Solar generates more energy than coal in US for 1st time: Report

The advantage most Nordic countries have is hydropower (average about 55%) and consistent wind. Denmark has about 58% wind power.

I'm in Australia and our main advantage is solar power (20% and increasing). We don't have much in the way of hydropower (less than 5%).

For wind we average about 14%.

There are plans for a hydrogen highway for heavy transport up the East Coast (Melbourne - Sydney - Brisbane and later Townsville) but not much has happened so far.

If that happens then hydrogen cars would follow. Japan and Korea are doing something similar.

Japan's Hydrogen Corridor Initiative

• Focus on Freight: A public-private council in Japan is developing a massive hydrogen-powered transport network and freight corridors to connect major industrial zones, targeting hundreds of hydrogen trucks by 2031. [1, 2]

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South Korea's Hydrogen Infrastructure

• .... Mobility Expansion: The government is targeting hundreds of operational refueling stations while heavily subsidizing hydrogen retail costs (keeping prices stable at around 10,000 won or $7.50 per kilogram) to protect consumers from volatile global gas prices. [1, 2]

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Tuur said:

.....My favorite is nuclear, which gives some the heebie-jeebies, but when in operation doesn't produce greenhouse gasses at all. Note that this often seems to be off-the-table due to issues like disposing of nuclear waste. That leads to the question of which do we want less? Greenhouse gasses or nuclear waste? There's seldom perfect solutions.

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Nuclear really is the best of a bad situation - at least as part of an overall energy solution.

But does America even possess the competence anymore to do it well?

Bob Crowley said:

The advantage most Nordic countries have is hydropower (average about 55%) and consistent wind. Denmark has about 58% wind power.

I'm in Australia and our main advantage is solar power (20% and increasing). We don't have much in the way of hydropower (less than 5%).

For wind we average about 14%.

There are plans for a hydrogen highway for heavy transport up the East Coast (Melbourne - Sydney - Brisbane and later Townsville) but not much has happened so far.

If that happens then hydrogen cars would follow. Japan and Korea are doing something similar.

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Hydrogen sounds great except for how hard it is to keep those cute little hydrogens bottled up. They are so tiny.

durangodawood said:

Nuclear really is the best of a bad situation - at least as part of an overall energy solution.

But does America even possess the competence anymore to do it well?

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Apparently, many here expect America to do wind and solar really well. If American can do that well, it can do nuclear well.

As it happens, since the tech never went away, then yes. There's some R&D designs, but if we consider standard US electric generation design, then yes, it can be done. Case in point is the expansion of Vogtle, which went online oh, maybe about three years ago. So yes, it can be done with what we have now.

You touched on something important: Nuclear is the best of a bad situation. Engineering often comes down to the best possible solution for a given set of parameters. If reducing the creation of greenhouse gasses is the top priority, nuclear is the way to go. If, however, it's not, then that changes. There's seldom a solution that makes everyone happy.

durangodawood said:

Hydrogen sounds great except for how hard it is to keep those cute little hydrogens bottled up. They are so tiny.

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A odor agent would have to be added, just like with natural gas. In the case of hydrogen, a coloring agent so that the flame is visible would have to be added, too.

Stopped_lurking said:

For the Great plains I looked at Nebraska, they seem to have quite good wind conditions for land based installations.

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With electricity, though, the issue is location, location, location. I think geothermal is way cool (so to speak) but getting it to where it needs to go in the US can be iffy. Granted that Nebraska isn't a vast wasteland, but there's not many urban centers close by.

Stopped_lurking said:

I'm talking about large wind power projects where you integrate them with existing power grids,

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Same problem. Without a way to store electricity from intermittent sources, you have to have other capacity that you can bring online. It's when that capacity is no longer sufficient or removed that there's trouble. Here we have people jumping up and down like a Richard Simmons on a sugar high about solar without solar and wind and never realizing that's only part of it. Then, when some of us point that out, we're told "Oh, but surely they've taken it into account." Wishful thinking doesn't keep the lights on.

Tuur said:

Then, when some of us point that out, we're told "Oh, but surely they've taken it into account." Wishful thinking doesn't keep the lights on.

