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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[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The Drake Landing Solar Community (DLSC) was a planned community in Okotoks, Alberta, Canada, equipped with a central solar heating system and other energy efficient technologies. This heating system is the first of its kind in North America, although much larger systems have been built in northern Europe. The 52 homes (few variation of size and style, with average above-grade floor area of 145m2) in the community are heated with a solar district heating system that is charged with heat originating from solar collectors on the garage roofs and is enabled for year-round heating by underground seasonal thermal energy storage (STES).[1]

The system was designed to model a way of addressing global warming and the burning of fossil fuels. The solar energy is captured by 800 solar thermal collectors[2] located on the roofs of all 52 houses' garages.[3] It is billed as the first solar powered subdivision in North America,[4] although its electricity and transportation needs are provided by conventional sources.

In 2012 the installation achieved a world record solar fraction of 97%; that is, providing that amount of the community's heating requirements with solar energy over a one-year time span.[5][6]

In 2015–2016 season the installation achieved a solar fraction of 100%.[7][8] This was achieved by the borehole thermal storage system (BTES) finally reaching high temperature after years of charging, as well as improving control methods, operating pumps at lower speed most of the time, reducing extra energy need as well using weather forecasts to optimize transfer of heat between different storage tanks and loops. During some other years, auxiliary gas heaters are used for a small fraction of the year to provide heat to a district loop. The systems operate at coefficient of performance of 30.

But it died after 17 successful years (was only a pilot for 4 years) because Alberta.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_Landing_Solar_Community

[–] LoveCanada@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I am aware of that project but had no idea it died.

A little research says it didnt die "because Alberta". It died because it became too expensive to fix and became unreliable, and the houses were converted to natural gas heating. Go figure. From cool to reliable - I rest my case. Albertans at -40c care about reliability.

Wiki: "In 2020, the system started showing signs of deterioration resulting in significant maintenance issues. System components, knowledge, and technical expertise for repairs were becoming increasingly challenging to find. In response to system failures, the Drake Landing Solar Company added redundancies to the system to be sure that homes in the community were receiving heat.

After a thorough investigation on available next steps, it was determined that the significant reinvestment required to have the system operate reliably, was simply something that neither the Drake Landing Solar Company board nor the collective community could afford.

In 2024, a decommissioning process for the Drake Landing Solar Community began, where the majority of the 52 homes were converted to natural gas-fired furnaces."

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago

The community got free heat for 17 years and refused to maintain the infrastructure with the cost savings, so they converted to gas.

That is CLASSIC Alberta.

South of Calgary does not see -40C. Rarely below -12C.