Energy

Solar, wind, batteries, green hydrogen and power grids

The Energy section of ECOnews covers solar and wind power, offshore wind farms, batteries and energy storage, green hydrogen, nuclear power and power grids. Follow the projects, records and innovations changing how the world produces and uses electricity.

Solar panels and wind turbines at the Wheatridge Renewable Energy Facility in eastern Oregon.

Oregon built a wind, solar and battery site for 100,000 homes, but a 10-ounce endangered squirrel still decides when crews can dig

By ECONEWS

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September 3, 2026 at 5:00 PM

Solar panels installed above rows of grapevines at an agrivoltaic vineyard in Saint-André-de-Lidon, France.

A French winegrower put 6,000 solar panels over his vines, and the hardest climate trade-off may be the name on the bottle

By Adrian Villellas

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September 3, 2026 at 8:45 AM

Aerial view of solar panels stretching over the Casa Blanca Canal across the Arizona desert.

Arizona covered a desert canal with 2,556 solar panels, and the first U.S. pilot is testing whether expensive shade can save water

By ECONEWS

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September 2, 2026 at 10:15 AM

Marine life around an offshore wind turbine foundation in the waters off Taiwan.

Engineers drove enormous steel foundations directly into bare Atlantic sand to hold offshore wind turbines upright, and what happens around those artificial structures afterward is changing the seabed in ways nobody designed them for

By ECONEWS

—

September 1, 2026 at 6:30 AM

Cows and calves grazing beneath CattleTracker solar panels at Silicon Ranch in Tennessee.

A Tennessee solar farm is letting cows graze beneath moving panels, and the experiment could change what happens to farmland under clean energy

By ECONEWS

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August 31, 2026 at 3:00 PM

Ship operating beside an offshore wind turbine in dense fog at sea.

Ships sailing between offshore wind turbines face a problem that barely existed a generation ago, and with thousands more giant towers heading to European waters authorities are rethinking how vessels navigate through these artificial forests

By ECONEWS

—

August 29, 2026 at 5:00 PM

Floating solar panel system built on a circular salmon farming pen in southern Chile.

An island off Chile turned to solar panels floating on water for electricity, and the unusual installation shows what happens when renewable energy has to work somewhere ordinary land-based solar simply does not fit

By Adrian Villellas

—

August 28, 2026 at 6:45 AM

Artist's impression of the proposed Mersey Tidal Power barrage across the River Mersey.

Britain wants to build a wall across a working river with 28 turbines, hold back a 33-foot tide and generate power for 120 years, but the giant project still has not been told exactly where to stand

By Adrian Villellas

—

August 23, 2026 at 6:26 PM

An IceCube mDOM sensor is lowered into a deep borehole in the Antarctic ice.

IceCube’s detector spreads 5,160 light sensors across a cubic kilometer of Antarctic ice between 1,450 and 2,450 meters deep, using Earth itself as a shield to catch neutrinos arriving upward from the northern sky

By ECONEWS

—

August 20, 2026 at 6:30 PM

Aerial view of solar panels installed on a former landfill in New Haven, Connecticut.

New Haven placed 1,900 solar panels on a former landfill, producing 1.4 million kilowatt-hours yearly for 200 homes and $1.5 million over 20 years, while 63 gigawatts of capacity wait across 4,312 closed sites

By Adrian Villellas

—

August 20, 2026 at 4:44 PM

Aerial view of the Boswell Energy Center in Cohasset, Minnesota, where an 85-megawatt solar project is being developed.

Minnesota’s Boswell Solar project brings 177,675 panels and 85 megawatts to a coal-fired site, inheriting an old grid connection in a rare test of how infrastructure shapes renewable cost.

By ECONEWS

—

August 18, 2026 at 11:30 AM

Large piles of discarded wind turbine blades cut into sections for disposal.

Wyoming’s landfill holds 1,124 wind turbine blades, but a Missouri cement plant has already found a second life for 7,000 more

By ECONEWS

—

August 16, 2026 at 6:30 AM

PNNL chemist Chinmayee Subban demonstrates technology developed to extract magnesium from seawater.

Scientists say one thousandth of the ocean holds enough lithium and magnesium to last 50,000 years, but an Olympic pool of seawater shows why almost nobody can get it out

By ECONEWS

—

August 15, 2026 at 6:30 AM

Crane loads a rock-filled barge on a river, similar to the barges used to redirect Danube flow in Romania

Romania sank four rock-filled barges into the Danube to keep a nuclear reactor running, and the river rose an inch and a half when forecasters had expected a drop

By ECONEWS

—

August 14, 2026 at 11:30 AM

Technicians install rooftop solar panels on a residential home in Australia under the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme.

Australia’s clean energy regulator suspended 21 solar companies at once, and the artificial intelligence now checking battery photographs is what households should understand before signing a rooftop quote

By ECONEWS

—

August 13, 2026 at 12:34 PM

Australian home with rooftop solar panels and a residential battery system.

