Interesting Ideas

Rebalance Earth is investing in Broughton Sanctuary to generate financial, environmental and social returns

From a high point on the hill, the North Yorkshire landscape unrolls below. The moorland above gives way to grassland, trees and then pasture, divided by the region’s traditional dry stone walls.

The view may be idyllic, but it belies the condition of parts of this land, belonging to the sprawling 1,100 hectare (2,500-acre) Broughton Sanctuary estate, near Skipton.

The idea of putting solar panels on vehicles has been around for decades. I can’t say how many companies I’ve seen come and go that planned to produce and sell solar-powered cars. It’s just not the safest and most efficient place to deploy solar panels. However, I’ve never really seen ... [continued]

The post Fraunhofer Wants Solar Cells On Vehicles — To Help The Grid appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Exclusive: Fighting Dirty taking legal action against government over proposal it says could import weaker standards

An environmental campaign group is taking legal action against the government over proposals that it claims could fast-track chemical hazard classifications from other countries with lower standards into UK law.

Fighting Dirty claims proposals to change the classification and labelling of potentially hazardous chemicals could result in the UK weakening standards on cancer-causing substances.

Ingmar Rentzhog of We Don't Have Time wrote recently that investors have already begun the transition to clean energy.

The post Clean Energy Investments Surge, But That Is Only Part Of The Story appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Photosynthesis does not always result in wood growth, a key factor in carbon dioxide sequestration

Trees may not be able to store as much planet-heating carbon as hoped, a study suggests, with researchers finding photosynthesis does not always lead to wood growth.

Scientists studied 137 sites across the US and found trees stopped growing months before the point in the year at which photosynthesis stopped.

ICE model sales crash 39% in May High gas prices and a never ending wave of new models has allowed May to reach record EV market share, with plugins reaching a record 63%! However, while record market share was achieved in the past thanks to strong EV sales, this time, ... [continued]

The post The Big ICE Meltdown — May’s China EV Sales Report appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Tesla has gotten “Full Self Driving (Supervised)” approved in another European country. Following the Netherlands, Lithuania, Estonia, and Denmark, the driver-assist system is now allowed to be deployed in Belgium. Well, Tesla still has to pass some tests with it, and then it can be rolled out to customers, but ... [continued]

The post Tesla’s Level 2++ Supervised Full Self-Driving Approved In Belgium appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Wolsingham, Weardale: These stunning butterflies are here in incredible numbers this year, yet what’s most remarkable is their multigenerational migration

There’s a painted lady basking on the footpath. Her orange, black-tipped, white-spotted wings, a little worn after her long journey, blend with shadows and sun-flecks on heatwave-baked mud, so she’s almost under our feet before she takes flight. And here’s another, nectaring on a dandelion; and another; then several more. I can’t recall ever seeing so many so early in the year.

Waiting for the arrival of these migrant butterflies is akin to anticipating the first swallow. Tantalising mid-April sightings from Wales and Cumbria were reported on social media, but we waited until mid-May before finding our first in Weardale.

More than 20,000 votes cast in Butterfly Conservation’s poll of 60 native species to find nation’s favourite for first time

The votes are in on Britain’s favourite butterfly, and it is one of the most ubiquitous yet spectacular backyard beauties that has flown to victory.

With its lavender, yellow and maroon eye spots and luscious rusty red and black colouration, the peacock butterfly is both beautiful and commonplace, flying throughout spring, summer and autumn in all corners of the British Isles.

The energy-efficient desalination system produces fresh water without chemical additives and transforms leftover salts into useful materials. Big takeaways A new desalination method produces drinking water from seawater without chemical additives. The solar-powered system uses specially engineered black metal to absorb sunlight. Its self-cleaning surface separates and collects salts, instead of dumping them as harmful ... [continued]

The post New Method Turns Ocean Water Into Drinking Water, Without Waste appeared first on CleanTechnica.

