Air Force rescinds $100M award for Oklo microreactor

Oklo , a nuclear power upstart developing advanced “microreactor” technology, suffered another setback in what has been a tumultuous year for the firm. In August, Oklo was tentatively chosen as the contractor to build a microreactor at Alaska’s Eielson Air Force Base by the end o … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

The LNG export boom just hit a snag in Texas

This story was first published by Grist . The liquefied natural gas, or LNG, industry has exploded across the U.S. Gulf Coast over the past decade, burying once-remote shorelines under hundreds of acres of concrete and steel where the fossil fuel is cooled so it can be shipped ac … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

US government deploys $41M to train clean energy workforce

The Biden administration is investing $40.8 million into new centers to train students and workers for the rapidly growing clean energy economy. The energy transition depends on a skilled workforce, one that can manufacture EVs and batteries, install electric heat pumps and pinpo … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

Live online event: Senator Jeff Merkley on how to rein in LNG exports

We are an independent, nonprofit newsroom covering the transition to clean energy and solutions to the climate crisis. We report on how the world is decarbonizing — from electricity to transportation, buildings and industry — with a critical focus on finding out what works and wh … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

California's grid is hindering its climate goals. Can a new law fix it?

Canary Media’s Down to the Wire column tackles the more complicated challenges of decarbonizing our energy systems. California may be one of the first states to face the risk of its power grid growing too slowly to support the surging adoption of electric vehicles, heat pumps and … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

LNG exports are a 'really, really big' climate threat, McKibben says

On November 15, Canary Media contributing reporter Nicole Pollack sat down with author and activist Bill McKibben, who has been writing and organizing on climate change for decades — and who was instrumental in defeating the Keystone XL pipeline — to discuss what the country’s ra … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

Chart: US EV sales are having a record-setting year

Canary Media’s chart of the week translates crucial data about the clean energy transition into a visual format. Despite recent headlines declaring the industry stagnant or moribund, the U.S. electric-vehicle market is actually well past the tipping point for mass adoption — and … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

California makes it harder for schools, farms and rental housing to go solar

California regulators have ordered changes to the state’s shared-solar programs that critics say will ruin the economics of rooftop solar on apartment buildings, schools and farms across much of the state. And while the new regulations approved by the California Public Utilities … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

Donate to support Canary Media!

We are an independent, nonprofit newsroom covering the transition to clean energy and solutions to the climate crisis. We report on how the world is decarbonizing — from electricity to transportation, buildings and industry — with a critical focus on finding out what works and wh … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

America's first hydrogen-powered ferry is set to sail

America’s first hydrogen-fueled ferry is set to launch in San Francisco early next year after more than five years in development. As the milestone nears, the vessel’s owner says it's already looking to deploy more zero-emissions ferries nationwide — particularly in places w … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

Cartoon: Making transmission cool

We are an independent, nonprofit newsroom covering the transition to clean energy and solutions to the climate crisis. We report on how the world is decarbonizing — from electricity to transportation, buildings and industry — with a critical focus on finding out what works and wh … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

Portugal just ran on 100% renewables for six days in a row

One recent autumn afternoon, I watched the Atlantic gusts collide with the cliffs that rise above Nazaré, Portugal. Rain pelted down, and the world-renowned swells rose into walls of water that even the most death-defying surfers reach only via Jet Ski. For me, this looked like a … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

Charging Up: A chat with Cynthia Adams, CEO of Pearl Certification

Canary Media’s Charging Up column chronicles gender diversity in the climatetech sector. Part one is a short Q&A with an industry role model about their career path. Part two features updates on career transitions, plus data points on workplace trends and diversity. Please send f … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

Bankrupt EV bus-maker Proterra finds buyers for its business units

Proterra, the leading electric bus-maker in the U.S. before it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August , has found buyers for its bus-manufacturing, battery and electric-drivetrain businesses. Now the question is whether the company’s U.S.-based factories, once celeb … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

Maine utilities eye move to time-varying electric rates to boost electrification

This story was first published by Energy News Network . Maine is considering new kinds of electric rates to encourage more widespread home adoption of electric-vehicle chargers and heat pumps while easing the strain these technologies add to the power grid. Central Maine Power, t … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

The humble trash truck is ready for an all-electric upgrade

A powerful new electric vehicle recently started roaming the leaf-strewn streets of Portland, Oregon. Between its tires sits a hefty 400-kilowatt-hour battery pack. Inside its body is the daily detritus discarded by residents of downtown Portland. The battery-powered garbage truc … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

It's hard to connect clean power to the grid. New software can help

The biggest near-term barrier to U.S. clean energy goals isn’t the cost of clean energy technologies or getting the permits to build them. It’s the massive backlog of new clean energy projects already waiting to connect to the grid that’s threatening to put the country’s decarbon … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

Will this startup finally crack the code on flow battery tech?

