We're in an s-curve where new advances in solar and battery technology are a regular occurrence: https://youtu.be/yWMxM8YQcN4

Plus all the adjacent tech in the rest of the electrical ecosystem: https://pluralistic.net/2025/09/23/our-friend-the-electron/

Especially "the electrification of demand": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE6eBXnb5TU&t=75s

Heat pumps and induction stoves not only replace fossil fuels with potentially renewable electricity, they're SO much more efficient burning gas to produce electricity is cheaper than running gas stoves/heaters.

Report to Ercot: Texas's power grid only kept it together this year because of rapid massive addition of solar and batteries: https://www.douglewin.com/p/solar-and-storage-helped-make-summer

Unplanned coal and gas outages nearly doubled, but Texas added 7 gigawatts of solar and piles of batteries so it all worked out.

Meanwhile the price of new methane turbines went up 2.5x with a 7 year backlog, so even if they want add more: https://www.spglobal.com/commodity-insights/en/news-research/latest-news/electric-power/052025-us-gas-fired-turbine-wait-times-as-much-as-seven-years-costs-up-sharply

And methane prices doubling is also driving inflation:
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/-electric-prices-natural-gas-lng-ieefa/759085/

Renewable energy is taking over the same way cars replaced horses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG8_q2E7aCg

First it takes 90% of new installs, then as old stuff wears out the replacements are all new stuff, then the supply chains to support the old tech lose economies of scale (no more hitching posts, water troughs, blacksmiths, farriers, street sweepers)... then the s-curve feedback loop REALLY starts.

In 1991 the USA had twice as many gas stations: https://www.axios.com/2022/07/15/gas-stations-prices-closing

https://www.reddit.com/r/cars/comments/1bj41d8/shell_shifts_gear_1000_gas_stations_to_close_for/

More leapfrogging: electric vehicles are selling where gasoline has never been.

https://youtu.be/xnzm4OOma9Q

You don't need a regularly passable road into a community to deliver gasoline, just local roads to drive on. No mechanics needed to change oil or filters, and a high school knowledge of physics plus some cheap mail order parts can botch together a solar charging station for a whole village: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywaTX-nLm6Y

Hand-hacked solar _on_ a vehicle gets 3-4 miles/day: https://youtu.be/ICKKVzJdrrU?si=kxLuhN-IZpP-39OT

Los Angeles is installing free rooftop solar+battery systems for low income residents.

https://bsky.app/profile/volts.wtf/post/3m232juboqk2v

It seems like the utility doesn't purchase power from residential generation (FAQ #10), but the battery lets you store your own excess solar generation and offset (if not eliminate) your grid usage, thus reducing the need to pay for more transmission infrastructure.

https://www.ladwp.com/residential-services/solar-programs/self-generation-incentive-program

And of course people installing their own solar don't care about "curtailment" when they just reliably want "enough". Videos like this go by every week.

https://youtu.be/qT_uSJVCYds

Ground mount isn't space limited like rooftops, and the panels aren't the biggest expense.

Of course DIY rooftop can massively overprovision was well. (Battery's never gone below 80%?)

https://youtu.be/2Np3Gv0pQjQ

The hard part never seems to be the electrical stuff, it's construction work.

https://youtu.be/UOQPYkCdTLM

Notice this utility's net metering agreement won't LET the homeowner install more than 120% of their power usage on their roof.

https://youtu.be/YzdNJN7sBvQ

In suburbs batteries and curtailment can totally make financial sense, and if an unused grid tie became problematic and Something Happened, a small generator for emergencies isn't a bigger lift than a gasoline lawnmower. ($350 buys a Westinghouse 4650 watt with "30A RV ready" plug that sounds like it could easily top off a battery overnight.)

People (like Peter Zeihan) arguing that solar power is only tropical and doesn't work in europe or canada are talking out their asses.

https://youtu.be/040lLNppwvk

Evergreen trees evolved needles to keep collecting sun in winter. There's plenty of sun, just install more panels. The problem's always curtailment: if you install enough for average days you're wasting power on above average days! "Wasting power wastes money!" the finance guys scream, not understanding "free".

LLM power demand is forcing more solar installs even in the usa: https://youtu.be/GkXj7fSyXjc

Not only is it cheaper, but right now it takes 7 years to get a new gas turbine:
https://www.spglobal.com/commodity-insights/en/news-research/latest-news/electric-power/052025-us-gas-fired-turbine-wait-times-as-much-as-seven-years-costs-up-sharply

When the AI bubble pops (or the economy otherwise crashes) suddenly there's extra generation capacity. Nobody pays to fuel gas turbines when they're not making money. The obvious capitalist move to deal with surplus solar is to add batteries to stop curtailment and rescue the existing "stranded asset".

Orange-man-bad wanted the price of gas to go down, so he gave MBS (Mr Bone Saw) permission to undercut US shale prices, drive US oil production out of business, and get as much Saudi oil out of the ground before it becomes a stranded asset.

https://youtu.be/PmqGKG0er74

Meanwhile, Saudi vanity project du jour is the world's largest ammonia plant, producing both fuel and fertilizer from cheap desert solar panels:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vl8SUYiOHOU

Ronald "Alzheimer's" Reagan thought in movie plots, and when his handlers were trying to bankrupt the Soviet Union they claimed space lasers were the next big cold war arms race.

https://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/17/world/star-wars-in-strategy-the-russian-response.html

In response the Russians poured money into 1980s laser technology, and wound up being the world's leading supplier of neon used in semiconductor manufacturing clean rooms:

https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-ukraine-halts-half-worlds-neon-output-chips-clouding-outlook-2022-03-11/

Saudi ammonia could wind up just as important, despite the lack of clue behind the investment.