solar

A family wanted to live with only solar panels, well water and a garden. Until Italy took away her children

by

High in a forest in Abruzzo, Italy, a stone house fell completely silent in November last year. Until then, that place was the self-sufficient refuge of Nathan Trevallion, Catherine Birmingham and their three children. However, on November 20, 2025, a judge decided to remove them of family custody for living disconnected from the grid, without schooling and in an environment that he considered unhealthy. The resolution started a fire political and social in Italy. What for the family was a self-sufficient life project—solar panels, well water, compostable toilet, garden—became a court case with enormous international repercussions. The story, however, goes beyond an Italian court order. It is the symptom of something bigger: a growing movement in Europe—and also in Spain—of families and communities seeking to get out of the urban grind, disconnect from the electrical grid and live self-sufficiently. How far does the freedom to choose that lifestyle go? And where does the State’s intervention begin, especially when minors are involved? The case that divided Italy. The family, of Australian and British origin, had been living in a forest in Palmoli since 2021. The house was precarious but, according to themenough: electricity with solar panels, well water and an outdoor composting area as a toilet. In autumn 2024, all were hospitalized due to accidental mushroom poisoning. That episode was the one that activated the alarms of social services. As collected Corriere della Seraa technical report described the home as “ruin” and “without adequate conditions for minors.” That’s when social services intervened. The lack of schooling of the minors, the absence of pediatric follow-up and the almost total isolation in which the family lived set off all the alarms. Following these reports, a court in L’Aquila ordered in November of 2025 the withdrawal of parental authority and the transfer of the children to a center, where the mother could stay with them temporarily. The decision has caused a real political earthquakewhere political leaders and several judicial associations denounced pressure from the Government. At the same time, more than 150,000 people signed online petitions demanding that minors return to their parents. The family breakup and tensions in Vasto. The litigation is still in full swing. The development of the case during the first months of 2026 has been marked by institutional complexity, friction and the desperate search for reunification. The deepest wound of this process is, without a doubt, separation. According to Il Messaggerothe situation reached a critical point on March 6, when Catherine, the mother of the minors, was removed from the Vasto family home. In her only in-person visit after the expulsion, social services reports indicated that the woman showed “hostile” attitudes and incited other residents to rebel against the educators. This episode led to the drastic decision to cancel subsequent meetings, limiting maternal contact to video calls, in an attempt to preserve the children’s serenity. However, distance is taking its toll. A forceful technical report presented on April 3, 2026 before the L’Aquila Court, signed by the psychiatrist Tonino Cantelmi and the psychologist Martina Aiello, set off alarm bells. The experts They noticed that children show obvious “signs of psychological distress” and deep trauma resulting from the separation. The document is clear: there is no evidence of abuse or mistreatment by the mother. For this reason, specialists have asked the court for the “urgent and unavoidable” reconstitution of the family, warning that prolonging this fracture will only aggravate the damage to the mental health of the children. An institutional clash in the middle of the crossfire. The family drama has transcended the walls of the reception center to become a political and institutional powder keg. The management of the case provoked an open and public confrontation, collected by RaiNews. On the one hand, the Ombudsman for Children of Abruzzo, Marina Terragni, visited the minors in March and publicly reported having found some children with “notable psychomotor agitation” and obvious trauma due to the repeated changes. The response from social services was immediate. They flatly accused Terragni of exposing the professionals to a “public pillory” based on statements that, according to them, did not correspond to reality, ensuring that the climate in the family home had returned to being “serene.” Polarization and media pressure have escalated to worrying levels: The tension even manifested itself with screams inside the court itself, and the judge of the Juvenile Court, Cecilia Angrisano, had to receive a police escort after being the target of continuous threats on social networks. The countdown. While the courts decide, the family tries to put the pieces back together and comply with the State’s demands. Nathan, assuming a conciliatory role, has moved to regularize his situation. As detailed Il Messaggerothe father delivered to the City Council of Palmoli a personalized study plan, supported by the Libera Schola Foundation of Milan and inspired by the Waldorf-Steiner method. In addition, the family has begun to comply with the vaccination schedule and the children have been receiving in-person classes with a tutor since January, as pointed out by Corriere della Sera. The most tangible progress has come from the municipality itself. In a gesture of support, the Palmoli City Council has given the family, free of charge and for an initial period of two years, a newly renovated 70 square meter house. As detailed Il Giornale, The house, financed with European PNRR funds, has solar panels, heating and all health guarantees, thus solving the judge’s main claim. At the moment the house remains empty until the family is complete, as detailed by Nathan. Everyone’s eyes are now on the Court of Appeal, which has a key hearing set for April 21, 2026. Off-grid: from bucolic dream to global phenomenon. To understand the background of this trend, just open Instagram. As the magazine explains Ethicsit is enough for the algorithm to detect a certain interest in self-sufficiency to fill the feed of videos of families drying their own food, women showing their renovated campers or couples who live half a year off … Read more