While the US is languishing thanks to permitting hell, the UK is looking to speed up its clean energy transition with faster grid connections for solar, wind, and battery projects. “Britain has offered grid connections to more than 700 projects, the country’s power planning ​body said on Wednesday, under a ... [continued]

The post UK Sprints Forward With Grid Connections For 700 Clean Energy Projects appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Activists argue business model is ‘plantation tourism’ designed to benefit elite and disadvantage most Jamaicans

• Campaigners go to court to fight privatisation of Jamaican coast

Devon Taylor remembers when the Mammee Bay shoreline in St Ann, Jamaica, was filled with children frolicking in the ocean after school, fishers haggling with locals over the price of their daily catch and craft vendors carving souvenirs under almond trees.

“I grew up on Mammee Bay,” Taylor says. He recalls fetching seawater in bottles for his grandmother when she was no longer able to go to the beach, learning to swim in the shallows, and watching generations of fishers cast their nets. “That beach raised us. It fed us.”

I lived through almost 7 years of numerous releases of Tesla’s Full Self Driving (FSD) as it progressed in my 2019 Model 3 using “Hardware 3” (HW3), finally reaching FSD V12. Elon Musk promised every year that all of us Tesla owners with HW3 would see Level 4 self-driving in ... [continued]

The post Observations After Two Weeks with Tesla Hardware 4 & Full Self Driving V14 in My 2026 Tesla Model Y appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Aviation is one of the harder transition sectors to model well because it invites two bad shortcuts. One is to assume that flying keeps growing as it did in the cheap-kerosene era, with a cleaner molecule somehow dropped into the same demand curve. The other is to assume that decarbonization ... [continued]

The post Aviation Fuel Demand Doesn’t Collapse. Cheap Kerosene Growth Does. appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The Denza Z was the big news this week  from the 408th monthly MIIT regulatory filings. The sports car has a 500 kW motor on the front axle and two 340 kW motors on the rear axle for a total of 1180 kW (1582 horsepower). 0-100 km/h has previously been ... [continued]

The post Is BYD Making A Better “Ferrari” Than Ferrari? appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Exclusive A vast area of the Bellingshausen Sea should be covered by sea ice by now, with one expert calling the loss of ice ‘depressing’

Antarctica’s west coast is missing an area of winter sea ice the size of France, sparking concerns for threatened penguins other marine life and global sea levels.

One expert said the loss of ice in the Bellingshausen Sea was “depressing” and the failure of ice to form could have intensified a heatwave over the continent’s peninsula last week that saw daytime temperatures peak at 15.4C which is more than 20C above average.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) is no stranger to solar power records, and it’s just set another one. Via its own III-V germanium solar PV module, the institute reached 34.4 percent solar module efficiency. The solar record march goes on. “The solar cells were developed by AZUR ... [continued]

The post Most Efficient Solar Module in the World — New Record appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Appearance of a western reef heron in north Wales is unlikely to be the last, as heating temperatures mean species can survive Britain’s winter, say experts

It is a tropical bird typically encountered between west Africa and India, but last week a western reef heron arrived in north Wales in what is believed to be the first ever sighting in the UK.

The heron was first spotted in Foryd Bay at the weekend before flying to nearby Caernarfon harbour where it fed among the boats.

Imperial College scientists analysed health records before and after introduction of air pollution reduction zones

Low emission and clean air zones attract controversy whenever they are proposed, but there is growing evidence that they work in improving air quality. The Bradford zone was followed by a reduction of about 25% in GP visits for heart and breathing problems and survey data shows that the central London zone was followed by a reduction in the likelihood of a person taking sick leave.

Now analysis of health records has found emergency admissions to hospital reduced after the introduction of the T-charge and ultra-low emissions zone (Ulez) in central London.

It could top 90F in several cities hosting World Cup games – and workers could pay the price with their health

As the World Cup kicks off, labor advocates and scholars warn that the workers making the tournament possible could face serious heat-related risks.

“It’s going to be extremely hot, and you just cannot leave people unprotected or you’re going to deal with a lot of injuries,” said Jonathan Alingu, co-executive director of Central Florida Jobs With Justice, which has been calling for worker protections at the Miami games. “Or, God forbid, something even worse.”