wind 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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

Australia

Australia is the Renewables Nation after Labor’s Win

The Conversation

By Wesley Morgan, UNSW Sydney and Ben Newell, UNSW Sydney An emphatic election victory for the incumbent Labor government means Australia’s rapid shift to renewable energy will continue. As Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen said on Saturday: In 2022, the Australian people voted to finally act on climate change. After three years of […]

Featured

Turkiye’s Solar Installations soared 39% last Year, as Wind and Solar hit 18% of Grid

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The energy consultancy Ember has issued a new report on solar energy in Turkiye. As I discussed last December, that form of energy is making tremendous strides there. Ember finds that in 2024, wind and solar surged ahead of coal for the first time. I remember my first visit to […]

Featured

European CO2 Emissions keep Plummeting, as 47% of Electricity is Green

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The 27 countries of the European Union, with a population of about 450 million, produce 3.9 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide every year, helping heat up and destabilize the global climate. This is according to the new EU report on energy dated 2025. But the good news is that […]

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For First time, US is at 42% Zero Carbon Electricity, as Solar Surges by 49 GW

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Business Council for Sustainable Energy Factbook is out, and it has good news for the environment despite the dark shadow being cast by a climate denialist White House. The good news is that the incredible advance of solar power generation has boosted renewable sources of power to 24% of […]

Asia

As Trump Shutters US Offshore Wind, Asia’s Renewables Promise Cheaper Manufacturing, Trade Surpluses

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump has halted the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management from granting new offshore wind licenses. This move will gut the growing US offshore wind industry, though it does not necessarily affect already-granted licenses. Gavin Maguire at Reuters explains the outcome of this policy will be high energy costs for Americans, […]