Interesting Ideas

The US thin film solar manufacturer First Solar is adding the power of perovskite to its CdTe formula, aiming to turbo-boost its solar conversion efficiency.

The post Thin Film Solar Gets A Muscular Perovskite Makeover appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Exclusive: Campaigners call for government to introduce right-to-roam bill that allows people to walk around their local woodlands

Nearly three-quarters of England’s woods are off-limits to the public, buried government documents show.

The study by Forest Research, which is a government-funded quango, found that 73% of English woodland is publicly inaccessible.

This article was amended on 13 March 2026 to make clear that the inaccessible trees are recorded by the Woodland Trust, but not necessarily on their land.

A week of the US/Israeli war against Iran continues on unabated, and the Iran military blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has infused more turmoil into an already dangerous situation. In a typical day, 20 million barrels of oil passes through the Strait, but nothing seems typical anymore in our ... [continued]

The post Is The Big Oil Cartel Losing Its Influence? appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The revelation that the spreadsheet behind Hawaiʻi’s headline LNG savings case appears not to include the cost of the LNG itself is the kind of finding that changes the center of gravity of an entire policy debate. The Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi press release on March 12, built around comments ... [continued]

The post Hawaiʻi’s LNG Business Case Was Overly Optimistic & Built On A Broken Spreadsheet appeared first on CleanTechnica.

High upfront prices remain the biggest barrier to drivers switching to electric cars. After years of steady increases, that trend has finally reversed. This shift did not happen by accident. Why BEV prices kept rising despite cheaper batteries For years, average BEV prices increased even as battery costs hit record ... [continued]

The post Why Are EV Prices Only Coming Down Now? The Answer Is More Political Than You Think appeared first on CleanTechnica.

With anger stoked by Channel 4’s drama Dirty Business, we look at what has happened to some of the main players

Water companies have been in the public eye for the wrong reasons again recently. South West Water was in the dock pleading guilty to supplying water unfit for human consumption, while the regulator fined South East Water £22.5m for repeated supply failures that affected more than 280,000 people over three years.

As the full scale of the sewage pollution scandal has been revealed to the public over the past six years, key figures working for the regulators and the privatised companies have been heavily criticised. Channel 4’s drama Dirty Business has focused attention on individuals at the heart of the scandal.

While tailings dams are meant to last for ever, extreme weather events are making many unstable – with devastating consequences for nature and humans

As soon as the barrier broke, a flood of poison brought death to the river. Gushing through the fragile wall built to hold back mining waste in Zambia’s copper belt in February 2025, more than 50m cubic litres of acid and heavy metals poured into the Chambishi stream – a tributary of the Kafue River, the country’s longest waterway.

Thousands of lifeless fish rose to the surface as a plume of acid floated downriver, leaving dead crocodiles and other wildlife in its wake.

We do not generally get epic tornadoes, sandstorms or avalanches, but we may get splashed by a bus on the road

Puddles, small and temporary pools of water typically formed by rainfall, hold a special place in British culture. They are the embodiment of the national weather’s tendency to produce mild inconvenience rather than drama. We do not generally get epic tornadoes, sandstorms or avalanches, but we do get wet feet, or splashed by a bus driving through a puddle.

The story of Walter Raleigh spreading his velvet cloak over a puddle so Queen Elizabeth I could cross while keeping her fine shoes dry is probably apocryphal. But Raleigh’s gallant if pointless gesture is typical of the low-stakes difficulty presented by puddles.

A new Tesla Supercharger hub with up to 48 charging stalls is planned for Romulus, Michigan, which is near the Detroit airport. While the addition of 48 new chargers might not seem that important, I just wrote an article in November about 40 fast chargers being installed in the Detroit ... [continued]

The post 48 New Tesla EV Chargers Planned For Detroit Area appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Fears are growing that the new far-right president will slash environmental protections in favour of foreign investment

In Chile’s most northerly region, Arica y Parinacota, Andrea Chellew, 62, relies on tourists for her cafe. They usually travel from the coastal city of Arica to the unique biosphere of the Andean highlands, which rise well above 5,000 metres and host nature reserves and wetlands.

At 3,000 metres (9,800ft) above sea level, along Highway 11, she lives by the trade route that brings raw materials and goods between Bolivia and Chile. Yet the cafe remains empty as fewer tourists come, amid more reports of increased mining activity near environmentally protected areas, such as the Lauca national park.

