Interesting Ideas

Thinktank says decoupling electricity from gas prices has also helped shield Spain from hikes caused by Iran war

Spanish households save €10 a month on electricity bills because of wind turbines and solar panels installed in the last five years, a report has found.

Typical energy bills would be 19% more expensive if electricity costs were still as tightly coupled to gas prices as in 2021, according to Ember, a climate thinktank. It found Spain’s “strategic” expansion of renewables since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 has shielded Spanish households from the latest rises in fossil fuel prices caused by the Iran war.

BMW Group has reached a big milestone globally. The company has produced its 2 millionth fully electric vehicle. The 2 millionth EV was a BMW i5 M60 xDrive sedan in Tansanit Blue assembled at Plant Dingolfing that went to a customer in Spain. The Dingolfing factory began producing BMW electric ... [continued]

The post BMW Reaches 2 Million Electric Vehicles, Focusing More & More On Smart Home Technology appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Tesla Cybercab specs have been revealed via an EPA filing. It’s a 15-page document, but here are some of the key facts and figures: Battery Capacity: 326-volt system, 146 Ah — probably around 50 kWh energy storage capacity Electric Motor: 163 kW (219 hp), front-mounted AC permanent magnet motor Curb ... [continued]

The post Tesla Cybercab Specs Are Public — But Questions Remain appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Almost every child, including those from high-income countries, is now exposed to at least one hazard

Half of the world’s children are exposed to at least three overlapping climate hazards threatening their health, education and survival, according to a Unicef report.

Globally, children face increasing threats from heatwaves, storms, floods and droughts as the climate crisis worsens, with more than one billion facing at least three of these at once.

A year ago, on this very site, we reported that all our previous EV sales articles for Mexico were wrong, and that we had been underestimating numbers for as long as we had been reporting on them. That was the last report on Mexican sales we did, and the matter ... [continued]

The post How Mexico Lost Track Of Its EV Revolution, And Why Only A Small Team Is Keeping Up With It appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The short-tailed roundleaf bat was feared extinct until scientist Iroro Tanshi found one in Afi sanctuary in Nigeria, and set out to protect the only confirmed roosting colony

Just after sunrise, a cacophony of whoops and chatter can be heard over the verdant forests of the Afi mountain wildlife sanctuary. Nestled within the Cross River rainforest in south-east Nigeria, and spanning an area about the size of central Paris, the steep sanctuary is a haven for endangered gorillas, drill monkeys, the grey-necked rockfowl – and the short-tailed roundleaf bat.

The Nigerian biologist Iroro Tanshi remembers the moment she first spotted the endangered bat in 2016, during a field expedition for her PhD research. “We were trapping near a roost that night, so we caught a lot of bats,” says Tanshi. But, she adds: “This looked very, very different. Big-eared.” She promptly turned to her identification guide, which revealed that the tiny furry creature she was holding between her fingers was Hipposideros curtus, better known as the short-tailed roundleaf bat, last recorded in the wild in the 1970s.

We’ve written for years about how much solar power potential countries have, how much onshore and offshore wind power potential countries have, and how much solar power growth is occurring in countries around the world — but what about offshore solar power potential? That was never really part of the ... [continued]

The post Spain Could Have Nearly 7 Gigawatts of Offshore Solar Power appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Residents of West Oakland, which suffers from toxic waste and high pollution rates, rally against a coal export facility

West Oakland, a California neighborhood known for its rich history of Black activism from the Pullman Porters’ union to the Black Panthers, might not seem like the site of the country’s next great coal project.

But that’s exactly what the Trump administration is pushing for – with the injection of $75m to build a sprawling coal export terminal in the nearby port of Oakland.

Washington, D.C. — The Trump administration has voluntarily dismissed its own appeal in a lawsuit challenging Donald Trump’s executive order banning wind project development in the United States. This effectively ends the unlawful, sweeping ban on wind power. Attorneys General from 17 states and Washington, D.C. challenged this executive order ... [continued]

The post Donald Trump Retreats from Lawsuit Challenging Illegal Wind Ban 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.”

