Clean & renewable energy

This archive tracks real progress in clean and renewable energy — from solar and wind expansion to grid upgrades and policy wins. Each story focuses on what’s working, where, and why it matters for people and the planet.

Batteries, for article on lithium-ion battery costs

Battery costs have declined by 99% worldwide over three decades

By / / Good News For Humankind

Battery storage — once the missing link in the clean energy transition — is finally arriving at scale, and the numbers behind it are hard to overstate. A learning curve built from millions of small improvements in chemistry and manufacturing has made what once seemed impossible feel routine. What was an extraordinary expense in 1991 now costs a fraction of that, pulling electric vehicles, home storage, and grid-scale power into reach for far more people. Supply chain pressures and raw material constraints mean progress isn’t guaranteed — but the direction, so far, is undeniable.

Solar panels and wind turbines generating clean electricity for an article about renewable energy capacity, for article on 3-terawatt solar milestone

Humanity quietly crosses massive 3-terawatt solar power milestone

By / / Good News For Humankind

Solar power’s three-terawatt milestone tells a story of acceleration that’s hard to fully absorb — the third terawatt arrived in under two years, faster than any previous phase of the boom. Countries like Pakistan, Nigeria, and the Philippines are now seeing real solar growth, and the number of nations with at least one gigawatt installed nearly doubled between 2020 and 2025. But the technology’s falling costs haven’t been matched by accessible financing in lower-income countries, leaving millions still waiting. Whether this transformation reaches everyone — not just the wealthiest nations — is the question the next decade will answer.

Solar panels, for article on Africa renewable energy capacity, for article on California solar milestone

California becomes first major economy powered over 50% by solar

By / / Good News For Humankind

For the first five months of 2026, California generated more electricity from the sun than from natural gas — the fuel that dominated its grid for decades. The tipping point came in May, when solar carried clean power across a full month at a scale that dwarfs most national grids. Grid-scale batteries made it possible, storing midday sunshine and releasing it into the evening peak. The shift is real but unfinished — July heat waves pushed gas back up — yet analysts say this could be the first year solar beats gas outright.

Brazilian flag, for article on Brazil renewable energy

Brazil’s power grid hits 84.6% renewable, exceeding its 2030 goal early

By / / Good News For Humankind

Brazil’s renewable energy milestone signals something bigger than a single number: a large, industrializing nation has built one of the cleanest major grids on Earth while still growing fast. A separate report showed wind and solar crossed a new threshold in August 2025, and their seasonal fit is clever — wind peaks precisely when hydro reservoirs run low, reducing storage needs. Yet drought years can push fossil fuel backup from 6% to 26% of monthly generation, a vulnerability that battery storage and transmission investment haven’t yet solved. Brazil’s path shows the world what’s possible — and where the hard work remains.

Rooftop solar, for article on Pakistan rooftop solar

Rooftop solar is now Pakistan’s largest source of electricity, driven by citizens

By / / Good News For Humankind

Rooftop solar in Pakistan now supplies roughly a fifth of the country’s electricity — built almost entirely with private money, in just a few years, with no government subsidy behind it. In 2025 alone, Pakistan imported 26 gigawatts of solar panels from China, more than any other country on Earth. Millions of households, fed up with outages stretching 16 to 20 hours a day and bills that tripled over a decade, simply bought their way out. The hard caveat: as wealthier households leave the grid, those who can’t afford panels carry more of the shared costs. But Pakistan’s bottom-up, citizen-funded story is already reshaping how the world thinks about energy transitions in fast-growing nations.

Wind turbines, for article on SunZia wind project

Largest-ever U.S. renewable energy project comes online, supplying power to 1 million homes

By / / Good News For Humankind

SunZia is now the largest wind energy project in U.S. history, and its scale changes what Americans can imagine building. Its 916 turbines generate more power than the Hoover Dam, delivered through one of the first major long-distance HVDC transmission lines completed in the country in decades. Over 30 years, the project will send $1.3 billion directly to local governments, schools, and landowners in New Mexico and Arizona — communities that have long watched energy wealth flow elsewhere. It’s proof that transformational clean energy infrastructure can actually get built, and a model other regions will be watching closely.

Floating solar panels, for article on floating solar park

Portugal is opening Europe’s biggest floating solar park this year

By / / Good News For Humankind

Floating solar on reservoirs is quietly rewriting what clean energy infrastructure can look like — and Portugal is leading the way. At Alqueva, Europe’s largest artificial lake, 12,000 solar panels work alongside an existing hydropower dam, producing 7.5 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year without requiring new land or new grid connections. Electricity from the park costs a third of what a gas-fired plant produces at current fuel prices, making the case that green power can be both practical and affordable. Models like this give the broader renewables transition something valuable: a proven, cost-competitive blueprint ready to scale.

Offshore wind farm, for article on offshore wind farm

Taiwan’s ‘biggest offshore wind farm’ generates its first power

By / / Good News For Humankind

Taiwan’s offshore wind sector just crossed a milestone that shows the island’s clean energy ambitions are becoming real. The Greater Changhua facility — 111 turbines spread across deep water off Taiwan’s west coast — will power around one million households once fully operational. Taiwan ranks second in Asia-Pacific for planned offshore wind installations, and projects like this one help build the track record that makes future investment easier to secure. Every turbine connected to the grid is proof that island nations with strong wind resources can lead the global shift away from fossil fuels.

School bus on the road, for article on electric school bus mandate

New York enacts first-in-nation plan to electrify all state school buses

By / / Good News For Humankind

New York’s commitment to electrifying all 50,000 of its school buses sets a new standard for what statewide climate and children’s health policy can look like together. More than two million students — disproportionately from low-income communities — currently ride to school in diesel buses linked to asthma, reduced lung development, and cognitive harm. At least $500 million in state funding, paired with federal support, gives districts a real financial path forward. For advocates working to make clean air a guarantee rather than a privilege, this is a proof of concept other states can follow.

Beijing traffic lights at dusk, for article on EV health impact

China’s EV revolution prevented more than 250,000 air-pollution deaths by 2023

By / / Good News For Humankind

China’s electric vehicle boom is saving lives right now — not in projections, but in the air people are actually breathing. A peer-reviewed study in Nature Health found that EV adoption cut fine particulate matter by nearly 24% across 150 Chinese cities, with researchers estimating 262,000 premature deaths already prevented by 2023. A parallel study from California found measurable air quality gains there too, suggesting this is a repeatable pattern. The evidence is growing that electrifying transportation may be one of the fastest tools humanity has for reducing preventable death at scale.