I've always thought it would be good to acquire an old warehouse in every town throughout the land and convert it into low-rent community workspaces for artists, local charities and small businesses getting off the ground. A kind of people's WeWork. What would others do with a humungous, but not unlimited, pile of dosh to benefit society? Roland Freeman, West Yorkshire Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com.
It takes an immense amount of energy to power venues and make snow for the Winter Olympics and, for the 2026 Milan Cortina Games, organizers pledged that virtually all of the electricity would be clean. The organizing committee said that energy use is where they can make the most meaningful impact, since it has been one of the main drivers of planet-warming emissions at major events. And Italy's largest electricity company, Enel, guaranteed the supply of entirely certified renewable electricity for event venues.
Researchers in China have reportedly tested a new, gravity-defying wind turbine system that they say could generate power from the airspace above cities. The turbine is called the S2000 Stratosphere Airborne Wind Energy System, or SAWES. Held up by what is essentially a helium blimp, the machine reportedly generated 385 kilowatts of electricity from 2,000 meters (more than 6,500 feet) above the city of Yibin in China's province of Sichuan, according to a recent Euronews report.
Sade Hogue was five months pregnant with her second daughter when her home lost power during a deadly 2021 winter storm that left millions of Texans without power or heat for days. Hogue and her family went to stay with relatives who still had electricity. Then, a few days later, they also lost power. "Not only are you worried about you, but you're worried about the unborn child because you don't know what the effects of this freeze is doing to the child as well,"
Deere & Co. ( NYSE: DE) ranks sixth for its positioning in India's agricultural mechanization drive, where significant productivity gaps represent a substantial equipment opportunity. Deere reported Q4 2025 revenue of $12.39 billion, up 14% year-over-year. Its Construction & Forestry segment surged 27% to $3.38 billion, demonstrating strength in infrastructure-related markets. CEO John May stated, "We believe 2026 will mark the bottom of the large ag cycle," positioning the company for recovery as emerging markets drive demand.
The head of Britain's largest energy supplier has warned that the UK risks being "left behind" if it fails to collaborate with China on renewable technology, suggesting that importing Chinese wind farm innovations could create thousands of jobs. Greg Jackson, founder and chief executive of Octopus Energy, recently accompanied Sir Keir Starmer on a UK delegation to China. He emphasised China's significant advancements in technology and renewables, which he believes could provide Britain with crucial energy security.
It looks more like the past than the future. A vast chasm scooped out of a scarred landscape, this is a Cornwall the summer holidaymakers don't see: a former china clay pit near St Austell called Trelavour. I'm standing at the edge of the pit looking down with the man who says his plans for it will help the UK's transition to renewable energy and bring back year-round jobs and prosperity to a part of the country that badly needs both.
In his disjointed speech at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Donald Trump once again lashed out against renewable forms of energy, the European Union and its Green Deal, which aims to transform the energy and mobility system to break dependence on fossil fuels, the main cause of climate change. Trump, like the European far-right, dismissed the accord, calling it a Green New Scam. But the truth is that, despite his attacks, renewables continued to grow in 2025 and set records, while fossil fuel consumption for electricity generation stagnated.
The deal was announced during Keir Starmer's official visit to China, with Octopus founder and chief executive Greg Jackson joining the UK business delegation in Beijing. The new venture, called Bitong Energy, will combine PCG Power's position as one of China's fastest-growing investors and solutions providers in the commercial and industrial renewable energy sector with Octopus' proprietary software and expertise in green energy trading and optimisation.
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Foster + Partners, in collaboration with Angola's Ministry of Transport, has unveiled the master plan for the Icolo e Bengo Aerotropolis, a large-scale development planned around the recently completed Dr. Antonio Agostinho Neto International Airport. The proposal organizes business, research, residential, and hospitality programs within a landscape-led framework structured around the airport. Development is planned to proceed in phases, beginning with the business and cultural district located to the north of the site.
There's something romantic about sailboats that still speaks to us in this hyper-connected age. The idea that you can harness nothing but wind and water to glide across the ocean feels almost magical. But here's the reality check: even the most old-school sailor needs power these days. Your GPS has to stay on, your radar needs juice, those navigation lights aren't optional, and let's be honest, nobody wants to lose their phone charge mid-voyage.
Clean energy technologies have become more affordable around the world. Yet for many countries in the Global South, the cost of transitioning to a low-carbon economy remains disproportionately high. But not because the equipment is more expensive: in fact, solar and wind components are often imported at comparable prices around the world, as global manufacturing scale and trade have helped standardize hardware costs. Instead, the disparities in financing costs reflect the way the global financial system fails to adequately capture, differentiate and price risk.
The share of renewables in German power production almost stagnated in 2025, data showed Monday, as concerns grow about a shift away from green policies under conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz. The figure had increased strongly in previous years as Europe's biggest economy aims to reach a goal of green power accounting for 80 percent of its energy mix by 2030.
