Interesting Ideas

In Poland, 80,000 people still work in coalmines – the last in the European Union that is fully committed to the energy transition. Once active mines are being converted to other uses, and yet coal is being extracted at record rates worldwide, and with the Iran war pushing up oil and gas prices, some in Poland are asking whether it is worth completely phasing out this fossil fuel

Coal dust is fine; it seeps into the pores of the skin. That is why a thin black line permanently traces the outline of Rafal Dzuman’s eyes, as if he were wearing makeup. Team leader of the G-2 mining crew, 49-year-old Rafal Dzuman has been descending every day to 700 metres below ground for at least 20 years, at the Murcki-Staszic coalmine in southern Poland. Opened in the mid-17th century and today owned by the Polish giant PGG, the mine sits on the southern outskirts of Katowice, and still extracts about 23,000 tonnes of coal a day.

Katowice, Poland: Miners exit the lift after working in the coal-mining tunnels at the Murcki-Staszic Mine (PGG Group), located on the southern outskirts of the city. Coal mining began here in 1657; today, the mine’s daily production stands at about 23,000 tonnes

Research casts doubt on plans by UK government to offer subsidies for carbon capture attached to the power source

Burning wood for power generation can be worse for the climate than burning gas, even when the resulting carbon dioxide emissions are captured and stored, new research has shown.

The findings cast doubt on plans by several governments, including the UK, to offer subsidies or other financial support for carbon capture attached to wood-burning power.

For a few months now I have quoting a claim that 70% of ferries on order had batteries, based on reading the stat in what I considered a reliable site. After digging deeper into the orderbook and the denominator, I do not think that figure stands up, but the actual ... [continued]

The post Mea Culpa: Correcting The Ferry Battery Orderbook Still Leaves A Strong Electrification Story appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Amber Kinetics crossing my screen today was a reminder that electricity markets are littered with technologies that never quite die. Flywheels are one of those ideas. They are mechanically elegant, grounded in physics everyone understands, and they solve a real problem in principle. Store energy in a spinning mass, pull ... [continued]

The post From Beacon to Amber, Flywheels Missed the Grid appeared first on CleanTechnica.

I am about to board a flight to Guangzhou. I will get to see the latest in “Physical AI” from XPENG, including their ARIDGE flying car, IRON humanoid robot, VLA 2.0 intelligent driving system, and new EV models, like the GX. After a couple of days, I continue on to ... [continued]

The post Headed to China: Is There Anything That You Would Like Me to Explore? appeared first on CleanTechnica.

As the rising number of vessels in the icy waters increases the risk of environmental disaster, scientists are scrambling to find potential solutions

Last winter, inside the subarctic Churchill Marine Observatory in Canada, scientists embarked on an experiment they hoped would result in a gamechanging remedy for polluted Arctic waters. They released130 litres of diesel into an ice-covered pool filled with raw seawater pumped in from Hudson Bayand added oil-eating microbes. The technique had been used successfully during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and the scientists wanted to see if they could break down oil in colder waters.

The microbes were sluggish in response and the population showed little change after the first three weeks, says Eric Collins, a microbiologist at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, who led the project. But that did not last. “When we went back eight weeks later, we saw that there was a big change,” Collins says. “One particular bacterium grew to a very high abundance in the tanks and it was clear that it was feeding on the oil.” But two months is too long to wait should an oil spill occur. Time is of the essence.

Vattenfall, Energy Bank, and Volkswagen are collaborating on a new bidirectional EV charger project in Sweden. Vattenfall is Sweden’s state-owned power company.  Two hundred bidirectional EV chargers will be installed in the country — these chargers can transmit electricity to electric vehicles and from electric vehicles back to the grid. ... [continued]

The post 200 Bidirectional EV Chargers To Be Used In Trial appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Zoological Society of London commissions poet laureate for animation to mark its 200th anniversary

Over its two centuries, acclaimed writers and artists have found inspiration at London zoo, from Edwin Landseer’s Trafalgar Square lions, to AA Milne’s naming “Winnie” after resident bear Winnipeg, and Sylvia Plath’s poem Zoo Keeper’s Wife.

Plath’s husband, Ted Hughes, who would become poet laureate, worked at the zoo briefly as a dish washer, an experience said to have helped fuel his inspiration for The Thought-Fox.

Conservationists in Denbighshire ‘angry and heartbroken’ after Nant-y-Ffrith site emptied during breeding season

More than 1,000 toads may have died after a reservoir important to the local ecosystem was drained by a water company, conservationists in north Wales have said.

Volunteers at Wrexham Toad Patrols help toads returning to the Nant-y-Ffrith reservoir on the Llandegla moors in breeding season, this year assisting 1,500 of the amphibians to cross busy roads to help protect the declining species.

Sarah Finch is among six recipients of the Goldman Environmental prize, awarded to honour grassroots activists around the world

The woman whose campaigning set a legal precedent in the UK that stopped thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions has been awarded one of the world’s most prestigious environmental prizes alongside five other women from around the globe.

A supreme court ruling in a case brought by Sarah Finch has been cited in decisions against new oil concessions in the North Sea, the UK’s first new deep coalmine for 30 years and even plans for new large-scale factory farms.