Approval Comes with No Cost Caps Despite Ballooning Price Estimates COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Public Service Commission (PSC) finalized its May 15th approval of the Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Convenience and Necessity for the proposed Canadys Gas Plant last Friday. The final order fails to put a cap on the total ... [continued]

The post South Carolina PSC Finalizes Canadys Gas Plant Approval appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Wharfedale, Yorkshire: On the trail of a wood warbler, I find a suite of woodland plants rising up from a fascinating land formation – limestone pavement

Grass Wood is a magnificent fragment of ancient woodland owned and exceptionally well managed by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. It is home to some lovely plants, including lily of the valley and herb paris. What became my defining revelation about the place and, in truth, about this whole area was down to a wood warbler.

It is among my favourite birds, so getting to see the individual singing just off the trail required me to enter the trees, rise up a short bank, and then sit for a long time on a rocky ledge. Slowly it dawned on me that the platform on which I rested, while carpeted in moss, was also incised into a tessellated pattern. From these narrow cracks in the limestone arose a suite of woodland plants. It was dense with ash seedlings, ferns and sedges, as well as linear thickets of dog’s mercury, but there – unmistakably where my hand rested – were strips of flowering herb paris.

As a result of the US and Israel war against Iran, Iran blocked the Strait of Hormuz and much of the world’s oil couldn’t get to market. Countries have been relying on oil reserves for weeks, and there have been strong warnings that if the Strait of Hormuz blockage isn’t ... [continued]

The post Renault EV Demand Grew 50% in Some Markets from Iran War appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Tech is helping to identify and save new specimens and could open ‘genomic goldmine’ of fungi data

The rise of AI and digitisation could be a turning point in the “race against extinction” faced by botanists trying to identify and save vital plants before they vanish, according to a major report from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

New technology is enabling scientists to track how flowering times have shifted by weeks around the world, rapidly identify new specimens and even get crucial genetic data from 180-year-old fungus specimens, potentially opening a “genomic goldmine”. Digitisation and online access to millions of specimens that were until now only accessible in archives is also producing new insights, especially in the global south.

Amid fears the wreck will be more accessible to explorers – and new species – as the climate warms, conservationists want to create the region’s first underwater protected area

The harsh temperatures, treacherous currents and shifting pack ice of the Antarctic’s Weddell Sea, which crushed and sank his ship, Endurance, in 1915, led Ernest Shackleton to describe it as the “worst portion of the worst sea in the world”.

For more than a century, the inhospitable conditions, which present a challenge even for modern icebreaker ships, helped to protect the lost wreck, which was discovered in 2022, its structure still largely intact.

Singularity Fuels in California has completed a six month trial of its system that converts bio-methane to sustainable aviation fuel.

The post Circularity Cuts Cost Of Making Sustainable Aviation Fuel From Bio-Methane appeared first on CleanTechnica.

First of all, compared to taxis and app-based ride-hailing vehicles (Uber and Lyft vehicles), robotaxis may end up competing very well and driving those human-driven options out of the market. However, there’s a huge difference between that limited market and the normal passenger car market. Many robotaxi enthusiasts expect robotaxis ... [continued]

The post Why Robotaxis Will Struggle To Compete appeared first on CleanTechnica.

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.

Charging industry and electric vehicle manufacturers say measure could cost jobs and harm UK automotive sector

The UK government’s plans to further weaken electric car targets have provoked a furious backlash from the charging industry and the electric car brand Polestar, which would lose out from the changes.

The government is expected to dilute rules known as the zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate. Government sources have said it will reduce a target for pure electric cars from 80% of all sales by 2030 to 50%.

If you have been following the growth of US public EV charging infrastructure, you know there has been steady expansion this last year or eighteen months. In fact, there have been dozens or more announcements about federal funding reaching some US states, but not all, for the continued installation of ... [continued]

The post Over 250,000 Public EV Chargers Operating In US Now appeared first on CleanTechnica.