Global renewable energy generation surpasses coal for first timehttps://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/07/global-renewable-energy-generation-surpasses-coal-first-time'nThis is definitely something to celebrate!
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Global renewable energy generation surpasses coal for first time
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/07/global-renewable-energy-generation-surpasses-coal-first-timeThis is definitely something to celebrate! 🎉
But… please remember, the goal here is not to have ever larger part of our energy generated from renewables.
👉 The goal is to have coal, gas, and other fossil fuel based energy generation to go down in *absolute terms*.
⚠️ And sadly, in a lot of places including EU and US – as the article mentions – fossil fuel based power generation is *still growing*.
🧵
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Global renewable energy generation surpasses coal for first time
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/07/global-renewable-energy-generation-surpasses-coal-first-timeThis is definitely something to celebrate! 🎉
But… please remember, the goal here is not to have ever larger part of our energy generated from renewables.
👉 The goal is to have coal, gas, and other fossil fuel based energy generation to go down in *absolute terms*.
⚠️ And sadly, in a lot of places including EU and US – as the article mentions – fossil fuel based power generation is *still growing*.
🧵
I know this can be confusing and media are often not doing a great job making it clear.
Say you have 15GW power generation in coal, and 10GW in wind.
And let's say you add 5GW in coal (to a total of 20GW), and 20GW in wind (for a total of 30GW).
You end up with wind energy being 60% of all power generation (great!) – 30GW out of 50GW total available power.
But in absolute terms you *still added* 5GW of coal generation. You are emitting 33% more CO2 than before!
That's not really helping.
🧵
-
Global renewable energy generation surpasses coal for first time
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/07/global-renewable-energy-generation-surpasses-coal-first-timeThis is definitely something to celebrate! 🎉
But… please remember, the goal here is not to have ever larger part of our energy generated from renewables.
👉 The goal is to have coal, gas, and other fossil fuel based energy generation to go down in *absolute terms*.
⚠️ And sadly, in a lot of places including EU and US – as the article mentions – fossil fuel based power generation is *still growing*.
🧵
@rysiek slightly more nuanced take here. Fossil fuel emissions falling in China and India, it's USA and EU that are holding the world back because demand is surging.
Doesn't say how much is due to data centres but the numbers from Ireland are very heavily weighted to those.
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I know this can be confusing and media are often not doing a great job making it clear.
Say you have 15GW power generation in coal, and 10GW in wind.
And let's say you add 5GW in coal (to a total of 20GW), and 20GW in wind (for a total of 30GW).
You end up with wind energy being 60% of all power generation (great!) – 30GW out of 50GW total available power.
But in absolute terms you *still added* 5GW of coal generation. You are emitting 33% more CO2 than before!
That's not really helping.
🧵
So if we are adding so much renewable power generation capacity, why are we not shutting down coal and gas powered plants? Why, in fact, are we *adding* more?
A large part of the answer here is – *sigh* – AI. Specifically LLMs.
Most coal-fired power plants will delay retirement to feed AI boom, energy secretary says
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/us-urges-utilities-keep-coal-fired-plants-running-ai-demand-booms-energy-2025-09-25/AI could keep us dependent on natural gas for decades to come
https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/20/1116272/ai-natural-gas-data-centers-energy-power-plants/Consider this next time you use ChatGPT for something.
🧵
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@rysiek slightly more nuanced take here. Fossil fuel emissions falling in China and India, it's USA and EU that are holding the world back because demand is surging.
Doesn't say how much is due to data centres but the numbers from Ireland are very heavily weighted to those.
@craignicol yup, check out the next toot in my thread
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So if we are adding so much renewable power generation capacity, why are we not shutting down coal and gas powered plants? Why, in fact, are we *adding* more?
A large part of the answer here is – *sigh* – AI. Specifically LLMs.
Most coal-fired power plants will delay retirement to feed AI boom, energy secretary says
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/us-urges-utilities-keep-coal-fired-plants-running-ai-demand-booms-energy-2025-09-25/AI could keep us dependent on natural gas for decades to come
https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/20/1116272/ai-natural-gas-data-centers-energy-power-plants/Consider this next time you use ChatGPT for something.