Germany has found a source of perovskite for solar panels in an unusual place: bullets from the 17th century

by

Solar energy is, with the permission of wind energy, the renewable energy that has stood out the most and best in the energy transition on a global scale. There are already solar parks everywhere: from fields that They fill the emptied Spain to deserts passing through the tibetan plateau and also in high seas either in lakes. And although the most common technology is crystalline silicon, perovskite is the great promise. There is a compelling reason to bet on perovskite: a record efficiency certified in a laboratory. up to 26%. However, a large-scale deployment of perovskite solar cells requires a large-scale, sustainable supply of high-purity lead iodide. We have come across lead: a toxic element whose mining is not exactly sustainable. On the not-so-good side, recycling it to the required purity levels is a technical challenge that a German research team at the Helmholtz Institute in Erlangen-Nuremberg has just solved. And in what way: have achieved converting 17th century musket balls into high-performance solar cells. The idea. It consists of a process of upcycling (upcycling) in two stages: first a non-aqueous electrochemical route and then purification through the crystallization of single crystals, quite different from traditional methods based on strong acids and large volumes of water. To demonstrate the robustness of their method, the team used lead bullets from the 16th and 17th centuries as raw material, a truly complicated material in that it contains carbon residues, metallic inclusions and oxidation patina. If the process can clean up this type of historical residue, it can handle virtually anything you throw at it (obviously any lead residue). Recycling bullets into solar cells transforms lead waste into a clean energy source. Why is it important. Perovskite solar cells require extraordinarily pure lead iodide, and achieving that level of purity from contaminated waste was until now a challenge without a practical solution that this research has solved: the team manufactured solar cells with their recycled material and obtained 21% efficiency, practically identical to the 22% of devices manufactured from industrial synthesis. Beyond the technical result, the process solves two problems at the same time: it offers a way to supply the enormous demand for lead iodide that will be generated by the take-off of perovskite solar cells without resorting to new mining and at the same time eliminates a toxic pollutant whose current management is expensive and environmentally problematic. Context. As we mentioned above, lead is an abundant waste: it comes from used car batteries, electronic scrap, construction materials or ammunition, among others. Lead recycling is dominated by car batteries, which have very high recovery rates in developed countries. The problem is in the rest: In 2018, only 48% of the world’s residual lead at the end of its useful life was recovered and in more dispersed flows such as electronics or construction, the recovery is even lower. Conventional recycling returns metallurgical-grade lead, useful for batteries and alloys, but far from what the solar industry requires. In addition, they are slow processes that generate toxic gases such as nitrogen oxides and large quantities of contaminated wastewater, up to 70 liters per kilogram of lead iodide produced. Traditional high-temperature purification methods are expensive and complex. More robust, adaptable and cleaner extraction and purification methods are needed for perovskite technology to truly scale. How they do it. The bullets are cleaned with dilute nitric acid, melted and molded into rods that act as electrodes in an electrochemical cell with acetonitrile and dissolved iodine. When current is applied, lead reacts directly with iodine and precipitates as lead iodide with 94% efficiency. Doing it this way, in a non-aqueous medium, is a deliberate decision to avoid introducing impurities that would accelerate the degradation of the perovskite. The resulting lead iodide still contains metallic impurities, so it is not suitable for solar cells. That is why it is subjected to a second purification stage through crystallization at a controlled temperature for about 70 hours. The process is exceptionally selective: as the crystal grows, it expels contaminating metals such as silver or copper, raising the purity of the material to levels comparable to or even higher than the highest quality commercial standard. Yes, but. The process works and the results are solid, but scale matters: at the laboratory level, productivity is just 0.05 grams per hour and each purification cycle lasts about 70 hours. The leap to an industrial scale requires solving the recovery of organic solvents, controlling the passivation of the electrodes and substantially improving the productivity of the process. The research team does not hide it: the chemistry is proven, but the distance from the laboratory to a real production plant is long and will determine whether we end up seeing perovskite panels made with recycled lead or if this remains like a shiny piece of paper in a drawer. In Xataka | Germany has had a crazy idea to solve one of the problems of renewables: covering a lake with solar panels In Xataka | 800 meters deep in a 175 million year old rock: Germany’s solution to nuclear waste Cover | By Branch and Soren H

