Environment

Steam rises from the cooling towers of the Lippendorf power plant south of Leipzig, Germany. picture alliance | picture alliance | Getty Images LONDON — Euro zone inflation hit its highest level in 13 years in September, as the bloc battles surging energy costs. Headline inflation came in at 3.4% last month, according to preliminary

Climate activists have been turning up the heat on two Democratic holdouts who are on the verge of smothering President Biden’s ambitious climate plans, the well known coal stakeholder Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and the somewhat lesser known but spotlight-grabbing Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Whether or not they continue to hold out

As we trend toward more renewables and distributed energy resources (DERs), the design of the electric distribution system itself imposes physical limitations. These system constraints could lead to issues like overloaded power lines and faults that propagate freely. But what if we could restructure the underlying system to support greater renewable integration and system resilience?

Originally published by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. A team led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has found a rare quantum material in which electrons move in coordinated ways, essentially “dancing.” Straining the material creates an electronic band structure that sets the stage for exotic, more tightly correlated behavior — akin to tangoing

Aerial view of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant which sits on the edge of the Pacific Ocean at Avila Beach in San Luis Obispo County, California on March 17, 2011. Mark Ralston | AFP | Getty Images California is not keeping up with the energy demands of its residents. In August 2020, hundreds of

Courtesy of RMI.By New Energy Nexus Philippines The Philippines is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change. Sea level rise is three to four times faster in this island nation than the global average, and it gets hit with an average of 20 typhoons a year. Energy equity is also a major concern as 10 percent

In this article PXD EOG RRC DVN XOP XLE The energy rally rolls on. The XLE energy ETF has raced ahead of the broader market again in the past month, rallying nearly 13% against the S&P 500‘s 4% drop, as global demand for oil outpaces its supply. An output decision from OPEC+ when the bloc

Originally published on ILSR.org Nearly 7 gigawatts of new power generation capacity came online in the second quarter of 2021. Renewable energy generation capacity growth was comparable to last quarter, while new fossil gas construction dropped dramatically. In 4 of the last 8 quarters, the fossil gas contribution to new power generation capacity has been

The idea of fusion power has intrigued scientists for nearly 100 years, when they first discovered the process that powers the sun and stars. A fusion reaction, which occurs when atoms fuse together, could generate four times more energy than today’s fission reactors, and about four million times more than burning coal, without producing any

Within the electric vehicle world in recent months, there’s been all kinds of debate and handwringing about how the big EV tax credits or rebates that are included in expected Democratic legislation in Congress should be structured — how much should union-built EVs versus American-built EVs versus just simply built EVs get in subsidies? There’s

Economist Stephen Roach is warning that the U.S. may be on a collision course with 1970s-type inflation. The former Morgan Stanley Asia chairman is worried that the impact of energy price spikes on China’s struggling supply chain will be the tipping point. Crude oil topped $80 a barrel this week for the first time since

In Part 1 of this assessment, we saw that the magnitude of CO2 emissions were vastly larger than the largest and best sequestration facilities built to date, and further, that the majority were actually enhanced oil recovery facilities with significant net CO2 emissions end to end. We also saw that there’s significant competition for underground

Cardiologists carry out a procedure on a patient at the Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, England, on March 17, 2021. Joe Giddens | PA Images | Getty Images Doctors and healthcare workers in the U.K. could be put up in hotels to ensure they can get to work, as Britain’s gasoline crisis continues. British motorists

A common talking point in political circles is that climate action costs a lot. Even among proponents of strong climate action, there is a common tendency to just accept that as fact. However, this is not like going shopping for toys at Toys-R-Us (or I guess Amazon these days). It’s not like you either spend

Natural gas futures dipped as much as 8% on Wednesday, pulling back from a more than seven-year high above $6 per million British thermal units hit during the prior session. The contract for November delivery fell to a low of $5.42 on Wednesday, before recovering some of those losses to settle 6.85% lower at $5.47

Here’s an interesting coincidence. This morning, I was reading the latest email from Bloomberg Green about how Europe is struggling with high energy prices right now and has to make a decision — build more unnatural gas capacity or install more renewable energy. It’s a question fraught with weighty political considerations. Then I came across

BURY ST EDMUNDS, SUFFOLK, UNITED KINGDOM – 2021/09/25: People filling their cars up at BP petrol station during the fuel crisis in Bury St Edmunds. SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images LONDON — British drivers have been panic buying gasoline in recent days, leading to lengthy lines, gas station closures and concerns that doctors