As energy prices tripled in the 1970s due to Middle Eastern wars, Scandinavia, France and the Netherlands sped up green transition

When Middle Eastern wars sparked an oil crisis in the 1970s, tripling energy prices and throwing economies into chaos, some countries looked beyond short-term solutions. The French made nuclear the pillar of their power system. Scandinavians insulated buildings and funnelled waste heat into homes. The Dutch built bike lanes where others wanted motorways. The Danes developed wind turbines.

Such steps cleaned filthy air and cut imports from autocrats but took a back seat when Russia invaded Ukraine half a century later. Europe raced to buy gas from the US and Middle East. Policies to roll out renewables by cutting red tape helped reduce dependence, but calls to use less energy and reduce waste were muted. Industry lobbying and populist backlash have since sabotaged efforts to phase out petrol cars and fossil boilers.

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

Rome did not only organise its agriculture in tune with the rhythm of the seasons, it also fought its wars that way

March is named for the Roman god Mars. He was among other things the god of agriculture, and the month was marked by ceremonies to protect new crops from bad weather.

Mars was the god of war too, and better weather also meant the start of the campaigning season. The roles sometimes merged. In one of the oldest Roman ceremonies, the “leaping priests” of Mars, 12 young men from noble families would dress as ancient warriors and parade around the city singing in an archaic form of Latin for a good beginning to the planting season.

European drivers paid a €55bn ‘geopolitical premium’ at the pump in 2022 when oil prices last averaged $100 a barrel. Dependence on imported fossil fuels continues to leave Europe vulnerable to volatility. Europeans are set to pay a ‘geopolitical premium’ of an extra €150 mn a day as oil prices ... [continued]

The post Conflict in Middle East Could Cost Europe’s Drivers an Extra €150 Million a Day appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Electric truck sales rose sharply in 2025 as the first ever truck CO2 target kicked in July. New data reveals the state of zero-emission truck sales in Europe. The new target has spurred the European e-truck market, though China still leads the global race. Front-running countries show the way forward ... [continued]

The post Zero-Emission Trucks in Europe — The Road So Far appeared first on CleanTechnica.

China has insulated itself from market disruptions like the closure of the Straits of Hormuz by building renewable energy resources.

The post How China Is Avoiding The Straits Of Hormuz Curse appeared first on CleanTechnica.

` The soul of a Rivian, sized for every adventure Today, American automaker and technology company Rivian announced full trims and pricing¹ for the all-new R2, a mid-size electric SUV that brings Rivian’s design, performance and technology to a significantly broader audience without losing what makes a Rivian unmistakably Rivian. ... [continued]

The post Rivian Introduces R2 Lineup, Sharing Full Trims & Pricing appeared first on CleanTechnica.

A project in London is helping hundreds of people, providing a genuine alternative to traditional treatments

“What you’ve got there from the sun on your face is a massive boost of serotonin!” says Alison Greenwood, founder of Dose of Nature, the charity successfully prescribing time outside as a treatment for mental health.

Greenwood is striding round Pensford Field, a tiny patch of wildness tucked behind houses in south-west London. The bright day is illuminating the early blackthorn blossom, gleaming off the pond where a heron watches tiny froglets and shadows of birch trees on a wood-chip path. “All these trees and plants are giving off phytoncides, and they’re good for your immune system too,” the former NHS psychologist says.

Europeans will pay a high ‘geopolitical premium’ as oil passes $100 a barrel. In late February 2026, the United States and Israel carried out extensive coordinated strikes on Iran, prompting Iran to retaliate with drone and missile attacks against targets in Israel and several other countries in the surrounding region. ... [continued]

The post Europe’s Oil Dependency: The Geopolitical Premium appeared first on CleanTechnica.

US also experiences severe convective storms, while record-breaking heat recorded in parts of South Africa

On Monday 9 March, severe thunderstorms affected parts of southern France, with several departments including Hérault, Var, and the Alpes-Maritimes put under yellow alert for heavy rain.

Some of the heaviest rainfall totals came from a cell that passed over the Var department. Examples of high rainfall totals taken from some private weather stations come from the towns of Carqueiranne and Saint-Mandrier-sur-Mer, where 104.4mm was recorded in seven and a half hours, and 92.7mm in three hours respectively. However, as these are private weather stations, they may contain measurement errors.