Weather Guard Lightning Tech
Renewables Surpass Coal Globally, Despite US Setbacks
Solar and wind power are outpacing coal for the first time globally. However, the US faces challenges in meeting clean energy goals due to material shortages, a lack of skilled workers, and political roadblocks.
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Something remarkable happened this year.
For the first time in history, renewable energy generated more power than coal worldwide. Solar grew thirty-one percent in just six months. Wind and solar together outpaced electricity demand.
China built more clean energy in half a year than the rest of the world combined. India’s renewable growth beat demand. Their fossil fuel use dropped.
Why? Simple economics.
Wind and solar are now the cheapest sources of electricity.
But here in America, we have a problem.
Johns Hopkins researchers just discovered we’ll fall thirty-four percent short of our clean energy goals by twenty fifty. Not because renewables cost too much. Because we don’t have the materials to build them.
Nickel. Silicon. Rare earth elements with names like neodymium and dysprosium. China controls ninety percent of the processing. And last week, they announced export controls.
Meanwhile, in Britain…
They’re creating four hundred thousand clean energy jobs by twenty thirty. Plumbers. Electricians. Welders. Building wind farms. Installing solar panels. Running smart grids.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband put it simply: “Where are the good jobs of the future going to come from? This is the answer.”
The Sizewell C nuclear plant alone needs ten thousand workers. But here’s the rub – they need to triple their welders, double their plumbers. The workers don’t exist yet.
Down in North Carolina…
Duke Energy just announced a new plan. They’re delaying wind projects. Extending coal plants. Not because coal is cheaper – it isn’t. But because artificial intelligence and data centers are driving electricity demand eight times faster than expected.
Glen Snider from Duke says they need reliability while demand surges.
The irony?
Duke’s moving away from the cheapest new sources of power – wind and solar – just when they need the most electricity. They’re choosing to extend expensive coal plants that cost more to run.
Australia sees opportunity…
Treasurer Jim Chalmers is in New York meeting with Blackstone and Wall Street. Australia has lithium, manganese, rare earths. They claim they can deliver the world’s lowest-cost renewable electricity by twenty fifty.
“Australia has exactly what the world needs, when the world needs it,” Chalmers says.
Think about this…
The technology works. Solar and wind are cheaper than coal. Batteries can store the power. Countries using these technologies are seeing their energy costs drop.
But America faces three bottlenecks:
First, we don’t control the materials. Second, we don’t have the skilled workers. Third, states like North Carolina are choosing reliability over cost savings.
President Trump calls renewables “a joke.” But JP Morgan says something different. They say America will have to use renewable energy whether we like it or not. Nuclear takes too long to build. Fossil fuels cost too much.
The numbers tell the story…
Britain: Four hundred thousand new jobs. America: Seven hundred thirty gigawatts short of materials. North Carolina: Eight times the demand growth. Global renewables: Cheaper than coal for the first time.
We’re watching the free market work. The cheapest energy is winning worldwide. Except in places where politics and supply chains get in the way.
The future of energy isn’t about saving anything. It’s about economics. And right now, the economics are clear.
The cheapest power comes from the sun and wind.
https://weatherguardwind.com/renewables-coal-us/
I subscribe to a social media feed called “I Love Old Homes” because I have an appreciation for the history of architecture, especially that which was built in what is now the United States between the late 17th Century and the 1930s. At the risk of coming off as weird, I try to picture myself living in some of these places, and some of these daydreams are quite pleasant indeed.
At left, we see something from the “beaux arts movement” in the Gilded Age of the late 19th Century that I find abhorrent. In its essence, it says that I have disdain for those less fortunate.
You don’t have a fireplace to keep you warm as you walk up one of your many staircases? What a tragedy.
We live in times when 1.5 billion people can’t get a glass of clean water and you want to live like this? You don’t care that the planet we live on is becoming more inhospitable with each passing year, as long as you can live in the most extreme upper end of luxury? There are rooms in your house that you’ve never even stepped in? Some that you can’t actually find?
Apparently this works for some, but not for me.
Renewable Energy
ACORE Statement on Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act Substitute Amendment from President and CEO Ray Long
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Policy -
Press Releases
ACORE Statement on Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act Substitute Amendment from President and CEO Ray Long
WASHINGTON, D.C. — ACORE supports the Senate negotiators’ agreed-upon Substitute Amendment for the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA), and we urge swift passage of the bill.
This Substitute Amendment represents corrections and clarifications that maintain the bill’s goals — to fix our woefully broken permitting system. The Amendment specifically improves the transmission provisions, allowing us to make much-needed upgrades to our grid so we can build more clean energy.
This bill will help to put downward pressure on energy prices, improve our electricity reliability, and ensure we have enough power to keep the lights on for families and factories. The status quo of high power prices and anticipated energy shortages is unacceptable. This bill will streamline the build-out of our power infrastructure. The time is now.
Let’s get this bill passed and start building.
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About ACORE
ACORE is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that operates at the intersection of affordability, reliability, and clean energy deployment. Our work is focused on stabilizing energy prices, strengthening the electric grid, and driving investment in cost-effective technologies to ensure that clean energy delivers for people, businesses, and the U.S. economy.
ACORE convenes a membership spanning the full clean energy value chain—investors and financiers, developers and EPCs, hyperscalers and energy buyers, manufacturers and advisors. Our members were directly involved in more than 80% of the American clean energy infrastructure projects added to the grid in 2025. We champion all clean energy technologies including transmission, solar, wind, storage, geothermal, hydropower, nuclear, and beyond. ACORE members are the companies investing in and building tomorrow’s electric power system, accelerating infrastructure development, strengthening grid reliability, and enhancing domestic competitiveness.
Media Contacts:
Tamari Palmer
Associate, Communications
palmer@acore.org
Chris Higginbotham
VP, Communications
higginbotham@acore.org
The post ACORE Statement on Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act Substitute Amendment from President and CEO Ray Long appeared first on ACORE.
https://acore.org/news/acore-statement-on-bipartisan-american-affordability-and-jobs-act-substitute-amendment-from-president-and-ceo-ray-long/
A friend from Texas writes: It’s been an interesting week! A lot to reflect on. And Texas seems to be the epicenter. Folks are pretty flabbergasted over the defeat of all statewide Republican candidates (including state supreme court justices) and the election of a Democratic party-controlled state house.
Yes, Texas blew everyone’s mind. I think what the GOP experienced was a double-whammy if you will.
Consumer prices are high, due at least in part to Trump’s inane and illegal war in Iran. This is impacting the lives of working class Americans.
and
I’m pleased to be able to report that many people still have a conscience, which causes them to reject the GOP’s cruelty, dishonesty, dismissal of science, and criminality.
What We Love About Old Homes Tells Us About Ourselves
ACORE Statement on Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act Substitute Amendment from President and CEO Ray Long
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