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The R&D joint effort aims to commercialise ultra low-cost flexible perovskite solar cell fabrication techniques and use graphene to replace expensive cell components.

The post Pursuit of ultra low-cost perovskite solar with graphene wins government backing appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Battle of the massive offshore wind turbines continues, with China outfit claiming a world first on operational capacity – and a new energy generation record.

The post “World’s biggest” wind turbine claims new generation record appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

ASX-listed ClearVue Technologies says a manufacturing breakthrough could produce its new generation solar glass 92% faster and much cheaper.

The post Solar glass manufacturing breakthrough could slash costs, says ClearVue appeared first on RenewEconomy.

None of the world's largest 26 banks disclosed the share of total finance directed towards climate solutions in the last year, according to analysis from a research initiative, with most of them yet to commit to wean off financing new coal assets.

Most G20 members still have insufficient policies on nature-related corporate impact, according to new research by disclosure organisation CDP, with the body outlining 10 high-level principles policymakers should adopt to close the current gap.

An image of a peregrine falcon tackling a brown pelican that ventured too close to its nest in California is the overall winner of the world’s largest bird photography competition, which had more than 20,000 entries from all over the world competing for a £5,000 grand prize

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The shipping of CO2 is poised for significant growth by 2030 as the global carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) market expands, according to analysts.

Marine heatwaves aren’t just on the surface. They can be at their most destructive when they sweep along the seafloor. Amandine Schaeffer, Senior lecturer, UNSW Sydney Alex Sen Gupta, Senior Lecturer, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, UNSW Sydney Moninya Roughan, Professor in Oceanography, UNSW Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

With different planting, and by rejecting insecticides, even small green spaces can promote biodiversity

Gardeners’ attitudes to insects, like those of humans in general, are a mixed bag. Butterflies’ brief, fluttering lives make them beloved wonders. Bees have long been a source of fascination as well as honey. But the reason why some creepy-crawlies have been classified as pests while others haven’t goes beyond appearances. Horticulturalists, like farmers, generally object to insects that eat what they grow.

This hasn’t saved the creatures that don’t consume crops or garden plants. Habitat loss resulting from urbanisation and deforestation, and pesticide use in agriculture, mean that global insect populations are in steep decline. In the UK, the number of flying insects is estimated – by looking at vehicle number plates – to have fallen by 58.5% between 2004 and 2021. Awareness of the importance of bees and other pollinators has risen in the past decade. But human dependence on insects goes beyond this. They form a crucial part of multiple ecosystems.

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French industrial minerals group Imerys is demanding the European Commission pay €40 million in damages caused by what it says is an incorrect interpretation of post-2022 ETS free allocation rules.

The party’s clashing factions table series of amendments supporting and opposing renewables development

Britain’s energy security and progress to net zero are under threat as the energy bill enters the Commons again.

Warring factions of the Tory party have tabled amendments to the bill including relaxing rules on onshore wind permissions, banning certain types of solar developments and softening a ban on oil boilers.

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Downing Street is hoping to satisfy Tory rebels, but developers say changes would leave effective ban in place

Ministers will this week announce a series of changes designed to make it easier for developers to win planning permission to build onshore wind turbines.

The government could publish proposals as soon as Tuesday on how to adapt the planning system to stop local authorities standing in the way of almost every new wind power development on land.

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Standard body The Carbon Trust is ditching its carbon neutral label for products and replacing it with marks that focus on emissions reductions and comparisons of carbon footprints.

The price of some standardised nature-based voluntary carbon contracts increased last week as volume started to return to the market following a period of low liquidity, but the market struggled to find a clear direction, with many products moving sideways.

A group of project developers have challenged academics' claims that cookstove projects are being over-credited, in an open letter published on Monday, mirroring public debates around voluntary REDD+ credits.

Ursula Von der Leyen calls for action as attacks on livestock prompt rise in complaints from farmers

The EU is to review the conservation status of wolves on the continent after a remarkable comeback of the carnivore species raised protests from farmers whose livestock have become prey.

“The concentration of wolf packs in some European regions has become a real danger for livestock and potentially also for humans,” the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said. “I urge local and national authorities to take action where necessary. Indeed, current EU legislation already enables them to do so.”

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Kenya’s President has called for African countries to join a new partnership that aims to boost renewable energy development across the continent by mobilising finance, providing technical assistance and capacity building, and engaging the private sector.

A study from the University of Leeds found that forests in South America, including the Amazon rainforest, stopped storing carbon and began releasing it during the 2015-16 El Nino event, the findings published in scientific magazine Nature showed on Monday.

Their five jaws are arranged in a shape Aristotle described as a ‘lantern’ but should have called a ‘horrible beak’

Sea urchins are as sinister as they appear. Ten years ago, in California’s vast, wavy kelp, sea urchins started to eat and breed, and eat and breed, and over seven years destroyed most of the underwater forests. Then they settled on the floor of their wasteland, forming spiny purple carpets, clicking urchin barrens along 150km of coastline. A major marine heatwave had damaged the kelp and a “sea star wasting syndrome” killed the urchins’ main predator, sunflower sea stars.

Could they be eaten by us or by otters? They could not. They had entered a zombie state and contained very little uni, the rich meat inside the urchin’s shell. And they are prepared to stay that way: dormant, alone – until they spot any kelp sprout that dares to breed out of the dead land and eat it before another urchin can. They are method actors performing The Waste Land, and we are students in an English lesson late on a hot afternoon, trying not to fall asleep as we listen to the poet’s voice on the scratchy recording, a recording that sounds like it was made in a room full of urchins, faintly clicking their spines:

What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water.

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