Energy

( Tomdispatch.com ) – He lived over 1,000 years ago, but King Canute’s life still has some important lessons for our own time. After conquering England, Denmark, Norway, and part of Sweden, he forged a vast North Sea empire that made him, by the year 1030, the greatest of all the Viking kings. At that […]

Solar Energy

Recycling Solar Panels will Reduce Waste, but We Should Repair and Reuse First

The Conversation

By Deepika Mathur, Charles Darwin University and Robin Gregory, Charles Darwin University (The Conversation) – Australia’s rooftop solar industry has renewed calls for a mandatory recycling scheme to deal with the growing problem of solar panel waste. Only about 10% of panels are currently recycled. The rest are stockpiled, sent overseas or dumped in landfill. […]

Featured

Women’s Cancer Rates are Rising in the Oil Gulf: is Global Heating causing it?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Human-caused global heating is hitting the Middle East hard, and rates of cancer in Middle Eastern women are increasing. Is there a correlation? This is the question asked by Wafa Abu El Kheir-Mataria and Sungsoo Chun at Frontiers . These scholars are at the American University in Cairo, my alma […]

Africa

Ocean currents can generate electricity – and our Study shows Africa’s Seas have some of the Strongest

The Conversation

By James H. VanZwieten Jr., Florida Atlantic University; Gabriel Alsenas, Florida Atlantic University; Mahsan Sadoughipour, Florida Atlantic University, and Yufei Tang, Florida Atlantic University (The Conversation) – The world’s oceans cover more than 70% of Earth’s surface. They’re filled with currents, some much stronger than the fastest flowing large rivers. These currents can be harnessed […]

Agrovoltaics

Solar Panels’ Shade helps boost Colorado grassland Productivity in dry Years

The Conversation

By Matthew Sturchio, Colorado State University (The Conversation) – Grasses growing in the shade of a solar array were only a little less productive than those growing nearby in open grassland during years of average and above-average rainfall – but in a dry year, the shaded plants grew much better than those growing in full […]

Featured

Turkiye gets 11% of its Electricity from Wind, plans $1.5 Bn. Investment this year

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Turkiye’s wind power sector continues to grow, albeit at a somewhat slower pace than at the beginning of this decade. The country gets 11% of its electricity from wind. Turkiye is third in Europe for onshore wind power growth, It installed 1.5 gigawatts of new wind in 2024, more than […]

Featured

Morocco Plans Floating Solar PV over Reservoirs to Stop Evaporation

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Morocco is on a green energy roll, as the government’s far-sighted plan to move the North African country to renewables makes it a leader in the region. The installed renewables capacity increased 5% from 2021 to 2025, to 12 gigawatts, according to an announcement in mid-May of the Minister of […]

Climate Crisis

Green Enterprise: 1 Gigawatt He Dreiht North Sea Wind Farm receives no Gov’t Subsidies

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The first giant Vestas offshore wind turbine of the German He Dreiht (“It Spins”) project in the North Sea has been installed, some 190 miles northwest of Bremerhaven. It is capable of generating 15 megawatts just on its own. When the other 64 turbines are erected on the already-sunk pilons […]

China

China’s Power Sector Emissions fall 5.8% in Q1, as Renewables rapidly Replace Coal

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Lauri Myllyvirta writes at Carbon Brief that China’s CO2 emissions over-all fell by 1% in the past 12 months, and by 1.6% in the first quarter of this year compared to Q1 of 2024. In the first quarter of this year, moreover, power sector emissions fell a dramatic 5.8 percent. […]