-

A line chart plots global capacity of solar power measured in gigawatts. From 2010 capacity starts to grow exponentially, way beyond a series of predictions drawn as lines in yellow. Actual installations have been more than 3x higher than their five year <br />forecasts.

2026-02-21 16:55:03

infobeautiful@vis.social

The world’s solar capacity reached 1,419 gigawatts in 2023, way beyond any predictions. 1 gigawatt = power for a medium sized city

2026-02-21 17:37:06

Nazani

Nazani@universeodon.com

@infobeautiful What % is residential?

2026-02-21 17:50:10

Martin Kostera

martin@libera.site

@Information Is Beautiful Power for several hours a day. In winter time even weeks without power, sometimes.

2026-02-21 19:27:39

Jonathan Hartley

tartley@fosstodon.org

@martin ??? Solar plus wind plus batteries provide power for free, reducing need for fossil fuel dependence by 80% or 100% in some places, what's not to like?

2026-02-21 20:36:15

Martin Kostera

martin@libera.site

@Jonathan Hartley Nope. You need 100% backup(from about 50% of Ren share). Fossil backup.
That's why it's not cheap. and will not be. Never.

#^https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkelflaute

2026-02-21 21:59:00

Jonathan Hartley

tartley@fosstodon.org

@martin you might need access to 100% backup while still being able to reduce your need for fossil generated energy by a majority amount - those aren't incompatible.

2026-02-22 00:47:38

dr2chase

dr2chase@ohai.social

@martin you seem very certain, as if we could not, say grossly over provision green + batteries, and shut down some industrial processes for the tiny fraction of time when still+dark is too long.

2026-02-22 01:37:11

Martin Kostera

martin@libera.site

@dr2chase

You will never have enough batteries. Do the math.
Without fossil fuel reserves, it would mean shutting down the country several times a year. Not part of the economy. Not even the entire economy. But the entire country. A total blackout. Worse than what is happening now in Ukraine.

2026-02-21 20:23:27

xs4me2

xs4me2@mastodon.social

@infobeautiful

Soon this will need a log scale…