Green Energy

cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/post/1058332

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Grain Belt Express, a transmission line that would cross 800 miles of the Midwest, is at the center of a number of disputes.

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The line, known as Grain Belt Express, is designed to transport electricity generated by wind farms in Kansas across four states, including Missouri, to more densely populated regions in Indiana and Illinois. It would be the largest privately funded transmission line in the country’s history, said Invenergy, its developer.

Last month, the country’s deputy minister of energy, Gàbor Czepek, said more than 300,000 solar power plants were operating across the nation, with over four-fifths of the existing capacity installed since 2020.

Solar energy production in Hungary reached a new peak on June 13 this year, Czepek added, producing enough energy to serve the country’s domestic electricity requirements entirely from renewables.

Hey, question for some solar panel expert.

Would it be possible to create a solar panel in the form of foil? I know flexible panels exists but I've only seen ones embedded in plastic like this:

Is the plastic somehow necessary for power generation or could the solar panel layer be sprayed directly on some sort of foil?

Or to put it another way: how densely could we pack a solar panel if we didn't care that much about durability?

Let's say I just want something that will last a month and maybe 100 unfolding-folding cycles. Would it be possible to fit it a box like this:

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/48084474

AI datacenter boom is going to significantly raise prices for other/competing electricity consumers.

Only solution is solar+battery DC power supplies to datacenters. OP doesn't distinguish between large and small transformers, but the US domestic sourcing requirement on federal projects is for the larger transformers.

Market intelligence firm Rho Motion, the downstream arm of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, says it tracked 7.95 GW / 22.2 GWh of new global battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity entering commercial operations in June 2025.

According to the company’s just updated “Battery Energy Stationary Storage Monthly Database,” this June capacity represents the highest monthly figure in 2025 so far and is up nearly 20% from the previous month. The data shows that over half of June’s installations were concentrated in China, maintaining the country’s dominance in the global energy storage market.

Deployed global capacity for the first half of 2025 culminates to 86.7 GWh of battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity, representing a year-on-year increase of 54%. The firm’s pipeline data indicates that the full year 2025 is currently tracking at just over 412 GWh of planned deployments.

The law that President Trump signed on July 4 ending tax incentives for wind and solar projects is expected to drive up electricity bills across the U.S., with some of the sharpest increases in Republican-led states, according to Energy Innovation, a nonpartisan think tank.

Without tax credits, the cost of wind and solar plants will go up. Companies are likely to respond by building fewer of those projects, and those facilities that do come online will have bigger price tags, according to multiple estimates. As that happens, the country is expected to generate more electricity from natural gas plants, which are often more expensive to run than wind and solar projects.

That shift will hit hardest in states that don't have their own policies to drive renewable energy development, says Dan O'Brien, a senior analyst at Energy Innovation. In Oklahoma, for example, homeowners, renters and businesses are likely to see electricity rates shoot up by between 60% and 350% over the next decade, according to Energy Innovation. The firm expects rates to rise by at least 48% in Kentucky, 39% in Missouri and 30% in Kansas. The congressional delegations of those states are overwhelmingly Republican.

Consider these headlines from recent days:

“France and Switzerland shut down nuclear power plants amid scorching heatwave,” was the July 3rd headline on Euronews. As the piece explained: “To cool down, nuclear power plants pump water from local rivers or the sea, which they then release back into water bodies at a high temperature. However, Europe’s ongoing heatwave means that the water pumped by nuclear sites is already very hot, impacting the ability of nuclear plants to use it to cool down. On top of this, nuclear sites run the risk of posing a dangerous threat to local biodiversity, by releasing water which is too hot into rivers and seas.”

edit: it seems like there's gonna be a very negative response to this article so to respond to all of them in advance. If I were you I would question why this article supporting non extractive means of green energy over extractive forms of green energy offending your sensibilities so much.

A recent story by The New Yorker dove into the astonishing growth of solar energy over the past few years. Among other extensive data, the magazine notes that renewables made up 96 percent of demand for new energy throughout the globe in 2024; In the United States, 93 percent of new energy capacity came from solar and wind.

But while renewables writ large are having their day, the speed at which solar energy in particular is growing blows everything else out of the water.

For example, it's now estimated that the world is now installing one gigawatt worth of solar energy infrastructure every 15 hours — or about the output of a new coal plant.

For some historical context, the New Yorker notes that it took 68 years since the invention of the first photovoltaic solar cell in 1954 to construct a single terawatt's worth of solar power. It took just two years to hit the second terawatt in 2024, and the third is expected within mere months.

This explosive growth has been fueled by huge efficiency gains in solar energy output, breakthroughs in manufacturing, and streamlined installation processes. There've also been huge developments in panel recycling, meaning the darker side of solar energy — mineral extraction and panel fabrication — might one day be a thing of the past.

Solar energy experts in Germany are putting sun-catching cells under the magnifying glass with astounding results, according to multiple reports.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems team is perfecting the use of lenses to concentrate sunlight onto solar panels, reducing size and costs while increasing performance, Interesting Engineering and PV Magazine reported.

The "technology has the potential to contribute to the energy transition, facilitating the shift toward more sustainable and renewable energy sources by combining minimal carbon footprint and energy demand with low levelized cost of electricity," the researchers wrote in a study published by the IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics.

The sun-catcher is called a micro-concentrating photovoltaic, or CPV, cell. The lens makes it different from standard solar panels that convert sunlight to energy with average efficiency rates around 20%, per MarketWatch. Fraunhofer's improved CPV cell has an astounding 36% rate in ideal conditions and is made with lower-cost parts. It cuts semiconductor materials "by a factor of 1,300 and reduces module areas by 30% compared to current state-of-the-art CPV systems," per IE.

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I mean im guessing its because it may not be as profitable, or atleast at first, boycotts or directly just capitalism fucking everything up? i legit always imagine aliens seeing us still use coal while having DISCOVERED IN 1932

A new energy storage plant featuring sodium- and lithium-ion batteries has opened in China's Yunnan province.

The energy storage station, operated by China Southern Power Grid, is approximately 33,333 square meters in size and features over 150 battery compartments, according to CnEVPost.

The station's leader told news agency Xinhua that it has a top response speed that's six times faster than other sodium-ion batteries. It can also store up to 800,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per day, which is enough to power approximately 270,000 households.

PV Magazine explained that the station can serve over 30 wind and solar plants to mitigate the impact of intermittent supply. The article highlighted that the power station can adapt to changing energy access and stabilize delivery.

Combined, these benefits make it easier for cities, companies, and everyday people to have an energy source they can rely on. And one they can trust to release less planet-warming pollution than dirty fuels such as coal, oil, and gas.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/24567442

Something remarkable is happening beneath the waves off the coast of Rhode Island. What began as an offshore energy project has quietly turned into a massive, unexpected win for marine life. According to Chris Buxton, writing for Daily Kos, the five wind turbines near Block Island have triggered a boom in fish populations, transforming turbine foundations into thriving artificial reefs.

Fishermen were skeptical at first. But after the turbines went up in 2016, local Captain Hank Hewitt noticed black sea bass returning in record numbers. Within two years, their population had increased tenfold near the turbine sites. Other species like porgies and cod followed, drawn to the mussel-covered pylons and protected underwater spaces.

Science backs the fishermen’s stories. A seven-year study monitoring over 600,000 fish from 61 species found no harm to marine life—only growth. Similar results have been seen in Europe, where Danish and Belgian wind farms now host booming underwater communities.

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As the Trump administration’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” eliminates many clean-energy incentives in the U.S., China continues huge investments in wind and solar power, reportedly accounting for 74 percent of all projects now under construction worldwide.

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