🧵
And if you hear anyone claiming – like heavily AI invested¹ Bill Gates has claimed² – that "AI" will help solving the climate crisis, remember this:
We really don't need a supercomputer to tell us what needs to be done. This is not rocket surgery. We need to lower fossil fuel emissions. That's it. And we already know this.
AI "helping" with climate crisis is purely hypothetical at this point. But the harms related to this bubble are already here. In form of coal plants not being retired.
🧵
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And if you hear anyone claiming – like heavily AI invested¹ Bill Gates has claimed² – that "AI" will help solving the climate crisis, remember this:
We really don't need a supercomputer to tell us what needs to be done. This is not rocket surgery. We need to lower fossil fuel emissions. That's it. And we already know this.
AI "helping" with climate crisis is purely hypothetical at this point. But the harms related to this bubble are already here. In form of coal plants not being retired.
🧵
@rysiek what's also a very good achievement stated in the article and which goes also toward _replacing_ fossil fuels: renewable addition matches electricity demand increase. Article is not super clear on it, but it's a good development!
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@craignicol yup, check out the next toot in my thread
@rysiek @craignicol
Is it the case that China's carbon emissions are falling? I'd like that to be true, but the BBC article said they are still building coal power plants. OurWorldInData shows their CO2 emissions still increasing: https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/china -
@rysiek @craignicol
Is it the case that China's carbon emissions are falling? I'd like that to be true, but the BBC article said they are still building coal power plants. OurWorldInData shows their CO2 emissions still increasing: https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/china@mpjgregoire @rysiek @craignicol You're right that total emissions is the most important number. Unfortunately, OWiD only shows CO2 emissions up to 2023. The claim in the OP's link is about the first six months of 2025.
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@mpjgregoire @rysiek @craignicol You're right that total emissions is the most important number. Unfortunately, OWiD only shows CO2 emissions up to 2023. The claim in the OP's link is about the first six months of 2025.
@tobiaspatton
Oh, I hadn't spotted that: "China [saw] a 2% drop in its use of fossil fuels in the first half of the year compared with the same months in 2024, Ember found. Over the same period India grew its renewable energy by more than three times its electricity demand – which was significantly weaker this year – causing its coal and gas use to fall by 3.1% and 34% respectively."Thank-you.
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I know this can be confusing and media are often not doing a great job making it clear.
Say you have 15GW power generation in coal, and 10GW in wind.
And let's say you add 5GW in coal (to a total of 20GW), and 20GW in wind (for a total of 30GW).
You end up with wind energy being 60% of all power generation (great!) – 30GW out of 50GW total available power.
But in absolute terms you *still added* 5GW of coal generation. You are emitting 33% more CO2 than before!
That's not really helping.
🧵
@rysiek Oh, man, oversimplified. I can't know if for illustrative purposes or just not knowing better?
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@rysiek Oh, man, oversimplified. I can't know if for illustrative purposes or just not knowing better?
@hruske illustrative. I am bothered by the media reporting around the growth of renewables without putting it in context of fossil fuel based power generation also going up.
I am also completely ignoring the emissions related to *making* of all the stuff needed to get a wind turbine up, etc.
But I am sure I might be missing something important, and I am sure that others would also appreciate a deeper dive, so if you have the spoons for it please be my guest!
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@hruske illustrative. I am bothered by the media reporting around the growth of renewables without putting it in context of fossil fuel based power generation also going up.
I am also completely ignoring the emissions related to *making* of all the stuff needed to get a wind turbine up, etc.
But I am sure I might be missing something important, and I am sure that others would also appreciate a deeper dive, so if you have the spoons for it please be my guest!
@rysiek Yeah, two very obvious counter arguments to your post are
1. you are comparing power with generation, and
2. you are ignoring security of supply.1. Guardian talks about generation, which is what matters more, because that's the amount of energy used. That this has now surpassed fossil sources is the first milestone before the fossil use starts decreasing.
1/...
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@rysiek Yeah, two very obvious counter arguments to your post are
1. you are comparing power with generation, and
2. you are ignoring security of supply.1. Guardian talks about generation, which is what matters more, because that's the amount of energy used. That this has now surpassed fossil sources is the first milestone before the fossil use starts decreasing.
