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Newsletter (copy 28)
World hits major renewables milestone; German apartments lead a revolution ☀️
Happy Wednesday, dear reader.
We’ve got plenty of news this week so we’ll keep the intro short.
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Nick Hedley
Editor, The Progress Playbook
Apartment dwellers, who don’t have their own private rooftops, have been largely left behind in the global solar boom. That’s starting to change — at least in Germany.
In numbers: More than 400,000 households across the country have installed mini solar systems on their balconies, with over 50,000 added in the first quarter of 2024 alone, according to local media reports, citing grid agency BNetzA.
How it works: Landlords or tenants who live in apartment blocks typically mount one or two solar panels onto their balconies, using their balustrades, walls or terrace areas. The electricity generated is fed via cables and an inverter into regular household plug points. Installations are quick and easy and don’t require the oversight of an electrician.
Behind the trend: Policymakers have put their weight behind the movement in an effort to expand access to solar, reduce household energy bills, and speed up the shift to clean electricity.
- Read the full story here.
Placing plant-based lasagna in the most popular part of the canteen. Serving veggie stir fry so diners have to ask for meat. Renaming vegan food with enticing adjectives like “feel good” and “juicy.”
These are just some of the small changes adding up to a quiet revolution in school cafeterias, hospitals and on university campuses from San Diego to Oslo. The goal is to shift diners toward plant-based options — not by removing animal products entirely, but by nudging people into making different choices.
- Read the full story here.
In the first four months of 2024, renewables met 91% of Portugal’s electricity needs, according to network operator REN.
And data collated by energy research group Ember shows the country has had the lowest wholesale electricity prices in Europe in recent months. In March, prices averaged €19.26/MWh — the lowest since Covid-19 lockdowns were first imposed four years ago. Italy had the region’s highest prices (€88.85/MWh).
- Read the full story here.
If you missed our inaugural Policies for the Planet conference, you can now rewatch it here. Speakers include the policymakers behind Uruguay, Chile and South Australia’s rapid energy transitions, Norway’s world-leading electric vehicle shift, and South Africa’s flagship just transition projects, among others.
In False Creek, a waterfront community in Vancouver, Canada, the energy being used to heat homes comes from an unlikely source.
Instead of a boiler, each building’s hot water arrives in underground pipes from a city-owned plant that taps heat from wastewater.
- Read the full story here.
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Starting next year, Patagonia’s wetsuits won’t just be recycled — they’ll be reincarnated.
At the company’s “Wetsuit Forge” repair and design centre in California, a first-of-its-kind wetsuit is draped over a table. The suit looks and feels like any other, but it’s made in part from used Patagonia wetsuits broken down at a molecular level. It too will be melted down at the end of its life and reborn into a new, lower-carbon wetsuit.
- Read the full story here.
The ongoing surge in wind and solar installations pushed the world past 30% renewable electricity for the first time in 2023, according to a new report by energy think tank Ember, which shows the carbon intensity of power generation hit fresh lows last year.
The report finds that despite a steady increase in electricity demand, the brisk renewables build out means that fossil generation will likely start to decline from 2024. This historic shift would've begun in 2023 were it not for a slump in global hydropower generation due to droughts in China and elsewhere.
- Read the full story here.
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