Now there are solar panels and 50% more inhabitants

by

Crossing the interior of the Iberian Peninsula today is getting used to a landscape increasingly dominated by immense plains of glass and silicon. The proliferation of macro photovoltaic parks in the so-called “emptied Spain” is usually accompanied by a bitter and repetitive narrative: towns that give up their lands to large companies in exchange for a mirage that does not stop the rural exodus. However, what happens in Belinchón (Cuenca) completely breaks this script. A demographic jump of 50%. For a municipality in the interior of the peninsula, Belinchón’s figures border on science fiction. According to INE datathe town hit rock bottom in 2017 with just 314 inhabitants. Today, in 2026, the population exceeds 470 residents. It is an increase of practically 50% in less than a decade. This “boom” has an economic explanation. The municipality has given up 1,200 of its 8,000 hectares to install a 600 MW photovoltaic hub, divided into 12 plants. This immense infrastructure has allowed the City Council to multiply its budget by 30, going from a survival economy to managing three million euros annually. The philosophy behind this resurgence is summarized by the mayor in his interview with The World: “We don’t want to tell people to come live in Belinchón; we are trying to make a Belinchón so that people want to come.” The local welfare state. The case of this Cuenca town serves to dispel some widespread myths. As the analyst Alejandro Diego Rosell reflects in your LinkedIn accountthere is a popular belief that “photovoltaics fills land with panels, but leaves no wealth or local employment.” Rosell uses precisely the example of Belinchón to demonstrate that, although long-term maintenance does not generate thousands of jobs, the immense tax revenues for municipal coffers radically transform the lives of residents for decades. With this three million budget, the City Council has woven an enviable welfare network. As detailed The World200,000 euros per year are allocated to direct social aid: 1,500 euros per student, a baby check of 1,500 euros, 500 euros for glasses, 2,000 for dental expenses, in addition to subsidies to improve the accessibility of housing and support for local businesses. All this, keeping taxes to a minimum. Even at the infrastructure level, the construction of the modern Center of Light and Knowledge and a state-of-the-art gym stands out. The next step. Belinchón does not stop at renting its lands; Now it wants the energy to directly impact the electricity bills of its inhabitants. According to PV Magazinethe City Council put out to tender the “Municipal Solar Self-Consumption Project” at the beginning of the year. It is a 600 kW installation structured in six blocks, equipped with cutting-edge technology (Trina modules and Huawei inverters), with an estimated value of almost 600,000 euros. As detailed Renewable Energiesthis new plant will allow residents to benefit from a very significant reduction in their electricity bill, which will range between 70% and 80%. But the great challenge for the future, as López Castejón confesses to The Worldis to attract industry. “Closing the circle is generating electricity, storing it and consuming it with electro-intensive industry,” he says. The town demands that the companies that are going to consume that energy settle on the adjacent lands to generate, now, hundreds of permanent jobs. “Nobody opens a restaurant if there are no customers,” says the mayor. The global impact. To understand the magnitude of what is happening in Belinchón, we must look beyond its borders. The solar plants in this Cuenca municipality are playing a key role in the international green economy. According to ANDl Economistthe company Zelestra has recently launched the Belinchón I, II and III projects (162 MW in total). Production is supported by the program Energize (managed by Schneider Electric), which means that Belinchón’s sun is serving to directly decarbonize global giants in the pharmaceutical industry, such as Takeda, Teva or UCB. The right to dream in emptied Spain. Beyond the megawatts, the tons of CO2 avoided and the millions of euros, Belinchón’s main achievement is intangible. As illustrated by the report The Worldphotovoltaics have given back to the people “the ability to dream.” Mayor López Castejón once again lets his vocation emerge to explain his long-term vision. “As we firefighters say, every big fire has a small beginning,” he says. In the case of Belinchón, that small spark has been the sun, and it has served to ignite a future that, just a few years ago, seemed completely off. Image | Antalexion Xataka | We used only a third of sunlight: now we know how to use molybdenum to squeeze each photon to the maximum