Flow batteries, a long-promised solution to the vicissitudes of renewable energy production, boast an outsize ratio of hype to actual performance. These batteries, which store electricity in a liquid electrolyte pumped through tanks, have been kicking around in labs for ages and … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

Chart: Clean energy attracting nearly twice as much investment as fossils

Canary Media’s chart of the week translates crucial data about the clean energy transition into a visual format. To deal with the climate crisis, the world needs to build a lot of carbon-free energy. And to build a lot of carbon-free energy, the world needs to spend money — a ton … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

A new wave of startups is tackling a huge emissions source: wildfires

There's no doubt that the threat of wildfires is growing more and more dire as greenhouse gas emissions continue to warm the planet. The evidence? Five of the 10 worst wildfire events in U.S. history occurred in the last 10 years. Eight of the 10 largest fires in California’ … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

Future of small reactors at stake as NuScale deal flops

A controversial, high-stakes project that was arguably the most promising attempt to connect a small nuclear reactor to the U.S. electrical grid has been scrapped. The Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems’ project using NuScale Power’s small modular reactor (SMR) design has be … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

America’s first commercial direct air capture plant just got going

For the first time in the United States, a commercial plant is capturing carbon dioxide directly from the sky and locking away the planet-warming gas. On Thursday, the startup Heirloom unveiled its “direct air capture” facility in Tracy, California, which the company says has so … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

Michigan just passed one of the country’s most ambitious clean energy bills

Michigan’s Democrat-controlled legislature has passed a package of clean energy bills that includes one of the most aggressive state-level clean energy targets in the nation. Senate Bill 271 , which requires the state’s major utilities to achieve 100 percent carbon-free energy by … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

Today: Virtual event with McKibben on LNG exports

We are an independent, nonprofit newsroom covering the transition to clean energy and solutions to the climate crisis. We report on how the world is decarbonizing — from electricity to transportation, buildings and industry — with a critical focus on finding out what works and wh … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

The West is making mistakes as it helps developing nations get off coal

This story was first published by Grist . The Komati coal-fired power plant, located about 100 miles east of Johannesburg in South Africa’s coal heartland , has been called the flagship of the country’s budding energy transition. At its peak, the facility, which came online in 19 … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

Mainers reject historic bid to make for-profit utilities publicly owned

Maine voters had a chance Tuesday to fundamentally reshape their energy system by taking over their two for-profit electric utilities and creating a new community-owned energy company. But more than two-thirds of voters said no to that proposal in the off-year election. The Assoc … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

This simple score can help you find an energy-efficient home

Canary Media’s Electrified Life column shares real-world tales, tips and insights to demystify what individuals can do to shift their homes and lives to clean electric power. Say you’re in the market for a home. You pop by an open house and marvel at the high ceilings, the granit … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

FERC decides if LNG facilities benefit the public. Is it doing its job?

Sometime in the next few weeks, a government agency that most Americans know little about could approve a new fossil-fuel project that would have lasting consequences for the climate. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is expected to give Venture Global the green light to b … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

Kauai became a clean energy leader. Its secret? A publicly owned grid

LIHUE, Hawaii — It’s hard to find anywhere in the United States that has greened its electricity supply as quickly as verdant Kauai. And the people of Kauai achieved that on their own, through collective ownership of the electricity grid, not by hoping profit-maximizing utilities … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

BP buys $100M of Tesla chargers as oil majors prep for a post-gas future

This story was first published by Grist . For car buyers considering whether to go electric, one trade-off they must weigh is whether to give up the convenience of finding a gas station almost anywhere and being able to refuel in minutes. Fast-charging an EV can take 20 to 30 mi … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

Canary on TV: Confronting the downsides of mining for battery materials

Making the batteries to run electric vehicles and store solar power requires a lot of minerals, and mining those minerals imposes an environmental cost. I joined the Weather Channel’s climate-focused weekday show Pattrn to help weigh the pros and cons of this aspect of the clean … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

Video: Canary discusses cleaning up heavy industry on the Weather Channel

Canary Media recently took a deep dive into the world’s top three emitting industries: steel, cement and chemicals. In a week of special coverage, we explored the outsize challenges and promising solutions involved in cleaning up these dirty, vital corners of the global economy. … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

Full steam ahead for electric freight trains

Electricity is taking over the transportation sector, with batteries replacing fossil-fuel engines in a growing number of passenger cars, big-rig trucks, school buses , delivery vans, speedboats and ferries. Yet one category in particular is only just starting to get on board wit … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

Chart: Which clean energy sector is creating the most new jobs?

