Environment

Steam rises from the cooling towers of the Lippendorf power plant south of Leipzig, Germany. picture alliance | picture alliance | Getty Images LONDON — Euro zone inflation hit its highest level in 13 years in September, as the bloc battles surging energy costs. Headline inflation came in at 3.4% last month, according to preliminary

Nikola appears to finally be letting go of its ridiculous $2 billion lawsuit against Tesla. Nikola had claimed that Tesla stole the design for the Tesla Semi. As we previously reported, Nikola alleged that Tesla’s electric truck design infringes on its existing patents. Specifically, a series of three design patents that Nikola obtained for the

Originally published on ILSR.org Nearly 7 gigawatts of new power generation capacity came online in the second quarter of 2021. Renewable energy generation capacity growth was comparable to last quarter, while new fossil gas construction dropped dramatically. In 4 of the last 8 quarters, the fossil gas contribution to new power generation capacity has been

The idea of fusion power has intrigued scientists for nearly 100 years, when they first discovered the process that powers the sun and stars. A fusion reaction, which occurs when atoms fuse together, could generate four times more energy than today’s fission reactors, and about four million times more than burning coal, without producing any

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from Electrek. Quick Charge is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players. New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded Monday through Thursday and again on Saturday. Subscribe to our podcast in Apple Podcast or your favorite podcast player to guarantee

Within the electric vehicle world in recent months, there’s been all kinds of debate and handwringing about how the big EV tax credits or rebates that are included in expected Democratic legislation in Congress should be structured — how much should union-built EVs versus American-built EVs versus just simply built EVs get in subsidies? There’s

In this article XLE While the rest of the markets sold off, one S&P 500 sector has taken off. Energy stocks have surged nearly 9% over the past week as Brent oil traded near a three-year high and natural gas rallied. The group is also the top performer this year, leading the S&P 500 with

Economist Stephen Roach is warning that the U.S. may be on a collision course with 1970s-type inflation. The former Morgan Stanley Asia chairman is worried that the impact of energy price spikes on China’s struggling supply chain will be the tipping point. Crude oil topped $80 a barrel this week for the first time since

Recently, I’ve been on a bit of a jag about “blue” hydrogen. I always put it in double quotes because it’s such a PR euphemism. There are many idiotic colors being proposed for hydrogen in the past few years. There’s black hydrogen, sometimes falsely called “brown” hydrogen, which comes from gasifying coal, with 20-35x the

Imagine a car that can charge using the sun, generate an income via a car-sharing scheme, and is also affordable to buy. Sounds like a pipe dream, right? Think again – say hello to Sono Motors’ Sion electric car. [This is part of an ongoing collaboration between Electrek and Fully Charged.] Solar-powered car We head

Global Energy Institute 2021 has been a great year for bitcoin mining in America as new talent — and equipment — flood the market, but some states are definitely more appealing destinations than others. The latest data from the Global Energy Institute shows the average price of electricity is lowest in states including Texas and

A common talking point in political circles is that climate action costs a lot. Even among proponents of strong climate action, there is a common tendency to just accept that as fact. However, this is not like going shopping for toys at Toys-R-Us (or I guess Amazon these days). It’s not like you either spend

They say the first car race occurred shortly after the second car was built. Speed junkies have long created races around just about every form of transportation out there, so it comes as no surprise that electric scooter racing would eventually pop up. What is surprising though is just how freaking fast these racing scooters

A general view shows the Wujing Coal-Electricity Power Station in Shanghai on September 28, 2021. Hector Retamal | AFP | Getty Images BEIJING — Local Chinese authorities have abruptly ordered power cuts at many factories in the last week, reflecting a system trying to react to a number of directives from Beijing, and macroeconomic developments.

