December 28th, 2020 by NRDC Joe Biden. Image by David Lienemann (public domain). Originally published on the NRDC Expert Blog. By Gina McCarthy, the president and chief executive officer of NRDC since January 2020, leading more than 700 attorneys, scientists, advocates, and policy experts that make NRDC one of the country’s most effective environmental action
Environment
December 27th, 2020 by Zachary Shahan In the first 10 months of 2020, renewable energy sources accounted for 20.4% of United States electricity generation. That’s up from 17.5% in the same time period in 2018. Wind power got up to 8% of the electricity pie, up from 6.4% in January–October 2018. Solar power was up
December 27th, 2020 by Guest Contributor Editor’s note: This article was written before Donald Trump decided to not sign the bill Congress passed. We’ll see what happens with that. Hopefully it does eventually (sooner than later) get signed. Otherwise, part of this article will have to be removed. Courtesy of Union Of Concerned Scientists.By Ken
December 26th, 2020 by Rocky Mountain Institute Originally published by Rocky Mountain Institute.By Laurie Stone & Matt Jungclaus If we are going to keep the global temperature rise below 1.5°C, we need to fix our buildings. They are the largest end-users of energy, generating nearly 40 percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions. However, addressing energy efficiency and
December 26th, 2020 by Zachary Shahan Tesla CEO* Elon Musk has tweeted more than 3,000 times this year. We at CleanTechnica follow his tweets closely, since he provides much insight on Tesla via tweet and even breaks much news via Twitter. Additionally, I interacted with Elon several times this year on Twitter regarding a variety
It seems like every tech company is trying to sell their products as environmentally responsible. That’s why Apple claims its latest iPhone 12 line comes without a charging block in the box, for example. But that hasn’t stopped tech companies from coming out with a host of new phones every year, and the old models
December 25th, 2020 by Zachary Shahan Danny Parker, after 30 years working at the Florida Solar Energy Center studying energy efficiency and solar energy, has written a thorough exploration of solar power in Florida for CleanTechnica. It goes deep into the policies and problems of solar power in Florida, which are driven by utilities with
December 23rd, 2020 by Michael Barnard There’s been a recent emergence of the ‘hydrogen economy’ nonsense globally. CleanTechnica has not been immune to this, and has had to yank articles that got out over their skis, either permanently, or to edit them to a more nuanced perspective. In aid of CleanTechnica’s efforts to establish a
December 23rd, 2020 by Carolyn Fortuna Global policy discussions increasingly emphasize the critical role of innovation to meet long-term energy and climate targets. Investing in clean energy innovation programs can drive down the costs of existing essential options like solar, wind, and low carbon mobility and can also accelerate the development of high-impact breakthrough technologies.
December 23rd, 2020 by Tina Casey New Jersey is known for many things, and now you can add offshore wind to the list. The Garden State has nailed down the coveted position of monopile supplier to the US offshore wind industry, which will soon pepper the waters of the Atlantic coast with wind turbines, each
Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images The coronavirus relief bill passed by Congress toughens rules around use of a common heat-trapping chemical and funnels billions of dollars into renewable energy. The measures, attached to a year-end government funding bill, were hailed by some lawmakers as among the most significant Congress has approved to combat climate
December 22nd, 2020 by Steve Hanley Every year about this time, the US Congress passes what is known to Washington insiders as a “Christmas Tree Bill” — an end of year spending package with enough ornaments on it to sink an aircraft carrier. Part of the new legislation — all 5,593 pages of it —
December 22nd, 2020 by Tina Casey Silicon solar cells deserve a pat on the back for ushering in the renewable energy revolution, but now it’s time for more efficient, less expensive technology to take the wheel. If you guessed that means perovskites, run right out and buy yourself a cigar. In the latest development, the
December 21st, 2020 by Tina Casey Sooner or later, somebody is going to call BS on that whole thing about “blue” hydrogen. The US has been backing off from the blue hydrogen cliff, but it looks like Scotland may beat it to the punch. Although the newly announced Scottish H2 plan includes some wiggle room
December 21st, 2020 by Michael Barnard As part of my ongoing exploration of heat pumps as a wedge on climate change, I thought I’d assess the fiscal impacts of Canada’s new carbon price of $170 CAD per ton of CO2 on annual heating costs for them compared to gas furnaces. Recently, I built a province-by-province
December 21st, 2020 by Zachary Shahan Last week, I published an update on US power capacity — new additions as well as total power capacity. The good news was that 100% of new capacity power in October was from renewable sources. The less good news was that only 21.7% of total power capacity is from