🌞 Shining a Poetic Light on Good News: Sunny Climate News is Here!
🗞️ EXTRA, extra: your latest & greatest positive progress on climate & clean energy
🌅 EXTRA, Extra— Sunny Climate News: On the Horizon
Happy Earth Month! April also happens to be National Poetry Month. “Like, who even gets to choose these dates?” is a line from a poem I’ve written on this crossover before. I’ll share an excess of eco-poetry all month long to keep the sunlight singing, like these perfect poems to invoke for April.
Now, here’s some of that good sun for you:
1.⚡ Renewable Strength Surging: US renewable power surged ahead of coal for the first time last year
U.S. renewable electricity surpassed coal in 2022 | Surge of clean energy manufacturing projects in Texas, U.S. | Renewably Generated Electricity Surpasses Coal for the First Time in the U.S. | Wind industry predicts bounceback and rapid growth in 2023 | Record new wind capacity to be installed by 2027 | Innovative technology emerges to support offshore wind siting, logistics | One in five solar panels installed worldwide last year were mounted on a Chinese roof | Let the sunshine in: Solar array bringing energy to The Village at Orchard Ridge | After five years of bureaucratic limbo, Cape Cod clean energy program finally comes to fruition | China Energy plans 1000 MW floating solar plant in Zimbabwe | Japan's TEPCO to develop 1.9 GW of offshore wind power in Scotland | Maryland announces goals for massive offshore wind power increase
Renewable energy sources generated more electricity than coal for the first time ever last year, the U.S. Energy Information Administration announced Monday. Wind and solar energy produced 14% of U.S.-produced electricity in 2022 with other renewables (including hydro, biomass, and geothermal) generating an additional 7%. Coal produced 20% of electricity generation and methane gas accounted for 39%. “This booming growth is driven largely by economics,” said Gregory Wetstone, president and CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy. “Over the past decade, the levelized cost of wind energy declined by 70%, while the levelized cost of solar power has declined by an even more impressive 90%.” While challenges related to building the transmission lines necessary to get wind- and solar-generated electricity onto the grid, the economics of renewable energy are becoming clear. “Renewable energy is now the most affordable source of new electricity in much of the country,” Wetstone said
💡 3 Ways Clean Energy is Saving Lives on the Front Lines of Climate
2. ⚖️ Justice for All or None: How a small island got world’s highest court to take on climate justice
The UN Wants the World Court to Address Nations’ Climate Obligations. Here’s What Could Happen Next | United Nations adopts landmark resolution on climate justice
3. 📈 Accelerating Climate Action: The Share of New Cars That Are Electric Vehicles Has Tripled in 2 Years
Energy transition blows past headwinds | Renewable energy company discusses the ‘full circle’ of the planned transition to net-zero | LG Will Spend $5.5 Billion on a Battery Factory in Arizona | EU agrees to ramp up 2030 renewable energy targets, accelerating shift from fossil fuels | ‘A defining issue of our time’: Massachusetts’ first-ever climate chief is bringing an all-of-government approach to climate change | Fossil fuels kill more people than Covid. Why are we so blind to the harms of oil and gas?
📊 How much has clean energy grown globally since 2017?
🌬️ Which countries added the most new wind power in 2022?
Quote-ovoltaic Climate Power: ‘We need to remember our own heroic nature, our capacity for courage, compassion and action, to remember those who came before us who took action against the odds and sometimes won.’
—Rebecca Solnit
‘Change happens gradually, then suddenly’
—Ernest Hemingway
I appreciate you catching up on sunny climate news here. Thanks for all you for do! For a more beautiful tomorrow, today— the future thanks you, too.