Egypt to build world’s first climate-positive, net-zero city
The new city, Nexgen, to be located east of Cairo, will produce more food and energy than it consumes.
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.
Washington state takes strongest clean commercial building action in the U.S.
Under the new code that will take effect in July 2023, new commercial buildings will be built with high-efficiency electric heat pumps for water and space heating.
‘Radical’ solar technology breakthrough allows energy to be stored for up to 18 years
Solar energy that lasts 18 years in a bottle? Researchers at Sweden’s Chalmers University have built a molecule that absorbs sunlight, holds it as a liquid, and releases it as electricity only when a catalyst says go. To prove it works, they charged the liquid with Swedish sun, shipped it to a partner lab in China, and three months later powered a tiny chip — just 800 nanometers thin — that turned the stored sunlight into electricity. Output is still small, but the concept is validated. If it scales, it points toward a future where clean energy isn’t tethered to grids or mining-heavy batteries, but travels quietly in a jar to wherever people need it.
Stanford University researchers invent groundbreaking solar panels that work at night
The setup is inexpensive and, in principle, could be incorporated within existing solar cells. It is also simple, so construction in remote locations with limited resources is feasible.
Portugal’s floating solar energy auction sets world record negative price
Portugal’s floating solar auction just made history with a negative price: one winning bidder agreed to pay the grid 4.13 euros per megawatt hour for the right to generate clean electricity over 15 years. EDP Renováveis pulled this off by bundling 70 megawatts of floating panels on Western Europe’s largest artificial lake with wind power and battery storage, letting the profitable pieces carry the solar contract. The environment ministry estimates the auction will deliver 114 million euros in savings for Portuguese electricity consumers. It’s a striking signal of how far renewable economics have come — and a glimpse of what’s possible when countries get creative about stitching clean energy technologies together.
Wind and solar generated a record 10% of the world’s power in 2021
Wind and solar power together generated 10.3% of the world’s electricity in 2021, crossing double digits for the first time in history. That’s a remarkable leap considering these two sources were barely a blip on the global grid just twenty years ago. Fifty countries now pull more than 10% of their power from wind and sun, with Denmark leading the pack at 52%. Even China, the world’s largest electricity market, quietly joined the 10% club that same year. The milestone matters because it shows the clean energy transition isn’t a far-off hope but a measurable, accelerating shift — one that, if its current pace holds, could keep the power sector aligned with the 1.5°C climate goal.
General Electric produces its first 100% recyclable wind turbine that can be reconstructed as it ages
Recyclable wind turbine blades just moved from concept to reality: a French-led consortium has built a 62-meter prototype in Ponferrada, Spain, designed to be fully broken down and reused at the end of its life. The secret is a thermoplastic resin called Elium, which can be chemically separated from its glass fibers so both materials return to the manufacturing stream as good as new. Engineers will now put the blade through structural lifetime testing in Denmark, with the recycling process itself validated soon after. If the approach proves commercially viable, it could close one of renewable energy’s most persistent loops — turning the blades that power our clean-energy future from a looming waste problem into a genuine circular success story.
Sion solar electric car begins pre-production validation and certification
German startup Sono Motors has announced that 37 prototypes are being produced to take its solar EV family through validation and certification, ahead of planned production in 2023.
E.U. looks to cut reliance on Russian gas with new investment in climate-friendly heat pumps
The EU will target programs and policies to accelerate the installation of clean, efficient heat pumps to the tune of 10 million new heat pump installations in the next five years.
Solar projects transform abandoned coal mines in Virginia
The Nature Conservancy hopes to bring clean energy jobs to the overwhelmingly rural and Republican area in Virginia that has lost more than 27,000 people since 2010.