Farming takes place in fields, greenhouses, and orchards, but photovoltaic (PV) cells require their own land to harness the sun's energy and generate electricity. The two weren't thought to live together well.

Two professors  from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem,  Prof. Lioz Etgar of the Institute of Chemistry and Prof. Haim Rabinowitch of the Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food, and Environment, have now worked together to create a prototype for a revolutionary PV cell. The new cell's performance has the potential to alter the laws of the solar energy and agricultural production game because its efficiency has been technologically shown.

The innovative solar cell is made to cover completely agricultural areas, such as greenhouses, orchards, fields, and water bodies, while generating green electricity and agricultural production simultaneously, without interfering with the natural habitats beneath the PV panels, without depleting natural resources, and without endangering the environment.

The team estimates this breakthrough will lower Israel's energy costs by 75%. In fact, they think that if Israel covered half of its greenhouses with these new cells, green electricity output would exceed Israel's national target for that year.

The new solar cells are built on crystals of perovskite, a mineral that was first found in 1839 and is a calcium titanium oxide that is reasonably simple to produce using inexpensive and readily available materials.

A chemical substitution makes the solar cells transparent to the most efficient area of the light spectrum that drives photosynthesis. A great part of the rest of the light energy is transformed into electricity.

“For years, it has been obvious that most light energy in agricultural greenhouses is wasted, as plants use only a fraction of the sunlight energy, while the rest is radiated back into the atmosphere,” Etgar explained. “In greenhouses, it becomes heat energy that growers need to get rid of during most months of the year. Our solution maximizes the production of solar electricity on agricultural land by up to 300%.”

Compared to silicon-based photovoltaic cells, the new cells are expected to have significantly reduced production costs. They will probably also significantly improve cultivation conditions in greenhouses by reducing heat, lowering greenhouse gas emissions and evapotranspiration, saving water, and protecting crops from weather damage.

All currently used methods for producing green energy on agricultural lands use silicon-based photovoltaic cells that are entirely or somewhat opaque to most visible light spectrums or are arranged in different arrays. Because of this, power generation is less efficient and agricultural production is consequently decreased.

Rabinowitch added, “This new development, which can be installed over any agricultural lands and any bodies of water, will make it possible to fully replace the roofs of most agricultural greenhouses, reduce heat levels and evapotranspiration in orchards and fields, and impairment of many fresh-water and coastal marine ecosystems on which rafts, or islands of solar cells are installed.”

Using these new cells will reduce agricultural costs and raise agricultural income and profitability, according to calculations based on existing data. The researchers declared that this was nothing short of a revolution.
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Israel has around 90,000 dunams [approximately 35 square miles] of greenhouses. Covering half of the greenhouse roofs with the new solar cells will provide a quantity of green electricity that enables Israel to exceed its 2050 national targets for green electricity production and carbon emission reduction. To put this development into perspective, the Mediterranean basin alone holds around two million dunams (770 sq. mi.) of greenhouses.

According to the head of the European Space Agency (ESA), Europe is exploring the development of space-based solar power to boost its energy independence and lower greenhouse gas emissions.

"It will be up to Europe, ESA and its Member States to push the envelope of technology to solve one of the most pressing problems for people on Earth of this generation," said Josef Aschbacher, director general of the space agency, an intergovernmental organization of 22 member states.

In the past, the space agency hired British and German consultancy companies to do studies on the costs and advantages of creating space-based solar power. To give European policymakers technical and programmatic knowledge, the ESA published the studies this past August.

Aschbacher will propose his Solaris Program to the ESA Council in November. Aschbacher has been trying to increase support for solar energy from space in Europe as a route to energy de-carbonization. This council determines the budget and priorities for ESA. The construction of the solar power system would start in 2025, according to Aschbacher's proposals.

