Top all-time · #1197
Ramez Naam
Personal blog · rameznaam.com · on HN as RamezNaamscienceeconomicsai
Ramez Naam's personal blog at rameznaam.com covers science, economics and ai. Since 2013, 57 different Hacker News readers have linked it 77 times, most often “Solar’s Future is Insanely Cheap”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-19, and you can follow it by feed.
Sometimes recommended · 7 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Ramez Naam's posts on falling solar, battery and storage costs and renewables versus coal and nuclear, often as data-backed sources. His Nexus science fiction novels also come up.
- Recommended for · 7 comments
- Called a solar cost post a favourite and a great long read; also a good read, excellent blog series, great storage article, and Nexus novels quite good.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
A Brighter Future for Humanity: AI, Energy, Climate, and Technology. Click to read Ramez Naam, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.
Most-linked posts?
- Solar’s Future is Insanely Cheap8 people · 11 mentions · first linked 2020-05-14
- Why Energy Storage Is About to Get Big – And Cheap8 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2015-04-14
- How Cheap Can Energy Storage Get? Pretty Darn Cheap5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2015-10-14
- How Cheap Can Solar Get?5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2015-08-12
- The Third Phase of Clean Energy Will Be Most Disruptive Yet4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-04-02
- /p/471bbae4-1163-4048-944b-18f8b0bf0e413 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2026-10-03
- How Steady Can Wind Power Blow?3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2015-10-14
- Can AI self-improvement overcome diminishing returns?3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2026-09-29
- /2016/01/31/how-far-can-renewables-go-pretty-darn-far/2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2016-04-19
- /2015/06/04/whats-the-eroi-of-solar/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2015-08-12
What Hacker News says?
Sounds a bit like what Nori plans to do. http://rameznaam.com/2018/09/10/yes-blockchain-can-help-us-s...
Comment linking /2018/09/10/yes-blockchain-can-help-us-solve-climate-change-why-i-joined-nori/
on “Carbon Removal Technologies”Submitted The Third Phase of Clean Energy Will Be Most Disruptive Yet as a story · 443 points
HN discussionFiguring out storage is hard if you think in terms of Lithium Ion grid-scale batteries, or mountains for pumped hydro, but[1] puts forward the idea of synthetic natural gas generated by solar panels. That can be pumped into existing national gas grids, existing gas storage, and sent into existing gas power stations to generate power in quiet times. The article says that solar power has dropped from $100/Watt in 1976…
Comment linking /wp-content/uploads/2020/05/IEA-Solar-Growth-Forecasts-vs-Reality-Simon-Evans-Carbon-Brief.jpg
on “First new U.S. nuclear reactor since 2016 is now in operation”Submitted Why Energy Storage Is About to Get Big – And Cheap as a story · 241 points
HN discussionAs ebbv points out, they are dropping really fast in price. There's a fairly decent analysis from Lazard consulting on storage: https://www.lazard.com/perspective/levelized-cost-of-storage... It used to be part of their cost of energy analysis, but has recently been broken out: https://www.lazard.com/perspective/levelized-cost-of-energy-... But since these report aggregate information from previous years, they alway…
Comment linking /2015/10/14/how-cheap-can-energy-storage-get/
on “The price of solar power just fell 50% in 16 months”Submitted How Cheap Can Solar Get? as a story · 174 points
HN discussionOne of my favorite facts of recent note is the rapid decrease in the price of solar. This article by Ramez Naam puts the whole thing into perspective: https://rameznaam.com/2020/05/14/solars-future-is-insanely-c...
Comment linking /2020/05/14/solars-future-is-insanely-cheap-2020/
on “Toyota is quietly pushing Congress to slow the shift to electric vehicles”Submitted Solar’s Future is Insanely Cheap as a story · 152 points
HN discussionMisinformed. Please see my comment at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11524691 and these links would be helpful http://www.nrel.gov/analysis/re_futures/ http://cleantechnica.com/2016/03/02/base-load-power-is-a-myt... http://cleantechnica.com/2014/08/08/rmi-blows-lid-baseload-p... http://rameznaam.com/2016/01/31/how-far-can-renewables-go-pr...
Comment linking /2016/01/31/how-far-can-renewables-go-pretty-darn-far/
on “Solar is now cheaper than some coal, says India energy minister”Submitted How Cheap Can Electric Vehicles Get? as a story · 135 points
HN discussionThis book is from 2008, and, while reportedly very good for its time, now out of date. https://www.carboncommentary.com/blog/2017/3/30/l6qcqgoedse1... In particular, nobody back then anticipated how quickly solar PV prices would drop. https://rameznaam.com/2020/05/14/solars-future-is-insanely-c...
