11 ms·
Following 35% growth, solar has passed hydro on US grid
- toomuchtodo 9mo ago> While the Trump administration has been hostile to renewable energy, there’s only so much it can do to fight the economics. A recent analysis of planned projects indicates that the US will see another 43 GW of solar capacity added in 2026—far more than the 27 GW added in 2025. That will be joined by 12 GW of wind power, with over 10 percent of that coming from two of the offshore wind projects that the administration has repeatedly failed to block. The largest wind farm yet built in the US, a 3.6 GW monster in New Mexico, is also expected to begin operations in 2026. Hopecore. Onward. The horrors persist, but so do we. https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=67205 https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=67205 https://web.archive.org/web/20260225073026/https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/images/2026.02.20/chart2.svg https://web.archive.org/web/20260225073026/https://www.eia.g...
- epistasis 9mo agoThose offshore wind farms are getting completed mostly because they were so deep into development when Trump tried to cancel them, with a ton of sunk costs. So the companies were able to make the decision to go forward because the extra costs of delays and lawsuits were still cheaper than abandoning the build entirely. Future offshore wind farms now need to add in the expected costs and project risks of this sort of illegal government action when they make the decision at the early stage. Trump is likely to have delayed off shore wind in the US by at least 4 years, and may be many more. This will cost ratepayers a lot, and set the US behind most other countries in the world. Agreed on solar and batteries being mostly unstoppable, though. The Trump administration has not yet figured how to misuse the courts to block those. Their better influence is through PUCs and utility execs, that are likely to bend to the will of Trump.
- toomuchtodo 9mo agoI hear you, I'm just saying we keep grinding forward. This admin has less than 3 years to go. Nothing stops this freight train, even if they try to slow it down. You can't fix stupid, you can just keep turning the gears to grind it down. > Trump is likely to have delayed off shore wind in the US by at least 4 years, and may be many more. This will cost ratepayers a lot, and set the US behind most other countries in the world. Democracy has unfortunate failure scenarios, make a note for history books and system design lessons. The electorate should learn to vote better next time. Existing coal plants will get run into the ground (they only supplied 16% of power in the US in 2024, and that number will decline forever), and there are only two gas turbine manufacturers in the world; their backlog is 5-7 years. As the US exports more LNG, that will force domestic prices up, pushing up electricity prices of generation from fossil gas. Renewables and battery storage will be the only option. As of this comment, the world is very close to 1TW/year of solar PV deployment, and this will not slow down: https://ember-energy.org/focus-areas/clean-electricity/ https://ember-energy.org/focus-areas/clean-electricity/ https://ember-energy.org/latest-updates/global-solar-installations-surge-64-in-first-half-of-2025/ https://ember-energy.org/latest-updates/global-solar-install...
- bubblewand 9mo ago> Democracy has unfortunate failure scenarios, make a note for history books and system design lessons. Vote better next time. Major problems with the US system have been known for a long time. It's been regarded as basically obsolete for over a century now, by the kind of people who study this stuff.
- Zigurd 9mo agoHow about we try keeping big money out of politics and using ranked preference voting before we declare democracy obsolete? People have been studying that stuff.
- triceratops 9mo agoI think they're talking about the flaws in presidential democracies. Not democracy itself. Parliamentary democracies are supposed to be a better design.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- Wistar 9mo agoRelated: Alec Watson’s recent, and excellent, Technology Connections YouTube piece on renewable energy. “You are being misled about renewable energy technology” https://youtu.be/KtQ9nt2ZeGM?si=CJ_Tt9DnWSKH8eGC https://youtu.be/KtQ9nt2ZeGM?si=CJ_Tt9DnWSKH8eGC
- AnotherGoodName 9mo agoOne nice thing about what’s happening is that politics are losing to reality. I’m not even sure how this became a left vs right issue in the first place (isn’t the right meant to be pro free market!?) but it doesn’t matter at this point anyway. Eg. Texas is doing really well in renewable rollouts (see the amount of battery capacity they are putting in - https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/energy-environment/2026/02/25/544339/texas-power-energy-storage-battery-data-centers/ https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/energy-envi... It’s certainly not because of Texan politics either. It’s just cold hard reality. Renewables won’t be stopped at this point. Even the executive orders to halt wind farms don’t make a dent in what’s happening. We may end up a few years later than other nations but at least it’s unstoppable.
