Solar grew 50% in just 19 months

From Gavin Mooney

One third of the world’s total solar capacity was installed in the last 19 months.

Global installed solar has now passed 3 TW. The first terawatt took decades to build – the latest one took just over a year and a half.

Having said that, SolarPower Europe is expecting a slowdown this year before growth picks up again from next year. It forecasts annual installations to fall to 612 GW in 2026 from a record 664 GW last year.

This would be the first annual decline in solar installations in more than two decades.

A few things stand out:

✅ The slowdown is a China story. China accounted for 57% of global additions in 2025, but installations there are forecast to fall 24% this year following domestic policy changes.

✅ Outside China, however, deployment continues to broaden. India has become the world's second largest market, installing 45.7 GW in 2025. The number of countries with at least 1 GW of solar has risen from 42 in 2020 to 74 now.

✅ Growth is expected to resume from 2027. By 2030 annual installations could reach 864 GW with the global fleet approaching 7 TW.

So while the next terawatt might take slightly longer than 19 months, the underlying direction remains clear: annual solar additions are moving towards 1 TW, while deployment continues to spread across more markets.

The other interesting part of this story is how solar growth is starting to spread into markets that barely registered a few years ago.

BloombergNEF highlights rapid rooftop growth in countries such as Pakistan, Nigeria and the Philippines, while smaller markets like Lebanon and Cuba have also accelerated sharply.

The main constraint for these countries increasingly looks less like panel cost, and more like access to affordable finance.

 

We can run our grid on renewables, except (perhaps) in very high latitudes.  According to Engaging Data, 179.4 million people in the world live north of Manchester (latitude 53 degrees N).  This is a lot of people, but it makes up just 3.4% of the world's population.  The rest of us will be able to run our grids off wind and solar, with battery storage.  Those brave enough to live in high latitudes should still be able to run their grids mostly on renewables, with back up from gas and (maybe) nuclear, even if they don't import electricity from sunnier places.

Source: Engaging Data

State of the climate

 From Michael E Mann

"The 2026 state of the climate report: challenges and opportunities" | Honored to be a co-author of this article in #Bioscience, led by @williamripple.bsky.social , detailing the increased danger signs from our warming planet: academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...

ABSTRACT

Earth’s climate system is moving deeper into uncharted territory. We present the 2026 update of planetary vital signs that track the state of Earth’s climate system, alongside indicators of the human activities driving ongoing change. Of 16 climate-related indicators, seven are currently at record extremes. Several indicators also show evidence of accelerating trends or abrupt shifts, raising concerns about increasing climate instability, interacting feedbacks, and the growing risk of crossing critical tipping points. Human activities, particularly fossil fuel combustion, remain the dominant drivers of these changes. Despite the worsening trends, encouraging signs of societal changes are emerging, including the rapid expansion of renewable electricity and battery storage, although progress remains far below the scale and speed needed to stabilize Earth’s climate system. Rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, effective adaptation, ecosystem protection, and transformative societal change remain essential to reducing climate risks and securing a more resilient and sustainable future.

It's still not too late.  We can cut emissions of greenhouse gases.  There is no technological or economic reasons why we can't.   There're many who do not want emissions to be cut — oil, gas and coal companies; feckless legacy car makers who were too stupid to embrace EVs; the rabid right, who think cutting emissions is somehow woke; imbeciles, who still despite the evidence believe that climate change is happening.  We must not them derail decarbonisation.

Older adults and B12

From The Conversation

Two micrograms is an almost unimaginably small amount. It weighs less than a tiny fragment of a grain of table salt. Yet adults need only around this amount of vitamin B12 each day, depending on the guideline used, to support red blood cells, nerves and DNA production.

In 2026, it is 100 years since George Minot and William Murphy reported that a liver-rich diet could treat pernicious anaemia, then a frequently fatal disease. Their work transformed medicine and eventually led scientists to identify vitamin B12 as the substance in liver that treated the disease.

But the route to that breakthrough began with an unexpected clue from animal experiments. The American physician and pathologist George Whipple had shown that liver helped dogs recover from anaemia caused by blood loss. Blood-loss anaemia happens when the body loses red blood cells through bleeding. Pernicious anaemia is different: the problem is not bleeding, but poor absorption of vitamin B12. Even so, Whipple’s experiments pointed researchers towards liver as a source of a powerful blood-forming factor.

Patients with pernicious anaemia who had been close to death often improved dramatically within weeks of eating liver-rich diets. The success of liver treatment eventually led scientists to isolate the deep red compound now known as vitamin B12, or cobalamin.

Often mistaken

Despite decades of research, vitamin B12 deficiency remains common, particularly among older adults, vegans, vegetarians and people with conditions that affect absorption. Some people do not consume enough B12 because it is naturally found mainly in foods from animals, including meat, fish, eggs and dairy products. Others struggle to absorb it properly.

