Solar Energy

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The energy analysis firm Ember reports its latest findings about global energy trends, and it is relatively optimistic. Wind and solar had provided 10% of the world’s electricity in 2021, but that went up to 12% in 2022, a 20% increase. If we look at each source in its own […]

Batteries

How Solar Thermal Tech can get us through the Night

The Conversation

By Dominic Zaal, CSIRO | – Australia’s transition to renewables is gathering speed, but there’s a looming problem with storage. We will need much more long-duration storage to get us through the night, once coal and fossil gas exit the system. We also need to find new and better ways to create heat for industrial […]

Climate Crisis

Solar and Wind to Supply 16% of US Electricity this Year, But some States are in the Vanguard

Minnesota Reformer

By: By Robert Zullo – Despite supply-chain problems amid the lingering effects of the pandemic, 2022 saw major increases in solar and wind power in the United States, though that growth varied by state, according to a report released last month by a nonprofit focused on climate change. Nationally, electricity generated from solar and […]

Featured

Renewables outstrip Coal in US for first Time, with 50% of new Power being Solar

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Energy Information Agency of the US Department of Energy announced this week that for the first time in US history, renewable sources generated more electricity in 2022 than did coal. Renewables also outstripped nuclear power generation, for the second year in a row. In fact, renewables are even more […]

Climate Crisis

Netherlands becomes European Leader in Solar Power Per Capita, with 500K Panels on Lakes, Reservoirs and Seas

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Solar panels are like magic, turning sunshine into electricity. They are, however, relatively bulky. We own our own home and have 16 of them on our roof, but renters have often complained to me that it isn’t so easy in an apartment building. There is also a danger that they […]

Batteries

Solar power battery installations increase exponentially in Germany

Benjamin Wehrmann

( Clean Energy Wire ) – The number of household solar power storage installations has grown exponentially over the past four years, with a year-on-year growth of 52 percent in 2022, Germany’s Solar Power Association BSW Solar has said. “Half of private home owners say they would consider storing their homemade solar power,” a survey […]

Climate Crisis

Humanity put out more C02 than Ever Before last Year, but Green Energy Kept the Annual Increase Small

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – This is a bad news, good news story. Cathy Bussewitz at the Associated Press reports that carbon dioxide emissions reached an all-time high in 2022, of 36.8 gigatons. That is more CO2 spewed into the atmosphere by humanity in just one year than ever before. CO2 emissions were up nearly […]

Climate Crisis

Chancellor Scholz on Ukraine: Putin Tried to Blackmail Germany with Fossil Gas, but only Accelerated Energy Diversification

Benjamin Wehrmann

By Benjamin Wehrmann | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – Russia’s attempt to blackmail Germany and the rest of Europe into giving up its support of Ukraine by cutting energy supplies has failed, chancellor Olaf Scholz has said on the anniversary of Russia’s invasion attempt of its western neighbour. “Those who look at the […]

China

China Dominates Solar and Wind Energy: Can the U.S. and Europe Finally Catch Up?

The Conversation

By Michael Jacobs, University of Sheffield | – Climate change policy has entered a new era. The growing row between the United States and the European Union over the impacts of the new American green subsidy regime makes that all too clear. Yet in many ways, this story is ultimately about China. For the last […]