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Happy Wednesday, dear reader.

Some good news to kick things off:

• The share of coal in India’s power capacity mix has fallen below 50% — years ahead of target.

• In April, 44% of cars sold in China were electric or plug-in hybrids.

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Thanks for reading.

Nick Hedley

Editor, The Progress Playbook

Australia’s community battery programme is cutting power bills and strengthening the grid

Australia’s community battery programme is reducing household electricity bills, cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and bolstering the national grid, policymakers and analysts say.

Under the Community Batteries for Household Solar scheme, which has A$200 million (US$133 million) in state grant funding at its disposal, 400 batteries are being installed in neighbourhoods across the country. Up to 100,000 households will have access to these facilities, allowing them to store excess solar energy for use during peak times — typically in the mornings and evenings.

While still a relatively new concept, the benefits are starting to show up.

- Read the full story here.

This US city’s all-electric school bus fleet will soon power its homes as well

An all-electric bus fleet that serves 80 schools in the city of Oakland, California, will soon start discharging energy back into the power grid in the evenings, helping the state to reduce its reliance on polluting gas plants.

- Read the full story here.

How China became the world leader in wind and solar

China has become the undisputed global leader in wind and solar deployments thanks in part to state incentive programmes and an ambitious grid expansion strategy, energy research group Ember says in a new report.

In 2023, the world’s second-largest economy accounted for more than half of global wind and solar additions.

- Read the full story here.

Lessons from Denver’s wildly popular e-bike voucher programme

The vouchers are saving some 170,000 miles in car trips per week and around 3,300 metric tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually, Grist reports.

- Read the full story here.

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EU now ‘nearly’ on track to meet global climate targets thanks to its Green Deal

Since the 2019 European Union elections, the bloc has significantly improved its climate performance, with its emissions trajectory now consistent with limiting global temperature rise to a little above 2°C by the end of the century — a more than 1°C improvement in just five years, a Climate Action Tracker analysis has found.

- Read the full story here.

Other articles you might find interesting:

• In numbers: America’s dramatic shift from gas power plants to batteries

• No rooftop? No problem: Inside Germany’s ‘balcony solar’ boom

• Group-buying schemes are slashing solar installation costs for households in the UK

• Battery recycling shatters the myth of electric-vehicle waste

• Portugal is averaging 91% renewable electricity in 2024, with Europe’s lowest power prices

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