Canary Media’s chart of the week translates crucial data about the clean energy transition into a visual format. Since the Inflation Reduction Act passed into law last August, both domestic and foreign companies have rushed to set up shop or expand operations in the U.S. to take … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

The US offshore wind industry faces a moment of reckoning

Up and down the U.S. Northeast coast, the once-promising prospect of a burgeoning offshore wind power industry is facing a moment of reckoning. A wave of project cancellations, caused by periods of skyrocketing inflation, high interest rates, choked supply chains and financial tr … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

How one solar company is succeeding in coal country

This story was first published by Grist . When Matt McFadden came of age in southwestern Virginia in the early 2000s, he wasn’t planning on working for a clean energy outfit. He grew up playing in a high school garage band, part of his increasingly Republican county’s small punk … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

Cartoon: Autumn interlude

We are an independent, nonprofit newsroom covering the transition to clean energy and solutions to the climate crisis. We report on how the world is decarbonizing — from electricity to transportation, buildings and industry — with a critical focus on finding out what works and wh … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

How many jobs is the Inflation Reduction Act spurring? A lot

The Inflation Reduction Act will create a lot of new construction jobs for people building the electric-vehicle and battery factories and the wind and solar manufacturing and generation projects spurred by the law’s hundreds of billions of dollars in tax credits and incentives. P … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

Charging Up: A chat with Jessie Feller, director of business development at UrbanFootprint

Canary Media’s Charging Up column chronicles gender diversity in the climatetech sector. Part one is a short Q&A with an industry role model about their career path. Part two features updates on career transitions, plus data points on workplace trends and diversity. Please send f … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

Video: How the US can decarbonize steel, cement and chemicals

This webinar brought together experts on the world’s three highest-emitting industries — steel, cement and chemicals — to explore why these sectors are so difficult to decarbonize and what types of policy solutions and technical innovations are needed to curb emissions from produ … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

Heat pumps are everywhere — even in clothes dryers

Canary Media’s Electrified Life column shares real-world tales, tips and insights to demystify what individuals can do to shift their homes and lives to clean electric power. Canary thanks Lunar Energy for its support of the column. Last year, Dan Fulop faced a problem. The 46-ye … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

Here’s how foundations are bringing solar to lower-income communities

The rooftop solar industry is booming, but far too few lower-income Americans are benefiting as a result. It’s a “modern version of redlining,” according to Joe Evans of the Kresge Foundation. Now an increasing number of charitable foundations are stepping up to redress that inju … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

Three big transmission projects win $1.3B in DOE loans

The Biden administration has a multifaceted plan to speed construction of the transmission lines needed to decarbonize the U.S. grid. Part of that plan: offering loans to bridge the gap between securing financing to build transmission projects and lining up the buyers of the clea … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

Five things to know about decarbonizing cement, steel and chemicals

The industries that produce the building blocks of modern society — steel, cement and chemicals — are incredibly carbon-intensive. And since we’ll always be dependent on at least some amount of these materials, we need to figure out how to produce them without sending staggering … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

Mainers will vote on replacing for-profit utilities with public power

Many people, and not just climate advocates, have wished they could make their utility company disappear. On November 7, the people of Maine may actually do that. A ballot initiative will offer voters an unprecedented chance to revoke the license to operate held by the state’s t … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

Chart: Here's where the carbon-intensive steel industry is concentrated

Canary Media’s chart of the week translates crucial data about the clean energy transition into a visual format. Steelmaking is the most carbon-intensive heavy industry in the world; it alone accounts for as much as 9 percent of all human-caused CO 2 emissions each year. And whil … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

How 'Buy Clean' policies will help decarbonize heavy industries

American consumers are used to making informed purchasing choices. We like to compare our options before opening our wallets. We want to know what ingredients are in our shampoo and how many calories are in our ice cream. It took many years of work to establish the federal consum … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago

This key chemical is super dirty to make. Can an electric furnace help?

Chemelot is a vast industrial park of petrochemical plants and research labs in the Netherlands. Inside one of its facilities, a group of companies is working to solve a thorny problem vexing the global chemicals industry: how to make one of the world’s most important compounds — … | Continue reading


@canarymedia.com | 2 years ago