Clean energy

This article is published in partnership with the Chicago Sun-Times. Two years ago, Illinois legislators passed a law that made big promises to fight climate change. It would reduce air pollution by phasing out electricity created by burning fossil fuels and lead to the creation of thousands of new jobs in clean-energy industries, especially for Black […]

In a hearing last month in Arizona, an expert witness for the state’s largest utility said he agrees with the idea that utilities oppose rooftop solar because it is a threat to their profits. If ever there was an occasion for a “record scratch” sound effect to be played at a regulatory hearing, this was […]

Electrifying just 30 percent of all light- and heavy-duty vehicles in the lower Great Lakes region could save more than 1,000 lives and more than $10 billion in healthcare costs per year, according to a study led by researchers at Northwestern University. And the benefits of the pollution reductions would be concentrated in disadvantaged communities […]

Some big offshore wind projects have recently run into the challenges of rising interest rates and delays in getting key components, and developers say some projects no longer make financial sense. It’s a messy situation, and it threatens to undermine the future of offshore wind as a major and affordable source of electricity for the […]

Rapidly transitioning the world’s vehicle fleet to fully electric could significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, but also dramatically increase demand for critical battery metals like lithium, nickel and cobalt, according to a new study in the journal Nature Communications. Researchers from Cornell University and the Paul Scherrer Institute modeled different scenarios where major […]

One goal of the Inflation Reduction Act is to make sure that jobs created by the transition to clean energy have high standards for wages and benefits. The Biden administration is now providing some specifics about how this will work. The Treasury Department and the IRS released a proposed rule last week that spells out […]

America’s hydropower industry is hoping to reestablish some of its former glory by making itself central to the nation’s transition to clean energy—and it’s turning to Congress for help. The era of big dams arguably ended long ago. At one point referred to as “white coal,” hydropower was once a major source of electricity around […]

As many school districts in Illinois opened their school doors for students earlier this month, some also worked to secure funds to replace their diesel school buses with low-emission buses.  Aug. 22 was the last day for school districts to apply for $400 million in grants under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus […]

Onshore wind energy is working on a comeback in the U.S. market. This is odd to say considering that land-based wind farms are the country’s leading source of renewable power. But it reflects a market in which utility-scale solar and battery storage are growing at much faster rates, and offshore wind is on the cusp […]

Along the turquoise beaches of South Korea’s Jeju Island, hundreds of wind turbines spin as ferociously as the coastal wind. A few kilometers inland, large solar farms are hard at work converting the sun’s light into power. During periods of high wind, the wind farm receives notices to halt its power generation. This is to […]