Comment linking /2020/05/14/solars-future-is-insanely-cheap-2020/
on “Sweden’s incoming cabinet says new nuclear reactors will be built”Submitted The Singularity Is Further Than It Appears (2015) as a story · 105 points
HN discussion"Looking at the bulk of the research, it’s more likely that solar panels, over their lifetime, generate 10-15 times as much energy as it takes to produce them and their associated hardware. That number may be as high as 25. And it’s rising over time." http://rameznaam.com/2015/06/04/whats-the-eroi-of-solar/
Comment linking /2015/06/04/whats-the-eroi-of-solar/
on “Plunging costs make solar, wind and battery storage cheaper than coal”Submitted New Record Low Solar Price in Abu Dhabi – Costs Plunging Faster Than Expected as a story · 105 points
HN discussionI'll try: In order to solve climate change, we need to decarbonize all of our primary energy sources by shifting from fossil fuels to zero carbon sources (wind, solar, hydro, nuclear). Biomass (wood pellets) should not be treated as 'renewable' when looked at the lens of solving climate change. I am optimistic because the costs of solar, wind, and energy storage are decreasing rapidly (between 15%-30%+ cost declines…
Comment linking /2015/06/04/whats-the-eroi-of-solar/
on “Britain has gone two months without burning coal to generate power”Submitted How Steady Can Wind Power Blow? as a story · 16 points
HN discussionAll great questions. When I look at the "Worldwide growth of photovoltaics" plot at the top of the page you linked, I see the "Green" (European) color dominate from 2008-2013 (maybe 80%+ of installs). Germany purchases, peaking in 2011, where in the heart of when solar price declines occurred. By the same chart, deployments in the rest of the world explode post 2014, after the big price declines. Here's an article f…
Comment linking /2011/03/17/expis-moores-law-really-a-fair-comparison-for-solar/
on “Why did renewables become so cheap so fast?”Submitted Solar and Wind Plunging Below Fossil Fuel Prices as a story · 10 points
HN discussionIf there is anyone on here who works in the battery production, EV, or utility industries, can you comment on exactly what is driving the dramatic cost/kWh declines? Every article I've read seems to imply that the cost declines are just being driven by economies of scale (massive fixed costs of plant construction being averaged out over large production runs) and learning economies ( https://rameznaam.com/2014/09/30…
Comment linking /2014/09/30/the-learning-curve-for-energy-storage/
on “Battery Pack Prices Fall As Market Ramps Up”Submitted Tesla Powerwall Battery Economics: Almost There as a story · 7 points
HN discussionActually, it kind of is, the technology (high voltage DC) is well understood and being deployed at high rates in China. It's also affordable. Assuming no new breakthroughs in wind or solar technology, and ignoring storage, we can use HVDC with lots of wind and solar to eliminate 75% of our electricity emissions, and even slightly lower the cost of electricity. And that's even without shifting any use right now: http…
Comment linking /2016/01/31/how-far-can-renewables-go-pretty-darn-far/
on “New Record Bid Set for World's Cheapest Solar, Undercutting Coal”Submitted How Cheap Can Energy Storage Get? Pretty Darn Cheap as a story · 5 points
HN discussionLithium Ion battery prices have come down 40% since 2010 (see third graph[1]), and that is /caused/ by the increasing demand (it's called a manufacturing learning curve[2] of which Moore's law is just an example). Tesla's strategy is to drive volumes with gradually more affordable cars to bring down battery costs until there is a crossover where gasoline cars are impractical. That also explains the Gigafactory and t…
Comment linking /2013/09/25/energy-storage-gets-exponentially-cheaper-too/
on “It's a Tesla”Submitted Can AI self-improvement overcome diminishing returns? as a story · 4 points
HN discussionI just started reading the Nexus trilogy by Ramez Naam ( http://rameznaam.com/nexus/ ). It's quite good so far, and explores some of these concepts from a sci-fi bent.
Comment linking /nexus/
on “Elon Musk’s Neuralink wants to boost the brain to keep up with AI”Submitted Solar’s Future Is Insanely Cheap (2020) – Ramez Naam as a story · 4 points
HN discussionThis very thorough analysis of the potential for wind energy in the US concludes that the great plains have massive potential for fantastically cheap wind power generation, with some sites having potential capacity factors well over 65%. http://rameznaam.com/2015/08/30/how-steady-can-the-wind-blow... The point at which energy storage becomes an issue is a long way off if you connect the country with HVDC lines. Buil…
Comment linking /2015/08/30/how-steady-can-the-wind-blow/
on “Bill Gates et. al. launch massive clean-energy fund to fight climate change”Submitted The Third Phase of Clean Energy Will Be the Most Disruptive Yet as a story · 4 points
HN discussionI think it was this one: http://rameznaam.com/2019/04/02/the-third-phase-of-clean-ene...
Comment linking /2019/04/02/the-third-phase-of-clean-energy-will-be-the-most-disruptive-yet/
on “Battery Power's Latest Plunge in Costs Threatens Coal, Gas”Submitted How Cheap Can Electric Vehicles Get? as a story · 4 points
HN discussion
