What's the opposite of doom scrolling?

Spain just pulled off one of the fastest energy transformations in Europe.

@bradr I love how clear the line before and after Pedro Sánchez is lmao

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@xerz @bradr Was literally about to comment, "What happened in 2018 to cause such a large uptick?"

@disorderlyf @xerz @bradr to be honest, it's in large part a coincidence. It takes over 5 years (sometimes much longer) since a wind farm is proposed until it comes online.
Renewables are becoming the main source of electricity simply because of economics. Governments do not need to push renewables: they simply have to avoid punishing them.

@mbpaz @xerz @bradr The latter is what I assumed was why it looked like the transition was slow going. I've also heard the time to approve new solar and wind (mostly solar) projects on average has gone down, so it might've just been when the initial push for it to snowball happened.

@disorderlyf @mbpaz @bradr and yet I'm pretty certain the vast majority of capacity we got ever since is solar, where Iberdrola and friends just went ahead, bought a bunch of land, speedran through the permits and built the new power stations

capacity which wasn't possible under a government infamous for taxing out power stations, the well-known "impuesto al sol" (Article 7 RD 900/2015, repealed in October 2018, taxing all production of solar energy even if for homes which were unplugged from the grid)

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@xerz @disorderlyf @bradr The infamous "sun tax" applied to residential PV only - and industrial PV farms were perfectly happy with it, as it meant less PV production from residential customers, thus higher demand and higher prices in peak PV production hours. The boom in PV is just business. Lower investment, lower TCO (compared to wind etc).

PV and wind installed power reached parity in 2024. Installed PV is growing at 25-30% annually, installed wind power is growing at 2-4%.

@mbpaz @disorderlyf @bradr Okay I might not be reading well the old law, but I understood the old tax ("peaje") applied to everyone, and they were just specifiying "autoconsumo" even for those who are not connected to the grid

the PV boom is net business indeed tho, I just understood that the Rajoy administration was hostile enough with the aforementioned tax (which killed the previous, Zapatero-era policy of solar panel roofs in new lots) that the numbers stopped making sense until it got all lifted

@mbpaz a feat Germany has yet to achieve @disorderlyf @xerz @bradr

@xerz @bradr The right wing parties in Spain, almost stopped all development in renewable, they even put a tax specific for them, it was called "tax on the sun" by the media. Their ties with Spanish energy and oil companies are so big that people used to say that if we could get energy from revolving doors we could provide energy for the whole world.

@bradr Great news, but this is _only_ aboute electricity production. Is there a graph with _all_ energy and fossil use? I.e. including motor traffic (which still runs on oil), heavy industries and chemical processes?

@bradr
Where is the other (100 - 44 - 17) = 39 % ?

@bradr
Nuclear and hydro, apparently, but the toot was deleted.

@bradr Just today read the term "hype swiping" and I like both the term and your news :-)

@bradr It's And a nice chart you have there, too.

@bradr
dukenukem scrolling

@KimeraGupta @bradr honestly, Spain should tell the EU to fuck off (and not only for this particular thing).

@KimeraGupta @bradr That makes zero sense: When you can no longer buy solar panels you keep producing electricity with the current ones, for many years; while the moment you can't buy fossil fuels you stop generating energy because they're single use. You burn it and it's gone. And as the skyrocketing fuel prices have shown us, that's a critical dependency.

@bradr I think this does not count as bloomscrolling, because there is no flowers...

But maybe it does?

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@bradr
Whilst I 100% agree that this is very positive, and great to see, electricity is not the only energy consumed in spain. There is still a considerable reliance on fossil fuels for energy.
Source: ourworldindata.org/profile/ene

@bradr They're a spain in the ass for fossilists.

I would say the opposite of doom scrolling is reading a lighthearted novel.

@bradr Here is a year in South Australia. Green for solar+wind, black for gas and diesel, purple for battery charge/discharge*.

Such is the height of the daytime solar generation across Australia, mostly from residential solar, that there will be three hours of free electricity from June.

The South Australia state Premier says all electricity in the state will be zero carbon by 2027.

Edit: a caution about interpreting these figures. This is electricity usage as *seen by the grid*. There is a huge amount of daytime power consumption which is powered from on-site solar panels, and so not seen by the grid at all. No one knows how big this 'behind the meter' usage is, but based on panels sold it is expected to be huge, as part of the rationale for a household installing solar is to run the summer air-conditioning for 'free'. There are pleasant spring days (no heating or aircon) where the entirety of the state is powered from residential solar alone.