Natural gas futures dipped as much as 8% on Wednesday, pulling back from a more than seven-year high above $6 per million British thermal units hit during the prior session. The contract for November delivery fell to a low of $5.42 on Wednesday, before recovering some of those losses to settle 6.85% lower at $5.47

Here’s an interesting coincidence. This morning, I was reading the latest email from Bloomberg Green about how Europe is struggling with high energy prices right now and has to make a decision — build more unnatural gas capacity or install more renewable energy. It’s a question fraught with weighty political considerations. Then I came across

The 2022 Ford Mustang Mach-E is going to come with more usable battery capacity, resulting in a longer range, according to the new order guide. Battery packs have an overall energy capacity and a usable capacity. The usable capacity is the energy that the car can use to power itself. The difference between the total

Pump jacks at the Belridge Oil Field and hydraulic fracking site which is the fourth largest oil field in California. Citizens of the Planet | Universal Images Group | Getty Images The current energy market picture is looking good for oil bulls.  International benchmark Brent crude passed the long-anticipated threshold of $80 per barrel on

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from Electrek. Quick Charge is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players. New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded Monday through Thursday and again on Saturday. Subscribe to our podcast in Apple Podcast or your favorite podcast player to guarantee

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced it has achieved its summer goal of signing up at least 125 communities for the Solar Automated Permit Processing (SolarAPP+) tool — a free, DOE-developed web-based platform that allows local governments to instantly approve residential solar installation permits. Now that 127 localities are signed

BURY ST EDMUNDS, SUFFOLK, UNITED KINGDOM – 2021/09/25: People filling their cars up at BP petrol station during the fuel crisis in Bury St Edmunds. SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images LONDON — British drivers have been panic buying gasoline in recent days, leading to lengthy lines, gas station closures and concerns that doctors

Long-time market bull Phil Orlando is delivering a 10% correction warning. Federated Hermes’ chief market strategist warns that uncertainty surrounding fiscal and monetary policies will prevent the market from breaking out of its recent rut. “There could be another shoe to drop over the course of the next five weeks or so,” Orlando told CNBC’s

During its “Production Preview Week” in Arizona, EV automaker Lucid Motors opened the doors of its AMP-1 production facility to the media, investors, and Air Dream Edition reservation holders to showcase the first customer-quality Air EVs rolling off the assembly line. Lucid shared that it will deliver in late October. The past year alone has

Petrol and diesel pumps out of use at a Texaco station in central London as the fuel shortage continues. Vuk Valcic | SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images There are calls for Britain’s key workers to be given priority access to fuel, as the panic buying of gasoline across the country continues. It is

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from Electrek. Quick Charge is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players. New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded Monday through Thursday and again on Saturday. Subscribe to our podcast in Apple Podcast or your favorite podcast player to guarantee

Zach is tryin’ to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine,

In this article GS Workers at the Zhong Tian (Zenith) Steel Group Corporation in Changzhou, China’s Jiangsu province on May 12, 2016. Kevin Frayer | Getty Images News | Getty Images Goldman Sachs economists have cut their forecasts for China’s economic growth in 2021 as the world’s second-largest economy faces “yet another growth shock” in

The US solar industry is in an uproar over a group of petitions before the Department of Commerce, which seek to impose heavy new tariffs on imported solar panels and solar cells. The writers of the petitions have chosen to remain anonymous and now the guessing game is on. So, who is behind those solar

We haven’t heard anything about the Tesla Cyberquad since it was unveiled, but it is apparently still alive as the automaker applied for a new trademark application for the electric ATV. When Tesla unveiled the Cybertruck in 2019, CEO Elon Musk had a little “one more thing” moment on stage when they brought the Tesla Cyberquad,

A sign reading “No Fuel Sorry” displayed at an Asda petrol station on September 26, 2021 in Cardiff, United Kingdom. Matthew Horwood | Getty Images Britain could bring in the army to deliver gasoline after a weekend of panic buying left gas stations around the country without fuel. Long queues of cars were have been

More than 70 large companies and investors representing $30 billion in assets sent a letter today to governors across the US urging the acceleration of the switch to zero-emission trucks, vans, and other large commercial vehicles. Will their letter make an impact? Zero-emission trucks The signatories are calling on states to adopt the Advanced Clean Truck (ACT)

Made by sunshine, drunk in sunshine — some wineries are going greener in Australia. At Hidden Creek Winery Cafe Vineyard near Stanthorpe, Queensland, they throw in a free charge for your Tesla (or any other electric vehicle) when you stop in, offering fresh electrons from their solar roof. Now, a larger winery is also going

In this article 6666-HK Wilmington Trust’s Meghan Shue is out with a contrarian playbook designed to help investors grab profits during volatility. Even as correction forecasts increase and risk appetites slump on Wall Street, she lists overweighting stocks as her first recommendation for those with 9 to 12 month time horizons. “Over that time frame,

