Interesting Ideas

Six new public EV fast chargers were just installed at a ShopRite store in Paramus, New Jersey. Each of the new chargers can charge at a high rate — up to 350 kW. These are very fast, and much faster than Level 2 chargers which deliver about 30-40 miles per ... [continued]

The post 8 New EV Charging Locations Planned At ShopRite Stores appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Rising energy bills give Reform and Tories opening to attack net zero while government hesitant to make case for clean energy

Could net zero become “the next Brexit”? That is the fear stalking climate advocates as the oil crisis caused by the war on Iran starts to bite.

A powerful coalition of the well-funded Reform party, led by Nigel Farage, the Conservative party, some business interests, and the UK’s right-wing media, are engaged in an onslaught against the longstanding target of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Firm’s sales up 54% this month and Good Energy reports doubling of interest in solar after latest oil price shock

Solar panel sales have risen sharply since the start of the Iran war, according to Octopus Energy, and households are opting for bigger arrays of roof panels.

Sales were up 54% so far this month compared with the same period last month, the company said on Thursday.

Huge industrial trawlers are competing for krill – the main food source for whales – in the Southern Ocean, removing vital nutrients from the ecosystem

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In Antarctica, one of our planet’s last great wildernesses, a remarkable comeback is taking place.

In the very same waters of the Southern Ocean where whalers slaughtered more than 2 million whales during the 20th century, pushing a number of species to the brink of extinction, populations are recovering. Humpback whales have been the fastest to bounce back since commercial whaling was banned in 1986, and populations are nearly at pre-whaling levels. Blue whales, the world’s largest animal, have been slower.

Fears net zero is ‘next Brexit’ as oil crisis fuels political climate divide

US has caused $10tn worth of climate damage since 1990, research finds

‘Yes to fields of wheat, no to fields of iron’: how the world’s greenest country soured on solar

‘It smells like a rancid fish and chip shop’: at sea with the Antarctic’s krill supertrawlers

‘There’s biological treasure here’: Chile’s endemic seals gain protection with new marine park

Surfing’s big break: how climate crisis insurance may save El Salvador’s waves

Here’s what to know about how the current crisis could shape the expansion of renewable energy

As the deadly war in Iran triggers what the International Energy Agency has described as the worst oil crisis in history, climate advocates are calling for a faster shift away from fossil fuels, but the conflict may also hamper that transition.

US-Israeli strikes on Iran have disrupted supply routes through the strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of global oil flows. The US, Israel and Iran have also all launched strikes on fossil fuel facilities, creating additional market shocks.

Exclusive: Paul Marshall also challenged over his own ‘misleading’ statements and £1.8bn of fossil fuel investments in his hedge fund

The co-owner of GB News and “committed” Christian Sir Paul Marshall has been criticised by a group of church leaders over the TV channel’s attacks on climate science and action.

The hedge fund manager was also challenged over his own statements, which were called “misleading”, by the 100-strong group, which includes the former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and two current bishops.

Rena Effendi’s film Searching for Satyrus began with a quest for the endangered insect that bears her family name. Before long, she was reckoning with secrets, lies and the mysterious life of her wayward dad

High in the Caucasus mountains, the photojournalist Rena Effendi is searching for the butterfly that bears the name of the father she hardly knew. It is rocky, bleak, beautiful – and impossible. The grass is fried yellow by the increasingly fierce summer sun, the butterfly’s food has been grazed by sheep and, if it exists at all, Satyrus effendi usually flies only as a single insect across a square kilometre of rock, scree and slope.

A butterfly hunt makes an unlikely subject for a prize-winning documentary, but Searching for Satyrus is a gripping quest that reveals a remarkable part of the world little known to western audiences while examining issues from war and nationalism to global heating and extinction. Ultimately, however, Effendi’s search for her father’s butterfly becomes a moving reckoning with the secrets and lies in her family and the life of her wayward father.

The Marches, Shropshire: The call of the chiffchaff and the turning of the allotment soil – these are seasonal rituals honed over time

A pair of ravens, barking mad, perform their shuttling flight in glorious sunshine above Old Racecourse Common. A charm of chaffinches flash white wing-bars through the shadows of mossy willows around the pond. A queen red-tailed bumblebee orbits a hedgebank boundary stone, then buzzes off to feed on gorse flowers or prospect for possible colony chambers below.

A lesser-spotted woodpecker hammers out rapid bursts of drumbeats from a stand of beech across the misty distances of the hills. Chiffchaffs find their rhythm in the oaks. These constantly repeated two-note phrases are not what they seem when you hear the writer and musician Mark E Smith say of his own work: “It’s not repetition, it’s discipline.” A chiffchaff flies out from tree cover, across the open common, an apparition so slight compared with the powerful, hidden voice, to resume their discipline in further oaks.