- lm28469 9mo ago> I’m not even sure how this became a left vs right issue in the first place (isn’t the right meant to be pro free market!?) Besides the whole petro money and lobbyism thing that drove the US politics since Edwin Drake?
- sheikhnbake 9mo agoIt became left vs right because the interests of the rich have an easier time exploiting the right wing's vulnerability to fusion identity. The right wing is defined by a collective appreciation for hierarchies and conformity. A lot of folks are spreading the message 'it's not right vs left but up vs down when in reality its both.
- AxiomaticSpace 9mo agoYea I wonder how that battery capacity graph will look like post January 2026, since Texas's SB388 specifically excludes batteries from it's dispatchable power generation requirements. That doesn't necessarily prevent batteries storage from being constructed, but it does tilt the field pretty heavily in favor of natural gas.
- crystal_revenge 9mo agoIt's also been a great year for oil production which has reached new record highs in the US! [0] 0. https://www.energy.gov/state-american-energy-promises-made-promises-kept https://www.energy.gov/state-american-energy-promises-made-p...
- toomuchtodo 9mo agoThere is global oil oversupply of ~2M-3.7M barrels/day. China destroys ~1M barrels/day of global oil demand for every 24 months of EV production. Iran needs $164/barrel to break even on their budget, $86/barrel for Saudi Arabia, ~$60 for US shale (per Bloomberg). China has already potentially hit peak oil and ~>50% of new vehicle sales are battery electric or plug in hybrids. Oil is over, regardless of this admin's propaganda on the topic. If we want to speed up the US EV transition, we push refineries into retirement faster, pushing up refined gasoline prices. No one will build new refineries due to stranded asset risk, so those that remain are on borrowed time. Oil analysts say there is a supply glut — why that hasn't translated to lower prices this year - https://finance.yahoo.com/news/oil-analysts-say-there-is-a-supply-glut--why-that-hasnt-translated-to-lower-prices-this-year-150108444.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/oil-analysts-say-there-is-a-s... - February 22nd, 2026 ("Coming into 2026, the consensus view among oil analysts was that the crude market was entering a period of deep oversupply, likely to keep depressing prices throughout the year. In 2025, oil prices fell by roughly 20% as the glut widened.") US drillers cut oil rigs to lowest in four years, Baker Hughes says - https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-drillers-cut-oil-gas-rigs-first-time-four-weeks-baker-hughes-says-2025-11-26/ https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-drillers-cut-oil-... | https://archive.today/84kwl https://archive.today/84kwl - November 26th, 2025 China’s shrinking oil footprint: How electric vehicle adoption is shaping China’s oil consumption - https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/chinas-shrinking-oil-footprint-how-electric-vehicle-adoption-shaping-chinas-oil https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/chinas-shrinking-oil-footprin... - November 4th, 2025 North American Oil Refineries and Pipelines - https://www.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=5e7f84d84b4542f09b17c398a90ec5be https://www.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=5e7f84d84b... (no current oil commodity exposure)
- whatever1 9mo ago
- ertgbnm 9mo agoI am reminded by the perhaps revisionist history but still applicable belief that slavery was really ended by industrialization making abolition economically advantageous and not actually a socially driven movement. (In reality it was certainly a convoluted mixture of the two I'm sure.) I hope we are in a similar era with regards to climate change. Surely there's a lot of money to be made in harnessing effectively unlimited renewable energy that literally falls from the sky like manna. With a bit of social pressure we should be able to extinct the fossil fuel industry in my opinion.
- tonymet 9mo agoSlavery was ended in the USA by the Civil War veterans.
- JumpCrisscross 9mo ago> With a bit of social pressure we should be able to extinct the fossil fuel industry Taking Europe versus China, California versus Texas, it seems like social pressure is less effective than markets. Let markets build the power source they want to build and lo and behold you get lots of solar and wind and batteries.
- Retric 9mo agoThat’s true today, it wasn’t true when Germany was heavily subsidizing solar to get economies of scale going. Solar is historically a great example where public / private collaboration actually had a place. Even if today it’s time to let market forces work.
- matthewdgreen 9mo agoSolar is just one technology. Decarbonizing successfully requires still further huge investments in batteries, modular nuclear reactors, CO2 removal, zero-carbon steel production, aviation e-fuels, non-fossil plastics, etc. But yes, hopefully we've unlocked enough economic advantage with just that one technology to get us 90% of the way there just on the basis of economics. (If the current administration doesn't find some way to sabotage it.)
