The Nuclear Company , a venture capital–funded project-development firm, came out of stealth last week and announced eye-raising plans: It aims to deploy a 6-gigawatt nuclear-fission reactor fleet by the mid-2030s. That 6 gigawatts would represent more nuclear-generating capacity … | Continue reading
Tesla may be struggling when it comes to electric vehicle sales, but its energy storage business is on a serious upswing. In the second quarter of this year, Tesla deployed 9.4 gigawatt-hours of battery storage , a record for the firm and more than double its deployment in Q2 of … | Continue reading
An under-the-radar U.S. agency is pushing efforts to slash emissions from buildings, marshaling billions of dollars to test and deploy new carbon-cutting technologies and materials at properties owned by the federal government. The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) was f … | Continue reading
If California wants to meet its goal of building gigawatts of floating wind turbines off its coast in the coming decades, the state needs to go big or go home. So say clean-energy industry groups and environmental advocates who are praising a recent proposal from the California P … | Continue reading
The U.S. still has a chance to cut greenhouse gas emissions fast enough to meet its 2030 climate commitments. But that chance rests on keeping key clean energy incentives and climate regulations in place — something that will itself depend on which party wins control of the feder … | Continue reading
On a recent Friday night, after hot veggie stir-fry and cold drinks, my husband, a few friends, and I broke out a new clean energy board game. Called Pampero , the game is all about harnessing wind power in the South American country of Uruguay, which has made some of the most ra … | Continue reading
On January 20, 2021 — his first day in office — President Joe Biden signaled his intention to make climate change a serious priority: He rejoined the Paris Agreement, which his predecessor Donald Trump withdrew from in 2017. It was an encouraging start for a candidate who had pro … | Continue reading
Utility-scale solar in Puerto Rico has just received a $861 million boost from the federal government. On Thursday, the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office announced a conditional commitment to finance new solar and battery storage facilities on the southern coast of the … | Continue reading
REYKJAVÍK, Iceland — The signs of Iceland’s geothermal riches are hard to miss. Earlier this summer, bright orange lava sprayed like a fountain and flowed like a river from an active volcano, visible from miles away. Out on older lava fields, thick steam clouds rose from the grou … | Continue reading
Renewable energy still supplies less of the world’s electricity than fossil fuels do, but it’s being built at a rate that far outpaces the construction of non-renewable forms of energy. Last year, renewables accounted for nearly 86 percent of new electricity capacity worldwide, a … | Continue reading
This story was originally copublished by Energy News Network , the Maine Monitor , and Grist . Ron Huber rifled through a thick folder full of decades of state environmental records outside a community hall in the tiny coastal Maine town of Searsport. For the longtime local conse … | Continue reading
Hurricane Beryl wrecked Houston’s power grid last week, leaving millions reliant on slow grid repair efforts or limited supplies of diesel generators to keep food and medicine from spoiling and air conditioners running amid deadly heat . But in the sea of toppled power poles and … | Continue reading
A shift toward greener steel production is starting to happen globally, giving experts a glimmer of hope that one of the world’s dirtiest industries might eventually decarbonize. A new report by Global Energy Monitor (GEM) found that low-carbon technologies account for a rising p … | Continue reading
Intersect Power CEO Sheldon Kimber has a vision: A world where energy-hungry industrial facilities can connect directly to massive solar and battery projects , skipping the interminable line to plug into the U.S. power grid. But for now, his clean energy development firm is focus … | Continue reading
Electric vehicles cruise quietly and cleanly down streets, unencumbered by a rumbling and dirty gas engine. But while they lack the tailpipe emissions of gas-powered cars, EVs do pollute from another source: their tires. EVs are heavier than conventional cars due to their batteri … | Continue reading
California’s ongoing battle over the role that rooftop solar and batteries will play in its clean energy future has a new front — the workforce that’s allowed to install those systems. This spring, the California Contractors State Licensing Board (CSLB), an obscure state board re … | Continue reading
This story was first published by Energy News Network . Duke Energy has been laying the groundwork for a new gas power plant in North Carolina’s Person County for years, touting it as the “ next generation ” of electricity production and lining up support from local politicians e … | Continue reading
Rising electricity costs are putting American households under increasing financial stress. But clean energy isn’t to blame — even if Republican lawmakers and pro-fossil fuel advocates say otherwise. The real drivers of climbing electricity rates are spikes in fossil gas prices, … | Continue reading
In the latest industry-backed effort to stifle the clean energy transition, a Washington state initiative aimed at preventing statewide and local bans on fossil gas is likely to appear on voters’ ballots this November . Last week, supporters dropped off more than 500,000 signatur … | Continue reading
The United States has ambitious offshore wind goals, but so far relatively little to show for them. In fact, the country is not on track for the Biden administration’s goal of installing 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030, according to a new report from the American Clean Powe … | Continue reading
Most ferries in the United States run on diesel fuel, with groaning engines that spew harmful emissions into waterfront communities. But in San Francisco, passengers on the city’s newest vessel will find the trip to be much quieter and cleaner as they zip around the bay. On Frida … | Continue reading
Canary Media’s Electrified Life column shares real-world tales, tips, and insights to demystify what individuals can do to update their homes for a clean electric future. Canary thanks EnergySage for its support of the column. Bennie Tillman Jr. lives in a two-bedroom, one-bath h … | Continue reading
Minnesota solar developers frustrated with the process of connecting projects to the electric grid will soon have a new place to turn to answer questions and resolve disputes. State lawmakers recently passed legislation calling on the state Public Utilities Commission to hire an … | Continue reading
Landfills are the third-largest source of methane emissions both in the U.S. and globally. These emissions heat the atmosphere at about 80 times the rate of carbon dioxide over 20 years, but the methane that rises from the decomposing food and organic waste that ends up in landfi … | Continue reading