The Positives. Space-based solar energy is simple to understand conceptually. Solar energy is captured by satellites orbiting high above the Earth's atmosphere. The satellites would then transform that energy into current and transmit it back to Earth via microwaves, where it is captured by photovoltaic cells or antennas and transformed into electricity for homes or businesses. There is no night or cloud cover to impede collection, and the solar incidence is significantly higher than in northern latitudes of the European continent, which are the main advantages of collecting solar energy from space as opposed to the ground.

The program proposes enormous installations in geostationary orbit that could supply between 25% and 30% of the yearly electricity demand for Europe, which is now estimated to be over 3,000 TWh. These technologies would be expensive to develop and implement, costing hundreds of billions of euros.

Why will it cost so much? Because it would take a constellation of many enormous satellites situated 36,000 kilometers from Earth to enable space-based solar power. Each of these satellites would be 10 or more times heavier than the 450 metric ton International Space Station, which took over a decade to build in low Earth orbit. The final launch of these satellites' components would need hundreds or, more likely, thousands of heavy lift rocket missions.

"Using projected near-term space lift capability, such as SpaceX’s Starship, and current launch constraints, delivering one satellite into orbit would take between 4 and 6 years," Frazer-Nash, the British Firm involved in the study states. "Providing the number of satellites to satisfy the maximum contribution… to the energy mix in 2050 would require a 200-fold increase over current space-lift capacity."

The Negatives. Although the idea of solar energy generated in space is intriguing, it is not without its detractors. Elon Musk, who one might expect supporting a system that is in space and produces solar energy, is one of the biggest opponents.

"It's the stupidest thing ever," he said, several years ago. "If anyone should like space solar power, it should be me. I've got a rocket company, and a solar company. I should be really on it. But it's super obviously not going to work. It has to be better than having solar panels on Earth. With a solar panel in orbit, you get twice the solar energy, but you've got to do a double conversion: Photon to electron to photon, back to electron. What's your conversion efficiency? All in, you're going to have a real hard time even getting to 50%. So just put that solar cell on Earth."

He is not alone either. Physicist Casey Handmer identified four cost drivers in an online analysis that will render space-based solar power unaffordable: transmission losses, heat losses, logistics expenses, and a space technology penalty. According to Handmer, the cost of space-based solar energy is at least "three orders of magnitude" more than energy sources on Earth.

"I can relax assumptions all day," Handmer wrote. "I can grant 100 percent transmission efficiency, $10/kg orbital launch costs, complete development and procurement cost parity, and a crippling land shortage on Earth. Even then, space-based solar power still won’t be able to compete. I can grant a post-scarcity fully automated luxury communist space economy with self-replicating robots processing asteroids into solar panels, and even then, people will still prefer solar panels on their roof."

Perhaps the conflict in Ukraine and the dearth of Russian natural gas will spur this project along. A major space agency trying out a technique that has been considered science fantasy for literally decades would be good. But there are many obstacles to overcome and a lengthy time frame.
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The Earth will probably get its energy from space in the future. But will that happen in the next century or even later? Without a doubt, the most comprehensive and ambitious project the European Space Agency has ever done would be space-based solar power. It would undoubtedly be the Apollo program of the twenty-first century. Only much bigger.

In the decarbonization era, solar power is, by far, the leading technology both in scale and in cost. Lunar energy is taking a lot longer. One only needs to walk into the surf on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii, to understand the enormous power in the ocean. One of the biggest differences in wave technology is the harsh and punishing environment in which this new energy generation will have to operate.

Even though it’s a tough place to extract energy, several research start-ups have tried over the past decade to harness the immense lunar power of the oceans.

Wave Swell Energy's unusual UniWave 200 is an on-shore sea platform that uses an artificial blowhole formation to create air pressure changes that drive a turbine and feed energy back to shore. In July, after a year of testing, the company reported excellent results. 

Sweden-based Eco Wave Power announced in February, that the first of 10 floats has been successfully installed on the sea wall at Jaffa Port in Israel, marking an important milestone for the company's second grid-connected wave energy harvesting project.

In late August, another startup has announced the results of a 10-year set of tests on wave energy generation. The company, Sea Wave Energy Ltd (SWEL), is making some amazing claims as to the cost and scaling of their invention—Waveline Magnet. 