1/...
@rysiek
2. Security of supply is having enough dispatchable power to cover peak demand, in case other sources are not available. This means having fossil plants and fuel on standby, but most of the time not burning anything.Even though there's more available power, the fossil plants are getting used less.
2/...
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@rysiek
2. Security of supply is having enough dispatchable power to cover peak demand, in case other sources are not available. This means having fossil plants and fuel on standby, but most of the time not burning anything.Even though there's more available power, the fossil plants are getting used less.
2/...
Also, different power plants produce different amounts of generation in relation to installed power.
Wind plants can't work with 100% whole year, they typically get between 25% and 40% of their nominal power (averaged over year). Hydro is between 30% and 40%, nuclear are 80+%, solar depends on geographical latitude, gas peaker plants are as low as 5%, and coal is all over the place.
It's this number that is dropping for coal power plans, as they can't compete on market.
3/...
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Also, different power plants produce different amounts of generation in relation to installed power.
Wind plants can't work with 100% whole year, they typically get between 25% and 40% of their nominal power (averaged over year). Hydro is between 30% and 40%, nuclear are 80+%, solar depends on geographical latitude, gas peaker plants are as low as 5%, and coal is all over the place.
It's this number that is dropping for coal power plans, as they can't compete on market.
3/...
With ongoing electrification, for an european family home of 4, you can project an increase in electricity usage to about 300% current (+100% for heat pump and +100% for EV).
This alone will increase the peak grid power, and will need additional power plants built, to cover worst case scenarios.
A lot of this will be offset by batteries and solar, not because they're awesome (which they are), but because we can't build out the grid fast enough leaving ☀️ and 🔋 the only option.
4/...
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With ongoing electrification, for an european family home of 4, you can project an increase in electricity usage to about 300% current (+100% for heat pump and +100% for EV).
This alone will increase the peak grid power, and will need additional power plants built, to cover worst case scenarios.
A lot of this will be offset by batteries and solar, not because they're awesome (which they are), but because we can't build out the grid fast enough leaving ☀️ and 🔋 the only option.
4/...
Then again, AI is additional load on grid, which was not expected and is indeed making a dent in the wrong way in the progress towards electrification and decarbonisation and this is something generally agreed upon.
5/5
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Then again, AI is additional load on grid, which was not expected and is indeed making a dent in the wrong way in the progress towards electrification and decarbonisation and this is something generally agreed upon.
5/5
@hruske thank you, this is super useful!
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@hruske thank you, this is super useful!
@rysiek Ember is also a good source of stats and analyses, but they're not on mastodon.
Here's their press release that Guardian is citing, I think, where they show that renewables have covered more than the increase in demand.
https://ember-energy.org/latest-updates/solar-and-wind-met-all-electricity-demand-growth-in-h1-2025/
Gli ultimi otto messaggi ricevuti dalla Federazione
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@kenobit ,😅
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@kenobit Dire la sigla di Hamtaro sarebbe banale, perciò ti dico quella di Machine Robo Rescue.
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@vinishor yes, this one only has 16 MB. I could upgrade it, following the official Path, but I can't use things like Zerotier because of the low space.
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"Non arrenderti mai.
Rischieresti di farlo un'ora prima del miracolo."
---[Proverbio arabo]
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@Zambunny Lo dico sapendo quanto è in difficoltà l'industria discografica in questo momento, anche quella fatta da esseri umani. :)
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@Zambunny Il bello è che 99 su 100, secondo me, ti sta raccontando una balla.
I collaborazionisti dell'IA si autoconvincono e cercano di convincerti che la roba che fanno con le IA funziona benissimo.
Gli chiederei i nomi degli artisti virtuali e poi gli chiederei cosa vuol dire che "vanno forte".
L'hype è come la fatina dei denti: se smetti di crederci non esiste più, e gli AI bro hanno paurissima che stia per succedere.
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@francina1909 io non faccio più passi da vent'anni, e non sono comprensivo.
Gentili non vuol dire essere malleabili
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@weekend_editor I found a couple of Interlisp-D source files for color support timestamped 1986.
