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.

Worker installing solar panels

Solar panel costs have plummeted from $6 to 12 cents per watt since 2000

By / / Good News For Humankind

A single number is quietly reshaping how electricity gets made and sold worldwide: solar panel costs have fallen more than 98% since the early 2000s, driven largely by Chinese manufacturing scale. That collapse has made solar cheap enough for a Pakistani cement plant to cut its power bill by 40%, for Filipino homeowners to pay off rooftop systems in three years, and for over five million Indian households to install panels through a national subsidy program. But the same shift is straining power grids and utility finances, and in places like Karachi, shifting costs onto those who can’t afford solar.

Inside a data center, for article on Massachusetts clean energy data centers

Massachusetts requires data centers over 25MW to run on 100% clean energy

By / / Good News For Humankind

Massachusetts is raising the bar for how AI infrastructure plugs into the power grid — requiring large data centers to bring clean energy with them, not just draw from whatever’s available. New facilities exceeding 25 megawatts must generate clean power, fund new clean capacity nearby, or pay into a ratepayer protection fund, and towns gain effective veto power before state agencies weigh in. The key question is whether compliance payments will be set high enough to drive real clean generation rather than checkbook compliance. Massachusetts is the third state in three months to move this way — a sign more may soon follow.

Plant growing out of coins, representing the green economy, for article on green economy growth

Green economy surpasses $10 trillion, becomes world’s third-largest industry

By / / Good News For Humankind

Clean technology has quietly crossed into the financial mainstream, and the scale of that shift is striking. Green companies now outperform the broader global market, and those earning most of their revenue from environmental products carry profit margins two to four percentage points higher than conventional peers — directly challenging the old assumption that clean business means thinner returns. Much of the momentum is coming from an unexpected place: data centers run by major tech firms drove nearly half of U.S. clean power deals in 2025. Yet canceled projects remain a reminder that permitting and grid access are stubborn obstacles.

Solar panels, for article on China solar capacity

China’s solar capacity overtakes coal as its largest power source ever

By / / Good News For Humankind

Coal has been the backbone of China’s electricity grid for decades. This summer, the East Asian nation crossed a pivotal threshold.

China’s installed solar capacity now stands at 1,286 gigawatts against coal’s 1,285 — a margin of just one gigawatt, according to the National Energy Administration. Solar supplies roughly an eighth of the country’s electricity today; coal still generates most of it. But capacity is what gets built first, and the builders have already chosen: solar and wind made up more than 80% of all new power capacity China added last year.

The generation numbers are starting to follow. Coal-fired output fell nearly 2% in 2025 — the first drop in six years, and possibly the first time on record that coal generation fell while overall demand rose.

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.