In the simplest terms, the Waveline Magnet is a long, modular chain of plastic floats designed to sit on top of the water, lined up pointing directly into the waves.

These chains of floats move in a serpentine motion when waves pass through, following the movement of the water. The floats are connected by lever arms to inflexible, non-buoyant spine parts rather than directly to one another. The spine is relatively stationary while the floats move with the waves, and the lever arms move the electrical generators inside the spine units both upward and downward.

As a wave first hits the Waveline Magnet, the system gets a read on the size and speed of the wave, allowing it to fine-tune the power extraction at each generator as the wave moves down the line. SWEL says this machine can work in "all wave heights," and that "harsh wave conditions do not negatively affect the device's performance, but in contrast, enhance it, without survivability complications."

Over the past ten years, SWEL has built prototypes both in wave tanks (University of Plymouth and University of Cyprus) and also open ocean deployments. Now comes the company’s claim of energy generation volume and cost. Much of this information will have to be proven over the next year or two, but if they are right, we could be in for some revolutionary developments in the carbonless generation of energy.

The CEO of SWEL, Adam Zakheos, is quoted in a press release as saying "... we can show how a commercial-sized device using our technology will achieve a Levelized Cost of Energy (LCoE) less than 1c€(US$0.01)/kWh, crushing today's wave energy industry reference value of 85c€(US$0.84)/kWh." SWEL claims that "one single Waveline Magnet will be rated at over 100 MW in energetic environments." The company has produced a video to show how the Waveline Magnet works.

LCoE, of course, is a financial statistic that takes into account all initial capital and continuous operating costs throughout the project's duration. It would be utterly revolutionary if these devices had an LCoE of one penny per kWh (US$10/MWh). They would create power for less than half the price of solar and wind. If that LCoE is accurate, according to Lazard's statistics, it'd even outperform gas, coal, nuclear, geothermal, or pretty much any other known energy generation source.

If SWEL lives up to its promises, the world is in for nothing less than a clean energy revolution. However, there are plenty of bad-faith operators, wishful thinking, and unrealistic expectations in the market as investors line up to take part in green energy moonshots. And if the many tests conducted by SWEL had produced the kinds of results that could have predicted some of the cheapest and cleanest energy in the world, then, yeah, we'd expect to see some Gates-level investment coming in, and many more people working on projects of increasing scale.
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So, for now, we'll remain skeptical, hoping that this is the one that surprises us, and inviting SWEL to make us eat our words as soon, and as hard as possible. We’d love this to be one of the good news stories of the 21st century.

Large data centers need power backup to operate without interruption. They rely on large banks of lithium-ion batteries to provide the instantaneous power when the normal power supplied by the local grid fails. Those lithium-ion batteries could soon be used to help local power grids manage energy demand.

Any city or region that gets its power from renewables is subject to the whim of the weather. Unlike fossil-based energy, renewable energy sources ebb and flow. The battery systems these grids use provide power when the renewable sources ebb and recharge when they flow.

Microsoft realized it could partner with local power grids where its data centers are located around the world and offer to store that renewable power in their battery backup systems. Today, sophisticated data centers operate with what are known as “uninterruptible power supply systems.” These systems include a bank of batteries which kick in the instant the power goes out and may operate for only a few minutes until the backup generators are up and running.

Microsoft’s newest data center in Dublin, Ireland, is due to come online in 2023 and it is planned as the first center to partner with a local power grid. The plan would be to have the data center’s large battery installation provide backup for when the grid sees more energy demand than it can supply. But, instead of only responding to outages, it might actually prevent them.

The company isn’t publicly sharing how much energy its Dublin battery installation will prove to the grid. But, from information provided by Microsoft’s Datacenter Advanced Development Group, we know that a typical center uses “tens of megawatts of power.”

To put the battery’s size into perspective, a single megawatt generated by a power plant can provide electricity for several hundred homes.