‘God Squad’ federal panel to meet next week to address exemption request. WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Trump Administration has invoked “national security concerns” to justify exempting all oil and gas exploration and drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from the Endangered Species Act (ESA), according to a legal filing. The declaration, ... [continued]

The post Hegseth Invokes National Security in Seeking to Exempt Gulf Oil & Gas Activities from Endangered Species Act appeared first on CleanTechnica.

As species vanish and the unique ecosystem radically changes, Ukrainian scientists can only wait until it is safe to properly assess the damage

In the embattled harbours of Odesa, a scientific vessel lists in its mooring. No one has been able to take a look at the damage to the Boris Alexander from Russian drones and shelling that have hit the port city over the past four years of war in Ukraine. It is too dangerous, just as no one has been able to fully monitor the damage the war is doing to the Black Sea.

“We can only wait,” says Dr Jaroslav Slobodnik, the director of the Environmental Institute, headquartered in the Slovak Republic. “The biodiversity landscape is completely altered. A number of species seem to have disappeared, but we need more data. Data which the war makes it impossible to collect.”

Jono Ridler has battled loneliness and fatigue as he aims to break the record for the longest unassisted staged swim – and raise awareness about fragile marine life

First he hears a faint chatter coming from the ocean depths, then clicks and squeaks as the creatures draw closer. From the murky edges of his goggles they appear, swift and agile, darting within 10cm of his bare outstretched arms and following him for a time, as he swims hundreds of metres off the coast of New Zealand.

Jono Ridler, an ultra-distance swimmer who is 1,254km (779 miles) into his world record attempt for the longest-ever unassisted staged swim, has learned to hear dolphins more than 15 minutes before they reach him and long before his support boats can see them.

Iran and the Strait of Hormuz are not abstractions for Hawaiʻi. They are a reminder that the state still buys its energy from global fuel markets it does not control. The International Energy Agency described 2022 as the first truly global energy crisis, and recent reporting on the Gulf shock ... [continued]

The post From Fuel Shock to Financial Stability in Hawaiʻi appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Oʻahu was the test case, but it was never the whole question. The real question for Hawaiʻi was always whether the same logic that makes decarbonization viable on the most populous island would also hold across the rest of the inhabited archipelago. If Oʻahu could get to a clean, resilient, ... [continued]

The post Beyond Oʻahu: How The Other Hawaiian Islands Will Decarbonize appeared first on CleanTechnica.

West Virginians Are On the Hook to Pay DOE for Short-Sighted Projects with Big Health Impacts CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Following two postponements, the West Virginia Department of Commerce has informed Sierra Club’s West Virginia Chapter that there are “no non-exempt records” responsive to the Club’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) ... [continued]

The post West Virginia Agencies Shielding Details on $1.44B DOE Coal Bail-out Loan from Public appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Campaigners criticise frequent use of storm overflows when parts of the country were in drought for months

Raw sewage was discharged into rivers and seas almost 300,000 times last year after the driest spring for more than 100 years and the sunniest and warmest year on record in England.

Water companies released raw sewage into rivers and seas from storm overflows – designed to be used in extreme wet weather conditions – 291,492 times. This was a 35% reduction on record spills in 2024. Average discharges were 20.5 spills for each overflow, compared with 31.8 in the previous year.

Naturally, just when Hawaiʻi’s decarbonization pathway starts to look complete, another chapter occurs to me. After the generation mix, the island-by-island resource story, the transport implications, and the logic of electrification, what remains is the part of the energy transition that fossil systems used to provide almost by accident. Hawaiʻi ... [continued]

The post Beyond Generation: The Grid Innovations Hawaiʻi Needs Next appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Australia’s world-first national legislation to restrict access to social media accounts for children under 16 years old has been in force for about three months. New data from a survey of 1,070 Australian adults provides tantalising evidence of some positive effects. The YouGov survey found many parents had noticed several positive behavioural ... [continued]

The post Early Wins for the Social Media Ban, New Survey Claims. But the Full Picture Is Far More Complicated. appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The newly commissioned EnergyX demonstration facility in Texas is producing a domestic supply of lithium for EV batteries, energy storage, and other devices, loosening China's grip on the global lithium refining industry. 

The post Here Comes More Lithium For EV Batteries, Made In The USA appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The UK Future Homes Program will require rooftop solar and heat pumps in new homes beginning in April of 2028.

The post UK Mandates Rooftop Solar & Heat Pumps For New Homes Beginning In 2028 appeared first on CleanTechnica.

While exploring the exhibits at the New York Build Expo, I came across the Armstrong booth. Initially, nothing particularly interesting stood out. It just looked like traditional acoustic ceiling tiles. However, I asked if they had anything new and relevant to clean technology, and they pointed me to their new ... [continued]

The post Armstrong Templok Shows Potential For Thermal Energy Storage With Phase Change Materials appeared first on CleanTechnica.