Iroro Tanshi, a Nigerian conservation ecologist who launched a successful, community-led campaign to protect endangered bats from human induced wildfires;

Borim Kim, a South Korean activist who won the continent’s first successful youth-led climate litigation, finding her government’s climate policy to be in violation of the rights of future generations;

Alannah Acaq Hurley, a leader of the Yup’ik Indigenous people led a campaign that stopped what would have been the continent’s largest open-pit mine, in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region;

Yuvelis Morales Blanco, a youth activist who mobilised others in her Afro-descendant community in Puerto Wilches against two drilling projects, preventing the introduction of commercial fracking into Colombia;

Theonila Roka Matbob, of Papua New Guinea, whose campaign forced Rio Tinto, the world’s second-largest mining company, to sign an agreement to address devastation caused by its Panguna mine.

Speed is a distraction. The real battle in electric racing happens where no camera can follow — inside the algorithms, the thermal curves, and the split-second decisions that determine whether a championship is won or lost before the car even crosses the finish line. The ABB FIA Formula E World ... [continued]

The post The Race Nobody Sees: Formula E’s Madrid Round Is a War of Invisible Margins appeared first on CleanTechnica.

After deadly 2023 fires, recent storms and ICE raids, Lahaina residents are determined to rebuild the town for their community

In March, Hawaii was hit with two back-to-back storms, bringing the worst flooding it’s seen in 20 years. In Lahaina, Maui, muddy flood waters turned streets into rivers and carved new paths through the barren landscape, breaking open roads and flooding houses. In their wake, sinkholes appeared, engulfing cars.

This is nearly three years after the deadliest wildfires in US history ravaged Lahaina, destroying more than 2,000 structures and killing more than 100 people. Hundreds of affected households are still in temporary housing. Poverty, unemployment and housing instability, rife before the fires, have only worsened.

Quilt claims that its heat pump system is the “most intuitive, advanced, and efficient ductless heat pump on the market.” One wonderful aspect of the system is it allows room-by-room control. “Quilt’s indoor unit, outdoor unit, Dial and app work together to deliver the world’s smartest home climate solution,” the ... [continued]

The post Heating & Cooling Your Home Smarter with Quilt — Experience It At Hawaii Electric Home Show appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Rinnai America Corporation (aka Rinnai) is one of the USA’s top energy‑efficient tankless water heaters. The company recently got more recognition of that when its REHP Series Electric Heat Pump Water Heater won a 2026 Green GOOD DESIGN™ Award. Rinnai will be at our upcoming Electric Home Show in Honolulu, ... [continued]

The post Rinnai Electric Heat Pump Wins 2026 Green GOOD DESIGN™ Award, At Hawaii Electric Home Show Next Week appeared first on CleanTechnica.

MG Philippines used the 2026 Manila International Auto Show to move beyond the image of a value-oriented brand, pivoting instead toward a tech-heavy future. While the floor was filled with high-gloss displays, the real story for those looking at the long game was how the vehicles on stage—specifically the new ... [continued]

The post How MG’s MIAS 2026 Lineup Previews A Global Tech Overhaul appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The planning minister will shortly decide whether to approve a Sydney aged care development on a site at risk of serious flooding

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An aged care development in Sydney’s inner west is looming as a key test of the New South Wales government’s plans to rapidly boost the housing supply.

The proposal for seniors housing at Junction Street in Forest Lodge, including a 12-bed aged care facility and 71 independent living units, is being assessed under the state significant development pathway after closing to public submissions in October last year.

Data shows 224,000 new EVs were registered in March, with Norway leading way in terms of switching

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Sales of electric cars soared 51% in continental Europe last month, amid a rise in petrol and diesel costs driven by the Iran war.

Data shows that 224,000 new electric vehicles (EVs) were registered in March, and 500,000 across the first three months of the year – a 33.5% increase on a year earlier, according to analysis of national sales data in 15 countries by New AutoMotive and E-Mobility Europe, a trade body.

The answer is: No. Next question. Okay, fine. Let’s do this properly. Somewhere in a government conference room — air conditioning on full blast, bottled water for every seat, a PowerPoint deck that took three consultants and two months to produce — somebody connected these two dots and felt brilliant ... [continued]

The post Will Banning Social Media for Minors Actually Help Reduce Carbon Emissions? appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Seville could see 34C this week and parts of Brazil could hit high 30s, while storms forecast in southern Africa

Over the course of this week, temperatures in Spain are expected to soar well above the seasonal average. Daytime temperatures could reach about 30C in Madrid on Tuesday, 10C above the norm, while Seville may experience 34C, about 9C above its late April average. An area of low pressure situated out in the Atlantic will allow for a south-westerly flow, introducing warm air from north Africa. In addition to this heat, a notable dust plume is expected to travel northwards from the Sahara, covering the skies above Iberia and south-western France, which may lead to some particularly orange or red skies at sunrise and sunset.

In Brazil, high temperatures are forecast for the states of São Paulo, Paraná, Mato Grosso do Sul and Santa Catarina over the next few days, eventually spreading into Minas Gerais. Here, daytime maximum temperatures are expected to reach the high 30s celsius later in the week, about 5-10C above the seasonal average.

Pure, clean water — it’s one of the absolute true essentials in the world. Unfortunately, it’s also not easy for many people to get. Furthermore, we’e got new problems even in the richest nations and communities in the world. We’ve got microplastics leaching into everything, including people’s water. How many ... [continued]

The post FloWater — Purified Water, No Plastic appeared first on CleanTechnica.