A typical American household runs on fossil fuels: natural gas for heat, hot water, and the kitchen stove, gas or diesel to power the cars in the driveway, and coal and natural gas still powering the majority of the electricity flowing in the home, even as the amount of wind and solar on the grid
Following on from Microsoft’s decision to undo its carbon footprint, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has announced the company’s sustainability commitments. Pichai said the company will be eliminating its entire carbon legacy, covering all operational emissions backdated to 2007, when the company became carbon neutral.
In a blog post outlining the company’s sustainability plans, Pichai wrote: “We
Impact investing has
Wind and solar produced a record 10 percent of global electricity in the first half of 2020 as the world’s coal plant fleet ran at less than half its capacity, analysis recently published showed.
Despite a near-record drop in power demand due to the pandemic, renewables accounted for 1,129 terawatt-hours in January-June,
As we kicked off the New Year, 2020 was shaping up to be a pivotal moment for the global sustainability movement. The world’s most valuable companies were planning to go carbon negative, renewable energy had achieved competitive pricing, and heck, Greta Thunberg had just been named Time’s Person of the Year. There was a glimmer of
While it makes sense that families living below the poverty line have a difficult time covering their energy bills, new University of Wisconsin Oshkosh research shows the reverse to be true as well—high energy bills can lead a household into poverty.
The nationwide study—led by UWO environmental sociologist Jeremiah Bohr and published Nov.15 in the peer-reviewed
Solar Sisters are doing it for themselves – and now with a little help from their friends. Pursuing a joint vision to make renewable energy technology affordable and accessible, US company Palmetto has partnered with them to expand the delivery of clean energy to homes across Africa.
Palmetto is a
In Australia, renewable energy is growing at a per capita rate ten times faster than the world average. Between 2018 and 2020, Australia will install more than 16 gigawatts of wind and solar, an average rate of 220 watts per person per year.
This is nearly three times faster than the next fastest country, Germany. Australia
Iceland is cold. But it sits atop one of the world’s hottest underground regions, giving the country the ability to tap into a massive store of geothermal energy held by live volcanoes beneath Icelanders’ feet. Drill down only a few hundred meters, and trapped water will come gushing out as high-temperature steam. It’s easy enough
Scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and the University of Sheffield in the UK, have called for a redefinition of sustainability stating, “it should be defined as being able to live harmoniously with nature in a shared planet with other species, without exploiting it.”
They say that this redefinition is essential if society wants to mitigate climate change and
No sun? No problem.
A new thermoelectric device can generate electricity for an LED light bulb even during the blackest night, according to a report by researchers.
The secret is using a phenomenon known as radiative cooling, which happens when surfaces on the ground radiate heat into the atmosphere. This process can make a surface cooler than
Solar power may currently make up less than 2% of the world’s energy mix, but the outlook of solar company executives is, uh, sunny.
“What’s important is new [energy] generation, and in the US, renewables are 70% of new generation. It’s game over,” said Tom Werner, CEO of SunPower, the California-based solar company, speaking at the
For her senior art thesis at Elon University in North Carolina, Charlotte Murphy made a local farm both the subject of and the source material for her work. The 2019 grad from Essex, Vermont, used red clay soil gathered from a nearby farm to depict maps of the land and the food produced on
Electricity could be delivered to more than a billion people currently living without it within a decade by linking up small-scale projects into a giant, environmentally-friendly network.
According to a new global commission, advances in micro energy grids and renewable energy technologies could “dramatically accelerate change” and transform lives in rural
An energy transition is unfolding around the world. In efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and air pollution, governments are installing increasing amounts of wind and solar. Since 2000, renewable installations in the power sector have risen from 20 GW per year to around 160 GW per year and now account for almost two-thirds of
As solar comes to represent a larger proportion of the global energy mix, direct comparisons with conventional energy sources, and even with other renewables, are becoming more and more important. This is reflected in a bid by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s (UNECE) Expert Group to standardize reporting on solar energy potential. Long
With businesses and nations attempting to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and mitigate their impact on the environment, many are turning to renewable sources of energy.
Eleven million people worked in renewable energy in 2018, according to recent analysis from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). This represents an increase of 700,000 compared to 2017,
Renewable energy sources (biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar, wind) accounted for more than one-fifth (20.1%) of net domestic electrical generation during the first six months of 2019, according to a SUN DAY Campaign analysis of just-released data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). A year earlier, renewables’ share was 19.9%.
The latest issue of EIA’s
In the absence of federal action, the United States has seen a groundswell of local efforts and leadership in the fight against climate change. In addition to various states and corporations, many cities in the United States have committed to power their own operations with renewable energy. In fact, 132 U.S. cities and counties
Of the many wind energy projects in the United States, only three are verified as sustainable by the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure. Recently, two of them — developed by power generation and distribution provider Alliant Energy with support from Black & Veatch as owner’s engineer – were the first wind projects ever to achieve the