Microsoft has signed a deal with Brookfield Asset Management to invest more than $10 billion to develop renewable energy capacity to power the growing demand for artificial intelligence and data centers, the companies announced on Wednesday. Brookfield will deliver 10.5 gigawatts of renewable energy for Microsoft between 2026 and 2030 in the U.S. and Europe […]
Battery prices are plummeting. That’s good news for the planet.
Climate scientists, for years, have urged governments around the world to switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. Wind and solar plants have increased in popularity in recent years but they both have a fundamental problem. Lapses in sunlight and wind caused by weather events can make it difficult to reliably capture and store […]
Just 1,200 square kilometers of land could fulfill Australia’s solar and wind energy needs
As Australia’s rapid renewable energy rollout continues, so too does debate over land use. Nationals Leader David Littleproud, for example, claimed regional areas had reached “saturation point” and cannot cope with more wind and solar farms and transmission lines. So how much land is needed to fully decarbonize energy in Australia? When we switch completely […]
A new paradigm for battery recycling
For a successful clean energy transition in the U.S., the production of electric vehicle (EV) batteries must grow substantially. But the U.S. relies heavily on other countries for these materials and is vulnerable to supply chain disruptions. The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has recently launched a collaboration with Toyota Motor North […]
Buh-Bye, Conflict Minerals: US Gets First Sodium-Ion Battery Factory
Lithium-ion batteries have been the workhorses of the renewable energy transition since the early 2000s, but the world is changing and so is energy storage. Researchers have been eyeballing a new sodium-ion battery formula that provides for a high level of performance while avoiding the supply chain issues that can bedevil conventional Li-ion batteries, and […]
Graphite miners lobby US govt to impose levy on China-sourced EV material
North American graphite miners are lobbying the US government to impose a 25% tariff on three graphite products sourced from China in order to counter Beijing’s monopoly on a key material used in automobile batteries. If successful, the move will pit the miners against their main customers- the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and add to […]
NIO begins public trials of its 150 kWh semi-solid-state battery packs ahead of a full rollout
Less than a month after beginning mass production of its new semi-solid-state battery packs, NIO has opened the technology to the public in China to trial this month, ahead of a full rollout of official operations. NIO ($NIO) continues to gain success from passenger EV sales, but it has also spent plenty of time and […]
Tesla Megapacks to help grow 560 MW/2,240MWh battery in Australia
Tesla Megapacks will help expand the Collie Battery into a 560 MW/2,240 kWh system–the biggest in Australia. Neoen recently won the contract to triple the size of the Collie Battery. The French renewable energy and storage developer is teaming up with Tesla and UGL to expand the Collie Battery. The first stage of expansion has […]
Electric vehicle drivers can estimate their personalized fuel savings with new Argonne tool
A new tool launched by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory enables drivers to estimate, at the ZIP code level, how much they save on fuel costs by driving a plug-in electric vehicle (either a plug-in hybrid [PHEV] or a battery electric vehicle [BEV]). The tool, Driving Electric: Local Fuel Savings Calculator, […]
Half of all copper mining is at drought risk with climate change
As projections for all the copper needed in the clean-energy transition help send prices of the wiring metal to two-year highs, a new report highlights the risks to future metal supplies from climate change. Even in an optimistic low emission scenario for 2050, more than half the world’s copper mines will be in areas exposed […]