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In the Race for Clean Energy, the United States is Both a Leader and a Laggard—Here’s How

Union of Concerned Scientists

Announcing recently that the world broke a record by generating 30 percent of all electricity from renewable sources in 2023, the British think tank Ember said the data proves we are in a “new era” of energy in which a permanent decline in fossil fuels is “inevitable.” More on that shortly. But first, the undeniably good news.

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Good News—and Bad—about Fossil Fuel Power Plants in 2023 

Union of Concerned Scientists

With the clean energy transition already under way, the US electricity mix is set to continue changing this year. Solar power is expected to make up about half of all additions of US electric generating capacity in 2023, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). I’ll start off with the good.

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How Much Land Would it Require to Get Most of Our Electricity from Wind and Solar?

Union of Concerned Scientists

A recent National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) study shows that it would take less than 1 percent of the land in the Lower 48—that’s an area comparable to or even smaller than the fossil fuel industry’s current footprint. Rooftop solar deployment, meanwhile, doesn’t require any land. times current levels by 2035.

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Ocean Solutions for Clean Energy

Ocean Conservancy

To avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis, it’s crucial that we shift energy production away from the unsustainable fossil fuels that cause climate change and towards those that release little to no greenhouse gases (GHG), such as solar and wind power. Clean energy is key to national security.

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Pittsburgh Water & Sewer Authority To Buy More Wind Energy From Western PA Energy Consortium

PA Environment Daily

On August 9, the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority announced it would be committing to the purchase of wind power and the use of clean energy to support the production and operations of water services. PWSA holds the largest share at 30% of the total, underlining our strong commitment to sustainable energy practices.

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Challenges and Opportunities in Mining Materials for Energy Storage Lithium-ion Batteries

Union of Concerned Scientists

When the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing, batteries help store clean energy to continue supplying electricity to the grid and to customers consistently and reliably. A fossil fuel energy grid extracts and expends finite resources. It is wasteful by design. Source: Fairphone/Flickr.

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Ontario could easily phase out polluting fossil gas – if it wanted to

Enviromental Defense

We all know that to successfully address climate change we need to phase out fossil fuels and switch to electric power. A s we transition our homes and vehicles to electric power, it’s imperative that the electricity sector be clean. The costs of wind and solar power have been dropping like a stone.