- jp191919 9mo agoI wonder why existing hydro isn't utilized to it's potential. For instance, the Grand Coulee Dam has the highest capacity of any power station in the US of almost 7 MW but usually puts out about a third of that.
- ceejayoz 9mo agoIt turns out that "releasing immense amounts of water downstream" can have side effects.
- ikawe 9mo agoWhat do you think is happening to the water not being utilized in the production of power? I assumed it's still being run downstream, just not through the power producing turbines. I'd expect there's not a big effect on the ultimate amount of water being released downstream either way.
- ceejayoz 9mo agoThey let the reservoir fill up for when the power and/or drinking water is needed later. The max is like a car engine’s redline. That the car can hit it doesn’t mean you should at all times.
- richardubright 9mo agoLooking at the data for lake that goes through the dam, it seems like they keep it at the same level. So it probably CAN make 7MW with more flow, but generally only flows at a state that puts out 2.
- tmellon2 9mo agoElon Musk mentioned that just a 100 square mile grid of Solar can power the entire USA. I did not believe it; a simple calculation later, I was convinced. The USA of yesteryear would have done this already and more. Sure other sources are required, but honestly we humans have to advance beyond burning dead things for fuel.
- chinathrow 9mo agoMeanwhile he is burning jet fuel to power is AI cluster. A clusterfuck of priorities.
- paxys 9mo agoNot 100 sq miles but 100 mile x 100 mile, which is 10,000 sq miles. And that assumes peak efficiency. Factoring in degredation you'd have to multiply this by 2. Not "just" by any stretch of the imagination. This is larger than Rhode Island and Lake Erie combined. Aka a pipe dream. Might as well "just" build a dyson sphere while we are at it.
- jeffbee 9mo ago10k square miles of photovoltaic power plant would cost about 1 trillion current US dollars, even assuming that such a project does not drive the cost down. This is easily achievable and roughly 20 orders of magnitude cheaper than a Dyson sphere.
- elliotbnvl 9mo agoI have a goal of setting up solar on my property in the woods that goes directly to a wall of batteries, maybe Tesla, maybe something else. But definitely not going back into the grid. Does anybody have suggestions or advice on how to do this? Who are the best companies doing this right now in New England? What products are folks using to store electricity? Are there any good resources for this kind of thing?
- MurkyLabs 9mo agoI've found lots of communities online on both reddit and facebook for solar DIY and there's some youtubers out there that talk about what you need for this and do reviews of different batteries/inverters/panels. From what I've heard Tesla has a high cost/energy storage rate and you'd be better of going with something else (even if you have a tesla) but it would boil down to are you wanting to set this up yourself or hire a professional to do all the wiring.
- MichaelNolan 9mo agoHow big of an install are you looking to do? I just did a ground mount install on my property. (4kw panels, 5kwh battery) If you are good with your hands, and can follow instructions then I would recommend you do the work your self. The actual installation of the panels and battery are close to plug n play. The cost of an electrician can easily double the project costs for small projects. For the panels I did whatever was cheapest on signature solar. For batteries and inverter I did eco-worthy. (eBay for that, they run sales pretty often) in total is was $1000 for the panels (that included delivery) and around $1200 for the battery and inverter. If you have a truck then you might be able to find cheaper panels locally. On YouTube check out DIY Solar Power with Will Prowse. He is a certified electrician and publishes part lists and plans that are easy to follow.
- toomuchtodo 9mo agohttps://www.youtube.com/@WillProwse https://www.youtube.com/@WillProwse
- _whiteCaps_ 9mo ago
- MichaelNolan 9mo agoKind of a weird headline. It makes it sound like this just happened. But it happened almost 2 years ago. Reading the article is also a bit confusing. I finally figured out they are only referring to utility scale solar and not total solar (utility plus behind the meter) My overlay of the data: https://eia.languagelatte.com/ https://eia.languagelatte.com/ Raw data: https://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/browser/#/topic/0 https://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/browser/#/topic/0
- blacksmith_tb 9mo agoPresumably we have dammed everything that made sense to (and some that didn't), so solar / wind will keep growing while hydro is unlikely to change (unless it drops).
