2026-04-01 06:13 UTC
@bascule@mas.to Now I'm confused - according to
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/electricity-generation?tab=discrete-bar&time=latest&country=SWE~IND~USA~GBR~FRA~OWID_WRL
The world produced a total of 31,000TWh electricity in 2025. That corresponds to a mean production of 3.5TW. And the article states 5TW of capacity. Is that because solar only works a part of the day at full capacity?
I think TWh produced in a year would be a more useful measure, no? Would that mean that 15,000TWh were produced by renewables?
Replies (1)
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@bascule@mas.to 2026-04-01 14:20
@ligasser@social.epfl.ch capacity (TW) and generation (TWh) are both valid measures for different things. The capacity milestone comes first, then the generation milestone. Yes, solar has a low capacity factor, particularly in China (10%) which happens to be home to most of the world's solar. FWIW, solar in China should beat coal in terms of generation (TWh) this year.