Microsoft has tested the concept on a small scale in Chicago, IL and Quincy, Washington in the past. But because almost 35% of all of Ireland’s electricity come from wind farms, this was one of the best places to set up a full commercial partnership.
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The company currently operates over 200 data centers worldwide and has plans to build between 50 and 100 new centers a year through the rest of this decade. Given Microsoft’s commitment to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, it needs more renewable energy for its data centers. The partnerships they plan with local power grids should be real win-win scenarios.

We all do everything we can to keep our phones charged, but the time will come when you’ve run the battery down to where you must charge it during the day rather than in the evening while you sleep. Everyone knows you can’t go from zero to full charge in 10 or 15 minutes. But following a few simple rules will help you charge your phone quicker.

Completely Turn Off the Phone. This will not work if you’re waiting for an important call, but when you can, shutting the phone off completely will provide the fastest charge. You may not think that anything is happening when you’re charging, but when the phone is still on, it’s constantly polling its cellular service and even potentially updating apps in the background. All that activity slows the charging process. 

Use a Wall Charger, Not Wireless Charging. Whenever possible, use a plug-in wall charger. We know you can plug a USB cable into your PC or laptop, but that will almost always result in longer charging time. Even if you’re using a charger with lower wattage, an outlet will usually charge faster most of the time. While wireless charging pads are perfect for overnight use, a gold old-fashioned cable plugged into the wall is always better when you have little time to spare.

Don’t Use Your Phone While It’s Charging. It’s so tempting to fire off an urgent text or scroll through Instagram, but leave it alone. It will charge faster.

Consider Getting a Fast Charger. Nowadays, Apple and most Android makers don’t provide a charger with their phones. If you are still using a charger from an earlier phone, it’s probably a slow 5W model. You’re going to need at least a 20W charger to fast charge most current models. Also remember that there is a limit on wattage. You can’t buy a 100W charger and expect a 10-minute recharge. As an example, the iPhone 13 Pro Max has a charging ceiling of 27W.

Here are two of the better fast chargers:

• ArcStation Pro 40W Dual Charger from Spigen. If you have multiple phones in your household and fight for the charger, this dual charger will solve your problems. At 40W, you can fast-charge two phones at once. If one port is being used on its own, it can provide up to 30W for charging larger devices.
• Anker 725 Charger (Nano II 65W). This charger is a multi-tasker. The top port gives 20W of power for phone charging while the bottom can hit 45W. When every device you own is hitting that low power range, this is the charger you want around. Despite its power capabilities versus lower-wattage chargers, it’s still a very small adapter.
  
  

Physicists from the University of Arkansas have successfully developed a circuit capable of capturing graphene's thermal motion and converting it into an electrical current.

“An energy-harvesting circuit based on graphene could be incorporated into a chip to provide clean, limitless, low-voltage power for small devices or sensors,” said Paul Thibado, professor of physics and lead researcher in the discovery.

The findings, titled "Fluctuation-induced current from freestanding graphene," and published in the journal Physical Review E, are proof of a theory the physicists developed at the U of A three years ago that freestanding graphene—a single layer of carbon atoms—ripples and buckles in a way that holds promise for energy harvesting.

The idea of harvesting energy from graphene is controversial because it refutes physicist Richard Feynman’s well-known assertion that the thermal motion of atoms, known as Brownian motion, cannot do work. Thibado’s team found that, at room temperature, the thermal motion of graphene does, in fact, induce an alternating current (AC) in a circuit, an achievement thought to be impossible. 

In the 1950s, physicist Léon Brillouin published a landmark paper refuting the idea that adding a single diode, a one-way electrical gate, to a circuit solves harvesting energy from Brownian motion. Knowing this, Thibado’s group built their circuit with two diodes for converting AC into a direct current (DC). With the diodes in opposition allowing the current to flow both ways, they provide separate paths through the circuit, producing a pulsing DC current that performs work on a load resistor.

