Agrivoltaics works where panels provide useful farm functions such as shade, crop protection or water resilience, not merely where crops survive beside solar.
Agrivoltaics is appealing because it seems to solve two land-use problems at once. Put solar panels and farming on the same land, and the conflict between food and electricity appears to soften. The farm keeps producing, the panels produce power, and the project can be described as more sophisticated than … [continued]
The smarter E Europe 2026 happened this week in Munich, with the lead event of InterSolar Europe co-located with ess Europe, Power2Drive and EM-Power. Regardless of the intended organization of the conference and exhibitions, the lines between them have increasingly blurred, as solar is combined with storage, EV charging and … [continued]
The core of the Fat Boy bomb, which leveled two square miles of Nagasak, weighed 13.6 pounds. It was about the size of a softball. Photo by Diana Polekhina, Unsplash, cropped.
I am one of those people who hates the word “utilize.” The logic of the English language would seem to be that to utilize something is to alter it to give it utility that it didn’t originally have. One example is to punch holes in the bottom of a bucket … [continued]
ChatGPT generated infographic showing the gap between Africa’s reported solar additions and module imports, where much of the real market may be hiding.
At the start of 2026, I predicted that Africa would surprise a lot of observers with solar deployment this year. That was in my 2026 energy predictions article, and the prediction was not based on one giant solar park, one government announcement, or one development bank programme. It was based … [continued]
Earlier this month US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum testified with very little background knowledge about solar systems — yet that didn’t stop him from denigrating them. “All of these projects you’re describing in Nevada have one thing in common,” Burgum sneered. “When the sun goes down, they produce … [continued]
It’s a fact that fossil fuel-based energy continues to fuel the warming of the planet. With that warming comes an increased frequency of extreme weather events. The solutions to achieve carbon neutrality and energy security depend on the deployment of more renewable energy, continued energy efficiencies, and resilience measures. But … [continued]
When I was a kid, my grandmother’s house in New Hampshire was always ready for the electricity to go down. The kitchen range was wood-fired, though there was a newer kerosene alternative (horrible). There were two sconces in every bathroom, each with an oil (kerosene) lamp. About half the house … [continued]
Last April, Xi Jinping, president of the People’s Republic of China, said in a speech that in the past five years, China has built “the world’s largest and most complete new energy industry chain.” That was no idle boast. While much of the focus has been on solar, China is … [continued]
Switzerland is becoming a leader in creative new ways to install solar panels as it seeks to lower its carbon emissions.
The compelling complaint about baseload power is that while it did save money in the past, it doesn’t any more. Sun and wind are cheaper than this “cheap” power source, AND backup battery power is cheaper than the backup plants needed for baseload power.
