The smarter E

Technology isn't the problem anymore. Clean power scales fast. The slowdowns now: outdated permitting, slow transmission buildouts, limited storage financing. Countries clearing these hurdles first will cut costs and reduce fuel imports.

Global Renewable Energy Investment Still Reaches New Record as Investors Reassess Risks | BloombergNEF Global investment for new renewable energy development reached a record $386 billion during the first half of 2025, according to BloombergNEF’s 2H 2025 Renewable Energy Investment Tracker.

Global renewable energy #investment reached $386 billion in first half 2025. That's not just big economies - the Caribbean released a roadmap to hit 100% renewable energy by 2035. Rocky Mountain Institute says it's technically feasible and financially smart. https://bit.ly/4p23GRl
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California’s Battery Storage Fleet Continues Record Growth, Strengthening Grid Reliability SACRAMENTO — At the UN Climate Change Conference in Brazil, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that California has reached 16,942 megawatts (MW) of battery storage available — a massive buildout that’s redefining grid reliability and accelerating the state’s transition to 100% clean energy.

#California's battery fleet hit 16,942 MW by mid-November - a 2,100% increase since 2019. That's enough storage to power 13 million homes for 4 hours. California Energy Commission data shows storage is finally catching up to generation. https://bit.ly/483wd2R
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WWEA Half-year Report 2025: Global Wind Power Growth Accelerates in the First Half of 2025 WWEA Half-year Report 2025: Global Wind Power Growth Accelerates in the First Half of 2025 Nov 10, 2025 WWEA Half-year Report 2025 Global Wind Power Growth Accelerates in the First Half of 2025  The report can here be downloaded in pdf format  The world’s wind power sector recorded strong growt...

#Wind installations jumped 64% in first half 2025 - reaching 72.2 GW globally. That's the fastest half-year growth on record. Europe's grid operators said they're ready for winter, crediting increased renewable capacity. https://bit.ly/48ndVsf
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January through September 2025: #solar and wind added 635 TWh to the global grid. Demand grew by 603 TWh. Clean energy pulled ahead by 32 TWh. Fossil generation stayed flat - didn't grow for the first time in decades. Ember data. https://bit.ly/3LW2oZr
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Six times in November, clean energy exceeded new global demand. For the first time on record, solar and wind added more power than the world needed to grow. Here's what changed. 
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Public trust in science eroded by UN climate change language, study suggests The United Nations' climate change body may unintentionally be eroding public trust in science because of the way it communicates risk, new University of Essex research shows.

Words are doing weird things to climate science. Researchers found calling a 20% event "unlikely" makes people think it's fake news - even when 97% of scientists agree it could happen. Language matters.

Grid scale batteries are coming and fast.

Snapshot of grid BESS installations in YTD 2025 (Jan-Oct 2025) vs YTD 2024 (Jan-Oct 2024):

• Global: +38%
• China: +27%
• Europe: +21%
• North America: +21%
• ROW: +242%

Data from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence

rhomotion.com/news/global-...

Workforce Readiness Must Be Prioritised to Meet Projected Wind Roll-Out Explore the Beijing Declaration on Wind Energy 2.0: A global call to action to scale wind power, boost collaboration, and advance the clean energy transition.

Workforce Readiness Must Be Prioritised to Meet Projected Wind Roll-Out

628,000 technicians will be needed to build and maintain wind fleets, as global wind energy capacity is projected to grow by 86,5% over the next five years

Small island, big lesson. Siquijor's diesel monopoly collapsed and cut power to 100,000 people. Their response: solar farms, rooftop panels, battery storage. They're not waiting for centralized solutions. They're building energy independence now. https://bit.ly/4rni487

🟢 #SustainableSolarEU is off to a shining start!

CEO of Solar Promotion, Markus Elsässer, opens today’s conference:

“Solar power generation reached 2 TW for the first time last year. Solar power can help build more resilient, secure and sustainable societies.”

Today about 2 billion people lack access to clean cooking & some 730 million remain without power

Our path shows achieving electricity for all by 2035 & clean cooking by 2040 are in reach if efforts scale to match the strongest progress in recent years: iea.li/48HCQrL

🌟 Congratulations to the winners of the 2025 #RGIGridAwards 🏆
At the @ec.europa.eu's 6th PCI Energy Days in Brussels, four outstanding practices were honoured with the Good Practice of the Year Award and took home their golden pylon.

Read our press release: renewables-grid.eu/news/rgi-gri...

Alberta introduces new plan to incentivize data centres to power themselves | CBC News New Alberta legislation would allow electricity-hungry data centres to generate their own power, should the legislature approve the changes.

The numbers tell the story: 37 data centres want grid access in Alberta. Combined demand: 19 GW. Current provincial generation: 9.5 GW. New legislation requires self-supply or transmission upgrades at builder cost.

Illustration promoting a webinar titled ‘Crossing the last mile in climate services: Putting policies into action’, showing people analysing climate maps on a large screen with symbols for wind, rain, snow, sun and temperature. EU and Green Deal Projects Support Office branding included.

See how EU research drives climate service uptake at scale.

This webinar will allow researchers to unpack real deployment barriers and discover four EU-funded R&I projects turn climate services data into tools used by stakeholders and citizens across Europe.