We wanted electric cars and solar panels. The Hormuz blockade has returned us to the era of coal and nuclear energy

by

The Third Gulf War has caused what decades of climate summits tried to avoid: the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has erased 20% of the world’s supply of oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) in one fell swoop. Faced with the imminent threat of a large-scale blackout, governments around the world have put their energy transition plans in a drawer. However, to keep the lights on and the economy afloat, the immediate response has been to look back to the past: burn coal by the piece and resurrect nuclear power. The mirage of “bridge fuel.” Asia buys more than 80% of the crude oil and gas that transits through Hormuz, but the problem goes far beyond a simple ship jam. This crisis has destroyed one of the great pillars of the energy transition. As explained The New York TimesLiquefied Natural Gas (LNG) was sold during the last decade as the perfect “bridge fuel”: less polluting than coal, more reliable than intermittent renewables and capable of being transported by sea to any corner. That bridge just blew up. The damage is far from being repaired, and it is estimated that the infrastructure attacked It will take years to operate again. Added to this is that Iran has turned the Strait of Hormuz into a kind of maritime “VIP discotheque”deciding by hand which ships can cross. No one can depend on LNG ships to guarantee their sovereignty. The main problem: live without pantry. But there is a technical factor that has turned this crisis into an immediate catastrophe: lack of storage. Unlike the West, most Asian countries lack underground gas stores, leaving them completely exposed to supply disruptions. While nations like South Korea can last up to 52 days and Japan about three weeks, Taiwan walk on a wire extremely fragile, with a legal security threshold of just 11 or 12 days of reserves. Without a “pantry” to store the LNG, Asia has no room for maneuver: if the ship does not arrive on Monday, the blackout begins on Tuesday. This structural vulnerability is what has forced an unconditional surrender to coal. Coal’s dirty lifesaver. As Jonathan Teubner, the aforementioned analyst, perfectly summarizes by Financial Times: “No coal ship passes through the Strait of Hormuz.” That is the key to everything. Being a cheap, abundant resource that does not depend on the troubled waters of the Middle East, the most polluting mineral has returned with a bang. According to FortuneSouth Korea has removed the 80% operational cap for its coal plants, a decision that has drawn the ire of environmental groups who accuse the government of using “energy security as a pretext.” Thailand, for its part, is restarting plants it had dismantled last year. From Seoul to New Delhi: the dilemma of the powers. Japan, one of the world’s largest gas importers, has also bowed to the evidence, allowing its least efficient coal plants to operate at full capacity for a year. Energy desperation is such that in Japan There are already voices demanding cancel the emissions trading system, calling it a “death sentence” for the coal plants they now need to survive. In India, the situation is critical. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has warned of a “major challenge” ahead of the summer. To avoid massive blackouts, New Delhi has commanded giants such as Tata Power and Adani Power operate at full capacity, while Bangladesh seeks multi-billion dollar loans. Sam Chua, analyst at Rystad Energy, sums it up in Financial Times: We are not seeing a transition, but a brutal “destruction of gas demand.” Although it is not that simple: the money wall. This coal revival has a glass ceiling. As experts point out in Japan Timesthe banking sector flatly refuses to finance the construction of new coal plants for fear of being left with “stranded assets” (stranded assets) in the face of global climate commitments. That is, countries are squeezing their dirty old infrastructure to the last drop, but they can’t build new ones. Charcoal is the assisted respirator, but not the cure. The atom as a shield: the great redemption of uranium. Panic too has broken atomic taboos. Taiwan, whose government promised a “nuclear-free homeland” in 2016, has announced plans to restart two decommissioned reactors. The Philippines has charted a fast track to atomic energy by 2032, and Vietnam has just struck a deal with Russia to build its first reactors. Uranium is no longer seen as a threat, but rather as the only way to protect the electricity supply against maritime blackmail. The domino effect reaches Europe. What started as an emergency solution in Asia is already infecting the West. The crisis has forced the European Union to break its own historical taboos, admitting that Europe committed a “strategic mistake” by moving away from atomic energy. Brussels has already put 200 million euros on the table to develop Small Modular Reactors (SMR) by 2030. This shift shows a continental fracture: while France entrenches itself protecting its nuclear investment of 300 billion euros and blocks energy interconnections with the Iberian Peninsula, Europe assumes that it cannot guarantee its future solely with the sun and the wind. War rationing in the 21st century. While the plants uproot, the daily suffocation hit the streets. Philippines has declared a “national energy emergency.” In South Korea, the government implores families to take short showers and Samsung has prohibited its employees from driving to work based on the license plate. In Thailand, officials operate with work weeks for four days and they are prohibited from wearing ties in order to raise the temperature of the air conditioning. The collapse is so severe that Thai ambulances have taken to Facebook to beg gas stations to reserve diesel for them to save lives. The collateral damage. The scope of this blockage transcends the electricity bill. If the conflict lasts until June, Bloomberg alert that the barrel could touch $200, a price designed to cause “demand destruction.” This would lock global inflation at a chronic … Read more

