Science and Technology:
¶ “Buffering Batteries: The Grid Enhancing Technology No One Calls A GET” • Buffering batteries placed near transmission constraints are rarely listed among grid enhancing technologies. A battery cannot turn a 500-MW transmission line into a 700-MW transmission line. But the more we look, the more arbitrary the distinction seems.[CleanTechnica]
Transmission tower (Lee Milo, Unsplash)
World:
¶ “Brussels Backs Mini-Nuclear Power Plants Have Low-Carbon Power” • The EU plan to roll out small nuclear reactors by the early 2030s to decarbonize and reduce energy costs. But many environmentalists argue that the technology is risky, unproven, and expensive, especially compared to renewable sources, which are easy to deploy. [Euronews]
¶ “‘Serious Water Crisis’ On Horizon As Desalination Plants Are Hit In The Middle East And Acid Rain Falls” • ‘Black rain’ fell on Iran over the weekend after US-Israeli strikes hit oil depots. Alongside acid rain precursors – SO₂ and NO₂ – the plumes of pollutants are likely to contain a cocktail of hydrocarbons, PM2.5 and carcinogenic compounds. [Euronews]
Attack on Tehran (Avash Media, CC BY-SA 4.0)
¶ “The Need For Global Growth Is A Billionaire’s Lie, And It’s Killing The Planet” • Global growth is responsible for climate change, biodiversity loss, pervasive pollution, and other crises in the environment. It’s important to deconstruct this paradigm if we are to create truly sustainable economic systems that operate within planetary boundaries. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “UK Removes Import Tariffs On Offshore Wind Components” • The UK Government will remove import tariffs on components for offshore wind projects beginning 1 April. The Department for Business and Trade said this would save British manufacturers millions of pounds per year and support London’s Clean Energy Superpower mission. [reNews]
Making a turbine blade (Siemens Gamesa image)
¶ “Iran War Exposes Risks Of Fossil Fuel Dependence” • The economic risks of the world’s dependence on oil and gas have been laid bare twice in four years – first with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and now with the US-Israeli war on Iran – undermining US President Donald Trump’s flagship push to double down on fossil fuels. [Offshore Engineer Magazine]
¶ “Vestas Secures 1.4-GW Vanguard East Order With RWE” • Vestas has secured a firm order to supply turbines for RWE’s Vanguard East offshore wind project in the UK. Vestas said the 1.38-GW order covers the supply, delivery, and commissioning of 92 turbines for the project. Each turbine’s nameplate capacity is to be 15.0 MW. [reNews]
Offshore wind farm (Vestas image)
¶ “Global Wind Power Hits Record 169 GW As China Leads Growth” • Global wind power installations reached a record high in 2025, marking the third consecutive year of new capacity records, according to BloombergNEF’s Global Wind Turbine Market Shares 2025 report. Developers installed 169 GW of wind turbines worldwide last year. [Asian Power]
US:
¶ “Toxic Coal Pollution Spikes To 25-Year High Under Trump” • The coal industry has crowned Donald Trump the “undisputed champion of coal.” And Pollution from coal-fired power plants is at a quarter-century high, as his administration touts rollbacks of public health safeguards, exemptions from emission standards, and handouts for coal plants. [CleanTechnica]
Coal-burning plant (Lyntha Scott Eiler, EPA, public domain)
¶ “US Experienced Its Second Warmest Winter On Record Despite A Cold And Snowy Northeast” • In the Northeast, cold and snowy conditions dominated the winter with much of the region having its coldest winter in a decade. Nevertheless, winter warmth in the West nearly pushed the nation to a new all-time high for the season. [ABC News]
¶ “A Deluge Of Solar Power Crushes A Hollow Victory For Coal” • The conservative Texas State Attorney General and candidate for US Senate Ken Paxton broke out the pom-poms when he scored a win for coal. That was last month. Now Trump’s war in Iran has only cemented the status of renewable energy in the US power generation profile. [CleanTechnica]
Texas solar plant (Texas Office of the Public Comptroller)
¶ “Geoengineering The Gulf Of Maine ” • According to Chemistry World, the ocean is the world’s largest carbon sink, holding about 38,000 gigatons of carbon. That’s 40 times what the atmosphere holds. When carbon dioxide dissolves in water, it creates a weak acid that lowers the water’s pH. Today, the ocean has the lowest pH in the last million years. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “1-GW Solar Project Planned For Utah Hyperscale Data Center” • Millard County officials gave zoning approval for Creekstone Energy to build a solar project on 13,000 acres of state trust land to help power its hyperscale data center campus in Delta, Utah. Revenue generated from the lease will directly benefit the Utah public education system. [Solar Power World]
Data center campis (Delta Gigasite rendering)
¶ “Court Rejects Government Request For Empire Wind Stay” • A Washington, DC district court judge denied request from the Trump administration to delay judgement in its case against Equinor’s 810-MW Empire Wind, pending a further Bureau of Ocean Energy Management decision affecting the project. Work on the project has resumed. [reNews]
¶ “US Installed 43 GW Of Solar Capacity In 2025” • The US installed 43 GW of new solar capacity in 2025, marking the fifth consecutive year that solar was the largest source of new power added to the grid. The Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood Mackenzie said solar and energy storage accounted for 79% of all new capacity installed. [reNews]
Have a usefully creative day.
geoharvey 