ClimateTech News and Headlines
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Fox ESS announced a partnership with Origin Energy to integrate its home battery storage systems into Origin’s Loop virtual power plant (VPP) across Australia. The integration gives Fox ESS customers access to three Origin battery plans—Battery Lite, Battery Maximiser, and Battery Starter—offering up to AU$400 in first‑year value and varying levels of automated VPP participation. The deal coincides with the launch of Fox ESS’s new CQ6 high‑voltage battery and follows the Australian government’s AU$2.3 billion Cheaper Home Batteries Program, which is accelerating residential BESS deployment.
Arenko has expanded its collaboration with RWE by adding software support for three co‑located solar and battery projects in the UK, totalling 150 MW. This expansion doubles the number of Arenko‑supported RWE sites to six under a 2024 framework agreement. The...
Researchers identified cathode degradation in PEM water electrolyzers during startup‑shutdown cycles, where cathode potential spikes to ~1.0 V causing carbon corrosion and Pt agglomeration. They demonstrated that commercial Pt/C suffers rapid performance loss under realistic cycling. A semi‑embedded Pt/CeOx catalyst was...
Natural England’s Reducing Seabird Collisions Using Evidence (ReSCUE) project is deploying LiDAR‑enabled aerial surveys to map seabird flight heights across UK offshore waters. The 12‑month campaign, running September 2025 to August 2026, will conduct 20 surveys in the North Sea, Irish Sea...
EACON’s autonomous battery‑electric haul trucks have been operating at Shougang Group’s Shuichang iron‑ore mine for a year, logging over 350,000 km and moving more than 11 million tonnes of material. The fleet’s regenerative‑braking system recovered 386,000 kWh of energy, equating to roughly 185 tonnes...
Contact Energy announced a NZ$525 million equity raise to fund its Contact31+ renewable strategy. The capital will back projects including the 200 MW Glenbrook Battery 2.0, the 150 MW Glorit solar farm, and expansion of the Tauhara 2 geothermal plant. In H1 2026 the company...
The Corop solar‑battery hybrid in central northern Victoria has cleared the EPBC Act assessment in just four months, receiving a “not a controlled action” verdict. The two‑stage project will deliver 440 MW of solar generation and a 290 MW/704 MWh battery, with the...
The Victorian Liberal–National coalition proposes strict independent audits and economic impact assessments for new solar, wind and battery projects, aiming to protect prime farmland and give farmers a voice through restored VCAT appeal rights. This policy emerges as Victoria lagged...
Japanese startup KG Motors began delivering its ultra‑affordable MiBot micro‑EV in December 2025 and, in January 2026, signed a partnership with energy giant Idemitsu Kosan. The agreement gives Idemitsu’s apollostation network sales, registration, insurance and after‑sales support, starting with pilot locations...
The article examines whether inverter‑based technologies can replace traditional spinning machines in providing power‑system security. It highlights AEMO’s 2025 Transition Plan, which calls for new services from synchronous condensers and advanced inverters, and references a white paper from the NSW...
The UK government has pledged up to £1 billion to accelerate community‑owned clean‑energy projects, marking the largest investment of its kind in Britain. Administered by state‑owned GB Energy, the scheme aims to fund roughly 1,000 solar, wind, hydro and biomass installations across...
Chinese researchers demonstrated that observing Earth from the lunar surface yields a unified measurement of the planet’s radiation budget, overcoming the spatial‑temporal trade‑offs of low‑Earth‑orbit and geostationary satellites. Their analysis showed that more than 90% of Earth’s outgoing radiation pattern...
The EPA announced that the credit automakers receive for installing start‑stop systems is being eliminated, reversing a policy that helped meet vehicle emissions standards. The Trump administration rejected the scientific endangerment finding that justified the credit, arguing the feature damages...
Topcon solar cells, a newer photovoltaic architecture, demonstrate markedly lower lifecycle emissions than the incumbent PERC technology. Recent life‑cycle assessments from the University of Warwick show a 6.5% reduction in climate‑changing emissions per megawatt and potential savings of up to...
Researchers introduced natural grape‑seed proanthocyanidins (OPC) at the TiO₂/perovskite buried interface of perovskite solar cells, employing a combined antioxidant, passivation, and UV‑protection strategy. The hydrogen‑bond network created by OPC reduces defect states on the electron‑transport layer, suppresses carrier recombination, and...
U.S. heat‑pump sales slipped in 2025, yet they still outperformed gas furnaces, with September shipments surpassing central ACs for the first time. A 2024 inventory buildup created a backlog that muted demand, while high upfront costs—median $25,000 versus half that...
