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Wind and Solar Generated More Power Than Gas Globally in April (electrek.co) 144

Last month saw a world first, reports Electrek. Wind and solar generated more power globally than gas: According to new analysis from independent energy think tank Ember, wind and solar produced 22% of the world's electricity in April 2026, compared to 20% from gas. Together, the two renewable sources generated a record 531 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity during the month, 54 TWh more than gas plants generated globally, at 477 TWh...

Five years ago, in April 2021, gas generation was almost identical to today's level at 476 TWh. But back then, wind and solar combined generated just 245 TWh — less than half of what they produced this April...

Wind and solar generation increased across nearly every major market reporting April data... April tends to be the strongest month for this kind of milestone because spring weather in the Northern Hemisphere usually brings a combination of strong wind generation, rising solar output, and lower electricity demand between heating and cooling seasons. Still, the broader trend is clear. Ember's recent Global Electricity Review found that wind and solar met all global electricity demand growth in 2025.

"Governments around the world are also ramping up renewable energy targets to reduce dependence on volatile fossil fuel imports..."

Wind and Solar Generated More Power Than Gas Globally in April

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  • by dskoll ( 99328 ) on Sunday May 24, 2026 @12:44PM (#66158500) Homepage

    People realizing they need to reduce dependence on fossil fuels is probably the only good thing to come out of the Trump regime's Iran sh*t-show.

    • Considering how much the people 'learned' from the OPEC oil embargo in the 70's, when they had to sit in lines for hours to maybe get a ration of gas, that's not a safe bet. As soon as the prices come back down where it is not in the front of their minds every time the fill up the car, they will quickly forget again, just like they did before. As evidence of that forgettfulness, fuel is still cheaper than it was in 2022 under Biden for 6 months topping $5 a gallon on average at it's highest, that's only 4
    • by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Sunday May 24, 2026 @03:31PM (#66158706)

      People realizing they need to reduce dependence on fossil fuels is probably the only good thing to come out of the Trump regime's Iran sh*t-show.

      Sorry but this has nothing to do with Iran. The trend for wind and solar has been moving this way steady for years before anyone knew where on the map the Strait of Hormuz was. Sure it's not negative, but at best it cements something that that people were already doing.

      • The trend for solar/wind (the headline) is indeed unrelated to the war; it could not have been otherwise, as there was not enough time for the war to influence the building of new capacity and effective production in April. However, there is a "people realizing" part, unrelated to the slashdot post, that has to do with Iran. The increase in price of oil due to the war in Iran is being quoted worldwide as a reason to acquire an EV, such news are all over the press https://time.com/article/2026/... [time.com]

      • by shilly ( 142940 )

        The data shows that the Straits attack had a substantial accelerative effect on sales of renewables (and EVs). There may be more to come as well, when the price shock kicks in properly later this year, although by that time the economic impacts may mean less ability to invest the capex too, sadly.

      • by arcade ( 16638 )

        This particular statistic has nothing to do with Iran, but we can expect a significant global boost for renewables due to the currently ongoing debacle. Businesses and governments worldwide knows how bad this hurts, and is still going to hurt. They know that they need to decouple from oil strategically. The cheapest route to do that is solar + batteries (for most of the world). Some northern countries (Scandinavia, Canada, northern Russia, plus a bit of central europe) - will of course need "winter gene

        • We already had that thanks to Russia. When Europe showed the world fossil fuel dependence on foreign nations isn't a viable strategy, THAT is when a major acceleration to energy independence starts. And ever nation has light and wind.

          Yeah like I said positive effect, but one already known. Any country who were looking towards hedging any kind of bet on energy already got the hint a few years ago. Those who didn't are unlikely to be moved this time.

      • for years before anyone knew where on the map the Strait of Hormuz was.
        I guess you underestimate the education regarding geography on the world.

        Well, perhaps I over estimate it.

      • And, unfortunately, the trend towards solar/wind/hydro has happened before the understanding and tech to make it happen in such a way that it'll be productive towards society today is a good thing (there's probably a better way to say that)... because if we're going to steam our way towards those replacements for power and force that as the new norm, there's no going back.
        And, it's the same with the whole AI movement... the advances the whole thing makes are happening faster than our understanding of how to

    • by drnb ( 2434720 )

      People realizing they need to reduce dependence on fossil fuels is probably the only good thing to come out of the Trump regime's Iran sh*t-show.