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- kmax12 9mo agoif this type of data is interesting to you, here’s a site I’ve built that tracks like grid data across the US and Canada: https://www.gridstatus.io/live https://www.gridstatus.io/live We have generation mix, load, and pricing data. Both real time and historical
- pelcg 9mo agoNever seen this before and looks great. How often does this get updated?
- kmax12 9mo agoWe stream new data in as the sources publish it. typically, every 5 minutes. We collect from a lot of sources, so nearly every minute something is updating.
- Breza 8mo agoThis is fascinating! I find it especially interesting to see the solar increase and decrease based on sunshine and what replaces it in the different regions.
- dzonga 9mo agoThe trump administration by refusing to admit the superior metrics of solar, they're just burying their heads in sand. As admitting that solar is now a superior and cost effective means of energy means admitting that the US is no longer top dog. As empires are built on mastering a source of energy. the Portuguese | Dutch - mastered wind to power their ships. the British mastered coal to power Industrial Revolution. America mastered oil now the Chinese have Solar. even in places like Africa etc -- places were the grid was never available for $2k -- you can power your whole house with solar and lithium batteries. Panels are getting cheaper, same as batteries. Once the tipping point is reached for electric vehicles both personal and commercial - transition to fully electric mobility happens
- Gibbon1 9mo agoSome comment I read I keep coming back to. They (elites) will risk everything to give up nothing. The same elites that were telling us we can't have electric cars because the power grid can't support them are now building massive data centers for AI which they think will allow them to completely ignore the working class.
- floatrock 9mo agoChinese also have battery manufacturing, whose rapidly falling cost-curve is what is missing to enable 24/7 solar. American empire ruled with the petrodollar. Chinese will rule with the solaryuan if we don't get our shit together.
- BLKNSLVR 9mo agoEven if the US gets it's shit together it's already lost the solar and battery fight. It will have to win the next one - which it might do with AI.
- maxerickson 9mo agoWhat does it mean to lose? Like we can, uh, transfer the technology and build at whatever cost we can build at. Good luck to China charging us more than that cost.
- ProllyInfamous 9mo agoIt's incredible to me that California's primary generation source is cyclical solar — which it primarily offloads to PNW [0], who offsets any missing California solar with its MASSIVE Columbia River Hydro. Essentially co-dependant renewables, the entirety of West Coast through Colorado balancing primarily between solar and hydro (and natgas peakers). Nothing like Québec (¡hydro!), but still something. [0] <https://i.imgur.com/QMclWZu.png https://i.imgur.com/QMclWZu.png> grey "other" line == sold to neighboring grids ---- If ERCOT ("Texas") would get over their independant grid "benefits" [i.e. not having to follow federal regulations], they could be sloshing their primarily wind-derived kWHs into an even more-beautiful grid of flowing renewables. Instead, 10-year winter storms risk hundreds dead and billion$ lo$t. ---- TVA is in planning stages for its second massive pump-storage facility — but Texas is probably wiser in its nascent battery storage investment [1], instead. TVA's Racoon Mountain Pumphouse is definitely impressive, but with all the upcoming "depleted" car batteries being reconditioned into the stationary electric storage market... water power storage is probably the more environmentally-damaging method (definitely more expensive?). [1] <https://imgur.com/a/Nm0TFs1 https://imgur.com/a/Nm0TFs1> ---- Screenshots via <https://www.eia.gov/electricity/gridmonitor/dashboard/electric_overview/US48/US48 https://www.eia.gov/electricity/gridmonitor/dashboard/electr...> [nerd warning: my favorite real-time dataset] US Lower-48 Primary Energy Sourcing: <https://i.imgur.com/BWXugy2.png https://i.imgur.com/BWXugy2.png> ---- My layperson recommendations to industry [I'm blue-collar, electrician]: reduce coal, increase nuclear; increase micro battery storage (e.g. see Chattanooga's EPB implementations); maintain but stop building dams/pumped storage. Solar/wind/nuclear/nat.gas will be able to run everything once we have enough battery storage to handle daily peaks. In a few more years we will be entirely able to remove our dependance from toxic coal [2] [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfvBx4D0Cms https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfvBx4D0Cms
- chris_money202 9mo agoGenuinely some good news
- devin 9mo agoDoes anyone in these comments have any tips for would-be solar farmers or people who are generally interested in being part of building out the future of our grid? I'd like to get my hands dirty. I'm talking about getting into 5-10 MW projects, not solar on a roof.
