Solar Energy

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Jeffrey Beyer and Stephen Gitonga of the UN Development Program present an overview of Saudi Arabia’s full court press to get 50% of its electricity from renewables by 2030. The kingdom is aware that fossil fuels, the source of its fabulous wealth, are on their way out. Its leaders want […]

Agrovoltaics

Iraqi Kurdistan aims at 3 Gigawatts of Solar, as Households and Villages Rush to Rooftop Panels

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iraqi Kurdistan is developing an interest in sustainable energy, despite being an oil exporter via Kirkuk. Solar provides little of Iraq’s electricity at the moment, but the situation is set to change rapidly over the next decade. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has set a goal of putting in 3 […]

China

Juan Cole on Gaza, U.S. Policy, and the Future of the Middle East

Juan Cole

I was welcomed onto David Lin’s Podcast, “The David Lin Report” to talk about Gaza, the Middle East and the US-China rivalry. Embedded video and transcript below. He describes it this way: The David Lin Report! I’ll be reporting on the most impactful market-moving events, as well as interviewing experts in finance, economics, science, and […]

Climate Crisis

Wind and Solar Provide 40% of Brazil’s Electricity for first time

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – This month Brazil’s National Electric System Operator estimated that wind and solar are now producing nearly 40 percent of the country’s electricity. It was just in August of this year that the country’s wind and solar installations hit the milestone of generating over a third of the country’s electricity (some […]

Climate Crisis

For First time in History, Renewables Overtook Coal in Global Electricity Production in H1

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Ember energy analysis firm has released its global electricity report for the first half of 2025, and it contains two big surprises. The first is that sustainable sources of energy have now overtaken coal for the first time since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The second is that […]

Climate Crisis

Goodbye Petrostates, Hello ‘Electrostates’: how the clean Energy Shift is reshaping the World Order

The Conversation

By Niusha Shafiabady, Australian Catholic University and Xiaoying Qi, Australian Catholic University (The Conversation) – For more than a century, global geopolitics has revolved around oil and gas. Countries with big fossil fuel reserves, such as Saudi Arabia and Russia, have amassed significant wealth and foreign influence, helping shape the world order. But the global […]

Climate Crisis

Lebanon’s Solar Capacity surged since 2020 to 1.5 gigawatts, as Homeowners tired of Blackouts

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Lebanese Ministry of Energy has let three bids for new solar farms of 15 megawatts each, for a total of 45 MW, which will power 22,000 homes in the perennially electricity-poor country. The bad news is that 11 such bids were accepted in 2022 and nothing ever got done. […]

Featured

Turkiye hosts Largest Solar Power Plant of any European Country, as its Solar Installations Surge to 3.1 GW in H1

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Turkiye [Turkey] is a European country, since part of its territory lies in Europe. So the following sentence is true: Turkiye hosts the largest solar power plant in any European country. The plant, however, is not situated in Turkiye’s European provinces but in the Karapinar Desert, about sixty miles east […]

China

Iran Seeks China’s help to Install 7 gigs of new Solar Capacity in “4th Industrial Revolution”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – With the prospect of new Iranian nuclear power plants looking dim after Israeli and American bombing of its civilian nuclear enrichment sites, and with a need to export its fossil gas rather than consuming it domestically, the Tehran leadership is at last turning to renewables for electricity generation. President Masoud […]