diff --git a/.readthedocs.yml b/.readthedocs.yml
index e294b06e..9289507e 100644
--- a/.readthedocs.yml
+++ b/.readthedocs.yml
@@ -1,6 +1,4 @@
 version: 2
-conda:
-  environment: requirements/docs.yml
 build:
   os: ubuntu-22.04
   tools:
@@ -8,6 +6,8 @@ build:
   jobs:
     pre_build:
       - python ./docs/pre_build/generate_math.py
+    pre_create_environment:
+      - mamba create -n base -c conda-forge -c nodefaults python=3.12 -f requirements/docs.txt -f requirements/base.txt
     post_create_environment:
       - pip install --no-deps .
 
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 15cfd9b4..50cf17dd 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -129,6 +129,7 @@ calliope = "calliope.cli:cli"
 
 [tool.setuptools.dynamic.optional-dependencies]
 dev = { file = ["requirements/dev.txt"] }
+docs = { file = ["requirements/docs.txt"] }
 
 [project.urls]
 website = "https://www.callio.pe/"
diff --git a/requirements/docs.txt b/requirements/docs.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ab69b64e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/requirements/docs.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+- bottleneck
+- jsonschema2md >= 1, < 2
+- mkdocs
+- mkdocs-click
+- mkdocs-gen-files
+- mkdocs-include-markdown-plugin
+- mkdocs-jupyter
+- mkdocs-macros-plugin
+- mkdocstrings-python
+- mkdocs-material >= 9, < 10
+- pip
+- typing-extensions
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/requirements/docs.yml b/requirements/docs.yml
deleted file mode 100644
index 94f71e3c..00000000
--- a/requirements/docs.yml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,35 +0,0 @@
-name: calliope-docs
-
-channels:
-  - conda-forge
-  - nodefaults
-
-dependencies:
-  - python = 3.12
-  # dependencies from base.txt
-  - click >= 8, < 9
-  - ipykernel < 7
-  - ipdb >= 0.13, < 0.14
-  - jinja2 >= 3, < 4
-  - jsonschema >= 4.17, < 4.19
-  - natsort >= 8, < 9
-  - netcdf4 >= 1.2, < 1.7
-  - numpy >= 1, < 2
-  - pandas >= 2.1.2, < 2.2
-  - pyomo >= 6.5, < 7
-  - pyparsing >= 3.0, < 3.1
-  - ruamel.yaml >= 0.17, < 0.18
-  - xarray >= 2023.10, < 2024.3
-  # dependencies for docs
-  - bottleneck
-  - jsonschema2md = 1
-  - mkdocs
-  - mkdocs-click
-  - mkdocs-gen-files
-  - mkdocs-include-markdown-plugin
-  - mkdocs-jupyter
-  - mkdocs-macros-plugin
-  - mkdocstrings-python
-  - mkdocs-material >= 9, < 10
-  - pip
-  - typing-extensions