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced it has achieved its summer goal of signing up at least 125 communities for the Solar Automated Permit Processing (SolarAPP+) tool — a free, DOE-developed web-based platform that allows local governments to instantly approve residential solar installation permits. Now that 127 localities are signed

Oil derrick pumps operate at the Inglewood Oil Field in Culver City, California, on Sunday, July 11, 2021. Kyle Grillot | Bloomberg | Getty Images International oil benchmark Brent crude advanced for a sixth straight session on Tuesday, jumping above $80 per barrel for the first time since October 2018 as demand rebounds and supply

Zach is tryin’ to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine,

A sign reading “No Fuel Sorry” displayed at an Asda petrol station on September 26, 2021 in Cardiff, United Kingdom. Matthew Horwood | Getty Images Britain could bring in the army to deliver gasoline after a weekend of panic buying left gas stations around the country without fuel. Long queues of cars were have been

In this article 6666-HK Wilmington Trust’s Meghan Shue is out with a contrarian playbook designed to help investors grab profits during volatility. Even as correction forecasts increase and risk appetites slump on Wall Street, she lists overweighting stocks as her first recommendation for those with 9 to 12 month time horizons. “Over that time frame,

Made by sunshine, drunk in sunshine — some wineries are going greener in Australia. At Hidden Creek Winery Cafe Vineyard near Stanthorpe, Queensland, they throw in a free charge for your Tesla (or any other electric vehicle) when you stop in, offering fresh electrons from their solar roof. Now, a larger winery is also going

China’s pledge to stop building new coal-fired power projects overseas could improve the reputation of its massive Belt and Road Initiative, said the president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Chinese President Xi Jinping made the pledge on coal on Tuesday at the United Nations General Assembly. He said China will support other developing countries

A woman on the bicycle rides pass the power station in Neurath, Germany. NurPhoto | NurPhoto | Getty Images LONDON — The European Union could struggle to advance its green agenda as gas prices soar across the bloc, according to experts who warn against slowing down investment into the sector. The European Commission, the executive

The first part of this analysis on the recently released life-cycle assessment of “blue” hydrogen covered the provenance and background for the paper, as well as the significant and questionable assumptions that the authors make about both expected demand for “blue” hydrogen and the scalability of carbon capture and sequestration it would demand. This second

Naftogaz CEO Yuriy Vitrenko. Anatolii Siryk | Ukrinform | Barcroft Media | Getty Images LONDON — The chief executive of Ukrainian state energy giant Naftogaz has accused Russia’s Gazprom of using natural gas as a geopolitical weapon, calling on the U.S. and Germany to take action against Moscow while it awaits regulatory approval for a

Originally published at ILSR.org After moving to Colorado, Joe Smyth found he was barred from participating in his generation and transmission cooperative — despite a Colorado law promoting co-op transparency. For this episode of the Local Energy Rules Podcast, host John Farrell speaks with Joe Smyth, researcher at the Energy and Policy Institute and author of CleanCooperative.com. Farrell

As hydrogen hype is ramping up again, this time very clearly due to the fossil fuel industry putting its very large, well-funded thumb on the scales of public perception and policy-making, a pair of academic papers on the climate merits of “blue” hydrogen have been published recently. The first was by Howarth and Jacobson, and

Empty shelves that usually stock bottled water at Sainsbury’s supermarket, Greenwich Peninsular, on September 19, 2021 in London, England. Chris J Ratcliffe | Getty Images LONDON — Britain has been plunged into uncertainty as issues over gasoline, electricity and food have prompted warnings of “a really difficult winter” for the country. A significant lack of

Originally published by Union of Concerned Scientists, The Equation.By John Rogers With its passage out of a key committee in the House of Representatives last week, the Clean Electricity Performance Program (CEPP) is a step closer to reality, as part of the powerful budget reconciliation bill (the Build Back Better Act). The bill, and that provision,

In this episode of CleanTech Talk, renowned climate author and social movement leader Bill McKibben and I talk about the climate change crisis we’re quickly rolling into, climate grief and how to deal with it, US climate policy, rampant conspiracy theories, the great energy transition, and more. Listen to this first part of a two-part

In this article ULVR-GB VOW3-DE TSLA Volvo is one of several automakers looking to change the materials used in its vehicles. Artur Widak | NurPhoto | Getty Images Volvo Cars wants all the models it sells to be leather-free by 2030, a move which represents the latest example of how automakers are looking to make