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.
U.S. solar sees 25 percent jump in jobs created last year
Although president Trump may advocate coal as a means for creating U.S. jobs, it’s the solar industry that’s employing the most U.S. workers. In fact, jobs in the solar industry grew 25 percent last year to include more than 260,000 workers. The solar industry hopes the new data on job growth Read More...
Energy companies are fitting wind turbines to lampposts to make electricity
Millions of lampposts could be fitted with wind turbines connected directly into the National Grid. IT and technology firm NVT Group and Own Energy, which designed the small turbine that will be used, have formed a joint partnership that will create 25 jobs over the next year. However the firms Read More...
China doubles solar capacity and is now the world’s largest solar power producer
China has the most people—and now the most solar panels. China’s National Energy Administration has claimed the title of the world’s biggest producer of solar energy after the country announced that it had doubled its installed photovoltaic (PV) capacity last year. By the end of 2016, Read More...
Building a better microbial fuel cell
The concept behind microbial fuel cells, which rely on bacteria to generate an electrical current, is more than a century old. But turning that concept into a usable tool has been a long process. Microbial fuel cells, or MFCs, are more promising today than ever, but before their adoption can become Read More...
U.S. utilities seek sun as Trump sides with coal, fossil fuels
The plunging cost of solar power is leading U.S. electric companies to capture more of the sun just when President Donald Trump is moving to boost coal and other fossil fuels. Solar power represents just about 1 percent of the electricity U.S. utilities generate today, but that could grow Read More...
Huge win for renewables in Maryland as lawmakers override governor's veto
Lawmakers in the Maryland Senate voted 32-13 Thursday to expand the state's renewable energy target restoring the Clean Energy Jobs Act and overriding Republican Gov. Larry Hogan's veto of the measure in May of last year. The bill is now in effect. The bill increases requirements to use energy Read More...
Scientists develop a "better way" to produce renewable hydrogen
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have developed a “better way” to make hydrogen using renewable energy according to a paper published this month in Nature Energy. Hydrogen has many potential applications and is already used Read More...
The largest coal-fired power plant in the West may close later this year
And to underline the message for the future of fossil fuels: The owners of Arizona’s Navajo Generating Station, the largest coal-fired plant in the west of the U.S. have announced that they consider closing the plant, because low natural gas prices and the rising costs of generating electricity Read More...
New report: Electric cars and cheap solar will halt fossil fuel growth by 2020
Solar power and clean cars are consistently underestimated by big energy, according to a new report by Imperial College and Carbon Tracker Initiative. The report projects that polluting fuels could lose ten percent of market share to solar power and clean cars within a decade. A ten percent loss of Read More...
LED lighting retrofits in Hawaiian homes: Faster paybacks than solar power
Visitors know the Hawaiian islands for many things: ample sunshine, beautiful beaches, and friendly people. Residents know these things as well, but also are all too aware of high electricity prices, an aging electrical grid dependent on foreign oil, choke traffic, and other problems associated Read More...