Latest news with #solar power
BBC News
23-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Community groups call for locally-owned solar farms in Kent
Community groups in the South East are calling on ministers to "move faster" to help residents own and use locally-produced solar panels are a key part of the government's energy strategy, but are controversial, with residents campaigning against large scale farms that they fear will affect the local like Kent Community Energy say sites owned by the local community are more likely to gain support, because they allow profits from electricity sold to be re-invested in nearby charities and government said: "Community projects are at the heart of our 2030 clean power mission." Just outside Sittingbourne in Kent, two fields are covered in gleaming solar produces five megawatts (MW) of electricity, and together they can produce enough energy to power around 7,000 unlike many privately-owned solar farms, the profits made from selling the energy produced here are put back into the local community. 'What's not to like?' Michael Bax, managing director of Kent Community Energy, which owns one of the two sites, says the money they make is re-invested into the business and given to local charities."Kent Community Energy is owned by ordinary people in Kent and elsewhere... every penny that we make is put back into the Kent community," he believes this model of producing energy is the future."You only have to look at this site, it's quiet, it's friendly to nature. We're a haven to birds and biodiversity," he added."Yesterday we generated 37,000 kilowatt hours (kWh), that's enough to power about 3,500 houses without a single drop of carbon being produced."So from our point of view, what's not to like?" However, there are groups of residents across the region who are not so keen on particular, large scale solar Cleve Hill project, which covers more than 950 acres of farmland near Faversham, equivalent in size to four Bluewater shopping centres, has attracted multiple protests from local residents, worried about the impact on the landscape and plans for an even larger site at Romney Marsh have drawn similar concerns. The local Reform Kent county councillor, David Wimble, oversees environment for the said: "I've got nothing against solar farms, per se, but what I do have a problem with is them being on grade A agricultural land."I think food security is just as important, if not more important, than solar."He added that he intended to fight projects like these."I'm just about to set up something called the Kent Solar Forum to get all the [protest groups] together and have one voice. We just think it's too much." The government has made solar power a key part of its energy strategy to reach net zero carbon have vowed to generate enough clean power to meet Britain's total annual electricity demand by 2030 - including up to 47 gigawatts of they know they could have a fight on their asked about local opposition to projects earlier this year, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said: "If we don't [build solar] we are going to be exposed as a country to those fossil fuels which have caused such damage to so many people".Those behind community-owned power believe government need to do more to unlock community schemes, which they say will help bring more residents on Pendered is the chief executive of Community Energy Pathways, which supports community energy groups to get themselves said local people could "take ownership" of these projects, "harness community benefits... and mould them into what they want to see locally".But he wants ministers to go further, by making it easier for residents to use the energy produced from local projects to power their own homes and bring down bills."That's something that needs to be unlocked by government. It enables people to keep the power in the local community and use that power locally, it just makes complete sense," he said.A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: "Community projects are at the heart of our 2030 clean power mission, and through Great British Energy, we're putting power back into the hands of the people by giving communities a stake in their energy supply and ensuring they can reap the benefits."There is nothing to prevent suppliers from selling their power via local electricity tariffs, and they do not have to sell it back to the grid."However, the government has said it recognises that there is scope to better enable local energy markets, and it is exploring this further.
The Independent
22-07-2025
- Business
- The Independent
UN says booming solar, wind and other green energy hits global tipping point for ever lower costs
The global switch to renewable energy has passed a 'positive tipping point' where solar and wind power will become even cheaper and more widespread, according to two United Nations reports released Tuesday, describing a bright spot amid otherwise gloomy progress to curb climate change. Last year, 74% of the growth in electricity generated worldwide was from wind, solar and other green sources, according to the U.N.'s multiagency report, called Seizing the Moment of Opportunity. It found that 92.5% of all new electricity capacity added to the grid worldwide in that time period came from renewables. Meanwhile, sales of electric vehicles are up from 500,000 in 2015 to more than 17 million in 2024. The three cheapest electricity sources globally last year were onshore wind, solar panels and new hydropower, according to an energy cost report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Solar power now is 41% cheaper and wind power is 53% cheaper globally than the lowest-cost fossil fuel, the reports said. Fossil fuels, which are the chief cause of climate change, include coal, oil and natural gas. 'The fossil fuel age is flailing and failing,' United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in Tuesday morning speech unveiling the reports. 'We are in the dawn of a new energy era. An era where cheap, clean, abundant energy powers a world rich in economic opportunity.' 