Energy

SKIPPING OUR WORST MISTAKE:

The solar boom is rapidly transforming emerging economies: Renewable electricity is cheaper than ever. So while the West got rich on coal and oil, some of the poorest countries in the world are banking on solar, wind and water instead. (Kira Schacht, 10/07/26, Deutsche-Welle)

Many of the same countries that became economically powerful off the back of fossil fuels are now trying to transition to renewables. But they are held back by centuries of legacy infrastructure.

Because a gas boiler won’t run on wind power, and a diesel truck cannot be solar-powered, societies looking to shift to green energy need to use more electricity and increase their share of renewables.

That is where many middle- and lower-income countries have an advantage. With less existing energy infrastructure built around fossil fuels, they are better placed for a faster rollout of renewable electricity sources.

In many instances, solar power in particular is now cheaper to produce than fossil electricity. And unlike large coal or gas plants, which take years to construct and millions in investments, solar and wind farms can be built quickly and with much less upfront cost.

IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO OVERSTATE DEFLATIONARY PRESSURES:

How everything-to-grid tech could turn your EV and home into part of giant power grid network (Kaif Shaikh, Oct 04, 2026, Interesting Engineering)

As solar panels, batteries, electric vehicles and connected devices spread, millions of things that consume electricity can also store it, shift when they use it or, in some cases, send it back. “Everything-to-grid” is the emerging idea of coordinating those resources so they become active parts of the power system rather than simply sitting at the end of the network. The World Economic Forum included the concept among its Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2026.

THE FUTURE ALWAYS HAPPENS FASTER THAN YOU EXPECT:

Can there be solar for all, everywhere by 2030? (Sarah Steffen, 10/02/26, Deutsche-Welle)

Solar is the cheapest form of electricity in the history of the world, said McKenna, who founded the climate advisory firm Climate and Nature Solutions, and the global coalition Women Leading on Climate.

“It is scaling way faster than anyone ever imagined.”

As is battery technology used to store excess renewable energy.

2030 seemed ample when the goal was 2050.

THAT WAS EASY:

In global first, a next-gen geothermal plant goes live at utility scale (Maria Gallucci, 28 September 2026, Canary)

Cape Station, a $2 billion project that will eventually be 500 MW, is unique among the world’s commercial geothermal plants. While other facilities draw on naturally occurring hot water and steam, Fervo has engineered its own geothermal resource deep underground. The startup uses drilling techniques from the oil and gas industry to create reservoirs in hot, dry rocks that generate steam to produce electricity.

THAT WAS EASY:

Commercially viable fusion energy that delivers limitless clean power could be closer to reality (Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Sep 25, 2026, Interesting Engineering)

A British company has demonstrated the key fuel compression principle underpinning FLARE, its proprietary approach to inertial fusion. First Light Fusion showcased this approach in a series of experiments on M3, the company’s in-house pulsed power facility.

FLARE separates the two main steps needed for fusion: first compressing the fuel, then rapidly igniting it. Much like an engine compresses fuel before ignition, FLARE first assembles the fuel to high density before delivering a separate, rapid burst of energy to trigger fusion. The M3 experiments validate the first of these stages: compressing fuel to high density using a simple, lower power driver.

“This experiment validates a central principle of FLARE: that we can simplify the machine by putting more functionality into the target,” said Mark Thomas, Chief Executive Officer at First Light Fusion.

EVERY OBJECTION TO RENEWABLES WAS BOGUS:

Why farmers are pairing crops with solar panels (Josh Axelrod, 9/25/26, Deutsche Welle)

The idea for agrivoltaics dates back to 1981, when two German scientists published an article titled “Kartoffeln unter dem Kollektor” (or “Potatoes beneath the collector”). But the first pilot project didn’t begin until 2004 in Japan, a land-constrained country, where there’s particular concern over balancing solar deployment with the protection of farmland.

There are three main types of agrivoltaics: horizontal, where panels look directly up at the sky, vertical, where they’re placed in large rows, perpendicular to the ground, and integrated, often installed atop greenhouses.

Research suggests shade-tolerant crops stand to benefit. That includes berries, grapes and tomatoes — where the panels’ steel framing often doubles as trellises — as well as peaches and peppers.

The panels can also prevent water from fully evaporating, creating a more humid microclimate that benefits the soil — though humidity is a double-edged sword, sometimes introducing plant disease.

Sheep have also proven to be a particularly good match. Compared to cattle or goats, they’re generally easier to manage around solar infrastructure, less likely to damage equipment, and small enough to fit comfortably beneath panels. The practice has other sustainability upsides too: sheep manure fertilizes the soil, and sites require less herbicide.

“If we look at the sheep industry, this has been a real paradigm shift for them, where instead of having to pay to lease land to graze their animals — now they’re actually getting paid to graze,” Kinzer said. “So it completely puts the economics on its head and is a huge opportunity for the sheep industry, which is really struggling in the US pretty much since World War II.”

IT’LL NEVER FLY, ORVILLE:

First-ever fully autonomous flight across US covers 3,199 miles without pilot input (Aamir Khollam, Sep 18, 2026, Interesting Engineering)

The aircraft handled critical portions of the mission autonomously, including taxiing, takeoff, navigation and landing. Remote operators supervised the flight from distances reaching 2,323 miles.

The future always happens faster than you expect it to.

THAT WAS EASY:

US: World’s largest electric aircraft takes to the skies with over 1MW of power (Georgina Jedikovska, Aug 13, 2026, Interesting Engineering)

Forslund said that they designed the X1 to show that electric propulsion can work in an aircraft that is large enough for commercial airline operations. The plane is a demonstrator representative of Heart’s ES-30 production aircraft, that is currently being developed.

DOES DONALD EVEN EXIST?:

Trump is losing his war on wind power (John Timmer , Aug 7, 2026, Ars Technica)

On Thursday, a US District Court in Oregon ordered the US government to restart the process of approving wind projects. All new wind development in the US has been on hold since August 2025, when the Department of Defense (DoD) stopped participating in a process that allows it to compel developers to alter projects in order to limit their interference with radar equipment. The court ruled, however, that the DoD’s national security claims did not allow it to opt out of a process that is legally mandated.

RENEWABLES ARE INDEPENDENCE:

A great idea that everyone hates (Matthew Yglesias, Jul 28, 2026, Slow Boring)

The good news is that there is a very straightforward and well-understood idea that would have a meaningful short-term impact on prices without killing incentives for new investment.

The bad news is that nobody in their right mind even talks about this idea because it’s universally understood to be politically toxic and something everyone would hate.

I’m not here to dispute that diagnosis, just to say that failing to even talk about it is impoverishing the discourse — I keep encountering efforts to essentially recreate it with extra bells and whistles, and I don’t think that anyone coming up with these “new” ideas is taking seriously enough the question of why we don’t just do the straightforward thing.

So what’s the straightforward thing? It’s simple: We could charge household electricity users the spot price of electricity.

Tax externalities.