Interesting Ideas

Residents of Fleetwood say continuous foul smell from Transwaste site is causing illness and making life hell

In the week that many families went to the coast for the fresh sea air or the tang of fish and chips, visitors to one Lancashire resort inhaled a rather more unpleasant aroma.

“Welcome to Fleetwood,” read the local newspaper headline. “The town that smells of bin juice.”

If you’re looking for an electric bike that’s easy to store, simple to ride, and built for everyday errands or commuting, the GOTRAX eFold is designed with exactly that in mind. It’s not trying to be a high-performance machine or an off-road powerhouse. Instead, it focuses on convenience, portability, and ... [continued]

The post The GOTRAX eFold Electric Bike: Compact, Practical, & Affordable appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Why were US utility prices so high in Q1 2026? Is it a recent phenonemon, or is it a result of long-established trends? You’d think that natural gas itself would be the cause of rising costs, right? You would’ve been correct years ago, but there’s a set of more recent ... [continued]

The post Why Do Cities Continue To Accept Rising Utility Prices? appeared first on CleanTechnica.

From California to Alabama, people of color are building communal spaces rooted in care and tradition

Zappa Montag steps outside his home to a thicket of redwoods, Pacific madrones and oak trees. Dozens of fruit trees dot the 76 hectares (189 acres), along with a large garden replete with squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, beans, corn and peppers. Nearby, a small stream runs through a valley surrounded by hills. At Black to the Land, the ecovillage in Boonville, California, Montag and five other Black people steward the land off the grid, relying on well water and powered solely by solar panels. The intentional community, as it’s called, is located in a rural area 115 miles (185km) north of San Francisco. Montag said it was an effort to “reverse-gentrify the country”.

Black Americans and Indigenous people have long gathered in intentional communities, defined as small groups of people who live in the same area based on shared values and a common vision. They come in many forms, including co-housing spaces in urban environments where people have their own units and share communal spaces.

LinkedIn might not seem like the most obvious website for sharing about new EV chargers, but that is exactly what Love’s Travel Stops did recently. Love’s just launched its three first EV charging stations in Texas at: Natalia, Encinal, and Three Rivers. Each site has four chargers with NACS and ... [continued]

The post 24 New EV Chargers Installed In Texas & Maine appeared first on CleanTechnica.

In a village in Norway, humans representing flora and fauna of all kinds meet to reimagine ‘nature-centric governance’

“My ask of humans is quite large,” says the northern bat to a room of reindeer, wolf lichen, bog, and other beings. “It’s a shift of consciousness, and an understanding that … we are a relation.”

The scene could come from a sci-fi novel imagining a more-than-human uprising. In fact, it’s from a recent “interspecies council” in Oppdal, Norway, in which non-humans – spoken for by humans – convened to discuss the region’s future.

We have another electric vehicle casualty from the Republican/Trump war on clean electric vehicles. I wish we had more positive news on electric cars in the US, but that is not the era we’re in. Since the Trump administration and Republican Party removed US EV incentives, most electric vehicle models ... [continued]

The post Volkswagen ID.4 Production Ending in USA appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Brigg, Lincolnshire: The peas are in and next up are maize and wildflowers, but with our fuel use running to 50,000 litres a year, I have one eye on the news

Spring has sprung, and with warming soils we start planting our more delicate crops such as peas. With the chatter of skylarks in the background, we slowly drill our way across this 15-hectare field using a three-metre precision drill that carefully places the seed. Six weeks ago, this would have cost £7.50 per hectare on fuel, now it’s £15 per hectare – a severe shock to the farm’s finances.

It’s not often that an arable farmer’s mind is so focused on global events, but our fuel use tops 50,000 litres a year and the Middle East conflict is having profound consequences. Thankfully, we’re partly protected. Over the last seven or eight years, we have transitioned to a low-disturbance approach to establishing crops, disturbing the top inch only. This means less tractor use and healthier soil – a big priority here. Fertiliser prices are also a worry. Common practice is to buy a year’s worth every June, but prices are skyrocketing, and there’s no UK production any more to help us out.