Iran has made energy a problem again. The United Kingdom believes it has found a solution in solar panels

by

There are issues that we believe are resolved until reality reminds us that they are not. Energy is one of them. We have been talking about for years solar panelsof self-consumption and of alternatives to fossil fuelsbut in many cases they remained a rather gradual, almost optional decision. That has changed. The rise in energy prices linked to the conflict in Iran has brought the problem back to the forefront and forced several governments to react. The United Kingdom has decided to act. The specific measure. What the British Government has put on the table is not a generic promise, but a plan to try bring so-called plug-in solar panels to stores in “the coming months.” To make it possible, the Government is working with Amazon, Lidl and the manufacturer EcoFlow. There is also an interesting nuance here: we are talking about an American e-commerce giant and a very recognizable supermarket chain in Europe. What makes them different. At this point, it is worth stopping for a moment on what exactly we are talking about. These plug-in solar panels do not work like a traditional photovoltaic installation, which usually requires construction, permits, and the intervention of a professional. The idea here is much simpler: smaller devices that can be placed on balconies, walls or gardens and connected directly to the home electrical network. According to the British Government, this approach would allow them to be used without the need for an electrician, as long as technical and safety standards are adapted. The context. It is no longer a secret that the conflict in Iran has hit one of the most sensitive points of the global energy system, the Strait of Hormuzthrough which a relevant part of the world’s oil circulates. When that flow is threatened, prices react quickly, and that is just what has happened. In a few days, crude oil and gas have risen sharply and that impact ends up reaching Europe in the form of more expensive fuels and higher bills, which has forced several governments to act. The European mirror. If we leave the United Kingdom, what we see is a map of quite diverse responses to the same problem. Rising energy prices have forced action, but each country is doing it in its own way. Spain has opted for a broad package of aid and tax cuts, valued at around 5,000 million euroswhile Germany has focused on regulating the behavior of gas stations and Portugal has applied fiscal adjustments more specific about fuels. Faced with these measures, more focused on cushioning the immediate blow, the British movement introduces another approach, facilitating access to alternatives such as solar energy to reduce dependence in the medium term. Images | Caspar Rae In Xataka | Europe has a million reasons to fear an increase in the price of electricity. Spain has something else: renewables

A user has been powering his house with 1,000 laptop batteries and solar panels for 10 years. Others are already trying to copy the idea