They also discovered that their design increased the amount of power delivered. “We also found that the on-off, switch-like behavior of the diodes actually amplifies the power delivered, rather than reducing it, as previously thought,” said Thibado. “The rate of change in resistance provided by the diodes adds an extra factor to the power.” 

The team used a relatively new field of physics to prove the diodes increased the circuit’s power. “In proving this power enhancement, we drew from the emergent field of stochastic thermodynamics and extended the nearly century-old, celebrated theory of Nyquist,” said coauthor Pradeep Kumar, associate professor of physics and coauthor. 

According to Kumar, the graphene and circuit share a symbiotic relationship. Though the thermal environment is performing work on the load resistor, the graphene and circuit are at the same temperature and heat does not flow between the two.

That’s an important distinction, said Thibado, because a temperature difference between the graphene and circuit, in a circuit producing power, would contradict the second law of thermodynamics. “This means that the second law of thermodynamics is not violated, nor is there any need to argue that ‘Maxwell’s Demon’ is separating hot and cold electrons,” Thibado said.

The team also discovered that the relatively slow motion of graphene induces current in the circuit at low frequencies, which is important from a technological perspective because electronics function more efficiently at lower frequencies. 

“People may think that current flowing in a resistor causes it to heat up, but the Brownian current does not. In fact, if no current was flowing, the resistor would cool down,” Thibado explained. “What we did was reroute the current in the circuit and transform it into something useful.” 
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The team’s next objective is to determine if the DC current can be stored in a capacitor for later use, a goal that requires miniaturizing the circuit and patterning it on a silicon wafer, or chip. If millions of these tiny circuits could be built on a 1-millimeter by 1-millimeter chip, they could serve as a low-power battery replacement.

Researchers have unveiled a ground-breaking system that allows electronic devices to run without batteries for “an infinite lifetime”.

Computer engineers from Northwestern University and Delft University of Technology developed the BFree energy-harvesting technology to enable battery-free devices capable of running perpetually with only intermittent energy input.

The same team previously introduced the world’s first battery-free Game Boy last year, which is powered energy harvested from the user pushing the buttons. 

The engineers hope the innovative BFree system will help cut the vast amounts of dead batteries that end up as e-waste in landfills around the world. 

It will also allow amateur hobbyists and those within the Maker Movement to create their own battery-free electronic devices.

“Right now, it’s virtually impossible for hobbyists to develop devices with battery-free hardware, so we wanted to democratize our battery-free platform,” said Josiah Hester, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Northwestern University, who led the research.

“Makers all over the internet are asking how to extend their device’s battery life. They are asking the wrong question. We want them to forget about the battery and instead think about more sustainable ways to generate energy.”

To run perpetually with only intermittent energy—for example the sun going behind a cloud and no longer powering the device’s solar panel—the BFree system simply pauses the calculations it is running without losing memory or needing to run through a long list of operations before restarting when power returns. 

The technology is part of a new trend known as ubiquitous computing, which aims to make computing available at any time and in any place through smart devices and the Internet of Things (IoT).

The research represents a significant advancement in this field by circumventing the need for a battery, and the associated charging and replacing that comes with them.

“Many people predict that we’re going to have a trillion devices in this IoT,” Dr Hester said.

“That means a trillion dead batteries or 100 million people replacing a dead battery every few minutes. That presents a terrible ecological cost to the environment.

“What we’re doing, instead, is truly giving power to the people. We want everyone to be able to program devices effortlessly in a more sustainable way.”
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The research was presented at the UbiComp 2021 conference on September 22nd.

Renewable energy could power the world within the next 30 years, and wind power is one of the cheapest, most efficient ways to get there. Except 80% of the world’s offshore wind blows in deep waters, where it’s difficult to build wind farms. A new design for a radically different wind turbine could begin to change that.

Norwegian company Wind Catching Systems is developing a floating, multi-turbine technology for wind farms that could generate five times the annual energy of the world’s largest single wind turbine. This increased efficiency is because of an innovative design that reinvents the way wind farms look and perform.

