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Texas's electricity demand has surged to record highs in 2025 but renewable energy is meeting the challenge. According to new data from the Energy Information Administration, solar output has quadrupled since 2021, wind continues steady growth, and battery storage is increasingly stabilizing the grid during evening peaks. Electrek reports: ERCOT, which supplies power to about 90% of the state, saw demand jump 5% year-over-year to 372 terawatt hours (TWh) -- a 23% increase since 2021. No other major US grid has grown faster over the past year. [...] The biggest growth story in Texas power generation is solar. Utility-scale solar plants produced 45 TWh from January through September, up 50% from 2024 and nearly four times what they generated in 2021 (11 TWh). Wind power also continued to climb, producing 87 TWh through September -- a 4% increase from last year and 36% more than in 2021. Together, wind and solar supplied 36% of ERCOT's total electricity over those nine months. Solar, in particular, has transformed Texas's daytime energy mix. From June to September, ERCOT solar farms generated an average of 24 gigawatts (GW) between noon and 1 pm -- double the midday output from 2023. That growth has pushed down natural gas use at midday from 50% of the mix in 2023 to 37% this year. The report notes that while natural gas is still Texas's dominant power source, it isn't growing like it used to. "Gas comprised 43% of ERCOT's generation mix during the first nine months of 2025, down from 47% in the first nine months of 2023 and 2024," reports Electrek.

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Shoppers thanked Primark for the PJ sets

This month, the broadcaster released Panorama: Undercover in the Police which exposed racist and discriminatory comments and actions by officers at Charing Cross police station.

alternative_right shares a report from France 24: [Sweden's] latest contribution to the war effort is Glimt, an innovative project launched by the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) earlier this year. Glimt is an open platform that relies on the theory of "crowd forecasting": a method of making predictions based on surveying a large and diverse group of people and taking an average. "Glimt" is a Swedish word for "a glimpse" or "a sudden insight." The theory posits that the average of all collected predictions produces correct results with "uncanny accuracy," according to the Glimt website. Such "collective intelligence" is used today for everything from election results to extreme weather events, Glimt said. [...] Group forecasting allows for a broad collection of information while avoiding the cognitive bias that often characterizes intelligence services. Each forecaster collects and analyses the available information differently to reach the most probable scenario and can add a short comment to explain their reasoning. The platform also encourages discussion between members so they can compare arguments and alter their positions. Available in Swedish, French and English, the platform currently has 20,000 registered users; each question attracts an average of 500 forecasters. Their predictions are later sent to statistical algorithms that cross-reference data, particularly the relevance of the answers they provided. The most reliable users will have a stronger influence on the results; this reinforces the reliability of collective intelligence. "We used this method and research, and we suggested to the Ukrainians that it could improve their understanding of the world and its evolution," said Ivar Ekman, an analyst for the Swedish Defence Research Agency and program director for Glimt. "If you have a large group of people, you can achieve great accuracy in assessing future events. Research has shown that professional analysts don't necessarily have a better capacity in this domain than other people."

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Revised guidance from The Bar Council now allows lawyers to ditch their wigs for criminal cases if it is 'uncomfortable, or impractical'.

If the Boomers have failed, Gen X has been a disappointment and the millennials are missing in action, then the composition of our future elites matters.

In the past few years, theatre performances starring Catherine Tate , David Threlfall and Hollywood veteran Sigourney Weaver have all struggled to wow critics.

The undercover footage shows PC Jason Sinclair-Birt tell a colleague he 'whacked the s**t out of the back of his legs' while discussing the use of force on a detainee.

Following a renewed public outcry over his living arrangements, the disgraced ex-Duke of York is in talks about quitting his 30-room Grade II listed mansion on the Windsor Estate.

Apple has begun shipping U.S.-made AI servers from a new factory in Houston, Texas -- part of its $600 billion investment in American manufacturing and supply chains. CNBC reports: Apple Chief Operating Officer Sabih Khan said on Thursday that the servers will power the company's Apple Intelligence and Private Cloud Compute services. Apple is using its own silicon in its Apple Intelligence servers. "Our teams have done an incredible job accelerating work to get the new Houston factory up and running ahead of schedule and we plan to continue expanding the facility to increase production next year," Khan said in a statement. The Houston factory is on track to create thousands of jobs, Apple said. The Apple servers were previously manufactured overseas.

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As an intimate of the Royal Family, Lady Glenconner is the guardian of countless secrets.Now 93, she has written a new book that gives fascinating insights into the royals and the foibles of aristocracy…

GUY ADAMS: On the Louvre's first floor, surrounded by marble pillars, gilded wooden panels and a vaulted ceiling, visitors this week came across the world's most ornate stable door.

What was that? The Labour party on 11 per cent? In Caerphilly? When you look at the scale of the Government's humiliation in this week's by-election, you rub your eyes in disbelief.

The Prime Minister's leadership was called into question after the disastrous result in Caerphilly, South Wales.

As Prince Andrew reflects on his threadbare reputation, he can seek inspiration from a fellow military man once nearly as reviled as he is today.

If you tax something, you get less of it. She taxed jobs, now more people are unemployed. She taxed education, now schools are closing down. And now it looks like she's coming after people's savings.

This is the woman who sent an email to Jeffrey Epstein describing him as a 'supreme friend' - three years after he had been jailed for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

Looking at this month's Country Life magazine pictures of David and Victoria Beckham's country estate, it's hard to believe this is the same couple who sat on gold thrones at their wedding.

The ex Pussycat Doll, 47, said she was 'devastated and horrified' by the incident but claimed to have been unaware the audience had been waiting so long in their seats.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Tom's Guide: Microsoft Teams is about to deal a heavy blow to those who like to work from home for peace and quiet. In a new feature update rolling out December 2025, the platform will track a worker's location using the office Wi-Fi, to see whether you're actually there or not. From a boss' perspective, this would eliminate any of that confusion as to where your team actually is. But for those people who have found their own sanctuary of peaceful productivity by working from home, consider this a warning that Teams is about to tattle on you. According to the Microsoft 365 roadmap: "When users connect to their organization's Wi-Fi, Teams will automatically set their work location to reflect the building they are working in." The location of that worker will apparently update automatically upon connecting. It's set to launch on Windows and macOS, with rollout starting at the end of this year. "This feature will be off by default," notes Microsoft. But "tenant admins will decide whether to enable it and require end-users to opt-in."

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