JMK Research’s report on India’s fiscal 2026 renewable additions crossed my screen and forced a wider question. If India had just added 44.6 GW of solar in a single fiscal year and reached 150.26 GW of installed solar by March 31, 2026, what did the broader global league table of ... [continued]

The post China Leads, India Surges, America Lags Badly in the Clean Power Buildout appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Neill says ‘one of the most beautiful and remote places in the world’ will be permanently changed if Bendigo-Ophir wins fast-track approval

The grapevines in Sam Neill’s vineyard in Central Otago – a picturesque region known for its undulating hills and wines – are pregnant with pinot noir grapes, almost ripe for picking as autumn arrives.

“My family has been here for over 150 years. I’m connected to this land like nowhere else on earth,” the 78-year-old actor and winemaker says. “It’s perfect for wine. It’s great for tourism. And it’s one of the most beautiful and strange, remote places in the world.”

Norwegian company Boreal has ordered a fleet of electric fast ferries from Candela to replace diesel powered ships.

The post Boreal Orders 20 Candela Electric Ferries For Use In Norway appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Charity advises replacing seed and nut feeders, where birds gather, with small amounts of mealworms, fat balls or suet

Garden birds should not be fed seeds and nuts over the summer months, the RSPB has said, in an attempt to reduce the spread of avian diseases.

Bird lovers are being urged to take down their bird feeders between May and October to help birds such as the greenfinch, whose numbers have plummeted after the spread of trichomonosis, a parasitic disease transmitted more easily when birds cluster around feeders in the warmer months.

Kia is casting a wide net over the European market with its new EV2 compact EV, focusing on the car's luxury-style comforts alongside an energetic appeal to budget-focused car shoppers of all ages (EV 2 screenshot courtesy of Kia).

The post Kia Beats Tesla To The Compact EV Sales Punch — In Europe appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Kia presents its 2030 mid- to long-term strategy, detailing its vehicle- and region-specific exponential growth plans  Targets global sales of 4.13 million units per year by 2030, with a global market share goal of 4.5%; targets sales of 3.35 million units in 2026 Expands EV lineup to 14 models, aiming ... [continued]

The post 2026 Kia CEO Investor Day: Kia to Drive Exponential Growth & Manufacturing Innovation by Expanding Its Full Electrified Vehicle Lineup and Strengthening Future Business Capabilities appeared first on CleanTechnica.

When I looked at Tesla’s latest production and delivery report for the first quarter, I was struck by how many more vehicles were produced than delivered — 408,386 were produced and 358,023 were delivered. That gap of 50,000, or about 14% of the total delivered and 12% of the total ... [continued]

The post Tesla Sitting on Record Inventory appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Ever increasing petrol and diesel prices are fueling a surge in interest in plugin cars. As reported by CleanTechnica here and here. It looks like every second-hand EV has sold and the ones still available have increased in price. But what about the new car market? Data released in the ... [continued]

The post March Sees Record New Plugin Vehicle Sales in Australia appeared first on CleanTechnica.

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

New study describes what may be the first case of a unified community of chimps, in Uganda, turning on itself

On a June day in 2015, primatologist Aaron Sandel was quietly observing a small cluster of the Ngogo chimpanzee group in Uganda’s Kibale national park when he noticed something strange. As other members of the chimpanzees’ wider group moved closer through the forest, the chimpanzees in front of him began to display nervous behaviour. They grimaced and touched each other for reassurance, acting more like they were about to meet strangers than close companions.

In hindsight, Sandel said, that moment was the first sign of what would become a years-long bloody conflict between a once close-knit group of chimps.

Campaigners say birds could die trying to access ancestral nests that were sealed during rail refurbishment

Some swifts returning to Britain to breed will be unable to access their ancestral nesting holes after they were blocked in a £7.5m refurbishment of a Derbyshire railway viaduct, campaigners say.

Nature lovers had appealed to Network Rail to unblock three holes which were among at least nine swift nesting sites on the twin viaducts at Chapel Milton, on the edge of the Peak District.

On Monday, a public inquiry will reopen, nine years after the plan was proposed and a toxic local battle began

When Fidelma O’Kane retired more than a decade ago from her career as a social worker and lecturer, she thought she would be “travelling and having a glass of wine and eating chocolate and reading books” while based in the quiet, hilly corner of rural County Tyrone where she has lived almost all her life.

It didn’t quite work out that way. Instead, an idle remark from a neighbour would set O’Kane on a path that would become an all-consuming mission. A mining company, the neighbour told her, was planning to drill for long-rumoured reserves of gold in the Sperrins, the low peatland mountain range in Northern Ireland where O’Kane’s family has lived for generations.