Courtesy of RMI.By Mark Dyson & Becky Xilu Li With extreme cold stretching across half the United States, the past week has seen unprecedented power outages in the central part of the country, and particularly in Texas. Millions of people remain without power as the state’s grid operator, ERCOT, struggles to meet historic demand for electricity
Environment
Among our nation’s most powerful strategies for tackling climate change are electrifying transportation and accelerating clean power generation. Both these strategies have one essential thing in common: their success depends on advancements in battery technologies. Economical and fast-charging batteries are key to spurring adoption of all-electric and plugin-hybrid vehicles, while high-energy-density battery storage is needed
Cyrus Whittaker, left, and Debbie Orca sit around a fire in the homeless camp where they live during record breaking cold and snow in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on February 16, 2021. Nick Oxford | The Washington Post | Getty Images The major winter storm that’s swept across the South this week and knocked out power
Greentech Media, which alongside CleanTechnica has been seen as one of the top cleantech sites globally for the last decade plus, is stopping publishing and going to let the site simply wind down. My first thought, as this was not published first by GTM, was that this was potentially fake news. After all, we at
Severe weather and associated power outages across the United States in the past year have elevated demand for backup generators, bottlenecking suppliers such as Generac. As millions of Texas residents continue to battle through a dayslong massive power shut-off in response to unprecedented snowfall across the state, Generac CEO Aaron Jagdfeld said requests for alternative
Why do states struggle so much with implementing energy efficiency policies and programs? Saving money on electric bills “gives families more money to spend on groceries, childcare, and other necessities of life,” according to pediatrician Barbara Nabrit-Stephens, writing recently in the Tampa Bay Times. As a member of Florida Clinicians for Climate Action, she is
People line up to fill their empty propane tanks Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2021, in Houston. Temperatures stayed below freezing Tuesday, and many residents were without electricity. Brett Coomer | Houston Chronicle | AP Energy prices continued to climb as an arctic blast kept the South in a deep freeze Wednesday and left up to 3
Here are the companies making headlines on Tuesday: MicroStrategy — The enterprise software company’s shares fell more than 5% Tuesday after the announcement to purchase more bitcoin. MicroStrategy said it plans to offer $600 million of senior convertible notes and use the net proceeds to buy bitcoin,. The move would mark the second time the company has made a
Pump jacks operate in front of a drilling rig in an oil field in Midland, Texas. Nick Oxford | Reuters Energy prices jumped on Tuesday as a cold spell in the South both increased demand for fuel while simultaneously hampering production. More than 3.8 million people were left without power across Texas on Tuesday morning,
While renewable energy has been dominating new power capacity in the United States (see: 77–80% Of New US Power Capacity Came From Solar & Wind In 2020), it takes a long time to shift the giant electricity grid, which some have called the biggest machine in the country. Even so, month after month, renewable energy’s
According to new data from the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) — data derived from Velocity Suite, ABB Inc. and The C Three Group LLC — solar power and wind power accounted for 77.1% of new utility-scale power capacity in the United States in 2020 (chart above). Adding in a CleanTechnica estimate for rooftop
The AR500 turbine awaiting installation in waters off the Goto Islands, Japan. A tidal turbine built and tested in Scotland has been installed in waters off a Japanese island chain, representing the latest example of how the East Asian country is investigating the potential of marine-based forms of energy production. In a statement Monday, London-listed
Frozen wind turbines in Texas are causing a huge dip in the state’s power generation capability, reducing available power by almost half. This comes during a record blast of arctic air, which is causing record electrical demand, resulting in rolling blackouts. People opposed to renewables are sharing this on social media, claiming that it’s proof
The ongoing energy transformation, driven by renewables, is bringing far-reaching, systemic change to society. Renewable energy employs about 32% women, compared to 22% in the energy sector overall, according to a 2019 report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). IRENA estimates that the number of jobs in renewables could increase from 10.3 million in
The unit is housed inside a converted shipping container. RICE, Energy Safety Research Institute, Swansea University A subsidiary of multinational building materials firm HeidelbergCement is working with researchers from Swansea University to install and operate a green hydrogen demonstration unit at a site in the U.K. The collaboration represents another example of how firms involved
2022 BOLT EUV Source: Chevrolet General Motors is taking another step toward its zero-emissions future. The Detroit-based company unveiled a new, all-electric Chevy Bolt Electric Utility Vehicle, or EUV, alongside its newly redesigned Chevy Bolt Electric Vehicle on Sunday evening. The new Chevy Bolt EUV is designed to bring the best of the Chevy Bolt,