Betting against China in space has become one of those comfortable Western assumptions that deserves to be retired. It sits beside earlier assumptions that Chinese solar would remain second tier, Chinese EVs would remain cheap copies, and Chinese batteries would never define global cost curves. The pattern is familiar. Analysts … [continued]
Even if the US federal government has erased all references to it, climate change is a fact of human life. It’s on the minds of corporations — even if they don’t want to admit it — and emissions mitigation activities are quietly being unveiled behind closed corporate doors. One of … [continued]
ChatGPT generated image of an electric fire truck charging at dawn at a downtown Vancouver fire station
Vancouver has an electric fire truck. I’ve even seen it. That still sounds like a line from a pilot project brochure, but the truck is real, it is in service, and it is part of the city’s municipal fleet. I had also been looking at electric garbage trucks recently, another … [continued]
Washington, DC — Yesterday, U.S. Steel announced it will invest nearly $2 billion to build a direct reduced iron (DRI) facility at Big River Steel Works in Osceola, Arkansas. The DRI will provide a cleaner input to feed into the company’s electric arc furnaces that produce steel. Nippon Steel, the parent company of … [continued]
In fiscal year 2026, Tahara Plant became the first Toyota plant to attain carbon neutrality. At the genba, a “One Tahara” spirit could be seen throughout, from large-scale equipment initiatives to small, on-the-ground improvements. Tahara Plant is located in Tahara City, Aichi. About 9,000 people work at the plant, which … [continued]
When I wrote in 2021 that small modular reactors were mostly bad policy (peer reviewed version, CleanTechnica version), the argument was not that nuclear fission could not produce useful low-carbon electricity. It was already doing so every day. The United States had about 98 GW of operating nuclear capacity, and … [continued]
Chatgpt generated image of Europe navigating between China’s processing choke point and America’s federal volatility toward a more resilient battery minerals future.
The energy transition will not fail because the world runs out of useful minerals. It can be slowed, made more expensive, and made more fragile because the industrial systems that turn minerals into batteries, motors, power electronics, grid equipment, and vehicles are concentrated, politically exposed, and hard to rebuild. That … [continued]
ChatGPT generated infographic showing how electric garbage trucks are moving from pilots to scaled deployment
The electric garbage truck is not the poster child for vehicle electrification. It does not have the consumer glamour of an electric pickup, the political visibility of an electric bus, or the freight-sector drama of battery-electric and hydrogen tractor-trailers fighting for long-haul mindshare (batteries for the win, as usual). It … [continued]
Hyundai invited CleanTechnica into its brand new automotive factory where it is building the IONIQ 5 and IONIQ 9 for US customers. It’s located a few minutes outside of Savannah in Ellabell, Georgia. Disclaimer: Hyundai paid for the author’s travel and accommodations to attend this event in Savannah, Georgia. The … [continued]
Chatgpt generated image of large battery-electric catamarans moving beyond the small harbour ferry category.
Ferries are public infrastructure that happen to float. They are marine buses, freight bridges, medical access routes, school links, tourism arteries, repair crew shuttles, food supply chains, and island lifelines. When they fail, communities notice at once. When fuel costs rise, farepayers and taxpayers notice soon after. That is why … [continued]