* Battery charging is solar+wind in SA, so count that as non-fossil.

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@bradr The 40% missing from the chart is nuclear energy?

@fusion @bradr Other possibilities could include hydroelectricity and tidal. So probably not the whole 40%.

@fusion @bradr the mix in 2025 was:

21.85% solar
21.56% gas
20.41% wind
18.78% nuclear
11.37% hydropower
3.48% oil
2.23% bioenergy
0.32% coal

So renewables accounted for 53.63%, zero emissions (solar + wind + hydro + nuclear) 72.41%. Really good.

(Source: ourworldindata.org/search?q=en )

Our World in DataSearchSearch articles and charts on Our World in Data. Filter by country or subject area to discover insights on global issues supported by reliable data.

@fmarini @bradr Thanks, it's nice to compare with Germany where we have "only" nuclear waste but a little more bio (maybe we produce more
"s h i t" 😜 ): smard.de/home

www.smard.deSMARD | SMARD - Strom- und Gasmarktdaten

@bradr You should see the amount of wind farms between Algeciras and Tarifa in coastal Andalusia.

@bradr

Mood trolling. Spain lifts all spirits lately.

:mastodon:

@bradr wenn wir diese Entwicklung auf Deutschland übertragen könnten.... dann wären wir in 15 Jahren fossilfrei.
Aber das können wir nicht. Denn unsere Politik wurde von den fossilen Industrien gekauft.

@energisch_ WIR können Politik machen @bradr

@bradr
Spain's geographic location was helpful though, impossible to pull that stunt in central mainland Europe. UK is a different case, they can tap more wind and tidal.

@gekko3k @bradr if I recall correctly, Germany still produces more photovoltaic power than Spain.

@mbpaz @gekko3k @bradr I don't think impossible is the right word here. This is Poland's energy mix over 20years (and look at Spain's energy mix around 2020 for comparison).

Btw, Poland's goal is not to reach 50%, but to produce the majority of energy from renewable sources.

@gim @gekko3k @bradr Coal usage for electricity generation in Spain is exactly zero now - no coal power stations remain.

Roughly 40-50% actual (not installed) generation is wind+solar, depending on the weather, ~15% nuclear, 10-20% hydro.

The major remaining polluting source is gas (in combined cycle stations), hard to replace for technical reasons. Also about 1% total energy comes from diesel generators in islands.

@mbpaz @gim @gekko3k

similar to UK (which decomissioned its last coal electric plant in 2024). Both spain and uk still use coal for heat processes (industrial and residential), but that is also declining.

@gekko3k @bradr Helpful? Definitively. But not impossible to pull it of in other European countries. A bit harder and more expensive? Sure, but political is the main blocker

@gekko3k @bradr You get solar power as long as there is daylight. Better if there's no clouds sure. But also better to be further from the equator so more of the light is perpendicular to the surface of the solar panel.

@bradr

cnbc.com/2026/04/17/spain-ener

Spain has sufficient autonomy, agency, & sovereignty to chart its own course because of its energy policy

It lets Spain to tell Trump to eff off, and especially his fossil fuel oil oligarchs.

If only we were all so fortunate.
cnbc.com/2026/04/08/spain-pm-s

nytimes.com/2026/04/24/world/e

@Npars01 @bradr

I ain't no fortunate one. Trump can fuck off all the same. 100s of millions should tell him so then see that he does.

:mastodon:

@bradr nice! And this is also part of an ongoing overall reduction in total greenhouse gas emissions. They have been steadily using less per year since 2007. Truly impressive and hopeful.

@bradr I don't know but 25 years doesn't seem particularly fast to me. Spain definitely gets credit for making it happen and working on it steadily over those 25 years.

@Axomamma i have no idea how long it takes to make massive infrastructural change on a national scale.

@bradr

@thegarbagebird I lived long enough to believe that it takes quite a while. Give it some thought. I'm sure you will realize that adoption takes quite a long time for big shifts. Just look at railroads.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_

en.wikipedia.orgHistory of rail transport - Wikipedia

@Axomamma so twenty five years is pretty good?

@thegarbagebird I would say so. I could only wish the US were half as fast. I live in Arizona. There is very little solar despite unrelenting sunshine. Every parking lot could have shaded parking that contributes to the grid. Can we do that? In 2026 the answer is still "no."

@Axomamma I am. I do not live in the US

@carl You must be living in a cave. Maybe get out more.