Solar Energy

By Shi Yi | – ( China Dialogue ) – Many Chinese cities and provinces are working on plans to hit peak carbon before 2030. Shanghai, China’s most developed city, is set to lead the way. Somewhere on the eastern side of Shanghai’s Chongming Island, 300,000 solar panels lie over rows and rows of aquaculture […]

Solar Energy

Installing solar panels over California’s canals could yield water, land, air and climate payoffs

The Conversation

By Roger Bales and Brandi McKuin | – Climate change and water scarcity are front and center in the western U.S. The region’s climate is warming, a severe multi-year drought is underway and groundwater supplies are being overpumped in many locations. Western states are pursuing many strategies to adapt to these stresses and prepare for […]

Batteries

It Can be Done: California Briefly reaches 94.5% Renewable Electricity

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Sammy Roth at the LA Times/ Boiling Point Newsletter reports that California’s main power grid was powered for several hours last Saturday by 90% renewables. For just four seconds that day, the grid, which covers 4/5s of the state, reached 94.5% generation by green energy. California is the world’s fifth […]

Climate Crisis

Greening Earth and creating Jobs, Biden to slash Fossil Fuel Subsidies and Extend Wind, Solar Credits

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Reuters reports that President Biden intends to slash tax subsidies for fossil fuels like coal and petroleum and to use taxes instead to encourage renewable energy. Since jobs in the coal industry are plummeting, and since job growth in renewable electricity is over 3 percent a year, Biden’s plans will […]

Germany

Germany’s State Rails, already 61%-renewables Fueled, to add 190 GWh of North Sea Wind toward being 80% Green by 2030

Clean Energy Wire

By Charlotte Nijhuis | – ( Clean Energy Wire) – State-owned German railway company Deutsche Bahn and utility RWE extend their renewable energy contract with an additional 190 gigawatt hours (GWh) of offshore wind power annually, the railway writes in a press release. The contract will run for a period of fifteen years from 2025. […]

Climate Change

How Solar technologies can speed up vaccine rollout in the Global South

The Conversation

By Cyrus Sinai and Rob Fetter | – There’s hope that some industrialised countries will achieve near-universal vaccination against COVID-19 in the coming months. Yet the effort to vaccinate even the most essential workers in developing countries has only just begun. By current estimates, achieving herd immunity (to current strains) will require at least 75% […]

Climate Crisis

America is ‘Can-do’ again: Biden’s $3 trillion infrastructure Plan includes $500 bn for Green Energy and Transit and Massive Innovation

Juan Cole

Jeff Stein and Tyler Pager at WaPo report that $500 billion of the proposed $3 trillion Biden infrastructure plan, or 16 percent, will be devoted to dealing with climate change. They write, “The infrastructure component is expected to include $400 billion in spending to combat climate change, including $60 billion for infrastructure related to green […]

Education

A Green New Deal: Arkansas School District goes Solar, Gives Teachers $1000s in Bonuses with Savings

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Climate Wire reported last fall on a remarkable story about the way renewable energy not only saves the earth from the destructive climate emergency but can at the same time improve our lives and those of our children. Our hero is Michael Hester, who some years ago became the superintendent […]

Australia

Against the odds, South Australia is a renewable energy powerhouse; and they’re showing the world how to do it

The Conversation

By Michael McGreevy and Fran Baum | – Less than two decades ago, South Australia generated all its electricity from fossil fuels. Last year, renewables provided a whopping 60% of the state’s electricity supply. The remarkable progress came as national climate policy was gripped by paralysis – so how did it happen? Our research set […]