This becomes more common with age. Some older people produce less stomach acid, which is needed to release B12 from food. Others develop autoimmune gastritis, in which the immune system damages stomach cells involved in producing acid and intrinsic factor, the protein needed for vitamin B12 absorption. Weight-loss surgery and some medicines used for diabetes or acid reflux can also reduce absorption.

The symptoms of deficiency can develop slowly and are often mistaken for normal ageing. People may feel exhausted, weak or short of breath. Some develop numbness or tingling in their hands and feet, poor balance, memory problems or what many describe as “brain fog”. These symptoms are not specific to B12 deficiency, so persistent tiredness, tingling or balance problems should be checked rather than assumed to be a simple vitamin problem.

People at higher risk, including vegans, vegetarians, older adults and those taking medicines that affect stomach acid or diabetes treatment, may need testing or supplementation advice from a health professional.

Doctors have traditionally linked tiredness in B12 deficiency to anaemia. Without enough vitamin B12, the bone marrow cannot produce healthy red blood cells. Instead, it releases unusually large and immature cells that carry oxygen less effectively around the body.

But anaemia may not be the only reason people with low B12 feel exhausted.

Low energy

In humans, vitamin B12 is directly needed by only two enzymes, the proteins that help chemical reactions happen in the body. One helps the body make DNA, which cells need when they divide. The other helps mitochondria process certain fats and protein building blocks. Mitochondria are the tiny structures inside cells that help turn food into usable energy.

This mitochondrial role has attracted growing interest from researchers studying ageing, muscle function and vitamin B12 status. A 2026 study explored what happens when cells do not have enough B12. Researchers found that low B12 could interfere with the DNA inside mitochondria and reduce energy production in laboratory models of skeletal muscle (muscle cells studied outside the human body).

A related study in aged female mice found that B12 supplementation improved several signs of mitochondrial health in muscle, including the number and structure of mitochondria. Together, this work points to one possible reason why some people with low B12 report fatigue before obvious anaemia is detected.

These findings do not mean vitamin B12 supplements can reverse ageing or act as an energy booster for people whose B12 levels are already normal.

Scientists have suspected a link between B12 and mitochondrial function for many years, because one of the two B12-dependent enzymes works inside mitochondria. Earlier research has also suggested that low B12 status may be linked with poorer muscle function in older adults, although much of this work is observational and cannot prove cause and effect.

So if you’re feeling persistently tired, is it worth paying for vitamin B12 injections at a wellness clinic or medispa? For most people, no. B12 injections are an established treatment for diagnosed deficiency, particularly when absorption is impaired, and the NHS uses hydroxocobalamin injections for vitamin B12 deficiency anaemia.

But there is little evidence that B12 shots boost energy, weight loss or performance in people whose B12 levels are already normal. The more useful first step is to find out what is causing the tiredness.

The story of vitamin B12 is unusual because the body needs so little of it, yet the consequences of deficiency can be profound. Long before scientists understood its chemistry, doctors recognised that something in liver could restore strength, appetite and vitality to desperately ill patients.

A century later, researchers are still finding that this tiny cobalt-containing molecule does more than prevent anaemia. It may also help explain how cells maintain energy and function as the body ages.

I am vegan and was recently diagnosed after a blood test with a B12 deficiency.  I take a B12 supplement every couple of days, and my deficiency has been cured.  I strongly recommend that you do not take supplemental B12 unless your doctor advises it after you have had a blood test.

As always, I am neither a doctor nor a nutritionist.   Consult your own doctor or specialist before taking B12.

The unstoppable solar tsunami

 By John Hanger

Solar shortly will be 59% of Botswana's total generation capacity! Solar does more to electrify Africa & end energy poverty than any technology. Oil & gas imports are unaffordable for poor countries. New coal & gas plants are unaffordable. Solar & batteries are the option!

Solar increases Botswana's TOTAL generation by 148%, since 2024. Botswana had 0.76 GW or 760 MW of TOTAL generation at end of 2024. Solar was 10 MW or 1.3% of that total. Botswana adds 1.1 GW of solar, with 271 MW operating & 820 MW under construction!

Botswana is not a key contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions. But it is emblematic of all the developing countries in the sunbelt (its latitude is +-22 degrees south). These countries are installing solar hand over fist because it is cheap. Cheaper than oil and coal and gas. So cheap that total electrical capacity is doubling (or more) every year because of new solar installations. People who never had electricity before now have it. Factories that struggled to afford electricity or even to have electricity now have it.

And the costs of solar and batteries haven't yet stopped falling. This is an unstoppable revolution. And we enter the era of dirt-cheap electricity. Except where countries have turned their faces against it. In the US, and in Australia, where the right-wing parties are inexplicably promising to subsidise coal power stations. The stupid really burns, doesn't it?

A lot more people in a lot less space

 From a Bluesky post by Brent Toderian.

