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'Unstoppable force' of solar power propels world to 40% clean electricity

(news.sky.com)
177 points belter | 2 comments | 08 Apr 25 10:11 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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melling ◴[08 Apr 25 13:43 UTC] No.43621706[source]▶
“ And solar was the fastest-growing electricity source for the 20th year in a row.

It now provides 7% of the world's electricity”

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Night_Thastus ◴[08 Apr 25 15:06 UTC] No.43622643[source]▶
The economics have shifted. It used to be that solar or wind were more experimental, and lacked any economies of scale. Their production was poor and less was known about how they fared in the long term.

Now, their prices have gone down, their generation per unit has gone up, and much more is known about how they behave long-term.

The world has a LOT of power generation. It will take time to replace. But with every time that some existing power generation source shuts down due to age, or expansion occurs somewhere, it will inevitably be done with solar/wind. It's just more cost effective now.

In the end it is not environmental concerns that will cause solar and wind to become commonplace. It's just economics. Slapping down something that generates power for 20-30 years with no input fuel is just way more economically feasible than anything that requires fuel. They still have maintenance costs, but it's nothing by comparison. They can completely undercut other sources of power.

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tracerbulletx ◴[08 Apr 25 16:03 UTC] No.43623299[source]▶
Storage capacity on the grid will need to massively increase as well for solar to go much further.
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ZeroGravitas ◴[08 Apr 25 16:44 UTC] No.43623767[source]▶
Solar is nowhere near hitting limits that will require storage to continue growth. Like it could double several more times globally and not require storage to still make sense to roll out more.

But, storage is already growing at a pace similar to solar because it's cheaper than the alternatives.

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zozbot234 ◴[08 Apr 25 16:50 UTC] No.43623832[source]▶
The bulk of storage on the grid is just pumped hydro, everything else is literally a drop in the bucket. Some people like to make the argument that battery storage can grow enough to become relevant but that's just speculation, it hasn't happened so far.
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toomuchtodo ◴[08 Apr 25 17:30 UTC] No.43624308{3}[source]▶
https://thedriven.io/2025/03/25/byd-leads-unstoppable-charge... ("In 2024, 3,100 GWh of fully commissioned battery-cell manufacturing capacity was online, more than 2.5x that of annual demand. This has driven massive demand growth for EVs and stationary energy storage (BESS) systems globally, with China continuing to dominate.")

Global BESS deployments soared 53% in 2024 - https://www.energy-storage.news/global-bess-deployments-soar... - January 14, 2025 ("Storage installations in 2024 beat expectations with 205GWh installed globally, a staggering y-o-y increase of 53%. The grid market has once again been the driver of growth, with more than 160GWh deployed globally, of which 98% was lithium-ion.")

China’s Batteries Are Now Cheap Enough to Power Huge Shifts - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-07-09/china-... | https://archive.today/DklaA - July 9, 2024

China Already Makes as Many Batteries as the Entire World Wants - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-04-12/china-... | https://archive.today/8Dy4D - April 12, 2024

Global BESS deployments to exceed 400GWh annually by 2030, says Rystad Energy - https://www.energy-storage.news/global-bess-deployments-to-e... - June 15, 2023

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hnaccount_rng ◴[08 Apr 25 17:51 UTC] No.43624550{4}[source]▶
To put that number into perspective: That's about three days of Germany's electricity usage. And we can easily absorb 2-3 days in the electric grid alone.
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1. toomuchtodo ◴[08 Apr 25 18:24 UTC] No.43624911{5}[source]▶
Every 30 minutes, enough sunlight falls on Earth to power humanity for a year. It is simply a matter of scaling up fusion energy at a distance.
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2. hnaccount_rng ◴[08 Apr 25 18:30 UTC] No.43625015[source]▶
Oh please don't misunderstand me: We will end up using solar (or wind, which is really just solar with an extra detour), mostly because we have about 4 orders of magnitude more energy available there than we need. I just wanted to put the (admittedly impressive sounding) number of 3,100 GWh annual battery production capacity in perspective.

And to further qualify that: The capacity is increasing rapidly (but we will need it)