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.
UNEP: Export of solar energy could earn Ghana $38 million yearly
This is not a big news story. Yet, behind the story is an important emerging trend. Renewable energy can shake up the balance of power in the world. Many developing countries have plenty of sun which they can harvest and export energy to rich countries. Ten days ago we wrote in The Optimist Daily Read More...
Smart grid uses blockchain to record transactions in its sustainable energy network
Rapid change happens when new technologies “marry”. When the telephone and the computer wedded, the Internet was born. Now, an interesting marriage emerges between microgrids, providing sustainable, renewable energy and the blockchain, the bitcoin technology to record transactions. Read More...
Natural gas increasingly becoming an unnecessary bridge to nowhere
Setting a new lopsided quarterly record, renewable sources (i.e., wind, solar, biomass and hydropower) outpaced—in fact, swamped—natural gas by a factor of more than 70:1 for new electrical generating capacity placed in-service during the first three months of calendar year 2016. Read More...
Charge your cell phone with a plant
Energy is everywhere. This Barcelona-based startup developed a simple device allowing you to charge your cell phone three times a day with the power of the roots of a plant. The Bioo taps into the 'biological battery' inside the base of the plant. According to the company, all that is required from Read More...
New York initiative enhances solar purchase power of citizens
Solarize NYC is the new initiative of New York City to promote solar energy. It allows communities, business districts and places of worship to team up and purchase green energy as one group, enhancing their purchase power. Customers could save up to 20 percent, and local solar energy producers Read More...
British utility offers carbon neutral green gas
UK energy firm Good Energy started offering a carbon neutral gas tariff. The gas mix will contain six percent bio-methane, domestically produced out of organic material. The biogas comes from anaerobic digester sites. Other emissions resulting from gas use are compensated with carbon reduction Read More...
First solar powered aircraft completes Pacific crossing
For the first time a solar powered airplane made it across the Pacific Ocean. The Solar Impulse 2 landed successfully in California after taking off from Hawaii 62 hours earlier. The aircraft was supposed to land in Abu Dhabi by the end of last summer, from where it departed, but faced significant Read More...
Economic reality shifts Republican perspective on renewables
It's not the first time that new economic realities change political perspectives. Most Republicans in the U.S. reject any role of humans in global warming. However, a small and growing number of once-skeptical Republicans are embracing wind and solar as these clean energy sources begin to deliver Read More...
Supergrid connecting Europe and Africa will enable 100% renewable energy
A ‘supergrid’ connecting Europe to northern Africa will help both regions reach near 100 percent renewable energy capacity, the German Frauhofer Institute states in a report. The grid connection would allow countries to share electricity to balance over or under production. For instance, Read More...
French startup powers street lighting with bacteria
French startup Glowee works on a new concept for the future smart city: It aims to provide street lighting through synthetic biology. It uses the bioluminescent genetics of bacteria living in squids, inserts them in common, non-pathogenic bacteria, which are capsuled in a transparent shell. The Read More...