IDB Invest announced that Sustainability Week 2026 will be held May 26‑28 in Bridgetown, marking the first time the event takes place in the Caribbean. The three‑day forum will convene investors, companies and project sponsors to showcase investment‑ready opportunities in resilience, infrastructure,...
Stored Energy Systems (SENS) is pivoting from standalone battery chargers to fully integrated, hybrid power solutions for critical‑power applications such as data centers. The company cites market pressure to adopt multi‑vendor, high‑redundancy architectures like N+1 to 2N+1, which demand streamlined...
Alexandria, Virginia, approved a new ordinance that lets developers meet green‑building requirements using an energy‑use intensity (EUI) metric instead of relying solely on third‑party certifications. The rule applies to commercial projects of 10,000 sq ft or larger, offering a choice between traditional...
Utilities are underestimating climate‑driven physical risk because reliability models still use historic weather baselines. Repath’s analysis of a €1.5 billion European grid shows that under a business‑as‑usual (RCP 8.5) pathway, average‑annual loss could shave 30.6 % off the portfolio’s gross value by 2050,...
Hydrostor has secured a 50‑MW offtake agreement with California Community Power for its Willow Rock Energy Storage Center, a 500‑MW/4,000‑MWh advanced compressed‑air energy storage (A‑CAES) project. The facility will provide eight hours of continuous discharge, delivering firm capacity to six...
American Electric Power (AEP) announced its contracted large‑load pipeline will reach 56 GW by 2030, doubling from the previous quarter. Data centers account for roughly 90% of this new demand, especially in Texas, Ohio, Indiana and Oklahoma. The utility’s five‑year capital‑expenditure...
Maersk’s APM Terminals and Germany’s Eurogate are negotiating a partnership that could inject up to €1 billion into Bremerhaven’s North Sea Terminal. The funding aims to fully electrify the site, power it with renewables and lift capacity from 3 million to 4 million...
Data‑center developers are accelerating on‑site power projects as residential electricity rates surge 37% since 2020, prompting concerns over utility affordability ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Bank of America analysts say developers will first secure fast‑deployable resources such as gas...
Australia’s latest carbon leakage review recommends a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), beginning with cement and clinker imports and potentially expanding to hydrogen, steel, ammonia and related products. The review, led by ANU professor Frank Jotzo, evaluated 75 trade‑exposed commodities...
Aviramp has installed a solar‑powered, step‑free boarding ramp at Ireland West Airport in Knock. The ramp offers a gentle slope, added passenger shelter, and is designed for wheelchair users, parents with prams and other travelers with reduced mobility. Airport operations...
Ordnance Survey has mapped 23.6 million UK homes to create a heat‑retention index that flags properties most vulnerable to fuel poverty. The index draws on the National Geospatial Database and satellite‑derived observations, enabling granular climate‑risk profiling. Simon Navin highlighted how this...
CleanCo Queensland has commissioned the Swanbank Battery, a 250 MW/500 MWh grid‑scale storage system built with Tesla’s Megapack technology at the former Swanbank coal‑power site near Brisbane. The AU$330 million project, funded by the Queensland Renewable Energy and Hydrogen Jobs Fund, began testing...
Singapore’s finance minister said the city‑state may keep its carbon tax near the low end of the $50‑80 per tonne range slated for 2030, after noting a slowdown in global climate momentum. The current levy sits at S$45 (~$35.60) per tonne, already...
The Energy Insiders podcast featured Sam Reynolds, head of Octopus Australia, outlining plans to construct the country’s largest battery and the rise of solar‑battery hybrid projects. He explained how falling storage costs and grid‑balancing needs are driving batteries to scale...
Australia’s renewable rollout hinges on grid‑forming inverters, a technology that can mimic the inertia and fault‑current support traditionally supplied by large synchronous condensers. Early results from the 25‑50 MW Darlington Point battery, built with these inverters, show it can stabilise frequency...
Australia’s home battery market has surged past 210,000 installations, spurred by the federal Cheaper Home Batteries scheme. Tech entrepreneur Simon Hackett warns that most of these systems are locked to proprietary software, preventing third‑party control. The scheme only requires VPP‑readiness,...
New South Wales awarded a 12 GWh long‑duration energy storage (LDES) tender exclusively to lithium‑ion battery systems, highlighting the technology’s cost advantage over pumped hydro. ASL’s technology‑agnostic methodology normalises asset lifespans, allowing batteries with 20‑year horizons to compete on a 50‑year...
