Interesting Ideas

A new generation of powerful, heat-tolerant robot helpers will enable utility-scale developers to build more solar power plants in the US, more quickly, than ever before.

The post More Solar Power, 2x Faster With Maximo Robots appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The 2.6-gigawatt Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind has survived the Trump chopper and is delivering electricity to the US grid.

The post Trump Fails To Stop CVOW, The Biggest Offshore Wind Farm In The US appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Sixty years after the discovery of a colony of Juan Fernández fur seals, previously thought to be extinct, a landmark agreement extends ‘no take’ zone around the wildlife-rich archipelago

Six decades ago, pioneering oceanographer and conservationist Sylvia Earle made a bittersweet discovery while diving off Chile’s oceanic islands with the US National Science Foundation vessel, the Anton Bruun. She found the remains of a baby fur seal, one of the world’s most isolated aquatic mammals.

Endemic to the Juan Fernández archipelago, in the Pacific Ocean, and once prized for its fur and meat, the species, Arctocephalus philippii, was believed to have been hunted to extinction in the 19th century. But, Earle said: “A baby must have a mum and dad somewhere.”

Pioneering oceanographer and conservationist Sylvia Earle. Photograph: Andy Mann/Blue Marine Foundation

It’s no secret our planet is heating up. And here’s the evidence: we’ve just experienced the 11 hottest years on record, with 2025 being the second or third warmest in global history. The annual State of the Climate report, published today by the World Meteorological Organization, suggests we’re still too reliant ... [continued]

The post The Latest World Climate Report Is Grim, But It’s Not The End Of The Story appeared first on CleanTechnica.

A long-running experiment in Colorado provides an ‘alarming’ view of how rapidly unchecked global heating could transform fragile ecosystems

Every summer, people descend on the wildflower capital of Colorado to see grasslands flush with corn lilies, aspen sunflowers and sub-alpine larkspur. In January 1991, scientists set up a unique experiment in these Rocky Mountain meadows. It was one of the first (and longest running) to work out how the changing climate would affect an ecosystem.

At the time, it was believed a temperature increase could lead to longer, lusher grasses. But instead of flourishing, the grasses and wildflowers started to disappear, replaced by sage brush. The experimental meadows morphed into a desert-like scrubland. Even the fungi in the soils were transformed by heat.

What follows is a draft roadmap for a decarbonized O’ahu. This roadmap does not appear out of nowhere. It follows a long chain of analysis that rebuilt Oʻahu’s energy system piece by piece. Earlier articles stripped away overseas aviation fuel, international maritime bunkering, and military demand to isolate the island’s ... [continued]

The post Oʻahu 2050: A Hard-Charging Roadmap to a Zero-Carbon Energy System appeared first on CleanTechnica.

With the recent outbreak of hostilities in the Persian Gulf, the focus of international attention has returned to one of the world’s most important energy chokepoints: the Strait of Hormuz. Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil passes through this narrow strait. Its closure, alongside U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran’s oil infrastructure — including the ... [continued]

The post The West Has Long Characterized Iran’s Oil As A Prize To Be Claimed appeared first on CleanTechnica.

More than 10,000 Starlink satellites currently orbit the Earth. We see them crawling across dark skies, no matter how remote our location, and streaking through images from research telescopes. SpaceX recently announced that it wants to launch one million more of these satellites as orbital data centres for AI computing power. A few years ago, we wrote a paper ... [continued]

The post A Million New SpaceX Satellites Will Destroy the Night Sky — For Everyone on Earth appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Hove, East Sussex: Loading it up with many different species – oak, elder, hazel, willow and birch – has turned it into a thriving ecosystem

In the garden, the log pile is a whole world. I hear frogs croaking from within it, I watch wrens foraging for insects. It’s a mixture of different species: apple from neighbours who were cutting a tree down, walnut from a pollarded giant at the allotment, hawthorn lost to a storm.

There’s also oak, elder, hazel, willow and birch. I stop tree surgeons and ask if I can take a log or two, replacing the sadness of another felled tree with the hope of the life its dead wood will support. I like taking new logs home for my log pile.

Zoox has hit a milestone moment, by far our largest to date. Today, we are announcing our plans for service expansions across multiple markets, as well as introducing new product and service features. We are gearing up to expand our service in San Francisco and Las Vegas, and to begin ... [continued]

The post Zoox Hits Big Milestone appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The fishery is regulated but experts say it is wrecking the food chain. Gordon Peake joined a Sea Shepherd mission to observe the giant ships compete for catch

It is bitterly cold on the deck of the Allankay and the bosun, Luca Massari, is checking that none of us are wearing contact lenses before we descend into Antarctic waters. There is a risk, he warns, that lenses will freeze solid over the eyes. Massari himself is prepared for his surroundings. He is wearing thick goggles that make him look like an Olympic ski jumper.

