hailstorm-damages-fighting-jays-solar-project/

So one solar farm’s missteps in one freak storm don’t define an entire industry.

It’s a testament to solar’s resiliency that the surrounding farms near the one mentioned in the article didn’t have the same problems because they were designed differently.

Also I will admit that the solar panels on my roof probably would incur damage from a freak hailstorm like the one in your link that dumped tennis ball size hail. In a storm like that, the panels would probably be the least of my concerns.id be lucky to have a roof left on the house. I am grateful however that they have made it through multiple Texas hailstorms without any damage so far.

The bottom link mentions steps that modern farms take to protect their panels to lower insurance costs and to protect them from adverse weather events.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2024/11/11/hail-prone-texas-solar-project-cuts-insurance-costs-72/

[–] Living_Dead@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 days ago

I do solar O&M for commercial sites. We have lost 2 panels out of our nearly 20,000 to hail in 16 years of operation. Baseballs and birds dropping turtles have killed far more panels for us.

Largest killer is squirrel, those little monsters love the flavor of pv cable it seems.

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Oh no! "Thousands" of panels out of however many that article refused to say?? This is much worse than a nuclear meltdown or natural gas explosion.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

out of however many that article refused to say

It can be hard to read some text with one's head up one's ass, so I'll highlight:

hail claims now average around $58.4 million per claim and account for 54.21% of incurred costs of total solar loss claims attributable to hail. This creates a gap between the insurance requirements for solar projects and what is available in the market, leading to project delays and cancellations.*

The point was damage claims are so high insurance is pulling out.

News Report of home solar damage.

And

News report validating the videos of damaged solar farms.

But maybe your versions of reality don't have hail, wind or ice.

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 1 points 2 days ago

I live in Arizona we barely have wind.

I'm sure we can find a solution to creating more durable panels if we as a society give a shit and appropriately allocate resources.