The Energy Mix team scans about 1,200 incoming headlines each week to build our story lineup. Here’s a rundown of some of the stories that were fit to print but didn’t fit the page.
The UK’s Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit cast electric vehicles as “power plants on wheels” that could help balance the power grid, and “strategic EV charging” showed promise to reduce the need for new grid infrastructure. A new class of long-range EV batteries was set to replace Chinese graphite with U.S. silicon, and a dime-size solid state battery promised a future of EVs that could travel 1,000 miles on a charge. Toyota looked to belatedly overhaul its EV strategy, Tesla doubled down on its Shanghai battery factory while other tech companies backed away, and Elon Musk saw a $4-trillion cost to sticking with fossil fuels. Tesla workers shared sensitive images recorded by customers’ car cameras, after the company promised millions of drivers their privacy “is and will always be enormously important to us.”
Harvard Business Review urged business leaders to resist the anti-ESG movement, only five of the 100 companies on the Financial Times Stock Exchange had credible net-zero plans, and the powerful New York City pension plan urged private investors to dump fossil fuels. A business writer said the climate crisis will cost more than climate action, an analyst called for a “climate-focused Marshall Plan” for developing countries, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development pondered better export finance for green projects. Shell stonewalled a pollution claim by 13,000 Nigerian villagers, ConocoPhillips won a court case for its $8-billion Willow oil megaproject, Syncrude faced charges in the death of an oil sands worker, and ExxonMobil abandoned its exploration program in Brazil. Carbon Brief looked at how loss and damage funds can address the loss of culture and heritage, Corporate Knights asked how fossils can be prosecuted for climate homicide, and Vladimir Putin was losing his energy war. Australia’s dream of becoming a hydrogen superpower looked like a massive waste of money, and solar radiation management amounted to a 100-year commitment if it ever gets off the ground.
Alberta public pension fund AIMCo managed to lose money in a year of record fossil profits. An Alberta teacher helped students manage their climate anxiety, the Edmonton public school board set 2035 emission reduction targets, and aspiring apprentices faced employer reluctance and a lack of support. An Edmonton city councillor wanted empty downtown office buildings used for housing, a company in Pitt Meadows, B.C. showed how vertical spaces could be used for farming, the U.S. was pushing to turn farm waste into fuel, and solar panels were better at handling heat when they were installed over crops. The Coalition for Responsible Energy Development said New Brunswickers were being misled on radioactive waste, and German industrial giant Heidelberg Materials installed carbon capture equipment on an Edmonton cement plant.
A prestigious medical journal said a 2°C limit on average global warming could prevent 80% of heat-related deaths in the Middle East and North Africa, and a water ban in drought-stricken Tunisia made a crisis situation worse. Antarctic ice melt threatened to disrupt the world’s oceans, Canada’s Arctic sea ice was changing, California’s snowpack was at risk of catastrophic melting, atmospheric rivers temporarily restored Utah’s Great Salt Lake, and the U.S. Gulf Coast faced epic sea level rise.
Bipartisan legislation in Pennsylvania would authorize community solar projects, a Rhode Island legislator wanted to require solar on new homes and parking lots, and the U.S. doubled its funding for local solar programs. Korean tech giant LG Energy invested $55 billion in an Arizona battery plant and teased its first U.S. heat pump factory. Texas expected its battery storage capacity to reach 78 gigawatts this year, Ohio weighed the value of electric vehicle jobs, and New York Governor Kathy Hochul dropped plans to water down an important climate law.
California unveiled $93 billion in energy transition investments in a state whose history of racism leaves Black communities at greatest risk from oil and gas drilling. A Mississippi community sued over extreme cancer risk from petrochemical fuel production, U.S. pipeliners got $196 million for repairs aimed partly at sealing methane leaks, and the U.S. moved to re-regulate mercury from power plants. U.S. utilities planned record capital spending on renewables, a $9.7 billion fund for rural electricity co-ops was expected to produce 20 gigawatts of clean energy, coal plants were shutting down in Pennsylvania and the Pacific Northwest, and a Texas company was bullish about renewables in oil country.
The UK considered a break on inheritance taxes for farmers who rewilded parts of their properties, and three-quarters of Scots wanted to see rewilded national parks. Ireland signed contracts for 109 megawatts of storage and 232 MW of pumped storage. Germany set out to reduce energy consumption by more than a quarter this decade, Chinese companies were urged to disclose supply chain emissions, France developed an adaptation strategy for 4.0°C warming, Finland invited bids for 6 GW of offshore wind, a Dutch court blocked efforts to shut down night flights and reduce noise at Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport, and the EU bestowed a green investment label on polluting planes and ships. UK climate denier and Big Oil apologist Nigel Lawson died.
REN 21 released the latest in its series of annual renewables status reports. India issued a call for 2 GW of new solar capacity and was on track to become the world’s second-biggest photovoltaic manufacturer in 2026. Danish wind giant Ørsted launched a 920-MW offshore project in Taiwan, the Tokyo utility behind the Fukushima nuclear disaster planned a 19-GW offshore wind complex in Scotland, a Singapore developer planned a 2-GW solar installation in the Philippines, and French colossal fossil TotalÉnergies revived a 1-GW solar project in Iraq. Egypt tied down financing for 500 MW of wind in the Gulf of Suez, Brazil invested $95 billion in transmission infrastructure for new renewables, and Australia said its international lithium sales would match its coal exports within five years.
