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Facebook reaches its target of using 100 percent renewable energy
Facebook says it has reached its goal to power its global operations on renewable energy several months ahead of its targets thanks to a large investment in solar and wind energy projects.
'World's first' solar-powered rail line opens in the UK
Some trains in the UK are now running on a rail line powered entirely by a solar farm in what's said to be a world first. Around 100 panels are keeping the signaling and lights up and running on the track near Aldershot in Hampshire, and the project could be a precursor to solar-powered trains on the nation's network.
Facebook is financing a massive solar farm in Texas
Facebook is investing heavily in a massive solar farm in Texas as it rumbles towards its goal of running entirely on renewable energy by the end of next year. Renewables company Longroad Energy has started building the Prospero Solar project in Andrews County, Texas.
Google’s DeepMind can predict wind patterns a day in advance
Wind power has become increasingly popular, but its success is limited by the fact that wind comes and goes as it pleases, making it hard for power grids to count on the renewable energy and less likely to fully embrace it. While we can't control the wind, Google has an idea for the next best thing: using machine learning to predict it.
Alphabet's hot salt energy-storage project becomes its own company
Alphabet's X division has played host to a string of experimental ideas, and another one is spinning out as an independent business. Malta uses cheap, abundant materials including salt, anti-freeze and steel to store power at grid scale.
Apple's latest expansion puts it closer to its biggest rivals
Apple is on track to become the largest private employer in Austin, Texas, after announcing plans to invest $1 billion in a new campus less than a mile away from its existing facilities there. The 133-acre site will initially be home to 5,000 new employees, with the potential to grow to 15,000. The company has also announced plans to establish new sites in Seattle, San Diego and Culver City and expand in cities across the United States including Pittsburgh, New York and Boulder, Colorado over the next three years, with the potential for additional expansion elsewhere in the US over time.
Sony brings its 100 percent renewable energy goal forward a decade
Just a month after Sony announced its plans to power its worldwide operations with 100 percent renewable energy by 2040, the tech company has brought forward its US goal by a decade, to 2030. Sony currently sources just 25 percent of its energy in the US from renewable sources, so the decision represents an ambitious vision for the RE100 company.
Amazon announces recycling and green energy initiatives in US and UK
Amazon has announced two new green initiatives in the US and the UK aimed at reducing waste and its carbon footprint. In the US, the company shared plans to invest $10 million in Closed Loop Fund, which supports recycling infrastructure throughout the US. Amazon's investment will bring curbside recycling to three million additional homes and could keep as much as one million tons of recyclable material out of landfills by 2028.
Lyft vows to make itself completely carbon neutral
Lyft is taking its environmental commitment to its logical conclusion. The ridesharing outfit has promised to achieve complete carbon neutrality, not just its rides, and will strive to use 100 percent renewable energy. It's buying those renewables directly when it can, but it'll buy renewable energy credits and carbon offsets when it has no choice but to use less than eco-friendly sources. Credits will come from energy projects that sit on the same regional electricity grids, such as wind farms in Colorado and Maine.
Sony vows to use 100 percent renewable electricity by 2040
Sony is the latest tech giant pledging to power its worldwide operations with 100 percent renewable energy. All of its 111 global business sites -- which produce everything from games consoles and semiconductors to Hollywood blockbusters -- will go green by 2040, says the company. Of course, that deadline is decades away, so in the interim it plans to reach at least 30 percent by 2030.
California lawmakers pass bill to phase out fossil fuels by 2045
Lawmakers in California have strengthened the state's commitment to clean energy by passing a bill to stop using fossil fuels entirely by 2045. The legislature passed S.B. 100 by 43 votes to 32, making California the second state to take such a step, following Hawaii. The bill now moves to a procedural vote in the Senate, and then to Governor Jerry Brown to sign it into law. Around 72 percent of the state's residents were in support of the move, according to polls cited by CBS.
