Time (January 26)
“The past year brought a number of blows for the climate fight, but there were also clean-energy wins. In the first half of 2025, for the first time, solar and wind power outpaced coal as the leading source of electricity worldwide—a promising step toward reducing emissions.”
Tags: 2025, Clean energy, Climate fight, Coal, Electricity, Emissions, First time, Leading source, Promising, Solar, Wind power, Wins
Reuters (December 26)
“Solar, wind power and batteries are set to make life a misery for the liquefied natural gas market. Some fossil fuel executives already think the push by incumbents like Exxon Mobil, Shell, and Woodside Energy to hike global production by some 50% by 2030, per the International Energy Agency, is creating a bubble. But renewable energy’s advantages will make the pop even worse.”
Tags: 2030, Batteries, Bubble, Exxon Mobil, Fossil fuel, Global production, IEA, LNG, Pop, Renewable energy, Shell, Solar, Wind power
Reuters (September 25)
“Hopes that the People’s Republic would step up to be the leader in battling global warming… appeared to take a hit when Xi said the country would cut its emissions by a measly 7% to 10%. But this looks like a clear case of consciously underpromising in order to overdeliver.” China is likely to “breeze past its target. Hitting Xi’s 2035 goal of 3,600 gigawatts of solar and wind capacity would, for example, mean adding just 200 GW a year. That’s 44% lower than the 360 GW installed in 2024.” The publicly stated “climate goal also downplays the role electric and hybrid vehicles already play” with plans “that new energy vehicles would be mainstream in a decade, yet they already make up around half of all new car sales.”
Tags: 2035 goal, China, Climate goal, Downplays, Emissions, Global warming, HEVs, Hopes, Leader, Mainstream, Overdeliver, Solar, Target, Underpromising, Wind, Xi
Washington Post (February 21)
“By the end of 2023, some 43 percent of global electricity generation was powered by solar, wind and other renewable sources — up dramatically since the turn of the 21st century, when these sources accounted for only 18 percent. Yet the distance to 100 percent remains daunting.”
Tags: 100, 18, 2023, 43%, Daunting, Electricity, Generation, Global, Power, Renewable sources, Solar, Wind
Washington Post (April 7)
Numerous conflicts are “pitting the environment against, well, the environment. Solar plants and wind farms, transmission lines and carbon-capture projects face opposition from conservationists and other environmental groups asking courts to stop new infrastructure from encroaching on wetlands, forests and other ecosystems.” Trade-offs like these “generally lean against developers,” but they were “written in an era before those developers included promoters of the green power that humanity needs to stave off climate change.” Things need fixing. We should not “let environmentalism sabotage green energy.”
Tags: Carbon capture, Climate change, Conservationists, Ecosystems, Environmentalism, Forests, Green power, Opposition, Solar, Trade-offs, Transmission lines, Wetlands, Wind
New York Times (February 24)
“The energy transition poised for takeoff in the United States amid record investment in wind, solar and other low-carbon technologies is facing a serious obstacle: The volume of projects has overwhelmed the nation’s antiquated systems to connect new sources of electricity to homes and businesses.” The interconnection system now faces a multiyear logjam of over 8,100 projects (mainly clean energy) “waiting for permission to connect to electric grids,” up from 5,600 a year earlier.
Tags: Antiquated, Electricity, Energy transition, Grids, Interconnection, Investment, Low-carbon technologies, Obstacle, Record, Solar, U.S., Wind
New York Times (January 8)
“It is not just fusion. The advance of wind and solar and battery technology remains a near miracle. The possibilities of advanced geothermal and hydrogen are thrilling. Smaller, modular nuclear reactors could make new miracles possible…. Clean, abundant energy is the foundation on which a more equal, just and humane world can be built.”
Tags: Abundant, Advance, Advanced, Battery technology, Clean, Energy, Fusion, Geothermal, Hydrogen, Just, Miracles, Nuclear, Possible, Solar, Thrilling, Wind
Bloomberg (May 31)
“Power-hungry, fossil-fuel dependent Japan has successfully tested a system that could provide a constant, steady form of renewable energy, regardless of the wind or the sun.” The Kairyu prototype is designed to harness the Kuroshio current. “The advantage of ocean currents is their stability. They flow with little fluctuation in speed and direction, giving them a capacity factor…of 50-70%, compared with around 29% for onshore wind and 15% for solar.”
Tags: Capacity factor, Dependent, Energy, Fossil fuel, Japan, Kairyu, Kuroshio current, Ocean, Power-hungry, Prototype, Renewable, Solar, Steady, Tested, Wind
Industry Week (December 4)
“Investments in electric cars may soon begin to do to the transportation sector what wind and solar have done to the power sector: turn the pollution curve upside down. The price of battery packs has been plummeting by about 8 percent a year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, and electric cars are now projected to become cheaper, more reliable, and more convenient than their gasoline-powered equivalents around the world by the mid-2020s.”
Bloomberg (April 4)
“Foxconn’s chairman won’t have long to celebrate.” The takeover of Sharp will prove far easier than its turn around. “With a sprawl of businesses making appliances, solar equipment and flat panels for mobile devices, Sharp is seeing its earnings deteriorate every quarter, yet as part of the rescue deal, Gou pledged to keep the company intact, respect its independence and try to preserve jobs.”
Tags: Appliances, Earnings, Foxconn, Gou, Panels, Rescue, Sharp, Solar, Takeover, Turn around