GENERAL HVAC Solutions America introduced two new multi‑zone heat‑pump models, the AIRSTAGE Aquila and Aquila XLTH, expanding its H‑Series R‑32 lineup. The Aquila delivers up to 23 SEER2, 10.5 HSPF2 and heats to 5 °F, while the XLTH reaches 23.5 SEER2, 11.5 HSPF2 and operates...
AGL Energy has begun charging and discharging its first gigawatt‑scale battery, the 500 MW/1,000 MWh Liddell project located beside the de‑commissioned Liddell coal plant. The battery will be commissioned in two 250 MW/500 MWh stages, with the first expected within two months and the...
Electricity rates surged 6.9% in 2025, more than double the 2.9% inflation rate, driven largely by AI‑powered data centers. Goldman Sachs warns that data centers will account for 40% of electricity‑demand growth, keeping prices elevated through the decade. Households face...
Switzerland’s Paléo Festival Nyon has become the first outdoor music event in the country to operate its own solar farm. The 470‑square‑metre installation, featuring 261 photovoltaic panels, will generate roughly 100,000 kWh per year—covering at least half of the festival’s electricity...
President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing the Pentagon to prioritize coal‑fired electricity for military installations, framing it as a national‑security measure to bolster grid reliability and on‑site fuel security. The order calls for long‑term power purchase agreements with...
Solar inverter manufacturers have turned inverters into intelligent power‑management platforms with granular monitoring across loads, storage, EV chargers, and the grid. Companies such as Enphase and SMA now deliver module‑level data, temperature and irradiance metrics, and AI‑driven predictive maintenance. This...
Plus Power has commissioned the 175‑MW, 350‑MWh Cross Town Energy Storage facility in Gorham, Maine, marking the largest battery energy storage system on the ISO New England grid. The plant uses 156 Sungrow PowerTitan modules on a five‑acre site adjacent...
Anthropic announced it will cover the grid costs associated with its AI data centres, partnering with utilities to estimate and offset residential electricity price hikes. The company will also finance infrastructure upgrades, invest in new power generation, and implement demand‑response...
US‑based climate‑tech firm Copeland announced a £19 million expansion of its Cookstown, Northern Ireland factory, adding a new production line for heat‑pump compressors. The investment, the most impactful small‑sized project in Europe according to the 2026 Investment Impact Awards, is projected...
Smart Solar Technologies, a Turkish cleantech firm, announced a €122 million investment to build a solar cell and module factory in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria. The plant will target 1,500 MW of wafer, cell and module output and is expected to generate more than...
Australia’s clean‑energy push, highlighted by the Cheaper Home Batteries Program, has driven rapid rooftop solar adoption, yet renters—over one‑third of households—remain excluded. Solar Citizens and a coalition of 72 groups have campaigned for a solar‑for‑renters framework, testing public consensus through...
CarbonQuest, a Spokane‑based startup, is expanding its carbon‑capture technology from New York high‑rise boilers to gas‑fired engines that power compressors on Canadian pipelines. The company secured a $4.1 million grant‑backed contract with Tourmaline to install a containerized vacuum pressure swing absorption...
Complexity scientist Doyne Farmer proposes a $100 million global economic simulator that models every firm individually, starting with the energy sector’s 30,000 companies and 160,000 assets. By replacing perfect‑rationality and equilibrium assumptions with simple, adaptive agents, the model promises forecasts that...
Ascott is shifting its sustainability focus from guest‑facing gestures to system‑level operational improvements, targeting cooling efficiency, refrigerant discipline, and maintenance quality. The 2024 CarbonClear Initiative standardises energy audits and sets property‑level targets, using utility data and sub‑metering for verification. These...
Swedavia, Sweden’s state‑owned airport operator, unveiled a green‑bond framework to fund airport infrastructure through public‑private partnerships. The model ties financing to ESG criteria, requiring projects such as terminals, car parks and people movers to meet strict environmental standards, often incorporating...
Upside Robotics secured a $7.5 million seed round to scale its solar‑powered autonomous fertilizer robots for corn. The robots, driven by proprietary algorithms, have already cut fertilizer use by 70%, saving roughly $150 per acre. After testing on 70 acres in...
Malaysia upgraded its e‑waste import prohibition from a conditional to an absolute ban, ending all shipments of end‑of‑life batteries and related waste. The move creates immediate supply uncertainty for battery recyclers that rely on imported black mass, likely driving up...