Facebook aims to power its operations with renewable energy by 2021
Facebook announced today that it plans to power its global operations entirely with renewable energy by the end of 2020. It also committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 75 percent within that same timeframe. "We bring an open and innovative approach to finding renewable energy solutions that fit our needs and can move energy markets forward," the company said in a statement. "We do this by working to enable access to renewable energy resources for other companies and organizations by building infrastructure, opening projects to other buyers or establishing green tariffs, which allow customers to buy renewable energy from their local utilities."
Liquid metal battery could lower cost of storing renewable energy
As dreamy as it might be to combine renewable energy sources with storage batteries, there's a problem: those batteries are expensive. It might take you years to recoup the costs. You'll be glad to hear, then, that Stanford scientists have a way to make those batteries more cost-effective. They've developed a liquid metal-based flow battery that can store electricity at a lower price, even on a large scale. A metal-producing mix of sodium and potassium serves as the negative side of the battery, providing nearly twice the maximum voltage of typical flow batteries (making them high-value) without having to resort to exotic chemicals or extreme temperatures.
Apple announces $300 million fund for clean energy in China
Tonight Apple announced a new partnership that will connect its suppliers in China to renewable energy sources. This isn't its first push to increase the use of clean energy in the country that has been called the world's most polluting, but it does increase the scale. Along with ten suppliers, the company will jointly invest "nearly $300 million" over the next four years in to the China Clean Energy Fund. The fund itself will be run by European asset management company DWS Group, with a plan to "give its participants the advantage of greater purchasing power and the ability to attain more attractive and diverse clean energy solutions." That's because even as clean energy project increase, Apple said that smaller companies may not have access to them. Just a few months ago Apple said that it is entirely powered by clean energy (when you include renewable energy certificates it has purchased to cover about 34 percent of its usage), and by 2020 it will, along with its suppliers "generate more than 4 gigawatts of new clean energy worldwide."
California to require solar panels on most new homes
There's no question that solar power is entering the mainstream, but California is about to give it a giant boost. The state's Energy Commission is expected to approve new energy standards that would require solar panels on the roofs of nearly all new homes, condos and apartment buildings from 2020 onward. There will be exemptions for homes that either can't fit solar panels or would be blocked by taller buildings or trees, but you'll otherwise have to go green if your property is brand new.
Google wants the Clean Power Plan to stick around too
If we don't want the seas to boil and the skies to burn, we need to stop polluting the world with climate altering gases. Unfortunately, the Environmental Protection Agency is planning to gut the Clean Power Plan, legislation aimed at curbing America's carbon emissions by almost a third by 2030. And it's something that, like Apple, Google has decided to fight, making a public statement in support of the Clean Power Plan just before the deadline closed.
Google uses wind and solar to offset all of its operational energy use
In late 2016, Google announced that it expected to offset all of its office and data center electricity use with 100 percent renewable energy in 2017. Today, the company says it achieved that goal. Google has been working on reducing its carbon footprint and purchasing more renewable energy for some time. In 2007, it committed to being carbon neutral, which it did by purchasing solar and wind energy as well as carbon offsets, and throughout the years, it has reduced its reliance on offsets and purchased greater amounts of renewable energy. In 2017, for every kilowatt-hour of energy Google's operations consumed, it added a kilowatt-hour of solar and wind energy to the grid.
SoftBank and Saudi Arabia to build world's biggest solar farm
SoftBank and Saudi Arabia have drawn up plans to build the world's biggest solar farm, which, if realized, would create 100,000 jobs in the kingdom and produce 200 gigawatts (GW) of energy. That's a third more than the global photovoltaic industry supplied worldwide last year.
T-Mobile details plan for 100 percent renewable energy by 2021
Committing to renewable energy may be a bit of a publicity stunt, but it's one that's good for the environment and has positive effects. Today, T-Mobile joined the ranks of companies that have made that pledge, committing to 100 percent renewable electricity by 2021. It also joined RE100, the global initiative of companies that have full renewable energy as a stated goal.
Renewable energy may be cheaper than fossil fuels by 2020
Electricity from renewable sources will soon be cheaper than power from most fossil fuels, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). In its new report, Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2017, the agency revealed that technology improvements, government take-up and proactive project development has pushed the costs associated with renewable energy to a new low, and that by 2020 renewable power will largely undercut fossil fuel.
