Solar Energy

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The US Energy Information Agency reports that California’s fossil gas use is steadily declining. In the first half of 2025, fossil gas use was down a whopping 18% compared with the same period in 2020, to 45.5 billion kilowatt hours (BKWh). Even just in 2025, California reduced fossil gas usage […]

China

Pakistan now gets 25% of its Electricity from Solar, Plans Solar Panel factory

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Pakistan’s solar power switch continues to grow by leaps and bounds. In 2023, solar was the fifth largest source of electricity generation in the South Asian country of 240 million. Then Pakistani villagers and townspeople imported 17 gigawatts worth of solar panels in 2024, catapulting the country into one of […]

Donald Trump

Ozymandias on the Potomac: Energy Policy and the Politics of American Decline

Alfred W. McCoy

( Tomdispatch.com ) – At the dawning of the British Empire in 1818, the romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley penned a memorable sonnet freighted with foreboding about the inevitable decline of all empires, whether in ancient Egypt or then-modern Britain. In Shelly’s stanzas, a traveler in Egypt comes across the ruins of a once-monumental statue, […]

Climate Crisis

India Plans 2.45 Gig Solar Park + 5 GWh Battery in Rajasthan, so why drag its Feet at COP30?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The paradox of India’s unhelpful stance at COP30, which has gone into extra innings over the obstacles the “like-minded developing countries” have placed in the way of a renewed pledge to transition away from fossil fuels, lies in New Delhi’s impressive investments in renewables. That is, even the right wing […]

China

How China Is Turning Climate Action into Economic Strategy

Foreign Policy in Focus

If the world is to make real progress in Belém, it will need more than pledges. It will need examples. And right now, China is providing one. By Imran Khalid | ( Foreign Policy in Focus )- If global climate diplomacy feels stuck, China’s new 2035 roadmap offers a reminder that ambition and realism can […]

Featured

With China’s Help, Saudi Arabia is Deploying Solar Power Faster than any Country in History

Juan Cole

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 […]