Green Energy

Winter Storm Fern knocked out power for millions of people across the US and reignited a familiar political and media fight over what really causes large-scale outages during extreme weather. To separate the rhetoric from the operational reality, Electrek spoke with Leah Qusba, CEO of GoodPower, a research, strategic communications, and campaigning organization focused on advancing the global renewable energy transition.

In this Q&A, Qusba walks through what tends to fail first during major winter storms, what outage data shows about the role of wind, solar, and fossil generation during Fern, why fuel supply and winterization still matter more than the generation mix, and how coordinated disinformation campaigns exploit moments of uncertainty after grid emergencies and what works to counter them.

SOLARCYCLE has started recycling solar panels at a massive new facility in Cedartown, Georgia, signaling that solar recycling in the US is finally moving from pilot projects to industrial scale.

SolarEdge has started shipping US-made residential solar inverters to Europe – a milestone as US solar manufacturers look for export upside amid shifting trade rules, tariffs, and fading domestic manufacturing incentives.

Solar, wind, and batteries are set to supply virtually all net new US generating capacity in 2026, according to EIA data reviewed by the SUN DAY Campaign, continuing their strong 2025 growth.

EDP Renewables’ new 150-megawatt solar project is now feeding power into Indiana’s grid, as utilities look for more reliable, in-state generation.

EVs are supposed to clean up the air, but finding real-world proof has been surprisingly hard. A new study from the University of Southern California (USC) says the satellite evidence is finally strong enough to measure.

Nine countries, including France, Germany, and the Netherlands, will pledge to jointly develop 100 GW of offshore wind in the North Sea and step up protection for critical infrastructure, Bloomberg reports.

Europe’s power mix hit a tipping point in 2025. Wind and solar generated more electricity across the European Union than fossil fuels for the first time last year, according to Ember’s newly released European Electricity Review. Wind and solar supplied a record 30% of EU power, edging past fossil fuels at 29%.

Solar continues to dominate new capacity additions and has held the lead among all energy sources for 26 consecutive months. As a result, installed utility-scale solar capacity now exceeds wind capacity for the first time, according to data released by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and reviewed by the SUN DAY Campaign.

Rondo Energy and Covestro broke ground on a new kind of industrial heat battery at Covestro’s Brunsbüttel chemical site in northern Germany, and it’s designed to do something industry desperately needs: make clean, reliable steam without burning fossil fuels.

Solar didn’t just show up in 2025 – it carried the grid. A new analysis from global energy think tank Ember shows that solar power accounted for 61% of the growth in US electricity demand last year, highlighting how central solar has become as power demand accelerates.

In a setback to Trump’s anti-offshore wind crusade, a federal judge today issued an order granting Dominion Energy’s request for a preliminary injunction allowing construction to resume on the US’s largest wind farm, the 2.6-gigawatt (GW) Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project.

New York’s stalled Empire Wind offshore wind project just got a court-ordered green light to restart construction for now.

The UK just pulled off one of its most consequential offshore wind auctions yet – delivering massive volumes of new capacity at prices that undercut gas.

Subaru of Indiana Automotive has new rooftop solar, and it’s producing far more clean electricity than its new factory expansion even needs.

Independent power producer Treaty Oak Clean Energy has closed financing and kicked off construction on two solar farms that will add 385 megawatts of renewable energy capacity to Louisiana.

Ming Yang Smart Energy says it has rolled out what it’s calling the “world’s first fully recyclable carbon fiber wind turbine blade” — and it’s a big one.

Kawasaki and BladeRobots, a Vestas company, are using a crewless helicopter and a blade maintenance robot to automate one of the most challenging jobs in wind power: turbine blade maintenance.

Dominion Energy is suing the Trump administration after the US Department of the Interior ordered five offshore wind projects currently under construction to stop offshore work on December 22 – including Dominion’s 2.6 gigawatt (GW) Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW), the largest offshore wind farm in the US.

China has brought a massive offshore solar farm online – a full 1 gigawatt of photovoltaic capacity built at sea.

Alphabet is buying energy and data center developer Intersect for $4.75 billion in cash, plus the assumption of debt – a clear signal that securing power, not just servers, has become one of Google’s biggest bottlenecks as AI demand explodes.