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.

Wind turbine, for article on offshore wind turbine

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.

CalTech Space Solar array, for article on space solar power

World-first space solar demonstration beams power from orbit to Earth

By / / Good News For Humankind

Space-based solar power just crossed from theory into reality: a Caltech team has, for the first time, beamed energy from orbit down to a receiver on Earth. The signal arrived at a rooftop in Pasadena exactly when, where, and at the frequency engineers predicted — proof that the precision needed for a future full-scale array is achievable. The demonstrator weighed just 50 kilograms and used flexible, lightweight arrays never before flown for this purpose. The eventual vision is enormous and far from cheap, but the appeal is simple: panels in space see no night and no clouds. If this technology matures, clean power could one day reach communities far beyond the grid’s reach.

Inside a steel plant, for article on New Zealand emissions reduction

New Zealand announces $140m project to transition its major steel plant from coal to renewable energy

By / / Good News For Humankind

New Zealand is putting $140 million toward swapping out the coal furnaces at its largest steel plant — a single project that will shrink the country’s total emissions by a full 1%. The Glenbrook plant currently burns coal to turn iron-rich sands into steel, but a new electric arc furnace will melt recycled scrap instead, drawing power from a grid already running on roughly 80% renewables. By 2027, the switch is expected to cut 800,000 tonnes of carbon a year — more than every other government-funded emissions project combined. Heavy industry has long been called the hardest sector to decarbonize, and this is exactly the kind of proof-of-concept the rest of the world needs.

Coal mining, for article on India coal plant pause

India pauses plans to add new coal plants for at least five years

By / / Good News For Humankind

India just hit pause on new coal. The country’s Ministry of Power won’t consider new coal-fired power plant proposals for at least five years, opening the door for renewables to take on more of the load. India already ranks fourth globally for installed wind and solar capacity, and the updated plan aims to push non-fossil sources to 57% of the energy mix by 2027. To handle the swings of sun and wind, planners are pairing the buildout with 51.5GW of battery storage by 2030. For the world’s third-largest emitter, a pause like this is more than a planning tweak — it’s a signal that the future of electricity for 1.4 billion people is being written in renewables.