The Way We Get Power Is About To Change Forever

The age of batteries is just getting started. In the latest episode of our animated series, Sooner Than You Think, Tom Randall does the math on when solar plus batteries might start wiping fossil fuels off the grid.

Oct 13th, 2017

In this Thursday, April 29, 2021 file photo, a coal-fired RWE power plant steams on a sunny day in Neurath, Germany. The International Energy Agency is urging governments to make stronger commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions at an upcoming U.N. climate summit.

Energy Agency Urges Bigger Global Push to Cut Emissions

The economic rebound from the pandemic has seen an increase in the use of coal and oil.

Huntington Beach pier, California, Oct. 11, 2021.

Oil Spill Legal Fight Likely to Last Years

The first lawsuit was filed just 48 hours after the spill was discovered.

In this Feb. 22, 2020 file photo, a power generation plant stands idle near Huexca, Morelos state, Mexico. A constitutional reform presented by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador would cancel contracts under which some private power generating plants plants sell power into the national grid, declares “illegal” other private plants that sell energy direct to corporate clients in Mexico and would cancel many long-term energy supply contracts and clean-energy preferential buying schemes.

Mexico Plans to Shutter Private Power Plants

The proposal may provoke complaints under the Mexico-U.S.-Canada free trade accord.

Hydropower Decline Strains Power Grids in Drought

Production at Hoover Dam is down by 25%.

Solar Panel Maker Plans $36M Georgia Factory, Hiring 500

Production will start sometime next year.

Former SCANA CEO Kevin Marsh, center, walks out of a courtroom with his lawyers after being sentenced to two years in prison for lying and deceiving the public about the progress of a pair of nuclear reactors in South Carolina that were never finished and wasted billions of dollars on Thursday, Oct. 7, in Columbia, S.C. Marsh also has pleaded guilty in state charges in the case.

Ex-CEO Who Oversaw Doomed Nuclear Project Sentenced

Imprisoning Kevin Marsh sends a message of public responsibility to powerful executives.

Ted Bowman, design engineer with Tsunami Products, installs a unit in homeowner Don Johnson's backyard in Benicia, Calif., Sept. 28, 2021. The recent invention can make water out of the air and in parched California, some homeowners are already buying the pricey devices. The air-to-water systems work like air conditioners by using coils to chill air, then collect water drops in a basin.

In California, Some Buy Machines That Make Water Out of Air

The machines are not cheap.

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a mug, during a visit to a construction site in Manchester, England, Monday, Oct. 4, 2021.

UK Pledges to Hit All-Renewable Electricity by 2035

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the UK could get to “complete clean energy production” by the next decade.

Shipping Industry Group Aims for Net-Zero Emissions by 2050

The International Chamber of Shipping submitted a proposal to stop adding CO2 to the atmosphere.

Oil floats on the water surface after an oil spill in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. A major oil spill off the coast of Southern California fouled popular beaches and killed wildlife while crews scrambled Sunday, to contain the crude before it spread further into protected wetlands.

Records Show Slow Response to Report of California Oil Spill

The spill sent up to 126,000 gallons of heavy crude into the ocean.

In this March 12, 2020, file photo, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice speaks during a news conference at the State Capitol in Charleston, W.Va.

Kentucky Seeks Action Against WV Gov's Coal Companies

Jim Justice has said many of the violations were inherited when he acquired the properties.

This Oct. 27, 2011, file photo, shows the Perdido oil platform located about 200 miles south of Galveston, Texas, in the Gulf of Mexico. The Biden administration says it has followed a court order to schedule an offshore oil and gas lease sale for the Gulf of Mexico after the Democratic president's moratorium on new oil and gas leasing on federal lands was blocked by a judge. The sale will be livestreamed from New Orleans on Nov. 17, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced in a news release Thursday, Sept. 30, 2021.

Feds Schedule Gulf Offshore Oil Lease Sale for November

President Biden's moratorium on new oil and gas leasing on federal lands was blocked by a judge.