Solar Energy Is Going to Power the World Much Sooner Than You Think

Posted2 months agoActive2 months ago

epistasis

24 points

10 comments

newscientist.comResearchstory

supportivepositive

Debate

20/100

Solar EnergyRenewable EnergyClimate Change

Key topics

Solar Energy

Renewable Energy

Climate Change

The article discusses the rapid growth of solar energy and its potential to become a dominant source of power, with commenters generally agreeing on its potential but raising concerns about implementation and infrastructure.

Snapshot generated from the HN discussion

Discussion Activity

Light discussion

First comment

15m

Peak period

18-20h

Avg / period

1.7

Key moments

01Story posted
Oct 23, 2025 at 5:05 PM EDT
2 months ago
Step 01
02First comment
Oct 23, 2025 at 5:20 PM EDT
15m after posting
Step 02
03Peak activity
3 comments in 18-20h
Hottest window of the conversation
Step 03
04Latest activity
Oct 24, 2025 at 2:11 PM EDT
2 months ago
Step 04

Generating AI Summary...

Analyzing up to 500 comments to identify key contributors and discussion patterns

Discussion (10 comments)

Showing 10 comments

rolph

2 months ago

1 reply

solar energy has powered the world for a much longer-time than we have existed. the world has had a longer time to get it not wrong than we have.

_wire_

2 months ago

Aye

It's perpetual motion

lgats

2 months ago

1 reply

https://web.archive.org/web/20251023135556/https://www.newsc...

https://archive.is/wip/3OULX

dmix

2 months ago

archive.is didnt work

https://removepaywalls.com/3/https://www.newscientist.com/ar...

tim333

2 months ago

1 reply

Glad to see it's cracking along but there hasn't been much decline in fossil fuel use yet https://ourworldindata.org/fossil-fuels

The sodium ion battery developments are promising.

epistasisAuthor

2 months ago

Your plots, which go all the way from 1800 to 2024, do show a massive massive leveling out of fossil fuels in the last decade, however. When going through a surge in energy demand, old resources usually don't get retired very quickly. For example, with gas in the US, there was something like 5GW of new gas expected to be added in the US, and 1.6GW of old plants retired. But that's all dwarfed by the amount of storage and solar going in.

devwastaken

2 months ago

1 reply

nope. we need over 50% efficiency with 30+ years guaranteed lifespan. we have 20% efficiency with at most 10 years with continual maintenance.

Solar installers are low quality, expensive, destroy the roof, and existing utility companies will make you pay to grid tie. you wont save money.

the only time solar is worth it is a non grid tie DIY setup.

tim333

2 months ago

I think the article is more about commercial solar farms rather than rooftop.

belviewreview

2 months ago

Casey Handmer on the energy transition

https://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fcaseyhandmer.word...

Rodmine

2 months ago

Wrong! Oil-rich countries have every incentive to not let it happen, and that is exactly what they have been doing. For example, “but the Uighers” is a propaganda tactic (among others) developed by the current oil countries as an attack to the Chinese solar industry.

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ID: 45687151Type: storyLast synced: 11/20/2025, 2:18:13 PM

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