True to its (latest) word, Tesla released the “Button” late Friday/early Saturday, though it went from “opting in to Full Self Driving Beta” to “requesting access to Full Self Driving”. The caveats don’t stop there. I’m tempted to go on a riff about how Tesla always, always announces something awesome, then walks it back a

Originally published by Union of Concerned Scientists, The Equation.By John Rogers With its passage out of a key committee in the House of Representatives last week, the Clean Electricity Performance Program (CEPP) is a step closer to reality, as part of the powerful budget reconciliation bill (the Build Back Better Act). The bill, and that provision,

As hydrogen hype is ramping up again, this time very clearly due to the fossil fuel industry putting its very large, well-funded thumb on the scales of public perception and policy-making, a pair of academic papers on the climate merits of “blue” hydrogen have been published recently. The first was by Howarth and Jacobson, and

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from Electrek. Quick Charge is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players. New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded Monday through Thursday and again on Saturday. Subscribe to our podcast in Apple Podcast or your favorite podcast player to guarantee

The first part of this analysis on the recently released life-cycle assessment of “blue” hydrogen covered the provenance and background for the paper, as well as the significant and questionable assumptions that the authors make about both expected demand for “blue” hydrogen and the scalability of carbon capture and sequestration it would demand. This second

When it comes to crazy electric vehicles from Alibaba, I’ve seen and written about seemingly every category under the sun. From animal-shaped electric boats and e-submarines to electric versions of Henry Ford’s Model T and even electric motorcycles with only one wheel. But never before have I found a direct-from-China EV that was as equal

Harley-Davidson’s electric bicycle brand Serial 1 launched a limited edition e-bike known as the MOSH/TRIBUTE that has seen surprisingly fast sales despite its high sticker price. The bike features an eye-catching design that mimics the original design concept debuted by the brand back in late 2020. When Harley-Davidson announced that it was spinning off its

Originally published at ILSR.org After moving to Colorado, Joe Smyth found he was barred from participating in his generation and transmission cooperative — despite a Colorado law promoting co-op transparency. For this episode of the Local Energy Rules Podcast, host John Farrell speaks with Joe Smyth, researcher at the Energy and Policy Institute and author of CleanCooperative.com. Farrell

In this episode of CleanTech Talk, renowned climate author and social movement leader Bill McKibben and I talk about the climate change crisis we’re quickly rolling into, climate grief and how to deal with it, US climate policy, rampant conspiracy theories, the great energy transition, and more. Listen to this first part of a two-part

This week on the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy, including the new Tesla Megafactory, Audi Q4 etron launching in the US, Toyota and Honda singing their own death warrants, and more including some speculation about Rivian. Sponsored by Electrify America: Discover all the new and innovative

Naftogaz CEO Yuriy Vitrenko. Anatolii Siryk | Ukrinform | Barcroft Media | Getty Images LONDON — The chief executive of Ukrainian state energy giant Naftogaz has accused Russia’s Gazprom of using natural gas as a geopolitical weapon, calling on the U.S. and Germany to take action against Moscow while it awaits regulatory approval for a

Workhorse Group has announced an immediate halt to all sales and deliveries of its C-1000 electric truck, citing that it found a previous report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) unreliable. In addition to frozen sales, Workhorse announced it will recall 41 electric vans that have already been delivered to customers. Workhorse Group

In our latest Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), we forecast that electricity generation from U.S. hydropower plants will be 14% lower in 2021 than it was in 2020. Extreme and exceptional drought conditions have been affecting much of the western United States, especially California and states in the Pacific Northwest, which are home to the majority of U.S.

China’s pledge to stop building new coal-fired power projects overseas could improve the reputation of its massive Belt and Road Initiative, said the president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Chinese President Xi Jinping made the pledge on coal on Tuesday at the United Nations General Assembly. He said China will support other developing countries

I’ve written about Solarflux, its FOCUS parabolic dish, and its new tool, CASPER, which is a concentrating solar power (CSP) performance comparison tool. I’ve also had the pleasure of sitting down with Solarflux CEO Naoise Irwin and CTO John Fangman, who invented the FOCUS dish. This is the second part of that interview, this time