Massari is a burly, heavily tattooed veteran of the environmental organisation Sea Shepherd, which campaigns against exploiting the oceans. His deck team are preparing to launch the ship’s small boat, which Massari will helm. Eight of us are bundled in bright red dry suits, helmets and lifejackets; the average time to survive hypothermia in this wind-whipped water is just five minutes.

The Allankay sailed to Coronation Island from New Zealand to document the krill fishing. Photograph: Alice Bacou/Sea Shepherd

US, top carbon emitter in history, has ‘a lot of responsibility’ for causing ‘substantial’ harm globally, scientist says

The US has caused an eye-watering $10tn in global damages to the world over the past three decades through its vast planet-heating emissions, with a quarter of this economic pain inflicted upon itself, new research has found.

By being the largest carbon emitter in history, the US has caused greater harm to worldwide economic growth than any other country, ahead of China, now the world’s largest emitter that is responsible for $9tn in GDP damage since 1990, according to the findings of the paper.

The U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran took a dangerous turn on March 18, 2026, with tit-for-tat strikes on critical energy infrastructure that amount to the most serious regional escalation since the conflict began. First, an Israeli drone strike targeted facilities at Iran’s Asaluyeh complex, damaging four plants that treat gas from the offshore South ... [continued]

The post Targeting of Energy Facilities Turned Iran War into Worst‑Case Scenario for Gulf States appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Waymo’s biggest argument for why it should exist and why it needs to grow is that it protects human life. While you can claim Waymo hasn’t logged enough miles to prove anything, it does have nearly 200 million fully autonomous miles under its belt and the stats so far imply ... [continued]

The post Waymo: 13x Lower Rate of Serious Injury or Fatality appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The report also recommends government do more to make tech companies liable for ‘psychosocial harms’

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Australia’s climate change and energy “information ecosystem” is fuelling conflict in communities, with misinformation and disinformation confusing the public, slowing renewable energy projects and undermining policy responses to the climate crisis, a cross-party Senate inquiry has concluded.

The inquiry’s final report, released on Tuesday evening, recommended the government do more to make tech companies liable for “psychosocial harms” spread on their platforms.

Constituents’ frustration with Richard Tice reflects growing problem for party and its leaders’ climate-sceptic stance

“The worst part of it was the smell,” says Audrey Crook, 58. A full-time carer who lives with her 20-year-old son, Crook woke up at 11pm one night to find a foot of flood water on the ground floor of her home. “It was like black water. It had sewage and everything in it, it was absolutely disgusting.”

Crook’s home – along with more than 30 others on Wyberton West Road and Park Road in Boston, Lincolnshire – was flooded in January last year when heavy rain swept across the region, raising river levels and exceeding flood defences.

GB Energy’s Jürgen Maier says production could bring economic benefits and give supply chains ‘time to transition’ to renewables

The head of the UK’s national green energy champion has joined other high-profile renewable energy leaders in making the case for more North Sea oil and gas production as the government braces for an energy cost crisis.

The GB Energy boss, Jürgen Maier, used a social media post on LinkedIn to reject the claim that more North Sea oil and gas could help to bring down energy costs, which have soared as the war in Iran has escalated.

Small farmers and community-led conservation groups are trying to protect one of the biggest semi-arid forests in the world – under threat from expanding agriculture, wildfires and the ‘logging mafia’

Jorge Luna stands in a piece of Argentina’s Gran Chaco forest that he calls his own. Birds sing as he surveys skyscraping molle trees, known as pepper trees, palo santo and algarrobo, or carob trees. “It’s good wood,” says Luna, 55. “I was about to cut them down.”

Selling timber promises quick and easy money in the sprawling ecosystem that covers parts of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Brazil. But it comes at a steep price, contributing to rampant deforestation and irreversible damage to the forest.

Although homes can have a mix of bulbs for indoor lighting, 90% of U.S. households reported using light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs, according to the most recent results of the Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS). Over one-third of households (37%) used LED bulbs for all indoor lighting. In contrast, 5% of households reported ... [continued]

The post More U.S. Homes Used LEDs Over Other Bulb Types For Indoor Lighting In 2024 appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Regulator for England lacks powers to deal with what the public accounts committee calls an ‘out-of-control plague’

The Environment Agency is too weak to tackle an “out-of-control plague” of waste dumping, a powerful group of MPs has said.

The public accounts committee (PAC) said the EA had gaps in its powers and intelligence gathering which meant it was not set up to deal effectively with the rise in waste dumping.