'Just follow the money,' Guterres said, quoting the reports that showed last year there was $2 trillion in investment in green energy, which is about $800 billion more than in fossil fuels. UN officials say switch to renewables needs to speed up Still, United Nations officials said the switch to renewable energy, while remarkable compared to 10 years ago, is not happening fast enough. The global renewables growth has been mostly in developed countries such as China — where one-tenth of the economy is tied up in green energy — as well as countries such as India and Brazil. Yet Africa represented less than 2% of the new green energy capacity installed last year despite having great electrification needs, the reports said. United Nations officials blamed the high cost of capital for the Global South. 'The Global South must be empowered to generate its own electricity without adding to already unsustainable level of debts,' said Bahamian climate scientist Adelle Thomas of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Thomas, who did not work on the reports, added that they debunk the myth that clean energy cannot compete with fossil fuels, instead showing a clean energy future is not just possible but likely inevitable. The U.N. reports are 'right on the money," said University of Michigan environment dean Jonathan Overpeck, who also wasn't part of the studies. He said the economic tipping point leads to a cycle that keeps driving renewable costs down and makes fossil fuel power less and less desirable. Renewables grow despite high subsidies for fossil fuels And renewables are booming despite fossil fuels getting nearly nine times the government consumption subsidies as they do, Guterres and the reports said. In 2023, global fossil fuel subsidies amounted to $620 billion, compared to $70 billion for renewables, the U.N. report said. But just as renewables are booming, fossil fuel production globally is still increasing, instead of going down in response. United Nations officials said that's because power demand is increasing overall, spurred by developing countries, artificial intelligence data centers and the need for cooling in an ever warmer world. 'A typical AI data center eats up as much electricity as 100,000 homes,' Guterres said. 'By 2030 data centers could consume as much electricity as all of Japan does today.' So Guterres called on the world's major tech firms to power data centers completely with renewables by 2030. Solar and wind power face US cuts to renewable energy programs In the United States, solar and wind power had been growing at a rate of 12.3% per year from 2018 to 2023, the IRENA report said. But since President Donald Trump took office earlier this year, his administration has withdrawn the nation from the landmark Paris climate accord and cut many federal renewable energy programs, with a renewed emphasis on fossil fuels. Guterres warned nations hanging on to fossil fuels that they were heading down a dangerous path that would make them poorer not richer, without naming the United States specifically. 'Countries that cling to fossil fuels are not protecting their economies, they sabotaging them. Driving up costs. Undermining competitiveness. Locking in stranded assets,' Guterres said. Renewables are the smart way to go for energy security, Guterres said. With renewables, he said, 'there are no price spikes for sunlight. No embargoes on wind.' ___ The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How a Robinhood co-founder launched a space-lasers startup
Baiju Bhatt became a billionaire after co-founding Robinhood, the zero-commission online brokerage that became synonymous with the 2021 meme-stock craze. His ambitions for his next act may be more outlandish. Aetherflux, the company Bhatt launched after leaving Robinhood last year, is trying to turn a science fiction idea that Isaac Asimov first sketched out in 1941 into commercial reality: capturing solar power in space and then beaming it down to earth. Others — including NASA, where Bhatt's father worked — have pursued the idea before and given up. Bhatt's twist on Asimov's concept is to deploy a constellation of small satellites in low Earth orbit, from which to transmit power to small ground stations using infrared lasers. He aims to reach parts of the globe where traditional delivery of power or fuel is difficult, expensive, or dangerous. Bhatt has identified the US Department of Defense as a possible early adopter, and as Aetherflux plays into President Donald Trump's 'energy dominance' agenda, it has secured an undisclosed amount of funding from the Pentagon. Aetherflux has raised another $50 million from more traditional startup funders including Andreessen Horowitz, Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and Bhatt's Robinhood co-founder, Vlad Tenev. It will take another 'hundreds of millions, if not billions' to put Bhatt's plan into action, he acknowledges, but he is planning to launch a 'demonstration mission' within a year. The Stanford physics graduate is leaning into his startup's sci-fi image, decorating one wall of its offices in San Carlos, California, with a madcap, retro-futurist mural featuring bionic presidents, a space-suited bald eagle, and a giant American flag against a galactic backdrop. The country's capitalist economy, where entrepreneurs are willing to put risk capital on the line for a venture like his, 'sets America apart,' Bhatt believes. And he hopes to let more people 'live out their dreams of the cosmos.' His pursuit of the resources needed to bring an unproven concept to life is an extreme example of the task facing most startup founders. Here's how Bhatt's trying to 'yank [Asimov's idea] from the pages of science fiction and manifest it in the world.' Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson: Can we start with the space lasers? This sounds like sci-fi. What makes you think it might work? Baiju Bhatt: This was the meaty challenge that I was looking to sink my teeth into [after Robinhood]. My motive was to take something which looked and felt like science fiction, and try to make it a science reality — and to build a business in the process. Our approach from the beginning has been: How can we [develop] this capability with existing building blocks, without needing to have individual scientific breakthroughs? It means that most, if not all, of the components for our demonstration mission are either commercially available or are modifications to things that are commercially available. How do you raise funds for something that has been tried in the past and failed, which might take years to pay off? I say pretty often that space is hard and space is expensive. And one of the fun parts about this is just being very open and direct about [the fact that] we're working on a very, very difficult problem. That being said, I've done this before. I've built a pretty big company. And this is a big and bold mission that we're pursuing. So while our path towards getting there is going to be challenging, and it's going to be a long-term one, we're trying to tackle one of the foundational pillars of the economy. Even putting aside the financial opportunity, this has the potential to be transformative and those things tend to be pretty interesting. If you can make them happen, they change the world. What did you learn from Robinhood that has been valuable to you in founding Aetherflux? A part of what makes this intellectually compelling to me is that it's not the exact same thing. Because why does a person go from finance to starting a space company? It's because you want a challenge. There's a lot of parts of building a company that are transferable, like team-building, recruiting, fundraising, communications, telling the story of the company, making sure that there are clear goals in mind, and orienting people towards a mission. There's also a magic and a camaraderie that comes from working together on a small team on something. Hopefully, when people join a company like this, they want to do the work that is going to be some of the most exciting, impactful work of their life. And the way that you get people to sign up for something like this is you speak to that. You say, 'If we can do this, we change the way that humans interact with space.' What percentage chance do you put on this working out? Will it be successful? Hopefully. Are we going to work hard to make it successful? Yes. Personally, looking at those 10 to 15 years [at Robinhood], what is the thing I'm trying to relive? The thing I'm chasing is the uncertainty, working on something where not a lot of other people are working on it. But I, in my mind's eye, have an inclination that this is the right thing to do, and that the path to doing it is the way that I foresee it's going to play out. And [looking back and asking myself], 'How did you, Baiju, solve the problem along the way, so that you found your way out of the uncertainty?' I miss the times when I didn't know, and then I did know. Tell me about the wall art. It's 20 feet tall, and it's probably 80 feet wide. The concept behind this is the painting of George Washington crossing the Delaware. But instead of on a boat, I wanted him crossing the Van Allen [radiation] belt on a satellite. Then I wanted to have the founding fathers or important US presidents, shirtless and ripped. We've got Nikola Tesla, Thomas Jefferson, a hairless cat, George Washington, and Abe Lincoln. Over here we have a T-Rex. That's Ben Franklin, with a Chippendales kind of thing going on. There's Teddy Roosevelt, there's [Ronald] Reagan. That's me — and Tupac [Shakur]. Arizona-based Solestial raised $17 million in May to continue funding its space-based solar panel technology, indicating there is strong investor interest in the once sci-fi concept. Space energy experts have recently warned US lawmakers that the nation could fall behind China in the race to harvest solar power from space. 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Asharq Al-Awsat
11-07-2025
- Business
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Solar Becomes Europe's Main Energy Source in June
Solar power became the European Union's biggest single energy source for the first time in June, an energy think tank said Thursday. The Ember group that researches the clean energy transition said that 22.1 percent of Europe's power in June came from solar panels, reported AFP. That came ahead of nuclear power on 21.8 percent and wind turbines on 15.8 percent, according to the British-based institution. Gas accounted for 14.4 percent and hydropower 12.8 percent. Ember said that at least 13 countries beat their national record for solar power production. Wind power production also hit a new record for Europe and coal has never accounted for such a low proportion of Europe's electricity output -- Ember estimated it at 6.1 percent across the continent, down from 8.8 percent in 2024. But with demand for electricity rising, the use of coal in the first half of 2025 was still higher than the same period in 2024, Ember said. Electricity demand in the first six months was more than two percent higher than last year.
News.com.au
11-07-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Solar becomes Europe's main energy source in June: consultants
Solar power became the European Union's biggest single energy source for the first time in June, an energy think tank said Thursday. The Ember group that researches the clean energy transition said that 22.1 percent of Europe's power in June came from solar panels. That came ahead of nuclear power on 21.8 percent and wind turbines on 15.8 percent, according to the British-based institution. Gas accounted for 14.4 percent and hydropower 12.8 percent. Ember said that at least 13 countries beat their national record for solar power production. Wind power production also hit a new record for Europe and coal has never accounted for such a low proportion of Europe's electricity output -- Ember estimated it at 6.1 percent across the continent, down from 8.8 percent in 2024. But with demand for electricity rising, the use of coal in the first half of 2025 was still higher than the same period in 2024, Ember said. Electricity demand in the first six months was more than two percent higher than last year.