by

Second Life Storage is one of those places that seems to belong to another era. In the era of Reddit and Discord, this is a forum, one dedicated to a single topic: batteries. One of its users is Glubux, and it has been sharing progress on a most curious DIY project for years: a house powered by more than 1,000 batteries. The key is that they are recycled laptop batteries. And he has created a school. Glubux Powerwall. On November 9, 2019, Glubux opened a forum entry in which he shared some photos and detailed his project: he had started collecting laptop batteries years ago, he had collected about 650 and was doing tests to check stability, performance and possibilities. Little by little he was sharing news such as the packs – cells – that he was creating with dozens of interconnected batteries with a great objective: to power the house with standard lithium batteries. These cells are not created by chance: after dissecting each laptop battery, it classifies the units by capacity and rebuilds them into stable modules. This is how it started in 2017 | Photo: Glubux The idea was to create a large system that would work together like a conventional battery, but using those recycled ‘batteries’. He tried it and ended up connecting several packs to the home power. Less than a month later, Glubux commented that it had even successfully connected a vacuum cleaner for a total of 1,200 W of power and that there were no symptoms of heating. It was time to move on. This is how it was in 2024 | Photo: Glubux The shed. But of course, if batteries have taught us anything, it is that handling them is complicated and dangerous if something goes wrong. No matter how much care we take, something so homemade is likely to fail at some point, which could start a major fire. Having something like this inside the house is crazy, so Glubux created a very small shed on his plot, but enough to house the growing collection of more than 1,000 batteries. Last year we already commented that the latest of their reports was that none had shown signs of deterioration (such as swelling) and, after eight years, they had not had to change any cells. Now, his house was running on solar panels that sent power to homemade recycled battery cells. Photo: Glubux Feeding… everything. After expanding the solar installation (24 panels with 440 W), the storage capacity increased to 56 kWh and the system, which operates at 24 volts to feed A 3 kVA converter can power the house with its lights and appliances without problem. But it is not the only thing, since it also charges both a Tesla and an electric Nissan. Creating school. Glubux hasn’t participated in his thread for a while, but that doesn’t mean he’s dead. Other users have been sharing their adventures when creating similar systems. Some were even more veteran and had more batteries, and the most interesting thing is that they have created a space in which advice is given about the cells, the capacity of each of the cells or how to join batteries so that the systems are stable. Other similar projects | Photo: Daniel88 Not so homemade. These projects are almost as exciting as finding yourself in 2026 a furo so rudimentary that it still has an active community, but it must be said that powering the house with a wall of conventional batteries is not so exotic. In fact, Panasonic recently said it was reaching the limit of its capacity to produce battery cells for data centers. These are cells very similar to those of the Glubux project although, obviously, initially created to power systems such as data center racks. They are still systems made up of packs made up of hundreds of ‘batteries’. And now I can only wonder if Glubux’s silence is because it is building its own data center next to the shed. Images | Glubux, Daniel88

The length of “a day” on all the planets in the Solar System, explained in a revealing video of just one minute

by

The Universe is full of unknowns for humanity. What’s more, even data that we know ends up being questioned and reformulated, such as: the distances between planets in the solar system. In fact, as a millennial, when I was a child I learned all the planets at once and then I had to forget about Pluto. However, a reasonably solid and most interesting piece of information is How long is a day on a planet in the Solar System?information that on Earth is approximately 24 hours (23 hours and 56 minutes, specifically). This duration is due to the average time it takes our planet to complete a rotation on its own axis, although translation has an influence. Furthermore, it has evolved historically due to the gravitational pull of the Moon. Thus, and in general terms, we can establish that to estimate this duration, factors influence its radius, its orbit and also interactions with other celestial bodies. The reality is that we are facing a non-intuitive pattern with results that defy logic. To solve the question numerically, the popular science channel The Brain Maze has a great video the most agile and visual to clear our doubts with the figures in just one minute: Now we know how much, but it is even more interesting to understand why. As a summary, there are certain general rules that are met: paradoxically the largest planets are those that rotate the fastest and those closest to the Sun have suffered the effects of gravitational tides in such a way that they have slowed down to almost a stop. Although we already told you that there are quite a few anomalies. The counterintuitive pattern for determining how long a day is The Sun and the planets of the solar system. The sizes are to scale, but the distances are not. By Edits by Pepedavila. Source image on Commons edited by Farry, credited by original uploader to “Martin Kornmesser”, and later an anonymous edit re-credited it to “zaria mayers”. – Edit of File:Planets2008.jpg by Farry., Public domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20584284 Giant planets have shorter days than the Earth and in short, they spin fast because they grew fast. When the Solar System formed, these early planets accumulated gas and dust with angular momentum. The gas giants captured so much material in a short time that they were able to preserve almost all of that original angular momentum. They go without brakes and it shows: it takes Jupiter less than 10 hours to make a complete revolution on itself, despite the fact that compared to Earth, it is more than 300 times its mass and 11 times larger. With Saturn this also applies, but for Uranus and Neptune the explanation is incomplete: the ice giants also spin fast for the same reason, but their history is much more eventful, either due to collisions or disturbances in the early days. On Mercury and Venus the days become eternal. The rocky planets close to the Sun found a brake in the tides. Mercury is so close to the star that its gravity has dissipated its original rotation over time. If you were on the surface of Mercury looking at the Sun, you would see it stop, move backwards, and move forward again: it is the effect of its elliptical orbit and its slow rotation, compared to its orbital speed. In fact, even has a double dawn in some parts of the planet. Venus is also slowed down by the sun’s gravity, but it also rotates in the opposite direction. Because? Good question, for you, for me and for science in general: it remains a mystery, although there are hypotheses. A curiosity to reinforce the rarities of Venus: a day lasts longer than its own year, it takes 243 Earth days to rotate on itself and only 225 to complete its orbit around the Sun. By the way, the fact that a day on Mars and on Earth lasts practically the same is, according to science, almost certainly a coincidence. This similarity and other factors have fueled for decades the idea that Mars is the ideal candidate to host life. In Xataka | We have been deceived by the distances of the Solar System: the closest neighbor to Neptune is Mercury In Xataka | The true size of all the planets in the Solar System, explained in a clarifying video

