SteveKLord

If you want to buy an electric vehicle—or solar panels or a heat pump or home battery—there’s a short window of time to make use of the existing federal tax credits currently available. Under the Inflation Reduction Act, the tax credits were supposed to last 10 years. Now, thanks to the Republican One Big Beautiful Bill, there are only about 10 weeks left to claim the EV tax credits before they disappear. Other clean energy tax credits will expire at the end of the year. Here’s what you need to know if you want to make use of them to help cut emissions and save on your energy bills.

Market intelligence firm Rho Motion, the downstream arm of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, says it tracked 7.95 GW / 22.2 GWh of new global battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity entering commercial operations in June 2025.

According to the company’s just updated “Battery Energy Stationary Storage Monthly Database,” this June capacity represents the highest monthly figure in 2025 so far and is up nearly 20% from the previous month. The data shows that over half of June’s installations were concentrated in China, maintaining the country’s dominance in the global energy storage market.

Deployed global capacity for the first half of 2025 culminates to 86.7 GWh of battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity, representing a year-on-year increase of 54%. The firm’s pipeline data indicates that the full year 2025 is currently tracking at just over 412 GWh of planned deployments.

The law that President Trump signed on July 4 ending tax incentives for wind and solar projects is expected to drive up electricity bills across the U.S., with some of the sharpest increases in Republican-led states, according to Energy Innovation, a nonpartisan think tank.

Without tax credits, the cost of wind and solar plants will go up. Companies are likely to respond by building fewer of those projects, and those facilities that do come online will have bigger price tags, according to multiple estimates. As that happens, the country is expected to generate more electricity from natural gas plants, which are often more expensive to run than wind and solar projects.

That shift will hit hardest in states that don't have their own policies to drive renewable energy development, says Dan O'Brien, a senior analyst at Energy Innovation. In Oklahoma, for example, homeowners, renters and businesses are likely to see electricity rates shoot up by between 60% and 350% over the next decade, according to Energy Innovation. The firm expects rates to rise by at least 48% in Kentucky, 39% in Missouri and 30% in Kansas. The congressional delegations of those states are overwhelmingly Republican.

It’s been about 10 years since I first heard the word “solarpunk.” It came to me via Facebook feed, in the form of a link to Adam Flynn’s “Solarpunk: Notes Toward a Manifesto.” As a lapsed writer of SFF and one-time poli-sci major, this was a pretty irresistible title for me. So I clicked.

The piece still holds up (I’ve assigned it a couple times). It’s a brief and elegant medley of imagery, references, and sloganeering. It had stuff to say about pop culture, and politics, and the looming climate crisis. For me, the most exciting part was that it implied a science fiction that wasn’t ‘space manifest destiny’ (which I could tell wasn’t happening) or 'cyberpunk singularity’ (which I’d soured on living in the shadow of Silicon Valley) or ‘dystopia/apocalypse’ (which was oversaturated in the post-Hunger Games/Walking Dead media landscape of the teens). And that science fiction had a catchy name that seemed to open up bright vistas of previously clouded possibility.

I was living in the Bay Area at the time and realized that actually I kinda knew Adam. We had met a friend’s birthday escape room night in SF Japantown. So I sent him a message, and we got a beer and talked solarpunk, and pretty soon I started thinking about what I had to say on the topic.

The result was a longread-style essay on Medium titled “On the Political Dimensions of Solarpunk." Now, a decade later, this is one of the pieces of writing I’m most known for. It’s been read tens of thousands of times, cited in at least a dozen graduate theses, and translated into several languages. Here at around the 10 year mark of my involvement in solarpunk, I want to look back on this piece, talk about how it’s held up, how solarpunk has evolved, and what might be next.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/24691019

I’m racing-downhill excited to announce the release of my latest solarpunk novel, Neon Riders. You can discover the ebook on this indie site. It will be findable on other channels eventually.

The illustration is by Neville Dsouza.

A recent story by The New Yorker dove into the astonishing growth of solar energy over the past few years. Among other extensive data, the magazine notes that renewables made up 96 percent of demand for new energy throughout the globe in 2024; In the United States, 93 percent of new energy capacity came from solar and wind.

But while renewables writ large are having their day, the speed at which solar energy in particular is growing blows everything else out of the water.

For example, it's now estimated that the world is now installing one gigawatt worth of solar energy infrastructure every 15 hours — or about the output of a new coal plant.

For some historical context, the New Yorker notes that it took 68 years since the invention of the first photovoltaic solar cell in 1954 to construct a single terawatt's worth of solar power. It took just two years to hit the second terawatt in 2024, and the third is expected within mere months.

