( Clean Energy Wire ) – Renewables provided nearly half of Germany’s electricity in the first six months of 2022, according to preliminary data released by energy industry association BDEW and research institute ZSW. Solar panels, wind turbines, biogas plants and other installations covered 49 percent of electricity demand, six percentage points more than during […]
- Africa (237)
- Animals (1)
- Asia (1,219)
- Australasia (8)
- Australia (25)
- Authoritarianism (382)
- Canada (6)
- Cats (1)
- Celtic Religion (1)
- Culture (516)
- Dehydration (1)
- Democracy (323)
- Dissent (419)
- Ecology (1)
- Economy (1,020)
- Agriculture (3)
- Banking (67)
- Carbon Footprint (6)
- Corporations (50)
- Cryptocurrency (2)
- Debt (21)
- Democratic Socialism (20)
- Demographic Decline (1)
- Development (26)
- Downward Mobility (1)
- Employment (118)
- Food Insecurity (21)
- Homelessness (15)
- Industry (5)
- Inequality (422)
- Inflation (5)
- infrastructure (10)
- Investment (92)
- Market Crash (10)
- Middle Class (61)
- Monopolies (8)
- Neoliberalism (200)
- Plutocracy (612)
- Poverty (205)
- Regulation (2)
- Sanctions (4)
- Taxes (37)
- Technology (3)
- Trade (113)
- Weapons sales (6)
- Education (136)
- Elderly (3)
- Electricity Cost (2)
- Energy (1,696)
- Batteries (49)
- Coal (137)
- Fossil Fuels (317)
- Fracking (50)
- Geothermal (7)
- Green ammonia (5)
- Green Energy (409)
- Green Hydrogen (8)
- Heat Pumps (5)
- Hydroelectric (14)
- Natural Gas (107)
- Nuclear Energy (157)
- Petroleum (297)
- Power Grid (12)
- Pumped Hydro (6)
- Solar Energy (398)
- Tar Sands (13)
- Wave Energy (9)
- wind energy (333)
- Environment (2,594)
- Climate Change (1,539)
- Acidification of Oceans (54)
- Agriculture (25)
- Biodiversity (12)
- Climate Refugees (2)
- CO2 (114)
- Dehydration (5)
- Denialism (145)
- Desalinization (4)
- Desertification (158)
- Divestment (2)
- Dust Storms (6)
- Environmental Investment (1)
- Extreme Weather (294)
- Flooding (135)
- Food Supply (2)
- Forests (17)
- Green New Deal (39)
- Greenwashing (3)
- Mass Extinction (61)
- Methane (20)
- Net Carbon Zerio (8)
- Nitrous Oxide (2)
- Rainforests (19)
- Rivers (11)
- Sea Level (334)
- Soil Carbon Release (14)
- Super Storms (250)
- wildfires (232)
- Wood Buildings (1)
- Climate Crisis (1,245)
- Drought (288)
- Ecology (10)
- Environmentalism (392)
- Green Transportation (249)
- Ice Melt (132)
- Invasive Species (2)
- Islands (1)
- Oceans (100)
- Oil Spills (7)
- Pollution (226)
- Water (92)
- wildlife (19)
- Climate Change (1,539)
- Europe (1,334)
- Featured (3,879)
- fiction (5)
- Food (13)
- G20 (1)
- Guns (9)
- Health (662)
- History (342)
- Human Rights (1,405)
- Apartheid (258)
- censorship (287)
- Death Penalty (30)
- Disappeared (3)
- Displaced and Refugees (559)
- Food Insecurity (16)
- Gay rights (29)
- Genocide (34)
- Human Rights Watch (90)
- Migrants (4)
- Slavery and Trafficking (16)
- Starvation (1)
- Torture (97)
- Trans Rights (3)
- Transgender Rights (4)
- Unlawful Imprisonment (99)
- Unlwful Killing (75)
- War Crimes (373)
- War Rape (7)
- Immigration (20)
- International (791)
- Islamophobia (374)
- Juan Cole (270)
- Latin America (99)
- Latinos (4)
- leisure (21)
- media (469)
- Middle East (9,289)
- Arab World (5,146)
- Iran (1,283)
- Israel (877)
- Israel/ Palestine (3,085)
- Israel/Palestine (8)
- Kurds (289)
- Turkey (575)
- Turkiye (101)
- military (123)
- Modernism (3)
- nationalism (116)
- NATO (36)
- Natural Disasters (13)
- Neocolonialism (1)
- nuclear weapons (103)
- Patriarchy (10)
- Peace (136)
- Persian mythology (1)
- Pete Buttigieg (1)
- Planetary Exploration (1)
- Popular Culture (24)
- Poverty (12)
- privacy (21)
- racism (462)
- Rape (8)
- religion (1,467)
- Rights (139)
- robots (3)
- Romance (1)
- science (149)
- Secular (West) (9)
- Secularism (30)
- Sexual Assault (2)
- South Pacific (2)
- Spirituality (22)
- Statelessness (15)
- Stranded Assets (1)
- Surveillance (278)
- Terrorism (1,091)
- Tolerance (6)
- Uncategorized (8,075)
- United Nations (136)
- Urbanization (4)
- US Foreign Policy (1,282)
- US politics (5,235)
- Anti-War Movement (12)
- Campaign Finance (31)
- Censors (22)
- Central Intelligence Agency (63)
- Charity (1)
- Civil Rights (96)
- Congress (78)
- Conspiracy Theories (23)
- Constitution (397)
- Courts (12)
- crime (12)
- Democratic Party (942)
- Democratic Socialists of America (22)
- Domestic Terrorism (20)
- Drone Warfare (27)