To carry 50,000 people per hour in each direction, a city needs a 175m wide road for cars. Even if those cars are electric. And then there’s all the parking. OR a city can move A LOT MORE people in a lot less space, with A LOT LESS public money, emissions, pollution, noise etc. Choices. Simple.

How much would trams carry? About a quarter or a fifth of a metro, but they are on the other hand cheaper to build and run. 

Solar passes nuclear in Texas

 From Chris Meder (EVCurveFuturist)

Solar passed nuclear in Texas 2 years ago. Now it's double. Texas is what makes this chart powerful. This isn't green ideology winning. It's pure economics. Solar is cheap, modular, scalable & incredibly fast to deploy. Wind keeps growing too. When economics take over, ideology becomes irrelevant.

You can politicise energy, but you can’t vote away the cost curve. Texas follows the money, and that solar curve tells you where it’s going, followed closely by wind. Add batteries and the economics get even harder to resist. Good luck stopping that. It's not even a race, its domination by new #SWB [Sun, wind, batteries]

 

It's shameful how many Ozzies are dying in poverty

From The Guardian

Stunning new data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) shows the abysmally low rate of jobseeker means at least 3,000 more unemployed Australians die each year than would be the case were they not purposefully kept in poverty.

We often talk about how tough it is for those on jobseeker. But last week a report from the AIHW titled “Mortality outcomes among people receiving income support” shows talk is cheap when people are dying.

The report found that Australians on jobseeker are up to 10 times more likely to die than those not on welfare support.

In 2022, the rate of deaths for 35- to 44-year-olds not living on welfare support was 30 per 100,000. By contrast, the rate was 288 per 100,000 for those on jobseeker – 9.6 times greater.

Can someone explain why – in an economy in which the central bank has decided we need almost 700,000 people to be unemployed – those people live in such dreadful poverty that it can make you up to 10 times more likely to die in the prime of your life?

The Reserve Bank believes we need unemployment to be 4.5% to 5% to keep inflation stable. At that level, they believe total household income is such that we won’t buy too much stuff and there won’t be a wages breakout.

It’s not just the RBA: every government since 1996 has been more than happy to ensure the gap between the unemployment benefits and poverty has either grown or remained well above what it was when Bob Hawke and Paul Keating [Labor Prime Ministers] were in power:

Currently, jobseeker payments are almost half the poverty line – roughly $300 a week less than what would be needed for a single person to be right on the poverty line. The only time this was not the case was during the Covid pandemic when the Morrison government effectively doubled jobseeker temporarily.

During 2020, the death rate of those on jobseeker dropped 32% from 328 people per 100,000 the previous year to 224 people per 100,000:

It is too simplistic to say the doubling of jobseeker in 2020 was the reason the death rate dropped. A big factor was that the number of people unemployed almost doubled due to the Covid lockdowns. This group had not come from the level of poverty the usual cohort of unemployed people had, and as a result would likely be healthier.

Crucially, however, being unemployed did not automatically sentence them to poverty.

We therefore cannot say just how big of an impact the doubling of the payment had unless we were able to strip out the numbers of “unemployed due only to lockdowns”.

But while we cannot attribute the doubling of jobseeker to the drop in the death rate, that should not stop our anger at the higher death rates of those on unemployment benefits – and the disparity is getting larger.

In 2019, 328 people died per 100,000 of those on jobseeker. This fell to 224 in 2020, but then rose straight away to 300 the following year and then again to 326 in 2022. Conversely, over the same period, the rate of deaths for those aged 22-64 and not on welfare kept falling.

It means that the likelihood of dying for all unemployed people aged 22-64 is now nearly five times greater compared with those not on welfare – the biggest gap in the AIHW report:

The 2020 figure when jobseeker was doubled does however give us a good base to work from to estimate just how many more people on jobseeker die because they live in poverty.

The cruelty of poverty is that it sentences those in it to a poorer diet, less access to healthcare, less ability to afford exercise activities such as gym and sport club memberships, and as a result a much higher morbidity rate.

In 2022, 3,985 people on jobseeker died. If instead of dying at a rate of 326 per 100,000, the rate was the same as it was in 2020, then 1,246 fewer people would have died (a total of 2,739).

But let us lift our standards. There really is no reason why people on jobseeker should die more often than those not on welfare.

We are a rich country with supposedly universal healthcare. Raising jobseeker to the poverty line (about $37,000 a year) would cost roughly $11bn this year. For comparison, this year the Treasury estimates the richest 10% (people earning more than $162,000) will get about $22.5bn in superannuation tax breaks.

If those on jobseeker died at the same rate as those not on welfare payments, in 2022 just 817 people would have died – 3,168 fewer than in reality:

Poverty kills. And the way to lift people out of poverty is to lift the unemployment payment (and other forms of welfare).

Raising the level of jobseeker would save thousands of lives.

These sorts of results are not unique to Australia: 

Why equality is better for everyone