DJDOOM
Scott Murray 
Good morning!
In May, for the first time, the US produced more electricity from solar than from coal. šŖšš
https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/solar/solar-beat-coal-us-grid
Tim Ward āšŖšŗš¶ #FBPE@scott The USA is still burning coal??? FFS!!!
[Yes I know that the UK only stopped five minutes ago, years later than we should have done.]
Pork Soda@scott so, I work in this sector (electrical power generation). Iām certainly glad to see those lines moving in opposite directions but folks shouldnāt conclude that solar is somehow out-competing coal. The article briefly touches on this, but two big factors in the demise of coal is cheaper natural gas and environmental regs (permit limits, fines, etc.) that make natural gas a more attractive fossil fuel. 1/2
@scott Natural gas is absolutely cleaner than coal from a CO2, mercury, radiation, ash, dust, etc perspective but it comes with the rather large drawback that natural gas is itself an extremely potent greenhouse gas, far more so than CO2, and quite a lot of it is released into the atmosphere as part of its production, distribution, and usage. There are regulations against this, but recent studies and personal experience have shown that enforcing these regs is next to impossible 2/
@scott I guess all this is to say that as heartening as those trends are, there is a hidden, dramatic rise in natural gas utilization behind them, fueled primarily by data center projects. Reducing power demand (by fighting data centers) and better regulations & enforcement around natural gas are needed if weāre going to see a lasting transition to cleaner energy. Donāt mean to be a wet blanket, but this stuff (and my part in it) weighs on me. /thread
@pork_soda Thanks for sharing that.
I will take any slightly good news wherever I can get it, at this point. So for me, more solar (and cheaper solar) is great news.
Yes itās a tiny part of the picture and yes even manufacturing the panels isnāt āfreeā in terms of energy resources carbon etc but itāsā¦ better than coal. š«
bloomtime!@scott @pork_soda if it meant it was less coal that would be good. But that's not what this chart shows. This chart shows that we're producing more solar, but whether we're using more or less coal than we used before is not on this chart. If we doubled our coal use this chart could look the same.
@thesquirrelfish @scott I hesitate to speak for other countries but coal is for sure in decline in the USA. No new plants are being built and existing ones are being converted to other sources like natural gas, even as power demand skyrockets to feed data centers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_the_United_States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_the_United_States
@pork_soda @scott didn't the Republicans just give like a billion dollars to coal companies this week?
The percentage of the market isn't really a useful way to look at impacts - the total amount burned/mined/exported are the numbers that matter.
The percentage of the market isn't really a useful way to look at impacts - the total amount burned/mined/exported are the numbers that matter.
Violet Madder@thesquirrelfish @pork_soda @scott
And meanwhile it's important to keep in mind that even IF actual transition happened and all of our energy sources were completely "clean", at the currently accelerating rate of our energy consumption, the mere WASTE HEAT ALONE would add up to enough to boil the planet in about 400 years.
Lydia Schoch
DoomsdaysCWYou are correct, @lydiaschoch ! Woot! @scott @joybooster
MyYeeHaa@scott Very happy to see that, especially after reading "Gray Mountain" by John Grisham. While the story is fiction, the book does quite a good job of describing the devastation of coal strip mining in the Appalachias, as well as the coal industry's indifference (even malice) toward the affected residents. Less demand will certainly be welcome.
no_brainer@scott You better donāt tell Donald!
@scott but we're still using more coal than we used last year right? Just we're also using more solar?
@thesquirrelfish I will take any good news at this point (though you may be right about the absolute numbers)
@scott right, what I'm saying is that this chart isn't showing good news. It could be depicting good news. It could be depicting bad news. The underlying climate/environmental impact of these changes is not something that this chart shows.
Mungen Cakes ā
