Senate Republicans today passed a sweeping spending bill that narrowly avoided punitive tax measures on renewable energy but still threatens to stall its growth in the US. After wrangling over hundreds of amendments for more than 24 hours in a so-called “vote-a-rama” on Monday and Tuesday, Senate Republicans advanced the bill with provisions that make […]
Google has agreed to purchase electricity from a forthcoming nuclear fusion power plant, the so-called holy grail of clean energy that scientists have been chasing for more than half a century. While the fusion industry reached a significant milestone a few years ago, the technology has yet to prove whether it can be a technically […]
Our water, health, and energy systems are increasingly vulnerable to cyberattack. Now, when tensions escalate – like when the US bombed nuclear facilities in Iran this month – the safety of these systems becomes of paramount concern. If conflict erupts, we can expect it to be a “hybrid” battle, Joshua Corman, executive in residence for […]
Redwood Materials is repurposing old EV batteries into energy storage systems that cost “substantially less” than brand new storage projects, the company said Thursday. The electric vehicle battery recycling and manufacturing venture, which was founded by Tesla’s former chief technologist, has created a new division called Redwood Energy to manage these projects. The aim is […]
New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced plans today to develop a new nuclear power plant, the first to be built in the state in decades. It’s the latest signal that nuclear energy could see a comeback in the US thanks to wide-ranging support from some strange bedfellows: the Trump administration purporting to seek “energy dominance”; […]
New strains of misinformation about climate change are spreading, meant to slow the growth of renewable energy needed to fix the problem. Rather than flat-out denying the mountains of evidence that show that humans are causing climate change, more recent talking points aim to mislead people by casting doubt on potential solutions. Renewable energy has […]
Heatwaves, mold, and plastic pollution pose new risks to businesses and insurance companies, a new report by reinsurer Swiss Re warns. What do these things have in common? Fossil fuels make matters worse. They release the greenhouse gases warming our planet and are the primary ingredients for plastics, of course. Swiss Re’s annual report flags […]
Meta’s geothermal ambitions are growing with a new agreement to support projects in New Mexico. It announced the deal with XGS Energy today, a company developing next-generation geothermal technologies that make it possible to use this energy source in places where it was unfeasible before. The plan is to add 150 megawatts of carbon pollution-free […]
Apple’s smart home didn’t get a single nod during the WWDC keynote, but it turns out there are some interesting developments coming to the Home app around energy management. In a video posted to the Apple developer site this week, the company outlined its new EnergyKit framework, which allows developers to integrate energy data from […]
For three years in a row, California has added a record amount of new clean energy capacity. The amount of renewable energy and storage (i.e. batteries) added since 2020 is roughly equivalent to how much electricity the state has used on average on a daily basis – around 25,000 megawatts, according to new data from […]