- Espionage (124)
- Ethnicities (380)
- Far Right (388)
- FBI (47)
- Foreign Policy (204)
- Gay Rights (17)
- Guns (94)
- Immigration (236)
- Israel Lobbies (124)
- Marijuana (4)
- Militarization (271)
- National Security State (471)
- Native Americans (40)
- Nuclear arsenal (7)
- penitentiaries (6)
- Pentagon (557)
- Police (43)
- prison reform (9)
- Private Prisons (2)
- Progressive Politics (12)
- Puerto Rico (30)
- Religious Right (15)
- Reproductive Choice (66)
- Republican Party (2,918)
- Supreme Court (125)
- Voter suppression (35)
- Whistleblowers (5)
- Xenophobia (9)
- Veterans (35)
- Voting Rights (16)
- War (499)
- White Supremacists (225)
- wikileaks (8)
- women (550)
- workers (231)
- Writing (5)
- Youth (208)
Solar Energy
In 13 Years, Gasoline will be as Illegal in Europe as Heroin for New Car Buyers
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Les Echos reports that after a marathon 16-hour negotiating session, the 27 European Union countries agreed to issue five new laws aimed reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 55% compared to 1990 levels by 2030 and at reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. Frans Timmermans, the chief EU Climate official, noted that […]
As US Electric Vehicle Sales Double in One Year, Biden calls for Lowering their Price to Defeat Oil Tyrant Putin
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Joe Biden called last week for a vast expansion of green energy in the United States to offset what he calls the “Putin price hike” caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent Western sanctions. He pointed out that since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the assault on […]
California Milestone: State for First Time briefly Generates 103% of its Electricity from Renewables
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On one day in May, Lauren Sommer at NPR reported, California ran for several hours on 103% renewable electricity, which means it generated enough electricity from wind, solar, hydro, geothermal and battery to fulfill the entire needs of the state plus to be able to export a bit to neighboring […]
German Economy & Climate Minister’s visit to Israel & Palestine focused on Renewable Tech not just Replacing Russian Natural Gas
By Kerstine Appunn | – Germany’s economy and climate minister has arrived in Israel for talks about bilateral energy cooperation, with a focus on developing renewable energies rather than short-term deliveries of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to replace shipments from Russia, German public broadcasters ZDF and ARD reported. Israel has large natural gas reserves but […]
Biden just declared Heat Pumps and Solar Panels essential to National Defense – here’s why and the Challenges Ahead
By Daniel Cohan, Rice University | – Solar panels, heat pumps and hydrogen are all building blocks of a clean energy economy. But are they truly “essential to the national defense”? President Joe Biden proclaimed that they are in early June when he authorized using the Defense Production Act to ramp up their production in […]
‘Open Your Hearts’: The Movements Taking Climate Action Where Leaders and Media Won’t
By Donna Katzin and William Minter | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – Media, politicians, and policymakers tend to focus on the most visible issues. The attention the war in Ukraine has received in the first half of 2022, for example, is unrivaled in the United States at least since the shock of 9/11 […]
Biden’s Green New Deal: 100 Gigawatts of New Solar, in Biggest Energy Program since FDR’s TVA
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Biden just launched a series of executive orders and other measures for solar energy that have the potential to be the biggest energy initiatives by any president since Franklin D. Roosevelt, on whose watch the Hoover Dam and the Tennessee Valley Authority came into being. The Hoover Dam produces […]
It is now Cheaper to Switch from Coal directly to Wind and Solar than to Natural Gas
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Matthew Gray at Transition Zero writes that it is now cheaper in North America and Europe to switch from coal plants directly to wind, solar, battery renewable energy sources than it is to switch to methane (“natural”) gas. TZ figures transition costs in expenditure of carbon dioxide, and finds that […]