This explosive growth has been fueled by huge efficiency gains in solar energy output, breakthroughs in manufacturing, and streamlined installation processes. There've also been huge developments in panel recycling, meaning the darker side of solar energy — mineral extraction and panel fabrication — might one day be a thing of the past.

China is on a mission, and it’s one that could change the face of its landscapes forever. The Gobi Desert, a vast and ever-expanding sandy expanse, has long posed a threat to the arable lands and communities on its periphery. But China has a plan—a colossal, audacious plan—to halt this relentless advance. Enter the Green Wall of China, a project as ambitious as it sounds. Similar to the Great Wall that once shielded the nation from invaders, this modern-day counterpart seeks to protect against a different kind of enemy: desertification. This living wall of trees stretches for thousands of kilometers, aiming to restore ecological balance and provide a green shield against the encroaching sands.

One of the key aspects of the Green Wall project is the involvement of local communities. By engaging farmers, herders, and residents in tree-planting efforts, the project fosters a sense of ownership and responsibility. This grassroots approach not only empowers communities but also provides economic benefits. The planting and maintenance of the Green Wall have created jobs, boosted local economies, and improved living standards. Moreover, the increased vegetation has enhanced agricultural productivity, providing a more stable food supply for the surrounding areas.

Solar energy experts in Germany are putting sun-catching cells under the magnifying glass with astounding results, according to multiple reports.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems team is perfecting the use of lenses to concentrate sunlight onto solar panels, reducing size and costs while increasing performance, Interesting Engineering and PV Magazine reported.

The "technology has the potential to contribute to the energy transition, facilitating the shift toward more sustainable and renewable energy sources by combining minimal carbon footprint and energy demand with low levelized cost of electricity," the researchers wrote in a study published by the IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics.

The sun-catcher is called a micro-concentrating photovoltaic, or CPV, cell. The lens makes it different from standard solar panels that convert sunlight to energy with average efficiency rates around 20%, per MarketWatch. Fraunhofer's improved CPV cell has an astounding 36% rate in ideal conditions and is made with lower-cost parts. It cuts semiconductor materials "by a factor of 1,300 and reduces module areas by 30% compared to current state-of-the-art CPV systems," per IE.

Dutch engineers are turning ordinary buildings into green, living ecosystems—literally. According to recent reports from the Netherlands, researchers have developed innovative “living bricks” that Support natural moss growth, transforming walls into vertical gardens that not only look stunning but help tackle urban Pollution and climate change.

These moss-covered bricks work like natural air filters. They absorb carbon dioxide and other air pollutants, actively purifying the surrounding air. And that’s not all—because moss retains moisture and thrives in humid environments, it also cools buildings by reducing heat absorption. That means these bricks can help cities stay cooler during increasingly frequent and severe heatwaves.

A new energy storage plant featuring sodium- and lithium-ion batteries has opened in China's Yunnan province.

The energy storage station, operated by China Southern Power Grid, is approximately 33,333 square meters in size and features over 150 battery compartments, according to CnEVPost.

The station's leader told news agency Xinhua that it has a top response speed that's six times faster than other sodium-ion batteries. It can also store up to 800,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per day, which is enough to power approximately 270,000 households.

PV Magazine explained that the station can serve over 30 wind and solar plants to mitigate the impact of intermittent supply. The article highlighted that the power station can adapt to changing energy access and stabilize delivery.

Combined, these benefits make it easier for cities, companies, and everyday people to have an energy source they can rely on. And one they can trust to release less planet-warming pollution than dirty fuels such as coal, oil, and gas.

As the Trump administration’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” eliminates many clean-energy incentives in the U.S., China continues huge investments in wind and solar power, reportedly accounting for 74 percent of all projects now under construction worldwide.

Something remarkable is happening beneath the waves off the coast of Rhode Island. What began as an offshore energy project has quietly turned into a massive, unexpected win for marine life. According to Chris Buxton, writing for Daily Kos, the five wind turbines near Block Island have triggered a boom in fish populations, transforming turbine foundations into thriving artificial reefs.

Fishermen were skeptical at first. But after the turbines went up in 2016, local Captain Hank Hewitt noticed black sea bass returning in record numbers. Within two years, their population had increased tenfold near the turbine sites. Other species like porgies and cod followed, drawn to the mussel-covered pylons and protected underwater spaces.

Science backs the fishermen’s stories. A seven-year study monitoring over 600,000 fish from 61 species found no harm to marine life—only growth. Similar results have been seen in Europe, where Danish and Belgian wind farms now host booming underwater communities.