News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on In a first, wind and solar generated more power than gas globally in April 2026. Parent comment

Re:In a first, wind and solar generated more power than gas ... by Guid_NewGuid on Thursday June 04, 2026 @12:09PM (#48400683)
I almost feel like it doesn't matter if Joe-public is on board or not at this stage. For as much as capitalism kinda got us into this mess, at this point the flywheel is going in the other direction and it's a natural market consequence that renewables will win. Lack of priced in externalities created the problem but the same economics will now save us.*

The money men have no moral attachment to any source so given how cheap this mix has gotten it basically wins.

* I'd point out without China and its Leninist command economy (as well as publicly funded research) getting the price of these technologies down to where it is now we'd still be doomed, but we are where we are so now the system necessarily will act in its own self interest to use the basically free energy. Is it going to be enough at this stage? Who knows, but I see reasons to be optimistic.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:In a first, wind and solar generated more power than gas ... by JuniperMesos on Friday June 05, 2026 @01:51AM (#48408482)
China's Leninist command economy also burned (and still does burn) tremendous amounts of fossil fuels to generate energy, just as the command economy of the Soviet Union did, and just as the more-or-less free markets of the western world did and still do. People burn fossil fuels because the energy that they generate is incredibly useful for everything in the modern world, regardless of the economic system governing any particular jurisdiction.
[ Parent | on HN ]