solar

In 2014 it was inaugurated as the largest solar thermal power plant in the world. 12 years later they want to close it after incinerating birds

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The huge Ivanpah solar thermal power plant, opened in 2014 in the Mojave Desert, was almost closed after just 11 years of operation. An end accelerated by its history of technical, economic and environmental problems that, however, was paralyzed in January of this year after the agreement of all those involved. Context. Concentrated solar thermal energy, once considered one of the most cutting-edge technologies for clean electricity generation, is not going through its best moment. Especially in Nevada, where the Crescent Dunes fiasco was already very public. The concentrating solar thermal system uses thousands of mirrors, or “heliostats”, that follow the path of the sun to concentrate its light on central towers. In these towers, the extreme heat is used to heat water and produce steam, which drives turbines connected to electrical generators. The Ivanpah case. The Ivanpah plant was built with an investment of $1.6 billion in loans from the U.S. Department of Energy and long-term contracts from major electric companies. It was the largest solar thermal power plant in the world until the inauguration of Port Augusta in Australia. 11 years after its inauguration, the enormous solar thermal plant began to close after failing to meet its initial expectations. The lack of profitability condemned it, at least a priori. A succession of rulings and complaints from environmental groups about its impact on wildlife accelerated its end, approved by the US Department of Energy. Continuity. However, the decision was reversed in January 2026 by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). Ivanpah will remain open. Their argument is that uncertainty in federal renewable energy policies forces us to prioritize the reliability of the current electricity supply. In addition, the commission seeks to prevent the enormous investment in infrastructure already made from being lost, despite the high operating costs and the serious environmental impact on local fauna. The measure ignores the previous agreement between the companies to close the plant and save money for users. A priori, it will remain open until its contract expires in 2039. A complex technology. One of the main problems has been the difficulty of keeping the mirrors precisely aligned. The technology, which requires exact tracking of the sun, has proven to be unstable and unreliable in practice, says a CNN report. The maintenance of the complex mechanisms and the management of the turbines in turn generate high operating costs, which has caused concentrated solar thermal to lose competitiveness compared to other renewable technologies, especially photovoltaic solar, whose prices have plummeted. A bird cremation machine. The criticism is not limited to the technical aspects. The Ivanpah plant has been questioned for years for its environmental impact, especially on desert wildlife. Environmental groups denounce the irreparable damage to the habitat of species such as the desert tortoise. But also the death of birds that are incinerated by the intense rays concentrated by the mirrors. A second Crescent Dunes. The case of Crescent Dunes, also occurring in Nevada, reinforces this image of failure of solar thermal energy. This project, which was intended to be one of the milestones in innovation and energy storage using molten salts, ended up becoming a multimillion-dollar waste. Developed by the Spanish group ACSpromised continuous production of electricity, even during hours without light, thanks to thermal storage in salts. In practice, Crescent Dunes never managed to deliver the promised amount of energy and ended up going bankrupt due to engineering and management problems. In the shadow of photovoltaics. In short, the rapid fall in prices of photovoltaic technology and its lower impact on wildlife have made concentrated solar thermal obsolete. While solar panels have been gaining efficiency and reducing their installation and maintenance costs, solar thermal plants have lagged behind in terms of competitiveness, which has led investors and electricity companies to reconsider their bets on this type of projects. In Xataka | The first central tower solar plant to be commercially exploited is in Seville: a pioneer that has survived other more ambitious ones In Xataka | Chile has one of the most valuable skies on Earth. Renewables are putting it on the ropes In Xataka | China’s largest solar park is doing much more than generating energy: it’s greening a desert Image | Pexels

While the news says that it is dying between solar panels and expropriations, the data says the opposite

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Solar panels that destroy olive trees, massive expropriations in Jaén, warnings that Spain will have to import oil… If we pay attention to the last few months of news about the world of olives, the conclusions are clear: these are bad times for the olive grove. And yet, the data does not confirm this. In fact, as they point out from Datadistathe surface area of ​​this crop has not stopped growing in the last 10 years. The olive grove does not stop growing. With the only exception of the small decline in 2022 (0.08% already recovered in 2023), the hectares of olive groves have grown every year. However, that does not mean that there is no problem. Almost the opposite. The olive grove grows, but it does so in a profoundly unequal way: irrigated land gains ground over dry land, the super-intensive olive tree in a hedge extends over land previously dedicated to cereal or cotton, and investment funds are concentrated in areas with more water. In this sense, the story is not about the disappearance of the olive tree. It’s about changing so much and so fast that it will soon be unrecognizable. What the data says. Apparently, the data is clear. According to provisional data from the Survey on Crop Areas and Yields (ESYRCE) 2025 From the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA), the olive grove area in Spain reached 2,873,396 hectares, 1.63% more than in 2024 and 5% more than in 2015. It’s just that if we look closely, that data tells a curious (and sometimes counterintuitive) story. For example: the olive tree is already the largest irrigated area in the country. And why does this change occur? Above all, because the irrigated olive grove is safer than the dry one. If it were possible, the entire Spanish olive grove would switch to irrigation regime overnight. Therefore, the interesting thing is to stop and think about why the accelerated change is occurring now. According to a February 2026 report from Datadistathe explanation has a first and last name: investment funds. In the last decade, these funds have gone from 45 to 1000, investment in “Iberian agribusiness” has tripled and this is converting many hectares into super-intensive olive trees (and abandoning the traditional one). And the situation feeds on itself. The growth of the super-intensive irrigated olive grove cushions the volatility of supply and, therefore, contains price spikes. That is, the sector becomes more attractive to investors. This is precisely what ensures the future of olive oil. Even if it is at the cost of changing it completely. Image | Vasilis Caravitis In Xataka | The very high prices of olive oil are just one symptom. The real problem is a sector on the way to disaster