How can you know at what time the 2026 solar eclipse can be seen in each neighborhood or city?

by

Let’s tell you at what time will your neighborhood or city go dark due to solar eclipse of 2026. We know that this event will take place on August 12, and that it will begin to be seen in Spain at 7:30 p.m. in A Coruña, which is when the sky will begin to darken. However, since the earth is not flat, it will not be seen equally everywhere, and the route that total darkness will take will be at different times depending on where you live. What we are going to tell you is how to know how much can be seen in your city and the exact hours. All the eclipse data in your neighborhood or city To obtain this data, we are going to use an official website of the National Geographic Institute created for this eclipse. You have to enter visualizers.ign.es/eclipses/2026and at the top write your zip code or location name in the box that appears. You can also search for the site by putting a pin on the map. When you do, you will go to a page where On the left you have an informative column. In it you will be told things such as whether the total eclipse is going to arrive or it will only be partial, as well as the start times of the partial eclipse and the total or annular eclipse wherever you have chosen. On this website, what you have to do is move the temporary bar that appears belowwhere it says Evolution of the eclipse. So, when the sky is going to be completely covered the map will turn blackand you will be able to see from the beginning of the total eclipse to how long it will last. This tool can be very useful, because it will allow you to organize yourself to see the eclipse correctly. If you are going to travel somewhere or if it will be in your city, you will be able to know the exact times, as well as the differences between where you are and nearby areas. In Xataka Basics | Solar eclipses visible in Spain: these are the three astronomical events of 2026, 2027 and 2028

China has broken records by expanding its wind and solar capacity. Now going all out with pumped hydroelectric storage

by

In December 2020, Xi Jinping, the president of China, announced that the country he leads would reach 1,200 GW of installed wind and solar capacity by 2030. He was wrong. China reached this figure in July 2024and, therefore, no less than six years before the deadline set by the Government. At the end of 2025, the accumulated capacity of these two energy sources exceeded 1,840 GW, making them those responsible for 47.3% of China’s electrical capacity. That was the first time wind and solar energy They surpassed coal and gas in the Chinese electricity mix. However, the rapid expansion of these renewable energy sources has placed China in a scenario in which it is crucial to find a way to integrate them efficiently into the country’s energy system. Wind and solar energy have an intermittent nature, so it is essential to develop large-scale storage infrastructure and a network that is capable of managing the peaks and valleys of supply in an automated way. Pumping is the most efficient way to store energy on a large scale To solve this challenge, China has launched a strategy that proposes transforming energy storage into a national priority. One of the solutions it is deploying is installing large battery systems at a record pace. In 2025 its battery storage capacity grew by 75% compared to 2024. However, in this area its biggest bet is pumped hydroelectric storage. At the moment China has more pumping projects underway than all the other countries in the world combined. Their plan is to use excess solar and wind energy to pump water into elevated reservoirs and release it when electricity is needed. Pumped hydroelectric plants fit very well in mountainous countries because they allow you to take advantage of uneven terrain to move large masses of water between two reservoirs or deposits at different heights. China currently has more pumping projects underway than all other countries in the world combined. The excess energy can be used to pump water from the lower reservoir to the upper one using a hydraulic pump, and to recover that energy it is only necessary to let it fall back into the lower reservoir from the upper one so that it drives a hydraulic turbine. Pumped hydroelectricity has been used for more than a century, but it remains a very attractive technology. In fact, it is currently one of the energy storage systems more efficient large scale. The largest facility of its kind in Europe it is the pumped hydroelectric plant of the Cortes–La Muela complex (La Muela I + La Muela II), on the Júcar river (Valencia). If we stick to pumped hydro storage, China aims to add about 100 GW in five years compared to the current 59 GW. If it achieves its purpose, this technology will become the basis of its long-term storage system in this country. Still, the Government has also committed to more rapidly expanding battery storage. At the end of 2025 the accumulated capacity reached 136 GWwhich multiplies by 40 the level proposed by the previous five-year plan. Lithium-ion batteries clearly dominate this market, but China is investigating alternative technologiessuch as sodium-ion batteries, compressed air batteries, flywheels or gravitational storage. Image | Generated by Xataka with Gemini More information | Volt Insight Xataka | China dominates the world of renewable energy, but it has an Achilles heel: it depends on the West more than it admits