Thermal energy storage uses cheap, clean electricity to bring rocks, bricks, or molten metals to red-hot temperatures, then taps that heat later to do all sorts of work. The technology is relatively simple and could be deployed now to solve two big energy transition challenges: F … | Continue reading
Companies have invested more than $100 billion in U.S. electric vehicle and battery manufacturing since the Inflation Reduction Act was passed two years ago. A long list of components go into those EVs and batteries — and the more of them that can be produced in the U.S., the bet … | Continue reading
For half a century, a sprawling lot in Ravenswood, West Virginia, was home to a giant aluminum smelter. But in 2009, Century Aluminum idled the facility then permanently closed it six years later, and the 2,000-acre site became an empty expanse along the bending banks of the Ohio … | Continue reading
The first canal-based solar project in the U.S. is nearing completion on tribal lands south of Phoenix, Arizona. Native Americans have been using canals to irrigate the Gila River Valley for thousands of years , starting with the Huhugam people . Now at least a small slice of the … | Continue reading
Homeowners across the country increasingly have access to a powerful carbon-cutting tool: electrification programs, which can make it cheaper for residents to ditch gas and fuel-oil appliances for super-efficient electric equipment. California in particular provides a lot of supp … | Continue reading
The U.S. battery boom is showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, the sector is off to its best-ever start to a year. In the first quarter of 2024, nearly 1.3 gigawatts (GW) of battery storage was installed at power plants, homes, and commercial facilities across the nation, ac … | Continue reading
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last week to overturn the 40-year-old legal precedent known as the “Chevron doctrine” will have far-reaching consequences across the federal government. It opens the door to legal challenges for thousands of rules on environment, health care, con … | Continue reading
This story was first published by Grist . When the Biden administration paused the approval of new liquefied natural gas exports in January, environmentalists and left-leaning politicians hailed the decision as a watershed moment for the climate movement. After months of pressure … | Continue reading
Around this time last year, Universal Hydrogen was flying high. The startup had successfully flown a 40-passenger aircraft using primarily hydrogen over a series of trips from central Washington down to Mojave, California. The test flights marked a significant — if still very ear … | Continue reading
When a homeowner decides to get solar panels, it sets off a series of to-dos. They have to find a contractor, make sure their roof is ready, and — for some of the millions of Americans living under homeowners’ associations (HOAs) — make sure their neighbors won't complain about t … | Continue reading
With the U.S. confronting the twin challenges of grid decarbonization and projected growth in electricity demand, a growing chorus of advocates is calling for the erstwhile nuclear leader to embrace atomic energy once again. The Biden administration has been hustling to subsidize … | Continue reading
The sun showers us all with energy, but not everyone can put solar panels on their roofs to harness it for themselves. Enter community solar, an increasingly popular way to expand access to solar and help fix its equity issues. For the first time, evidence shows that it’s working … | Continue reading
Pots and pans, soda cans, skyscrapers, laptops, even solar panels — all these things share a common ingredient in aluminum. The material is ubiquitous and useful, but the process of making and recycling it is a major source of planet-warming pollution. By 2050, aluminum producers … | Continue reading
Despite a much publicized pause on the approval of liquefied natural gas terminals in the United States, a federal regulatory agency Thursday approved the construction of the nation’s largest LNG terminal, months before that pause is set to end. The 2–1 vote of the Federal Energy … | Continue reading
Heavy industries are among the world’s worst climate polluters . Making key materials like steel, cement, and chemicals emits over a fifth of all human-caused carbon dioxide every year. Yet only a tiny slice of total climate-focused investment today goes toward efforts to decarbo … | Continue reading
Climate-friendly alternative proteins have proved tough for diners and investors to swallow. After a hype-filled cycle, stalwarts like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods have grappled with declining valuations and a long road to becoming low-cost meat replacements for the masses. H … | Continue reading
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 EnergySage for its support of the column. Electrifying our appliances isn’t only a climate … | Continue reading
This story was first published by New York Focus , a nonprofit news publication investigating power in New York. Sign up for their newsletter here . Five years after New York lawmakers passed a landmark bill to slash greenhouse gas emissions, the state has missed several of the l … | Continue reading
California already gets some of its clean electricity from geothermal power plants, which harness the heat and steam found naturally near the earth’s surface. Now, the state is poised to add hundreds more megawatts of geothermal to its overall energy mix — only instead of drawing … | Continue reading
This story was first published by Energy News Network . Massachusetts is in the process of tripling the size of its first-in-the-nation vehicle fleet electrification program following a recent influx of federal money. “We are really looking at the barriers, the challenges, the th … | Continue reading
A growing body of research documenting air pollution exposure from gas stoves has spurred efforts to regulate or even ban the appliances. Now consumer advocates and state lawmakers across the country are trying a new tack: forcing companies to put warning labels on gas stoves. Pr … | Continue reading
You can't make whisky — or vodka or gin or any other liquor — without generating some heat. The heat required to produce the billions of liters of liquor consumed each year typically comes from fossil fuels, and much of it ends up as wasted energy. But carbon emissions penalties … | Continue reading
By the end of this decade, global demand for oil will peak — and that’s largely thanks to the rise of electric vehicles and clean energy technologies, according to the International Energy Agency’s “ Oil 2024 ” report. In advanced economies, demand for oil has been decreasing for … | Continue reading
Climatoonist cartoons capture the hopes, frustrations, and absurdities of working on the front lines of the energy transition. Read our profile about Climatoonist to learn more and see past cartoons. | Continue reading