Unlike traditional wind turbines, which consist of one pole and three gargantuan blades, the so-called Wind Catcher is articulated in a square grid with over 100 small blades. At 1,000 feet high, the system is over three times as tall as an average wind turbine, and it stands on a floating platform that’s anchored to the ocean floor. The company is planning to build a prototype next year. If it succeeds, the Wind Catcher could revolutionize the way we harness wind power.

“Traditional wind farms are based on the old Dutch windmills,” says Ole Heggheim, CEO of Wind Catching Systems. These wind farms work well on land, but “why is it that when you have something that works on land, you think it will do the same thing on water?”

Offshore wind farms have been in vogue; 162 of them are already up and running, with 26 more to come, mostly in China and the U.K. The problem is that each turbine must be driven into the seabed, so it can’t be installed in waters deeper than 200 feet. As a result, wind farms can’t be built farther than about 20 miles away from shore, which limits their performance potential since the winds are stronger farther out into the ocean.

This is where floating wind farms come into play. The world’s first floating wind farm, Hywind, opened in 2017, almost 25 miles off the coast of Aberdeen in Scotland. The wind farm counts six floating wind turbines that are slotted in a cylinder filled with heavy ballast, to make it float vertically. Because they’re only tethered to the seabed with thick mooring lines, they can operate in waters over 3,000 feet deep.

Hywind is powering around 36,000 British homes, and it has already broken U.K. records for energy output. Wind Catching Systems launched the same year Hywind opened. It claims that one unit could power up between 80,000 and 100,000 European households. In ideal conditions, where the wind is at its strongest, one wind catcher unit could produce up to 400 gigawatt-hours of energy. By comparison, the largest, most powerful wind turbine on the market right now produces up to 80 gigawatt-hours.

There are several reasons for this substantial difference. First, the Wind Catcher is taller—approaching the height of the Eiffel Tower—which exposes the rotor blades to higher wind speeds. Second, smaller blades perform better. Heggheim explains traditional turbines are 120 feet long and usually max out at a certain wind speed. By comparison, the Wind Catcher’s blades are 50 feet long and can perform more rotations per minute, therefore generating more energy.

And because the blades are smaller, the entire system is easier to manufacture, build, and maintain. Heggheim says it has a design lifespan of 50 years, which is twice as much as traditional wind turbines, and when some parts need to be replaced (or during annual inspections), an integrated elevator system will offer easy maintenance. “If you have one turbine and you need to change the blade, you have to stop the whole operation,” says Ronny Karlsen, the company’s CFO. “We have 126 individual turbines, so if we need to change the blade, we can stop one turbine.”

When the system reaches the end of its life, much of it can be recycled. After the first significant wave of wind power in the 1990s, many traditional wind turbines had reached their design lifespan; blades the size of a Boeing 747 wing are piling up in landfills. Not only are the Wind Catcher blades smaller, but they’re also made of aluminum, which, unlike the fiberglass used for larger turbines, is entirely recyclable. “You melt it down and produce new ones,” says Heggheim.
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A prototype will probably be built in the North Sea (in Norway or the U.K.). After that, the company is looking at California and Japan. “Those have good wind resources near the shore,” says Karlsen, “and the governments are supportive and already awarding acreage for developments.” And for those wondering about the dangers this might pose to birds, Heggheim says the structure will be kitted out with bird radars that send out brief pulses of signal to help prevent collisions with migrating birds. “These units will be so far offshore,” he says, “so birdlife along the coast should not be endangered.”

In a power outage, having one of the best portable power stations around will come in real handy. They tend to be expensive, but the peace of mind is worth it because during emergencies you can keep your most important gear running—whether that’s your appliances, a television or radio for news updates, or lights. They’re also the perfect energy source while you’re camping or exploring the great outdoors. You may think you already have all the best camping gear, or best road trip gear, but if you don’t have a power source packed away, you’re not fully equipped.