      There is something more important to learn. That we need to reduce fossil fuels prioritized by their pollution. Remove coal first, then oil, then natural gas, as the west generally does. It's something China desperately needs to learn.

      • (Bing/CoPilot)
        "In 2024, the United States consumed approximately 4.086 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity, with projections to rise to 4.165 trillion kWh in 2025."

        So... where ya gonna put all those solar panels and wind turbines?
        Where do they come from? How much fossil fuels (NatGas, diesel, coal) are used to make the solar panels and wind turbines?
        You need square footage for all this, that square footage (at the start) is available, then cuts into land that's used for crops and grazing, and soon

        • by drnb ( 2434720 )
          Locally, solar projects tend to be interfering with riding dirt bikes out in the desert, not agriculture.
        • by caseih ( 160668 ) on Sunday May 24, 2026 @05:21PM (#66158848)

          That is a lot of solar panels. Using the sheer number of panels theoretically required as an excuse to not do solar is silly. I have half a megawatt of solar on my land. It's placed on a just a few of acres of marginal, otherwise-unused land. Grass grows great still underneath them. Gotta start somewhere.

          Most buildings should have solar of some kind on their roofs. In some parts of the world, solar water heaters have been mandated on roofs for decades. Data centers should have their roofs entirely covered in solar panels and a certain amount of battery storage should be included in the development plan. Vertical bifacial panels have a place too. As for carbon cost of manufacturing and installing solar, yes it is definitely there. So the choice is emitting some carbon once every thirty years to build solar, or continuously emitting orders of magnitude of carbon dioxide just burning the stuff (once and done)---the answer seems pretty clear to me!

          • Not everyone (not even most) have that much ground space in the lot their house is on.
            Covering the roof in solar panels would only be worth it if you have enough roof to support 5GW of solar panels, and that power usage is going to do nothing except go up every couple months as new GPUs/NPUs and bigger better racks are brought into the DC.
            And, hope those wind turbines and solar panels can withstand severe weather (which is probably going to get worse)... stuff like tornados, straight-line winds, golf ball-s

        • by shilly ( 142940 )

          Your main problem is that your analysis is trite. You talk about primary energy, for example. Ember have written an entire report about why primary energy is weak way to understand energy systems. Its excellent, you should go read it:
          https://ember-energy.org/lates... [ember-energy.org]

          It is also really time to stop worrying about cropland lost to renewables production if you’re not going to acknowledge that cropland (and actual ecosystems) are being lost at a way higher rate to climate change. It’s like idiots bla

          • Agrivoltaics would be a way to preserve both.

            • Indeed.

              And wind does not cost much crop land, as the pillars of the turbines only use very little land.

              Solar can be everywhere, it is only put on crop land: if all agree the land usage has to change away from crops - for what ever reason.

              And putting solar on crop land only makes sense for large installations anyway. Most installations are on buildings ... and soon parking lots and so on.

              Then again: the percentage of land any country uses as crop land is extremely low. If some usage is diverted away from tha

              • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

                by ambrandt12 ( 6486220 )

                (Bing/Copilot)
                "A single commercial wind turbine typically requires 40 to 70 acres of land for optimal operation, though the turbine itself occupies less than 1.5 acres.

                Physical Footprint vs. Total Land Area
                The direct footprint of a wind turbine, including the foundation and immediate access pad, is relatively small, usually 0.25 to 1.5 acres per turbine
                This is the area physically occupied by the tower, base, and nearby infrastructure.
                However, the total land area needed for a wind farm is much larger to ensu

    • Luv it when a plan comes together. Sarcasm aside diversifying away from Hormuz a good direction for many.
    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Indeed. Trump may have done really well in addressing the problems of climate change. Obviously, and due to his persistent total incompetence and lack of a clue, he did intend the total opposite.

  • Here's the US solar growth numbers from the same report: https://ember-energy.org/lates... [ember-energy.org]

  • by dwater ( 72834 )

    This is American, right? So this means petroleum gasoline?