- chasd00 9mo agoI bookmarked this thread because i'm very interested too. If AI takes all teh corporate jobs then I'm going to be a photon farmer. you can get land down in Brewster County Texas for about $1,500/acre but would need to find a spot close to a grid access point. There's some decent reddit discussions on this sort of thing.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- nerdralph 9mo agoDon't start with a 5MW project. Start with a 10-20kW ground-mount project in your back yard. Then build a 100-200kW project before trying MW.
- triceratops 9mo agoIs there a big overlap in experience building a 5MW project and a 10-20kw project? The former would involve, I imagine, more of a project manager, fund-raiser, and general contractor role for GP. The latter can be a DIY effort if they are handy and licensed. There's no way anyone is single-handedly installing the panels and inverters for a 5MW project in a reasonable timeframe. Even the hardware, land acquisition, and permitting stories would be different, right?
- triceratops 9mo agoNo idea why that question was considered downvote-worthy.
- 9mo ago
- idiotsecant 9mo agoThis isn't a good thing unless it's paired with storage and transmission upgrades. Every time this kind of story posts I make this same comment and am met with the same probably well-meaning but ignorant responses. Solar generation is easy and cheap and simple. Actually getting that power where it needs to be, when it needs to be there is complex and expensive. You either need to store it or you need to transmit it very long distances, neither of which we can do effectively right now. Most of California routinely goes into negative power pricing - this is not the mark of a healthy system, it represents a massive inefficiency and destabilizing factor. We need to pressure politicians to subsidize pump storage powerplants and massive transmission system upgrades (which means being ok with permitting new transmission lines) it's simply impossible to continue increasing the solar on the grid otherwise, we are rapidly approaching instability.
- dalyons 9mo agoCheck out the crazy amount of battery additions in California in 2025 and planned for 2026. It’s gunna be fine
- idiotsecant 9mo agoThat 'crazy' amount is not even scratching the surface of the surface of what we would need for a high-solar grid, let alone a majority solar grid. Not even within an order of magnitude. You don't have to take my word for it, the CAISO literally provides the data.
- Rebelgecko 9mo agoHow much more do we need? 2x the capacity? 5x? 10x? The state has added a ridiculous amount of battery over the last couple years so it doesn't seem intractable I remember looking at CAISO's graphs a few years ago and when the sun goes down we were basically completely dependent on imports and natty gas, especially for scaling up to demand around 6-7pm. Looking at today's graph, batteries were actually our top electricity source for a while around peak electricity time. Natty has been able to stay pretty flat, and even now its neck and neck with batteries
- bilsbie 9mo agoI was curious to try a project: can I charge my car 100 miles per day for under $1000 all in? I’m trying to source a battery power pack and cheap panels.
- margalabargala 9mo agoThat would be around 30kwh per day so probably not, but you could get close. Assuming you're in the US, new solar modules go for about $0.28/watt. If you dump the entire $1k into just modules, that will get you about 3.5kW of panels. Which will probably hit your target on sunny days during the summer. But that doesn't include inverters if you want to do a grid tie, or batteries if you don't, or wiring, or whatever you're going to mount the panels on.
- jandrese 9mo ago$1,000 is definitely too ambitious for that much energy. Even just the charging plug for the car is going to take a sizeable bite out of that. Another way to think about this is that $1,000 is about 20 tanks of gas, assuming you get 400 miles per tank that's 8,000 miles, which is less than a year of driving for the average American. You can increase your budget and still come out way ahead. The other consideration is that this scheme only works if you only drive at night, otherwise you'll need a battery to store that power while your car is out and about during the day, or you'll need to grid tie and use the grid as your battery.