There is a new portable power station on the block—or, at least, there will be soon. The EcoFlow DELTA Pro is a portable home battery and power station designed to keep an entire home powered for up to a week for emergency use. It puts out enough power to support appliances and electronics. It easily connects with Smart Extra Batteries, Solar Panels, Solar Trackers, Smart Generators, and a Smart Home Panel to extend functionality. You have an opportunity to get a steep discount on the portable battery, thanks to the Kickstarter campaign. It will retail for $3,599, but you can grab it for $600 off, which is $2,999.
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The EcoFlow DELTA Pro portable home battery is a dual-purpose energy-delivery device. It’s a home battery, storing energy that’s generated through various means, but it’s also a portable power station to provide power to your home, RV, small living space, or whatever you need. You could set up lights all over your campsite and connect them to this beast. A single unit has a base capacity of 3.6kWh of energy, but can be expanded to 25kWh with the additions of Smart Extra Batteries, Smart Generators, and a Smart Home Panel—enough to power an entire family’s needs for emergency use for up to a week. It can sustain air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, electronics, and much more. You can pair or sync up multiple units to increase the energy capacity if you need it.

As people ventured out from their pandemic cocoons this year, they gobbled up more electricity than they did before COVID-19 shut the world down. But there still isn’t enough clean energy to meet rising demand, so coal is making a comeback. Global electricity demand climbed 5% above pre-pandemic levels in the first six months of 2021, according to an analysis published recently by London think tank Ember. Electricity grids turned to more coal to meet that demand, and power sector carbon pollution rose 5% compared to the first half of 2019.

“Catapulting emissions in 2021 should send alarm bells across the world. We are not building back better, we are building back badly,” Dave Jones, global program lead at Ember, said in a statement. “The electricity transition is happening but with little urgency: emissions are going in the wrong direction.”

China drove 90% of the rise in electricity demand and most of the uptick in coal. While China is already the biggest carbon emitter in the world, that’s been mitigated because its per capita emissions are less than half that of the US, which is currently the second biggest climate polluter. But China’s per capita electricity demand is also rising rapidly, Ember’s report shows. That highlights how important it will be for the planet for China to get its emissions in check. 

None of the 63 countries Ember analyzed, which account for 87% of the global electricity production, saw a “green recovery” in the first half of 2021. Ember’s criteria for “green recovery” included lower power sector emissions and higher electricity demand, a sign that more electricity was being generated by clean energy sources like solar and wind. Some countries, like the US, had slightly cleaner power sectors compared to 2019, as electricity demand stayed relatively flat, but their emissions are expected to rise again with demand. 

Renewable energy had a growth spurt in the early part of 2021. Together, wind and solar generated more than a tenth of the world’s electricity—doubling their share in 2015 and surpassing nuclear power plants for the first time this year. But solar panels and wind turbines were still only able to meet 57% of the rise in electricity demand, leaving coal—the dirtiest-burning fossil fuel—to provide the rest.

A clean power sector is one of the most crucial steps to achieving global climate goals. Countries are working together under the framework of the Paris climate agreement to limit global warming to about 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial temperatures, which could significantly limit the damage we’re already beginning to see because of climate change.

Planet-heating carbon dioxide emissions from the power sector need to fall by 57% this decade to meet that goal, regardless of a rise in electricity demand, according to a recent analysis by the International Energy Agency. Much of that reduction could come from completely cutting out coal—but the Ember analysis shows that the opposite is happening.

In the future, clean power grids could also translate to clean transportation, housing, and building sectors. All-electric vehicles, homes, and buildings are one way city planners and policymakers have sought to bring down greenhouse gas emissions. But the power sector has a long way to go to provide them all with carbon pollution-free energy. 
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During the height of the pandemic last year, carbon dioxide emissions fell across the board for electricity, transportation, and other energy-hungry industries. That clearly hasn’t been enough to stave off climate change-fueled disasters like worsening droughts, explosive wildfires, record-smashing heatwaves, and severe storms. Moving forward, CO2 cuts will have to come from intentional changes to how the world does business—not because a pandemic put things on pause.