Solar Power World

New figures on global electricity generation show coal remained the largest source in 2024, producing about 34% of the world's power, while wind and solar together reached 15%, up from just 4% a decade earlier. The data, presented as charts mapped onto the world map, are drawing attention to the slow pace of the energy transition despite rapid renewables growth.

SpaceX has launched Google's AI chips into orbit as part of an effort to develop data centers in space, CNBC reports. The mission marks a step toward moving computing infrastructure off Earth, where solar power and cooling could be more abundant. The project pairs the world's leading launch provider with one of the biggest players in artificial intelligence hardware.

The US Department of Defense has moved forward with a contract for a demonstration project aimed at beaming solar power collected in space down to Earth. The effort, long studied as a way to provide continuous clean energy to military bases and forward operating positions, has now taken a concrete step toward an actual test. Space-based solar power supporters see military interest as a key validation for the technology.

A household reports its east-facing balcony solar setup is underperforming, likely due to weak sunshine, so it is charging a small portable power station over USB-C instead. The post reflects ongoing interest in balcony solar and home battery storage, where users compare output on overcast days and share how they keep devices powered when panels fall short.

China's energy strategy is pulling in two directions in Pakistan: Beijing spent years financing coal-fired power plants there as part of its Belt and Road investments, yet China is now the world's dominant solar exporter and is helping drive a rapid, largely unplanned boom in cheap Chinese solar panels across Pakistan. The result is tension between the installed coal fleet that needs to run to repay debts and a solar surge undermining demand for grid electricity.

A Three W Solar project has been commissioned and is now operational in Texas, according to trade outlet Solar Power World. The completion adds new solar generation capacity to the state's rapidly growing renewable energy portfolio. Texas has become a national leader in solar installations, driven by strong demand, available land, and supportive grid interconnections, making each new project completion notable to industry observers.

Bloomberg examines whether India's vast solar capacity can meet the enormous electricity demands of artificial intelligence data centers. The question of powering the AI boom is becoming a central energy policy issue worldwide, and India, with one of the world's largest renewable buildouts, is a key test case for whether clean power can sustain compute-hungry data infrastructure.

Google is moving AI chips into space as part of a push toward orbital data centers, a direction also championed by Elon Musk as a way to reshape computing infrastructure. The idea is to run AI workloads on satellites powered by solar energy, reducing terrestrial energy and cooling demands. The overlap of two major tech players pursuing the same vision has put orbital data centers back at the center of industry debate.