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.

Crowded street traffic jam in Bangladesh with buses, rickshaws, and pedestrians

Bangladesh to begin producing lithium batteries and electric vehicles to cut emissions

By / / Good News For Humankind

Bangladesh’s push to manufacture lithium-ion batteries domestically is a meaningful step toward owning its clean energy future, not just participating in it. The new battery plant is designed to supply the core component for local electric vehicle assembly — a deliberate strategy to build an entire EV industry from the inside out. The real caveat: with fossil fuels dominating Bangladesh’s electricity grid, switching to EVs risks shifting emissions upstream rather than eliminating them. Still, research shows that EVs get cleaner automatically as grids improve — making early investment a bet worth placing.

Offshore wind farm

World’s new largest offshore wind farm opens in Norway

By / / Good News For Humankind

Floating offshore wind just powered an oil rig for the first time — Norway’s Hywind Tampen now supplies roughly 35% of the annual electricity for five North Sea platforms, cutting around 200,000 tons of CO2 emissions each year. Its 11 turbines float in deep water where fixed-bottom towers can’t reach, and the cost per megawatt came in about 35% lower than its 2017 predecessor, Hywind Scotland. Norwegian suppliers won 60% of the contracts, turning decades of offshore oil expertise into a new green industry at home. The deeper hope: floating wind could eventually unlock more than 80% of the world’s offshore wind potential — energy reserves that were, until recently, simply out of reach.

Houses with solar panels

U.K. achieves record numbers of heat pump and solar panel installations in first half of 2023

By / / Good News For Humankind

UK clean home energy hit a record-breaking stretch in the first half of 2023, with rooftop solar installations climbing 62 percent compared to the same months a year earlier. That works out to roughly 17,000 households each month deciding to put panels on their roofs — a pace that suggests solar has crossed from premium choice to practical one. Heat pumps are gaining ground too, with nearly 18,000 installed alongside government schemes easing upfront costs. Together, the country’s small-scale renewables now hold four gigawatts of capacity, more than Europe’s largest gas plant produces. It’s a quietly powerful reminder that the energy transition isn’t only built in boardrooms — it’s built one rooftop, one home, one decision at a time.

New Delhi buses

India has reduced its emissions rate by 33% over 14 years

By / / Good News For Humankind

India’s emissions intensity dropped 33% between 2005 and 2019, meaning the country now produces far less greenhouse gas for every dollar of economic output. Even better, the pace is picking up: annual reductions doubled to 3% per year in the most recent stretch measured, the fastest on record. That’s happening while the economy keeps growing, driven by a rapid build-out of solar and wind, expanding forest cover, and fresh investment in green hydrogen. For a country of 1.4 billion people, breaking the old link between prosperity and pollution is exactly the kind of shift the world needs to see — proof that climate progress and development can move together, not in opposition.

Melbourne skyline in the distance

Australian state of Victoria bans natural gas in new homes

By / / Good News For Humankind

Victoria’s gas ban on new homes is a meaningful shift in how Australia’s most gas-dependent state builds for the future — locking cleaner, cheaper energy into every new home from the foundation up. Around 80 percent of Victorian households currently run on gas, and doctors have long warned that gas appliances raise asthma risk in children and carry carbon monoxide dangers. All-electric new homes are projected to save owners roughly $1,000 a year, rising to $2,200 with solar. The harder challenge remains retrofitting existing homes, where lower-income households could be left behind without targeted support.

Close-up of a white wind turbine against a vivid teal sky, symbolizing renewable energy growth

World’s largest wind turbine is now fully operational and connected off coast of China

By / / Good News For Humankind

A single wind turbine off China’s Fujian coast can now power roughly 36,000 homes — and it’s the largest ever connected to a grid. The MySE 16-260 stretches 260 meters across, wider than the Eiffel Tower is tall, with each rotation generating up to 34.2 kilowatt-hours of clean electricity. It’s built to withstand winds of 287 km/h, which matters in a stretch of sea where near-gale conditions blow more than 200 days a year. An 18-megawatt machine is already in the works, hinting at how fast this ceiling keeps rising. Each leap in turbine size makes offshore wind cheaper and more credible as a backbone of the clean energy transition worldwide.