Minnesota’s 2025 Energy Action Plan is an ambitious attempt to increase renewable energy and strengthen the state’s economy. It could also serve as a model for other states in the region to work on reducing emissions and advancing local solutions.
India’s solar capacity grew rapidly, but the WTO agreed to a ruling against the country’s ambitious solar program.
This Saturday, Jeremy Corbyn might be elected the Labour Party’s next leader. But what future does he see for the UK’s energy policy? Stephen Hall argues Corbyn’s ideas are partly inspired by the success of Germany’s small-scale community energy.
Billionaire Bill Gates claimed this summer that breakthroughs are needed for the energy transition and that funding should be diverted from current technologies towards R&D. Craig Morris wonders what would have become of Microsoft if we had waited for Ultrabooks before buying computers.
As the first emerging economy, Mexico presented its INDCs for the COP21 in Paris earlier this year. Lillian Sol Cueva summarizes the good, the bad and the ugly.
Smart energy infrastructure and an entrepreneurial spirit will play an important role in driving energy transitions around the world. Cem Özdemir, Co-Chairman of the German Green Party, traveled to San Francisco to witness how innovative solutions are driving low-carbon development in the Bay Area. Here he explains how California could serve as a model for German start-ups.
With the release of his encyclical “Laudatio Si”, the pope has called people around the world for swift action against climate change and for environmental protection. Paul Stinson is glad that at this critical moment in time, the Pope is helping to change the tone of the global conversation.
In her recent paper published by the Heinrich Boell Foundation, energy expert Susanne Fratzscher, identifies seven transformative trends that utilities in the US and Germany will have to face in the coming years. Susanne goes on to outline models that will likely help this transatlantic utility transformation to succeed. Here is a summary of her findings.
Germany has been a pioneer in pushing for a renewable energy revolution, making the technologies globally competitive with conventional energy. Now, Germany is passing the baton to countries such as the United States which is increasingly taking over the clean energy race. Rebecca Bertram takes a look.
Renewables are no longer futuristic green dreams – they are smart investments today. (Photo by Stefano Paltera/US Dept. of Energy Solar Decathlon, CC BY-ND 2.0)
With renewables providing 30% of Germany’s electriticy demand, the power market needs to adapt. In the following article, author Eric Martinot provides detailed insight into technical and regulatory changes that allowed the German grid to remain highly reliable.