- Rebelgecko 9mo agoBest bet is probably a 240v inverter, ground mounted used panels (can often be found ridiculously cheap)and a Docan or similar battery pack. 240v inverters made for the US tend to be pricier but you may be able to get an EU model to work. 120v won't be able to recharge 100mi/day. If you're in the US $1000 is prob not enough though
- bokohut 9mo agoHappy to be a 5 year self generation participant contributing to these numbers. Given the very recent winter storms along the East Coast, that still has people without grid power at this very moment, such a residential generate and store system should be an eye opener to those impacted at times of greatest need. My own system was still generating during the storm as many erroneously believe the sun must be fully exposed to move electrons, nope. I commented here in a recent HN energy post about my surrounding jurisdictions and the exploding utility costs per PJM that literally have governments suing each other. Just today one of those local jurisdictions announced a utility bill financial credit incentive for residents to attend a meeting to learn about what some already know intimately. Link is paywalled of course. https://www.newarkpostonline.com/news/newarkers-can-earn-40-credit-on-electric-bill-by-attending-solar-workshop/article_a455516c-8615-41be-b48c-15b70320dcfb.html https://www.newarkpostonline.com/news/newarkers-can-earn-40-... We are witnessing the accelerated adoption of local generation and storage driven by the economic costs of energy that has been directly and indirectly subsidized yet consumption is certainly not equal. As more and more move to self generate and store, per the meetings suggestion, the negative feedback loop is already in motion rising costs even more for those dependent on a centralized system. For those that can see the light and where it is going; invest accordingly.
- kayo_20211030 9mo agoI'm not disputing anything, but would it have killed arstechnica to include some primary source links to back up their assertions?
- philipkglass 9mo agoA direct link would be better, but they mentioned it at the beginning: "On Tuesday, the US Energy Information Administration released full-year data on how the country generated electricity in 2025." This is the report: https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/current_month/february2026.pdf https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/current_month/februa... It has full-year data for 2025 in table ES1.B.
- munificent 9mo agoThe article doesn't mention this, but I assume part of this is because the US is actively dismantling hydro power by removing dams. It turns out what while hydro power is "green" in terms of not polluting, it's still quite harmful to the environment because of animals like salmon that need to be able to traverse rivers and the rest of the ecosystem that depends on them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dam_removals_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dam_removals_in_the_Un...
- shadowgovt 9mo agoThis feels like the no-brainer industry to invest in right now. The datacenters are thirsty for energy, and the sun is free. In this gold rush, renewables are selling shovels.
- SlightlyLeftPad 9mo agoI wish it would bring prices down to a point where it would make sense to install on every home. Particularly, in California, costs have increased and the value proposition decreased drastically with NEM3.0. So, the solar industry here has kind of imploded even though it desperately needs to be built out to power my home’s OpenClaws.
- ongytenes 9mo agoIf they hadn't blew up the hydrodams, could they still say that?
- ongytenes 9mo agoSince the 1990s the US has removed over 1,000 dams. If those dams were still producing power, then how would that affect their claim?
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- philipkglass 9mo agoHydroelectric generation varies a lot annually due to naturally varying precipitation. In the 1990s, hydroelectric generation reached a maximum in 1997 with 356 TWh (this was also the all-time peak) and a minimum in 1992 with 253 TWh: https://www.eia.gov/kids/energy-sources/hydropower/ https://www.eia.gov/kids/energy-sources/hydropower/ (This page is "for kids" but it includes a good plot of hydroelectric output since 1950.) This is just from natural variability, since the US didn't build any new hydro generating facilities in the 1990s. Here's the EIA report that has generating statistics for 2025. It has "monthly" in the name but you can find full-year stats for 2025 in table ES1.B: https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/current_month/february2026.pdf https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/current_month/februa... In 2025, hydroelectric power generation was 247 terawatt hours. Utility scale solar generation was 295 terawatt hours. Estimated small scale (e.g. rooftop) solar generation was 93 terawatt hours. Combined, that would bring solar generation to 383 terawatt hours for the year. Solar generation is now higher than hydroelectric generation ever was in the US, but it's also true that hydroelectric generation is lower in recent years. The Ars Technica article focused on the utility scale solar generation. Counting that portion alone, solar generation has yet to surpass hydro's 1997 record of 356 TWh.
- toddmorrow 9mo agoI was very disappointed to see the little 8% solar. I see that methane isn't budging. if a legacy industry is politically powerful enough, they can absolutely maintain a backwards situation.
- MetroWind 9mo agoLmao because hydro in the US is so weak
- timbit42 9mo agoLakes feeding them are drying up.
- qwertyuiop_ 9mo agoSolar panels are highly susceptible to leaching toxic metals into the environment around them. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956053X23007717 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956053X2...
- fuckinpuppers 9mo agoJust imagine if the administration actually supported solar adoption!