Solar Surprises
LinkedIn: “𝟵𝟮% 𝗼𝗳 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗨.𝗦. 𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱–𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝘀.” The U.S. grid is transforming quickly — with storage playing a bigger role than ever before. I’m impressed that solar will constitute a full half of additions to the grid. Batteries are 30%. Wind is 12%. “Natural Gas makes up just 𝟴%, while 𝗖𝗼𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 continue at a rapid pace (𝟱𝟱% 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀).” Note that Trump is doing everything in his power to try + support uneconomic + maximally polluting coal power, but I believe market forces + opposition will prevail. Matt Alvarez wrote the LI post; his take is that wind + solar “will see major slowdowns as incentives fade and more investors recognize the staying power of [methane gas]. I disagree with this assessment, but agree [with reservations] about his statement “𝗦𝗠𝗥𝘀 won’t reach commercialization until the 𝗺𝗶𝗱-𝘁𝗼-𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝟮𝟬𝟯𝟬𝘀 — and that’s without factoring in 𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴, which could be a dark horse in hindering scale.”
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I project that coal, methane gas + nukes will be in decline during our transition to an “electrotech” future. If we truly trusted market forces, then the huge subsidies [especially for coal + nuclear power at the moment] would not be happening.
Demand response [DR], hydropower, wind power, geothermal + distributed solar + storage in residences + businesses [with aggregations of solar, storage + DR as “virtual power plants” will continue to edge out other technologies. Period. [Now I look forward to comments, oh my].