The administration has used federal agencies to try to slow or stop the development of wind and solar projects. And this summer, the GOP-controlled Congress voted to get rid of tax credits for renewable energy, threatening to drive up the cost of projects. As a result of those moves, the United States is forecast to add a lot less power from renewables in the coming years than analysts previously expected, according to the International Energy Agency.
Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. I cover a lot of solar generators here, and they are all the rage. I've tested dozens of devices over the past few years and seen the technology go from strength to strength. But I often get asked, "What happens when the clouds roll in, and the sun vanishes?" Living in the UK, the sun can be in short supply for much of the year.
I do this newsletter every week on Substack called The Crucial Years, which, I think because it's free, has turned into the largest newsletter of its kind around climate and energy and the environment. It means that I get to keep track of all the things that are happening on a weekly basis around the world. About 36 months ago, if you were paying attention, you couldn't help but notice this sudden spike beginning. We'd finally hit the steep part of the S curve.
Around the world, CBAM has faced strong criticism. India and China describe it as "green protectionism," arguing that it puts unfair pressure on developing economies. At the same time, the EU has not yet created dedicated funding to help exporters in lower-income countries adapt. Without this support, the mechanism may not achieve the desired results. What about consumers? Although CBAM is mainly aimed at industry, its ripple effects will reach consumers in the EU.
The Rhine is the second-longest river in Western Europe, discharging about 100,000 cubic feet of water a second into the North Sea. It snakes through the Swiss Alps and makes up large sections of Germany's western border with France, spreading out across a major delta in the Netherlands before emptying into the ocean. It's also an enormous, largely untapped resource for clean power.
I grew up in a small place called Tana, where there were just 12 children in my school class. Of the five of us who were Sami, two came from families of reindeer herders. At the time, I believed the rest were Norwegian. Later, I learned that everyone in my class was Sami. Their parents had been pressured to hide who they were.
California's planet-warming pollution shrank by 3% in 2023, one of the largest year-over-year reductions the state has seen, according to a report by nonprofit Next 10. The state's use of cleaner fuels in heavy-duty transportation, like big rigs, and its deployment of battery storage and solar energy drove this climate progress, in large part. While the transportation sector comprised the state's largest category of emissions, accounting for roughly 38% of emissions in 2023, it also saw the largest percentage decrease in emissions of any other sector, falling by 4.6%.
A federal judge on Monday struck down Donald Trump's executive order blocking wind energy projects, saying the effort to halt virtually all leasing of windfarms on federal lands and waters was arbitrary and capricious and violated US law. Judge Patti Saris of the US district court for the district of Massachusetts vacated Trump's 20 January executive order blocking wind energy projects and declared it unlawful.
NextEra Energy on Monday tightened its grip on hyperscaler power demand, adding 2.5 GW of new renewable projects for Meta while deepening its partnership with Google, which already covers about 3.5 GW of capacity. Taken together, Meta and Google now touch roughly 18 percent of the 33.4 GW of generating capacity in operation at NextEra Energy's subsidiary, NextEra Energy Resources, underscoring both the growing appetite for datacenter power and the consolidation of supply among hyperscale customers.
(Image credit: Getty Images) Floating solar panels are a growing trend around the world, and the UK seems to be cottoning on to their potential. The government has just approved the largest floating solar panel project in Barrow in an attempt to generate cheap energy. The project promises to solve one of the biggest problems with large-scale solar projects, the amount of land that they take up, meaning solar panels could become even more viable across the UK.
China's carbon dioxide emissions have plateaued in 2025, indicating the country may have reached a peak after years of being the world's top emitter. The plateau reflects how China's record-setting build-out of wind and solar power and rapid expansion into electric vehicles has tempered fossil-fuel emissions, according to the nonprofit Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air. China accounts for around one third of all global greenhouse gas emissions, although historically the U.S. has emitted more carbon.
TikTok, one of the world's most popular social media platforms, announced Wednesday that it will build its first data center in Latin America in Brazil, near the city of Fortaleza. The project represents a $38 billion investment. The Chinese company's supercomputers, which have revolutionized the internet with their short videos that are followed by hundreds of millions of users, will be operational in 2027 and will be powered exclusively by 100% renewable energy, according to a TikTok statement.
Colombian Bitcoin and crypto mining company Horeb Energy reveals 2.5 cents per kWh of green biogas energy in the North Santander region of the Latin American country. The company has achieved energy prices 50% lower than the North American average of 3.5 to 6 cents per kwh for Bitcoin mining operations, through a strategic alliance with multinational energy company Veolia. Authorized in 1853 by Napoleon III to help build out public water works infrastructure in France, Veolia is a global leader in environmental services focused on water, waste, and energy solutions. Today in Norte de Santander, Colombia, the company operates critical facilities dedicated to biogas valorization and solid waste management - a common problem in Colombia and Latin America in general, known for massive landfills. Veloia also operates the "Centro Inteligente de Gestión Ecológica" - CIGE Guayabal landfill, a pioneer in biogas systems development in the region.