Robbie M. Andrew | Lightnews

Robbie Andrew

@robbieandrew.bsky.social

4.2K followers 160 following 3.3K posts

Senior scientist at Oslo-based CICERO Center for International Climate Research • 🌍Global Carbon Project • https://robbieandrew.github.io/

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Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · May 8

On Tuesday I gave a ten-minute update on where global fossil CO₂ emissions are at.

CICEROdagen 2025 - En hel dag med klimakunnskap - Auditorium 0001

YouTube video by CICERO klima

youtu.be

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 1d

🎁🔗

A Trump ‘Blockade’ Is Stalling Hundreds of Wind and Solar Projects Nationwide

www.nytimes.com

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 1d

Sure. Again, if the govt decides to throw lots of subsidies at imported LNG, companies will follow that path and buy it. The sensible thing would be to not to that. Anyway, my point was that the govt's goal seems unlikely to lead anywhere.

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 1d

Don't put it past a government to push through a plan that doesn't make economic sense.

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 1d

Difficult to reconcile those two facts. (1) LNG is expensive for India, but (2) they have govt goals to use it much more.

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 1d

The main thing in India is that natural gas is very expensive compared to other sources of energy, since any increase in supply is from LNG, but they do have goals to increase natgas as a share of total energy supply.

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 1d

Battery swapping is significant, but only about half of the BEV total.

Graph showing: China domestic sales of heavy trucks (Source: https://robbieandrew.github.io/china/)

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 1d

Here's a day from the late monsoon (near the start of the available data). Since wind is steady through the day, it's difficult to compare by eye, but total wind generation on this day is over half as much as solar.

Graph showing: India's grid power mix 25 September 2025.

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, it's interesting. It varies seasonally. Much of the year it's in the early evening for residential cooling. This snapshot is from winter, where morning residential activities dominate (water heating), and possibly also agriculture: massive pumping of groundwater.

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 1d

They say they exclude the early generation in their calculations precisely because of their very power efficiency.

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 1d

Wind is highly seasonal in India, becoming much stronger during the monsoon. I chose a winter day for this chart to highlight that solar is still a big contribution even in winter.
robbieandrew.github.io/india/

Graph showing: Approximate average utilisation factor of Indian renewable power (Source: https://robbieandrew.github.io/india/)

Reposted by Robbie M. Andrew

Science X / Phys.org @sciencex.bsky.social · 2d

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) have been detected in atmospheric measurements from 1951, indicating their presence 20 years earlier than previously documented. doi.org/hbnjz8

Ozone-depleting CFCs detected in historical measurements—20 years earlier than previously known

An international research team led by the University of Bremen has detected chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in Earth's atmosphere for the first time in historical measurements from 1951—20 years earlier than previously known.

phys.org

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 2d

It's share of actual generation, not of capacity.

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 2d

If that's your question, then we don't need sub-daily data to answer it! Here you can see the share of solar growing strongly over time.

Graph showing: India's shares of electricity generation by type (Source: https://robbieandrew.github.io/india/)

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 2d

While the data source I used above only starts a few months ago, another data source has earlier data, but unfortunately combines renewables together. Still, a useful comparison. Hydro still taking most of the demand shoulders.

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 2d

Overall much lower generation six years ago, and total renewables considerably smaller. Thermal generation is basically flat through the middle of the day.

Graph showing: India's grid power mix: 25 December 2019

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 2d

Overall much lower generation six years ago, and total renewables considerably smaller. Thermal generation is basically flat through the middle of the day.

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 2d

Ah. Unfortunately the earlier data I have available don't split out solar separately from renewables. The data source I used for the plot above only starts in September of last year. But I'll keep looking.

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 2d

Doable. I'll put it on my list to do.

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 2d

Here's a report from August 2025 discussing the situation.

India's battery storage boom: Getting the execution right

The Government of India is supporting the growth of energy storage capacities with a combination of policies and incentives

ieefa.org

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 2d

I hacked a font some years back to give better numeric subscripts for compounds. Still using it on my figures. I'm never going to use the Spanish upside-down exclamation mark, so replaced it with a new glyph.

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 2d

They're only just getting started, and not significant enough yet to be reported. But they do have plans.

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 2d

Yes. Since this is unusual for many in the audience, I chose to highlight this!

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 2d

Interesting.
"We estimate the engines that once powered the retired [military] aircraft could add up to as much as 40,000 MW of electricity generating capacity"

Air power: Tallying electricity generating potential from retired military aircraft - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

www.eia.gov

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 2d

BTW, the brown here labelled "thermal" is almost all coal. There's also a very small amount of diesel in there.

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 2d

Thanks David. I've been doing this so long I forgot to explain what "thermal" meant!

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 2d

Here's that huge surge.

Reposted by Glen P. Peters

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 2d

India's solar is making a solid contribution to daily generation, even in the middle of winter.
(In fact the insolation minimum is during the monsoon season.)

Graph showing: India's grid power mix: 25 December 2025

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 2d

Here's a graph of road fuel consumption. From: robbieandrew.github.io/EV/
For HDV you can look here for trucks: www.tilnull.no/energi/kjore...
and here for busses:
www.tilnull.no/energi/kjore...

Graph showing: Monthly sales of petroleum products in Norway (Source: https://robbieandrew.github.io/EV/)

Reposted by Robbie M. Andrew

Lauri Myllyvirta @laurimyllyvirta.bsky.social · 2d

Coal power in China: most new coal plants in a decade went online in 2025; plans for new projects reached a record high, with the equivalent of >150 large coal plants proposed. Thankfully permitting slowed so the government is limiting the expansion to a degree. What's going on?