The Trump administration has repeatedly blamed offshore wind farms for whale deaths, contrary to scientific evidence. Now the administration is quietly abandoning key research programs meant to protect marine mammals living in an increasingly busy ocean. The New England Aquarium and the Massachusetts Clean Energy…
Utilities tend not to be big fans of rooftop solar, which eats into their revenues by reducing customer reliance on the power grid. A new Ohio lawsuit spotlights the tension between utilities and customers over the clean-energy technology. The case deals with a monthly charge imposed by the city of Bowling Green’s…
From AI to Facebook to Google Maps, the nation’s demand for computing power is growing, with households in the U.S. now averaging a whopping 21 devices — think smartphones, TVs, and thermostats — all connected to the internet. That was one of many statistics lobbed at North Carolina utility regulators last week as…
Thermal energy storage systems, which turn electricity into heat that can be tapped for hours or days at a time, could help decarbonize the production of everything from cement to beer. But in the U.S., where the economics of replacing fossil fuels with electricity remain challenging, thermal-battery startup Rondo…
This summer, an ammonia-powered ship completed its maiden voyage in eastern China, becoming the first of its kind to run purely on the carbonless compound. Around the same time, in Denmark, the shipping giant Maersk launched a big container ship that can use methanol , making it the fourteenth and largest vessel yet…
Tech firms and automakers both need lots of steel to build their data centers and vehicles. The metal is sturdy, ubiquitous — and highly carbon-intensive when it’s produced using traditional coal-fired furnaces. The startup Electra says it’s working to scale a dramatically cleaner method for making the key material.…
Home batteries tend to come in two flavors. There are the no-frills, portable systems meant for emergencies, not for full-on integration with solar panels or the power grid. And then there are the Tesla Powerwalls of the world: smart, large devices that can power an entire home but which require a lot of time and…
Data centers are creating problems for the congested, overburdened U.S. power grid. One company thinks it can crowdsource the solution. California-based Voltus operates “virtual power plants” across North America, controlling the amount of electricity that participating homes and businesses consume or send to the…
In January, the coastal California town of Moss Landing witnessed the most destructive battery fire in U.S. history. Now, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has signed SB 283 , a law designed to prevent a repeat of the disaster by strengthening statewide fire safety standards for grid battery installations. Batteries have become…
The United Nations agency that governs global shipping has voted to delay the adoption of its landmark decarbonization strategy by one year, following intense opposition from the Trump administration. The Friday decision by the International Maritime Organization in London casts uncertainty over the future of the…
This analysis and news roundup comes from the Canary Media Weekly newsletter. Sign up to get it every Friday. On Thursday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced the Loan Programs Office’s first deal under its new Energy Dominance Financing Program , closing a $1.6 billion loan guarantee for a subsidiary of…
See more from Canary Media’s "Chart of the week” column . Electric vehicle sales just hit an all-time high in the U.S. — but don’t expect the boom to last long. For every 10 cars that automakers sold from July through September, one was an EV, according to fresh data from Cox Automotive. In other words, nearly…
The Department of Energy has closed a $1.6 billion loan guarantee for transmission upgrades in the middle of the country — a move that comes as the Trump administration slashes funding for other grid improvements, including a separate transmission megaproject in the Midwest. The financing from the Department of…
Roasting coffee requires high temperatures — up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit for as much as 20 minutes per batch. Today, the vast majority of that heat is generated by fossil fuels. Most of the world’s coffee is roasted in gas-burning machines that emit carbon dioxide and require elaborate venting and afterburner…
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News , a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy, and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here . During a recent visit to a Long Island power station, U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright criticized Biden-era…
A new law in Ohio will fast-track energy projects in places that are hard to argue with: former coal mines and brownfields. But how much the legislation benefits clean energy will depend on the final rules for its implementation, which the state is working out now. House Bill 15 , which took effect Aug. 14, lets…
LOVELAND, Colo. — For a moment, I held in my hand the cool heart of a heat pump. I was standing inside the cavernous facility where the startup AtmosZero is building its novel steam-producing heat pumps. The all-electric technology is meant to replace the gas-burning boilers that factories rely on to make everything…
More than a decade ago, residents of Loudoun County, Virginia, banded together to buy up treasured open space before it became a strip mall and housing development, donating the land to the Piedmont Environmental Council instead. The nonprofit has maintained it as a unique blend of cattle pasture, a nature preserve,…
Boston is racing to decarbonize its public housing by 2030. The latest tool it's deploying to reach that goal? Window-straddling heat pumps. Last week, the Boston Housing Authority announced that it's piloting the electric technology at Hassan Apartments, a 50-year-old public housing community with 100 units for…
An enormous solar project planned for the Nevada desert was canceled last week while awaiting final federal approvals, an ominous sign for renewables development on public lands under the Trump administration. Esmeralda 7 was unique for its size: It would have installed 6.2 gigawatts of solar generation and 5.2…
Julian Spector
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