Aptera, the solar electric vehicle, SEV

Good News Notes: “Aptera Motors is a Californian based company that has designed and built a solar electric vehicle, an SEV. It requires no charging for most daily use. The vehicle can be ordered now, production and delivery are expected to be in 2022, with a starting price of $25,900 (USD). Using what is termed…

California runs on 100% clean energy for the first time, with solar dominating

Good News Notes: “For the first time ever, California, the world’s fifth-largest economy, was powered by 100% clean energy on Saturday, April 30. That milestone was driven largely by solar power. California’s 100% clean energy milestone Energy demand statewide reached 18,672 megawatts at 2:45 pm, with 37,172 MW available. (Excess is exported to neighboring states.) 101% of…

UK Looks To Triple Solar And More Than Quadruple Offshore Wind Power

Good News Notes: “The UK’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is set to soon unveil targets to triple solar power capacity, quadruple offshore wind installation, and double onshore wind this decade, as part of boosting energy security and becoming less reliant on foreign energy supplies, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing sources close to…

Texas has enough solar and wind planned to permanently shut down coal

Good News Notes: “ A research team at Rice University is modeling least-cost paths to a renewable energy future for Texas, a state that burns more coal and emits more sulfur dioxide than any other. The myriad of health and climate-related harms caused by coal do not need to persist any longer, according to the researchers. The…

Solar cell innovation generates 1,000x more power

Good News Notes: “The photovoltaic effect of ferroelectric crystals can be increased by a factor of 1,000 if three different materials are arranged periodically in a lattice. This has been revealed in a study by researchers at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU). They achieved this by creating crystalline layers of barium titanate, strontium titanate and…

New Technology for Storing Summer Heat To Use in Winter

Good News Notes: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is funding the project through the Longer Duration Energy Storage Demonstration program, part of the £1bn Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP). Thermal energy storage – storing heat so it’s available when needed – has the potential to cut rocketing energy bills. It also…

First solar canal project is a win for water, energy, air and climate in California

Good News Notes: “Mounting evidence suggests the western United States is now in its worst megadrought in at least 1,200 years. Groundwater supplies are being overpumped in many places, and the dryness, wildfires and shrinking water supplies are making climate change personal for millions of people. As an engineer, I have been working with colleagues on a way to both protect water supplies and…

Solar-Powered Vehicles From Solarolla

Good News Notes: “The refreshing part of being part of a clean energy blog like CleanTechnica for me is when an independent, innovative person or group contacts us about their work towards freedom from fossil fuels and adventures in nature. I received such a contact recently. “I’m part of a grass roots solar vehicle production company in…

Solar panels in space could be clean-energy gold mines

Good News Notes: “Solar power has been a key part of humanity’s clean energy repertoire. We spread masses of sunlight-harvesting panels on solar fields, and many people power their homes by decorating their roofs with the rectangles.  But there’s a caveat to this wonderful power source. Solar panels can’t collect energy at night. To work…