Only 24% of Australian battery owners have joined a virtual power plant, and the reason is not the money, because those who joined cut their bills by up to 63%

By Adrian Villellas

—

August 13, 2026 at 6:30 AM

Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant beside the Danube River in Romania.

Romania declares an energy alert as the Danube falls too low to cool its nuclear reactors, a climate-driven power crisis

By Adrian Villellas

—

August 12, 2026 at 6:29 PM

Water released through outlet works at Glen Canyon Dam into the Colorado River.

Glen Canyon Dam cools the Colorado River to stop invasive fish, a counterintuitive strategy that worked through 2024 and beyond

By Adrian Villellas

—

August 12, 2026 at 8:45 AM

Rendering of the planned GW Ranch AI data center and natural gas power project in Pecos County, Texas.

Amazon builds a 35-turbine gas plant in Texas for its AI data centers, betting raw fossil power on artificial intelligence

By ECONEWS

—

August 11, 2026 at 6:34 PM

Offshore wind turbines surrounded by visible fog wakes at the Horns Rev wind farm in the North Sea.

On February 12, 2008, a Danish offshore wind farm produced strange white trails behind its turbines, and scientists discovered that the rotating blades were mixing the layers of air with enough intensity to contribute to fog formation

By ECONEWS

—

August 11, 2026 at 12:33 PM

Previous Next

Energy

Oregon built a wind, solar and battery site for 100,000 homes, but a 10-ounce endangered squirrel still decides when crews can dig

A French winegrower put 6,000 solar panels over his vines, and the hardest climate trade-off may be the name on the bottle

Arizona covered a desert canal with 2,556 solar panels, and the first U.S. pilot is testing whether expensive shade can save water

Engineers drove enormous steel foundations directly into bare Atlantic sand to hold offshore wind turbines upright, and what happens around those artificial structures afterward is changing the seabed in ways nobody designed them for

A Tennessee solar farm is letting cows graze beneath moving panels, and the experiment could change what happens to farmland under clean energy

Ships sailing between offshore wind turbines face a problem that barely existed a generation ago, and with thousands more giant towers heading to European waters authorities are rethinking how vessels navigate through these artificial forests

An island off Chile turned to solar panels floating on water for electricity, and the unusual installation shows what happens when renewable energy has to work somewhere ordinary land-based solar simply does not fit

Britain wants to build a wall across a working river with 28 turbines, hold back a 33-foot tide and generate power for 120 years, but the giant project still has not been told exactly where to stand

IceCube’s detector spreads 5,160 light sensors across a cubic kilometer of Antarctic ice between 1,450 and 2,450 meters deep, using Earth itself as a shield to catch neutrinos arriving upward from the northern sky

New Haven placed 1,900 solar panels on a former landfill, producing 1.4 million kilowatt-hours yearly for 200 homes and $1.5 million over 20 years, while 63 gigawatts of capacity wait across 4,312 closed sites

Minnesota’s Boswell Solar project brings 177,675 panels and 85 megawatts to a coal-fired site, inheriting an old grid connection in a rare test of how infrastructure shapes renewable cost.

Wyoming’s landfill holds 1,124 wind turbine blades, but a Missouri cement plant has already found a second life for 7,000 more

Scientists say one thousandth of the ocean holds enough lithium and magnesium to last 50,000 years, but an Olympic pool of seawater shows why almost nobody can get it out

Romania sank four rock-filled barges into the Danube to keep a nuclear reactor running, and the river rose an inch and a half when forecasters had expected a drop

Australia’s clean energy regulator suspended 21 solar companies at once, and the artificial intelligence now checking battery photographs is what households should understand before signing a rooftop quote

Only 24% of Australian battery owners have joined a virtual power plant, and the reason is not the money, because those who joined cut their bills by up to 63%

Romania declares an energy alert as the Danube falls too low to cool its nuclear reactors, a climate-driven power crisis

Glen Canyon Dam cools the Colorado River to stop invasive fish, a counterintuitive strategy that worked through 2024 and beyond

Amazon builds a 35-turbine gas plant in Texas for its AI data centers, betting raw fossil power on artificial intelligence

On February 12, 2008, a Danish offshore wind farm produced strange white trails behind its turbines, and scientists discovered that the rotating blades were mixing the layers of air with enough intensity to contribute to fog formation

Germany now has a truck with no cab hauling Lidl groceries on a public road up to three times a day, and one human job still travels with it in a separate vehicle

Farmers can plant this perennial grain once and harvest it for several years while its roots reach 10 feet deep, and researchers say the catch shows up in the grain bin after the second harvest

A farmer digging in a Swiss marsh took a 5,500-year-old board for a box lid or a bench, and it turned out to be one of the oldest preserved doors in Europe

A Patagonian sheep ranch that once held 40,535 sheep is now home to one of Argentina’s main Magellanic penguin colonies, and the twist is that the birds were already nesting there while the flocks grazed down their cover

Farmers in Australia are spreading recycled glass fertilizer made from empty bottles, its maker relays a farm manager’s claim of lower inputs, and its own savings figures are still being confirmed

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