  • ...to tell us why this is a bad thing. :-/
    • Some satire similar to the logic fossil fuels sometimes uses against renewables:

      (begin satire) Smoke alarms are a leading cause of deaths and fires in the home. Every years, lots of people are killed falling off of ladders to change smoke alarm batteries. False alarms from smoke detectors cause numerous kitchen injuries as people using kitchen knives are startled and accidentally cut themselves or stab nearby family members. Smoke detectors wired into home electrical systems can short out and burn down your

  • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Sunday May 24, 2026 @03:10PM (#66158682)
    From an immediate switch is billionaires want to be in control of the energy supply so they are slowing the transition in order to make sure that they control the solar farms and the wind farms and you have to go to them to get electricity still just like you did when they controlled the coal mines and the oil wells. This is acceptable because the alternative is to make energy production publicly owned and people really really really really hate public utilities and the concept of just having something that we all benefit from. It doesn't feel Fair because they can't own it.

    Also it's hard to explain to people that just because you won't let Elon Musk own the electric grid doesn't mean somebody is going to snatch your car and your toothbrush... It's really hard to get people to grasp any level of nuance. It doesn't help that 60% of them read at the level of a 12-year-old...
    • The only thing stopping us from an immediate switch is billionaires want to be in control of the energy supply

      Nonsense.

      Oh, there are some forces slowing us down, especially the orange man, but even if all of those forces went away or even reversed course 180 degrees there's no way we'd make "an immediate switch". It would and will take many years. It's complicated, there are a lot of moving parts, and we'll get to a point (CA is already there on a lot of days) where renewables frequently have to be curtailed because there isn't enough storage to shift that generation to times of low renewable generation.

      It's really hard to get people to grasp any level of nuance.

      Indeed.

      • Yeah, there are various ways existing and researched of storing everything. Some even depend upon materials from China to pull off. Another unsaid is the simple fact that grid components are on a long backlog.

      • Also reading comprehension.

        I'm talking about the entire electric grid the entire human race. In this context the word immediate is still 10 to 20 years. In the sense of a project of that size the word immediate still applies. But it doesn't mean it happens in 2 weeks like how peace with Iran happens in 2 weeks.

        This is the problem we have. Any sense of nuance goes out the window and you have to be so damn fucking blunt with everybody.

        There was a push called The Green New deal that was going to be
        • If you want to communicate "nuance", maybe start by not using the word "immediate" when you mean in "a few decades".
    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      They read at the level of 12 year olds? I doubt that. Just like their big cult leader, I think they do not read at all.

  • Five years ago, in April 2021, gas generation was almost identical to today's level at 476 TWh

    In other words, renewables do not replace fossil.

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Simplistic insightless conclusion is simplistic and insightless.

  • In 2024, over 75% of all primary energy consumption was provided by natural gas, oil, and coal [ourworldindata.org]. (41,278 TWh + 55,2392 TWh + 45,851 TWh / total 186,383 TWh). Solar and wind together provided 11,275 TWh, or 6.0% of the total.

    531 TWh represents 0.28% (1/300) of total energy (not electricity) production.

  • Does it mean that the total power consumption actually increased, or is it nearly the same while nuclear decreased?

    Global warming only cares about the absolute amount of fossil fuels. It does not care about the percentage.

    • Does it mean that the total power consumption actually increased, or is it nearly the same while nuclear decreased?

      Total energy consumption increased [ourworldindata.org], of course, as it almost always does (there were slight dips in 2009 and 2020).

      Over the five years from 2019 to 2024, worldwide total nuclear primary energy production decreased slightly, from 6920 TWh to 6872 TWh, ending at about 3.69% of total worldwide primary energy production.

      Global warming only cares about the absolute amount of fossil fuels. It does not care about the percentage.

      Percentages are relatively easy to understand, and if the goal is to reduce the use of fossil fuel, given that total consumption always increases, the percentage of energy production from fossi

  • These are the ball-bark yearly numbers confirmed by GPT and Gemini:

    Wind + Solar electricity: ~5,000–5,500 TWh
    Natural Gas (NG) electricity: ~6,500–7,000 TWh
    NG direct heat / non-electric uses: ~10,000–12,000+ TWh equivalent
    All fossil fuel electricity (coal + gas + oil): ~16,000–17,000 TWh
    All fossil fuel direct heat / transport / non-electric uses: ~100,000–120,000+ TWh equivalent

    This puts wind and solar ye

  • Could anyone forward this article ton trump?

  • It is only relevant how much wind and solar did in Germany.

    Because of nukes and such ... and Russia and gas and such ... and Hitler, of course.

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