China’s largest solar park is doing much more than generating energy: it’s greening a desert

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more than a year ago we had in Xataka how a huge solar park in the Chinese province of Qinghai, in the heart of the Tibetan plateau, served as an ecological experiment: under the panels, the shade retained moisture and made vegetation sprout in the middle of the desert. Now, that same place – the Talatan Solar Park – has become something much bigger. It is the largest clean energy facility on the planet, a “blue sea” of silicon that already covers more than 600 square kilometers at three thousand meters above sea level. Where before there was nothing, China is lifting an energy ecosystem without comparison in the rest of the world. The scale has multiplied. Where last year there was talk of a 1 gigawatt solar park, today a complex extends that reaches 15,600 and 16,900 megawatts and continues to expand. Its area – between 420 and 610 square kilometers – is seven times that of Manhattan. Furthermore, it is not alone since 4,700 megawatts of wind energy and 7,380 megawatts of hydroelectric dams are deployed around it, completing an unprecedented hybrid system. The result: enough renewable energy to supply almost all of the plateau’s needs, including the data centers that power China’s artificial intelligence. According to CleanTechnicaevery three weeks China installs as many solar panels as the entire capacity of the Three Gorges Dam, the largest hydroelectric project in its history. A global clean energy laboratory. The Tibetan plateau, with its pure, cold air, has become the most ambitious energy laboratory in the world. There, China is experimenting with an electricity production model based exclusively on renewables. Electricity generated in Qinghai—40% cheaper than coal, according to the NYT— powers high-speed trains, factories, electric cars and data centers. In fact, the region is home to new computing centers dedicated to artificial intelligence, which consume less energy thanks to the altitude and low temperatures. “Hot air from servers is used to heat other buildings, replacing coal-fired boilers,” explained Zhang Jingang, vice provincial governor. In the words of Professor Ningrong Liu, in his column for the South China Morning Post: “China is not only leading the transition to green energy; it is building the 21st century energy scaffolding that sustains its industrial leadership in electric vehicles, batteries and solar technology.” Three sources that beat in unison. The magnitude of the project is only possible thanks to centralized planning that combines three main sources: solar, wind and hydroelectric energy. During the day, Talatan panels capture more intense solar radiation than at sea level; At night, thousands of wind turbines collect the cold breezes that sweep across the plains. When both systems fluctuate, hydroelectric dams balance the grid. Also, from the New York Times They described a system reversible pumping: excess solar energy during the day is used to raise water to reservoirs located in nearby mountains, which release that water at night to generate electricity. And under the panels, life returns. The shade of the plates reduces evaporation and soil erosion. According to China Dailythis year the vegetation has recovered up to 80% and 173 villages have benefited from the associated livestock farming. A local shepherd, Zhao Guofu, said: “My flock has grown to 800 sheep and my income has doubled since I grazed between the panels.” The perfect geography for the sun. No other country has taken solar generation to similar altitudes. The altitude plays in favor of physics, at 3,000 meters the air contains fewer particles that block light and the low temperatures reduce the thermal loss of the panels. This efficiency is multiplied in Qinghai, one of the few areas of the Tibetan plateau with large plains, where it is possible to build without the limits of the mountainous relief. The Talatan Desert, once an arid and worthless land, has become an energetic jewel. local authorities offer symbolic leases and have developed roads and high-voltage lines connecting the plateau with the industrial centers to the east. That energy travels more than 1,600 kilometers to factories and cities. According to CleanTechnicaChina already operates 41 ultra-high voltage transmission lines, some longer than 2,000 miles and up to 1.1 million volts. The global scale: no one comes close. Other countries have tried to generate clean energy at altitude, but with modest results. Switzerland, for example, inaugurated a small solar park in the Alps, at 1,800 meters, with barely 0.5 MW. For its part, in the Chilean Atacama Desert, a 480 MW project operates at 1,200 meters. By way of comparison, the Talatan complex multiplies the capacity of the Bhadla Solar Park in India, and for more than seven that of the Al Dhafra Solar Park in the United Arab Emirates, which until recently held records. The superpower of clean energy. China produces and consumes more renewable energy than any other country on the planet. In 2024, was responsible of 61% of new solar installations and 70% of global wind power. That same year, it achieved the capacity targets it had set for 2030. In the first six months of 2025added 212 GW solar and 51 GW wind, and the country’s carbon emissions fell for the first time. In this context, Talatan Park is both a symbol and an infrastructure. China is exporting its renewable technology around the world, from Asia to Africa, following the logic of Belt and Road Initiative. For the academic Ningrong Liu: “China wants to stop being the world’s factory to become the engine of the world’s factory.” It is not just about manufacturing panels, but about selling the complete model: engineering, financing and know-how to build green networks in other countries. The less visible side of the miracle. It’s not all clean energy and pastoral harmony. In its report, The New York Times recalled that access to Tibet remains strictly controlled by the Communist Party, and that Western media were only allowed to visit Qinghai on a government-organized tour. There are also human and environmental costs. CleanTechnica documents how the giant power lines that transport energy … Read more

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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