Energy
Transitioning to a world powered by renewable energy is key to tackling climate change. Here you can find the latest good news related to our clean energy transition, covering wind, solar, green hydrogen, hydropower, and more.
Electric vehicles took center stage in Superbowl commercials this year
This weekend’s Superbowl was the biggest event of the year for the NFL, but the big game is also center stage for the advertising world. This year’s Superbowl commercials showed a distinct shift in business consciousness towards a greener future. Football enthusiasts saw prominent figures Read More...
Scotland to achieve 100 percent renewable energy by the end of the year
Scotland is shaping up as an exemplary host for this year’s UN climate conference, as the country is on track to move its energy sector to 100 percent renewables by the end of this year - around the time when the international climate talks are to take place. Environmental organization Read More...
This new process turns all kinds of waste into valuable graphene
In a classic case of ‘two birds, one stone’, scientists at Rice University have come up with a clever solution for food waste and plastic waste. The solution comes in the form of a new process that can turn bulk quantities of carbon-based materials such as food waste into flash graphene—a Read More...
Google is combining the largest solar deal ever with battery storage in Nevada
Running the cloud-based computing services that companies like Google offers is extremely energy-intensive. Fortunately for us, the energy-hungry companies that run these services seem more than willing to operate their data centers without using fossil fuels. In 2017 Google switched from just Read More...
This solar farm is providing a habitat for desert tortoises to thrive in
Solar farms aren’t only good for generating clean energy. In the desert in Nevada, a solar farm is providing tortoises a habitat they can thrive in. Juvenile tortoises depend on plant cover to hide from predators, and fortunately for them, the shade below the solar panels allows many plants that Read More...
New molecule can harness over 50% more solar energy than current solar cells
For the first time ever, scientists have managed to develop a single molecule that can absorb energy from the entire visible spectrum of light, meaning it can harness over 50 percent more solar energy than conventional solar cells. That also means it can catalyze that energy into hydrogen. Read More...
Witnessing a neighbor install solar panels can shift one’s climate change beliefs
The policies we need to fight climate change rely on support from the public. According to a new study, one way in which people become more supportive of such policies is if they witness their neighbors putting solar panels on their roofs. The study, which analyzed five years of survey data Read More...
What if wind farms doubled as public art installations?
As absurd as it might sound, many wind energy projects have been denied over the years because people don’t want wind turbines to disrupt their view. To overcome this aesthetic opposition to wind farms, which is known as NIMBY (not in my backyard), the international design collective Prototype Read More...
A microgrid kept this tribal community’s lights on during California blackouts
In early October, Pacific Gas & Electric cut power to more than 2 million northern California residents to reduce the risk of wildfires. Amid the darkness, the lights stayed on in one region of Humboldt county thanks to a multimillion-dollar investment in a microgrid by the Blue Lake Rancheria Read More...
Coal plant closures led to direct drop in emissions across America in 2019
Emissions that cause climate change across the US economy fell an estimated 2 percent in 2019. According to a new report from Rhodium Group, the drop in emissions is entirely due to more coal-fired power plants closing. While it’s imperative that we see emissions drop faster, the reduction in Read More...