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Except you've been given details of South Australia who are world leaders in the soon to be realised aim of net zero.

It's not that it can't be done. And yes, there are problems to be addressed depending on individual circumstances. You just need the will to do it.

Tuur said:

With electricity, though, the issue is location, location, location. I think geothermal is way cool (so to speak) but getting it to where it needs to go in the US can be iffy. Granted that Nebraska isn't a vast wasteland, but there's not many urban centers close by.

Same problem. Without a way to store electricity from intermittent sources, you have to have other capacity that you can bring online. It's when that capacity is no longer sufficient or removed that there's trouble. Here we have people jumping up and down like a Richard Simmons on a sugar high about solar without solar and wind and never realizing that's only part of it. Then, when some of us point that out, we're told "Oh, but surely they've taken it into account." Wishful thinking doesn't keep the lights on.

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Storage is one leg of the solution, but building overcapacity, and an integrated power grid and diverse sources can help as well (if there already is hydroelectric, saving that water is in effect a battery even without pumped storage). Not burning (as much) fuel in a gas-fired plant is also a type of storage.

These are not insurmountable challenges in general. For some places perhaps. Biofuels are also solutions in some places, they work really well for combined heating and power generation plants (it is the main heating source in Sweden, we get them as a byproduct of the wood industry).

Renewables (ca 50%) + nuclear (ca 20%) makes up the majority of energy sources for electric power generation within the EU. The US cannot copy it directly, but across the world there are a lot of tried and tested system approaches. Pick and choose solutions that are suitable for each area/state.

Stopped_lurking said:

Storage is one leg of the solution, but building overcapacity, and an integrated power grid and diverse sources can help as well (if there already is hydroelectric, saving that water is in effect a battery even without pumped storage). Not burning (as much) fuel in a gas-fired plant is also a type of storage.

These are not insurmountable challenges in general. For some places perhaps. Biofuels are also solutions in some places, they work really well for combined heating and power generation plants (it is the main heating source in Sweden, we get them as a byproduct of the wood industry).

Renewables (ca 50%) + nuclear (ca 20%) makes up the majority of energy sources for electric power generation within the EU. The US cannot copy it directly, but across the world there are a lot of tried and tested system approaches. Pick and choose solutions that are suitable for each area/state.

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The energy-sector in the U.S. isn’t a socialistic endeavor though, it’s almost thoroughly “free-market”; over-capacity isn’t a hallmark of a free-market system.

Pommer said:

The energy-sector in the U.S. isn’t a socialistic endeavor though, it’s almost thoroughly “free-market”; over-capacity isn’t a hallmark of a free-market system.

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It is, if not having it makes you lose customers (due to capacity insufficiency). That was meant mostly tongue in cheek. In general your statement is true.

Can US customers buy their energy from multiple utilities companies? Or are you stuck with the one who built the infrastructure? Here consumption and transmission costs are divided, and generated power is sold on a common market (since 1996) so it behoves all actors to make sure that installed capacity is enough.

Here is very loosely how it works. It is in swedish but I checked and after right-click and translate to english it still made sense.

In new projects the cost for the overcapacity (or other countermeasures) needed is part of the calculation.

ETA: What I mean to say that it is true that power-generation was once seen as a suitable project for the government to be involved in. But I think the US government also was involved in major hydroelectric projects historically. The market is open for private actors today.

ETA for the next part: Whilst it is true that designing with too small an overcapacity might be a shortcut for those with a wide conscience, electric system design have always contained that part. No system are even close to full utilization, the capacity factor for natural gas in the US I think is between 0.5-0.6. Even natural gas generators numbers or nominal output needs to take that into account.

Natural gas is in economic terms still quite a competitive fuel, and the natural comparator in the US. But wind + peaking generators (if needed) are still in the same ballpark with the added bonus that they emit less CO2. Coal is more expensive.

Picture from here https://www.lazard.com/media/eijnqja3/lazards-lcoeplus-june-2025.pdf

The reason for California's high firming costs is, if I understand correctly, that they use litium-ion batteries instead of natural gas to meet peak demand.



I realize that I'm rambling on, take it for what it is, just an interest of mine