Why Putting Solar Canopies on Parking Lots Is a Smart Green Move
Fly into Orlando, Florida, and you may notice a 22-acre solar power array in the shape of Mickey Mouse’s head in a field just west of Disney World. Nearby, Disney…
Wrong Turn: America’s Car Culture and the Road Not Taken
If you lived in the suburbs in the 1970s, you can see it in your mind’s eye: driveway after driveway filled with Country Squires and Pontiac Safaris and Buick Estate…
More Energy on Less Land: The Drive to Shrink Solar’s Footprint
From the ground, the new solar farm shimmers like a mirage oasis on a hot summer day. Instead of row after slanting row of shiny panels stretching taller than corn,…
As Millions of Solar Panels Age Out, Recyclers Hope to Cash In
In Odessa, Texas, workers at a startup called SolarCycle unload trucks carrying end-of-life photovoltaic panels freshly picked from commercial solar farms across the United States. They separate the panels from…
In Rush for Key Metals, Canada Ushers Miners to Its Fragile North
In the wilderness north of Great Slave Lake, in Canada’s Northwest Territories, mining companies are eyeing a potential treasure trove of critical minerals as demand for lithium, nickel, graphite, and…
How a Solar Revolution in Farming Is Depleting World’s Groundwater
There is a solar-powered revolution going on in the fields of India. By 2026, more than 3 million farmers will be raising irrigation water from beneath their fields using solar-powered…
Can a California Oilfield Be Retrofitted to Store Solar Energy?
Down on the south end of California’s San Joaquin Valley, oil rigs have plumbed the earth like flocks of blackened drinking birds for more than a century. Now, they’re fast…
With Hotter, Drier Weather, California’s Joshua Trees Are in Trouble
In 2020, the Dome Fire swept through Southern California’s Mojave National Preserve, blackening nearly 70 square miles of highly biodiverse desert. The conflagration killed 1.3 million Joshua trees, including most…
Trump 2.0: This Time the Stakes for Climate Are Even Higher
ANALYSIS Donald Trump has promised to halt federal climate action and repeal the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act, which provides unprecedented spending for clean energy. The market momentum for renewables and…
As Drought Shrivels Hydro, This African Nation Pivots to Solar
“When the lights are off, people think that my shop is closed.” As the sun sets on Lusaka, Zambia’s capital, Emmanuel Simukoko explains why his business has suffered from the…