This map of the August solar eclipse is a gem for discovering where and how to see it best

by

Those of us who love to look at the sky in search of astronomical landmarks are in luck: the classic summer Perseid shower is joined by the first of the three eclipses planned between 2026 and 2028that of August 12. It will be a historic event in that it will be the first total eclipse visible on the peninsula since 1912. There is still time to find a good place free of light pollution (or at least, not “light pollution dump“) close to where we are. That is, if we are lucky enough that the solar eclipse is full wherever we are. Taking into account that it will be in the middle of August, surely there are those who are preparing a getaway to a potentially ideal location. In addition to finding a place where the eclipse is total and free of buildings and streetlights, if we want to enjoy the solar eclipse in its maximum splendorthere are other aspects to take into account, such as whether the shadows will bother us or how long it will be visible. The National Geographic Institute has a section on your website where to monitor in which parts of the world the solar eclipse will be seen and which areas will be partial and which will be total. Thus, we hope to see it in North America, much of Europe and West Africa. Where to best see the total solar eclipse, on an interactive map But it will only be total in a relatively wide strip, the one you see in the dark that crosses the Arctic Ocean, the northeast of Greenland and the extreme west of Iceland, crossing the Atlantic Ocean to enter the Iberian Peninsula. The time when the eclipse will be at its maximum It will be at 19 hours and 46 minutes (peninsular time) and at that point on the planet (near Iceland) it will last at most two minutes and 18 seconds. Where the solar eclipse will be seen: areas where it will be total and areas where it will be partial. IGN The total eclipse will cross the Iberian Peninsula from west to east from A Coruña to Palma, passing through cities such as Lugo, Oviedo, León, Zamora, Valladolid, Palencia, Segovia, Burgos, Soria, Santander, Bilbao, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Logroño, Guadalajara, Cuenca, Zaragoza, Teruel, Lleida, Tarragona, València and Castelló de la Plana. In Spain, the local maximum will occur around 8:28–32 minutes, and totality will last up to 1 minute and 50 seconds at the point of longest duration (the Asturian coast). Madrid and Barcelona are outside the strip: although they will see a visually impressive 99% partial eclipse, it will not reach the point that will be seen in the strip. This IGN interactive map It has an animation where you can see the progress of the shadow that will form the superimposition of the moon on the sun. The shadow of the solar eclipse, in an animation If you are interested in having more precise information about a specific location, it includes a box where you can enter addresses or cities, which opens the doors to having data such as its visibility profile, duration, when it will start, its peak point or the time you will be able to see it. Eclipse data for Estella – Lizarra. IGN On the right side it has several options such as sharing information, background layers for example the satellite view or a particularly interesting one: layers. Thus, you can activate the duration to know in which areas you can enjoy more viewing time, the degree of obscuration or visibility, because you could go out into nature to see it without being bothered by the lights and discover that the shadows of the terrain disturb your vision. The interactive map, with visibility, darkness and duration layers activated. IGN An important detail for choosing the site: The eclipse will occur at sunset, with the sun low on the horizon, which will require observing it in a place that offers good visibility to the west, without mountains, buildings or trees that obstruct. On the other hand, remember not to look at the sun directly except during that period when the eclipse is total. But it’s better not to risk it and use approved glasses. In Xataka | Solar eclipses visible in Spain: these are the three astronomical events of 2026, 2027 and 2028 In Xataka | Half of Spain waits expectantly for the historic eclipse of August 2026. The authorities are already thinking about the problems Cover | IGN and Kevin Baird

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.