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jqpabc123 | on: Wind and solar generated more power than gas globally in April 2026
Renewable energy offers a competitive advantage for any energy intensive activity --- like manufacturing or AI.

China gets it, the USA doesn't.

cloche | parent | next
Even so, the article says it grew 8% YOY in the US. The best is to hope that this is an unstoppable trend so that even politicians won't be able to reverse it.
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wolfhumble | parent | next
Good China numbers, but I’d still keep two things in mind.

China is moving very fast on clean power. But total energy is still very fossil-heavy, about 78%: 51.4% coal, about 26.9% other fossil fuels, calculated as the remaining share after coal and non-fossil, and 21.7% non-fossil in 2025, based on official Chinese figures.

The U.S. is about 82% fossil overall, so roughly comparable to China’s ~78%, just in a different way. Much less coal now, around 8%, but a lot of oil and gas: petroleum about 38%, natural gas about 36%, according to EIA’s 2024 summary.

For electricity, China was around 11% solar and 11% wind in 2025, according to China’s 2025 Statistical Communiqué. The U.S. was around 9% solar, including rooftop and other small-scale solar, and around 10% wind in 2025, according to EIA.

Nuclear is a major difference in the electricity mix: about 18% of U.S. electricity generation versus roughly 5% in China, based on EIA and China’s 2025 Statistical Communiqué.

And yes, EIA is not a typo for IEA EIA is the U.S. Energy Information Administration, whereas IEA is the International Energy Agency.

kieranmaine | parent | next
The USA get's it. Trump doesn't. Texas is a the leader in wind and solar in the US.

Compare generation stats for yesterday between 2021 and 2026 on the Texas grid (ERCOT)

* 2021 - https://www.gridstatus.io/live/ercot?date=2021-06-03

* 2026 - https://www.gridstatus.io/live/ercot?date=2026-06-03

Also, the Californian grid (CAISO) shows where everyone is headed with a huge deployment of batteries:

* 2021 - https://www.gridstatus.io/live/caiso?date=2021-06-03

* 2026 - https://www.gridstatus.io/live/caiso?date=2026-06-03

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SirFatty | parent | next
Spoken with such authority!
ReptileMan | parent
Indeed. Steel mills, aluminum smelters and glass factories really adore the intermittent nature of renewables.
ZeroGravitas | root | parent | next
Smelters in Australia are leaning on the fossil-friendly politicians to stop getting in the way of renewables because they can't compete with global prices unless they use renewables.
jqpabc123 | root | parent
Unlike in the USA --- they obviously look beyond the rhetoric to grasp the fact that renewables help lower energy costs even if their industry doesn't fully depend on them.
Danox | root | parent | next
Germany screwed themselves.
uecker | root | parent
The world screwed itself by not investing in renewables earlier. Germany paid a high price for being early, but we all should be thankful for Germany creating an economy of scale and bringing cost down.

And while the extreme right wing propaganda claims that Germany is doomed because of the Energiewende for the last 20 years or so, it is somehow still the third largest economy.

jqpabc123 | root | parent
Yes, that probably explains why US imports of steel and aluminum continue to grow, even with a 25% tariff.

US manufacturers and consumers just love the added cost --- aka, inflation.

https://www.steel.org/2026/03/steel-imports-up-4-6-in-januar...