Register here: link.europa.eu/jtk7kD

SolarPower Europe Calls for Battery Storage Action Plan - Battery-News Based on own market research, SolarPower Europe has called on the European Commission to develop a special action plan for battery storage.

☀️ SolarPower Europe Calls for Battery Storage Action Plan!

Let's supercharge Europe with #10XBatteryStorage

Read more 👉 battery-news.de/en/2025/11/1...

Surprise: Cleantech Spending May Hit Record Despite Trump’s Carbon Push This week’s Current Climate newsletter also looks at how AI is ushering in a new nuclear age and investing in developing nations amid a pullback in U.S. aid and private funding

Clean tech spending may hit record high in US this year—DESPITE the political climate.

A structural shift: the transition is increasingly independent from temporary political will. Falling costs, long-term investment cycles & state-level momentum are driving growth.

www.forbes.com/sites/curren...

Battery storage hit 375 GWh globally in early 2024 - double the year before. China added 100 GWh, US added 35 GWh. Costs dropped under $300/kWh. Rystad projects 4 TWh by 2040. Storage is replacing gas as the grid's backup plan. https://bit.ly/485KzQi

Africa's solar power revolution driven by China's investment – DW – 11/25/2025 Chinese solar equipment has been flooding African markets, partly as a ripple effect of the US-China trade war. It's one of several factors helping the continent gain traction with electrification.

In 12 months, China shipped 15 GW of solar to Africa - more than the continent installed in 25 years. Nigeria's ditching diesel. Zambia, Rwanda picking up speed and solar's down to $0.044/kWh. https://p.dw.com/p/53pkB #Renewables #Solar

Brazil's the only G20 country on track to triple renewables by 2030. Wind and solar hit 34% in August - carried the grid through drought when hydro couldn't deliver. But solar installs dropped 28% this year. Regulatory drift is killing momentum. https://bit.ly/48EeEXH

Boosting Poland’s green transition & economic competitiveness.

🍃With €600m in backing, we’re the lead financier of Ocean Winds’ new Baltic Sea offshore windfarm. It will deliver clean energy to nearly 500,000 homes & businesses every year.
➡️ go.eib.org/Poland_EIB

Solar energy protects German vineyards from climate change – DW – 11/30/2025 As viticulture suffers from the effects of climate change, German researchers are experimenting with technology that fosters growth while also harvesting electricity.

Solar energy protects German vineyards from climate change

Researchers experimenting with technology that fosters viticulture growth while also harvesting electricity

Money on the line: scaling electricity interconnection for Europe's energy future | Ember Europe’s current pipeline of cross-border transmission projects falls short of what’s required for an optimised power system in 2040.

Money on the line: scaling electricity interconnection for Europe’s energy future

Europe’s current pipeline of cross-border transmission projects falls short of what’s required for an optimised power system in 2040

AI boom is turning Malaysia’s palm oil estates into data centres KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia’s palm oil giants, long-blamed for razing rainforests, fuelling toxic haze and driving orangutans to the brink of extinction, are recasting themselves as unlikely champions in a different, potentially greener race: the quest to lure the world’s artificial intelligence (AI) data centres to the Southeast Asian country.

Big shift in #Malaysia: palm oil giant SD Guthrie is turning 10,000 hectares into solar farms and data centers. Aiming for 1 GW in 3 years. Why? Solar’s pulling 50× more profit than palm. The land's worth more catching sun than growing it.

From now until 2035 on our net zero pathway:

▶️ Renewable capacity grows nearly four-fold
▶️ Installed nuclear capacity rises 70%
▶️ Sustainable fuel production grows more than 4X
▶️ Energy productivity expands 60%
▶️ Methane emissions drop 80%

More 👉 iea.li/4rtMohE

Nepal has become an electric vehicle leader - 80% of cars imported in December were battery electric.

This is leapfrogging par excellence.

New data shows the world is embracing renewable energy. Canada can’t follow Trump’s fossil fuel obsession North America at risk of becoming an island of fossil fuels in an electrifying world. Canada should take note and choose a better path.

New from me, Rick Smith, and Peter Nicholson.

“Our policy advice is pretty simple: Clean up electricity and electrify everything possible. This is the nation-building project Canada needs…”

www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

Rondo Energy deploys Southeast Asia’s ‘first industrial Heat Battery’ Rondo and SCG Cleanergy have commenced operation of Southeast Asia's first industrial thermal BESS at SCG's cement plant in Thailand.

Heavy-industry sectors like cement have long struggled to decarbonise because their processes require very high temperatures.

That’s why the new Rondo Energy heat-battery project in Thailand is such a big deal - powering a cement plant with low-carbon steam.
www.energy-storage.news/rondo-energy...

Tournai : un petit agriculteur attaque en justice TotalEnergies pour dénoncer une responsabilité du géant du pétrole dans le dérèglement climatique - RTBF Actus On l'appelle le 'FARMER CASE'. C'est un procès unique en Belgique, le premier du genre. Un paysan de Bois-de-Lessines,...

A Belgian farmer just sued #TotalEnergies for climate-related crop damage - the first case of its kind there. Backed by 9,000+ citizens. Meanwhile, Total plans to ramp up oil production in 2025. 

Spain just locked in cheap solar for a decade. Poland’s bundling rooftop solar + heat pumps - bills down 60%. Norway? 94% of new cars are EVs now. This isn’t theory anymore. The shift’s happening. And yeah, it saves you money. #EUenergy