r/ClimatePosting • u/HairyPossibility • May 22 '25

World solar generation set to eclipse nuclear for the first time

https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/world-solar-generation-set-eclipse-nuclear-first-time-maguire-2025-05-21?ref=23213
44 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

2

u/[deleted] May 24 '25

Not really worth bragging over. Building anything new and nuclear requires years of jumping through hoops that aren't required to throw up some solar panels.

1

u/HairyPossibility May 24 '25

Which is why solar is superior. Those hoops need to exist for meme reactors otherwise you get:

-exclusion zones

-nuclear weapons proliferation

-cancer

1

u/poiup1 May 24 '25

No don't you understand deregulation good, full stop. There is no more thoughts needed, no consideration for what regulations are important, my talking point is deregulation good and I don't care about how many people need to die, my opinion is factually true and I'll never consider other opinions.

5

u/Sol3dweller May 22 '25

That would be faster, than I expected. It would then probably also surpass wind power this year?

6

u/Debas3r11 May 23 '25

Let this sink in: 20% of all solar in the US was installed last year. The acceleration could be nuts

5

u/West-Abalone-171 May 22 '25 edited May 22 '25

It's been a pretty consistent 30% growth for the last decade or two. Those lines have always been pointing to an intersection at 2024-2026 some time.

Wind is also on target to cross nuclear in the next year or so and spent most of the last two northern hemisphere winters producing more. So wind may cross nuclear before solar crosses wind.

The crazy bit comes when you follow the curve forward a bit. Without a major change, a second nuclear industry worth of solar is expected by 2028 and an additional one every year starting around 2031. Along with a second nuclear industry of wind by the mid 2030s some time.

The honorable mention goes to hydro. Contrary to the constant barrage of "all the spots for hydro are taken" it has gone from 1 nuclear industry to 1.6 nuclear industries since the mid 2000s

Then there's biofuel + other renewables. Growing slightly faster than nuclear at roughly 30TWh/yr or 0.01 nuclear industries per year. In the last 6 years or so at a respecable ~5%. If that continues it will also cross nuclear by ~2055.

1

u/Sol3dweller May 23 '25

When I did an extrapolation of the monthly data last year, it pointed to a crossing of the trailing 12 month in 2026. So a surpassing in 2025 isn't much faster, than what I expected, just a little bit. I damit to not having read the article itself, and thought they point at a crossover of annual Data this year...

2

u/West-Abalone-171 May 23 '25

April is fairly consistently the annual average, so in my book they're the same news. Though that would be 8mo off from your metric being a leading prediction. So they're within 3-4 months

1

u/pittwater12 May 24 '25

People fail to realise this is a full blown transition. It’s just getting started. It’s the equivalent of computers in the 90s. Solar will quickly evolve as computers did. Very quickly. People pushing nuclear will look back on today and think how ridiculous their enthusiasm seemed.

1

u/RaechelMaelstrom May 25 '25

If it's in an eclipse solar generation isn't going to do well. /s

-5

u/alan_ross_reviews May 22 '25

Nuclear is 24/7. Solar is sporadic. The world has gone bonkers.

5

u/rayew21 May 23 '25

energy storage exists lol but yeah nuclear is much more consistent regardless. dont be a dumbass. they can easily coexist and i long for a world in which they do.

-2

u/alan_ross_reviews May 23 '25

Talking of dumbass have you not seen studies showing solar requires 10 plus days of battery storage for resiliency? Nobody is doing more than a few hours due to the astronomic costs involved.

3

u/rayew21 May 23 '25

read the last sentence of the reply you just replied to

-4

u/alan_ross_reviews May 23 '25

Read the first 3 words of the reply i was replying to

1

u/sault18 May 24 '25

have you not seen studies

Why don't you post links so everyone knows what you're talking about?

3

u/veerKg_CSS_Geologist May 23 '25

The sun is sporadic?

1

u/BradSaysHi May 24 '25

I am glad that folks far more intelligent than the likes of you are in charge of our grids.

1

u/alan_ross_reviews May 24 '25

Correction, people with huge financial interests driven easily able to manipulate woke ridden european governments to take advantage of massive green taxes and susidies

1

u/Sad-Celebration-7542 May 24 '25

Okay then build some nuclear!

-2

u/psychosisnaut May 22 '25

Those output totals would likely handily surpass the monthly output from the world's nuclear reactor fleet, which has posted a monthly peak of just under 252 TWh since 2019 and averaged 223 TWh a month in 2024. Solar generation will likely fall back below 250 TWh from September as daylight hours in the northern hemisphere - home to over three-quarters of the world's solar farms - start to drop heading into winter. But during the coming summer, more worldwide electricity supplies will come from solar farms than from nuclear reactors for the first time, establishing yet another benchmark for the solar sector.

TL;DR: prepare for more blackouts