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Newsletter (copy 63)
Solar and batteries displace gas in California ⚡
Hi,
Here’s some good news to start the day:
European LNG imports fell 19% in 2024 as gas consumption slid to an 11-year low, thanks in part to renewable energy additions, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
Clean-energy tech contributed more than 10% of China’s economic growth in 2024 for the first time, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
Separately, Carbon Brief reported that China invested $940 billion in clean energy in 2024 (versus global investment in fossil fuels of $1.1 trillion).
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that 80,000 zero-emission trucks were sold in China in 2024, more than double 2023 volumes.
In 2024, 7,800 electric buses were sold in Europe and the UK, a 22% increase in a year, according to Sustainable Bus. Paris now has 1,000 electric buses.
The publication also said India registered 3,600 electric buses in 2024.
Coal’s share of US power output fell to 14.7% in 2024, a new record low, per the Sustainable Energy in America Factbook report.
The Canadian government says it’s moving ahead with a plan to build a high-speed rail network between Quebec City and Toronto.
The UK’s “net-zero economy” is growing three times faster than the rest of the country, according to the Confederation of British Industry, via the Guardian. Net-zero sectors grew 10% in 2024.
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Nick Hedley
Editor, The Progress Playbook
Gas-fired power plants are being squeezed out of California’s electricity mix amid an ongoing surge in solar and battery installations, new data shows.
In the first seven weeks of 2025, gas covered 29% of the state’s power needs, down from 41% in the same period a year before.
Solar will soon overtake gas as California’s largest source of power, based on recent growth rates. And batteries are playing an ever-larger role in the evening, when electricity demand surges.
- Read the full story here.
Nearly one in four new cars sold in the European Union in January were either fully electric or plug-in hybrids, according to a tally by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA).
The context: The EU’s new vehicle emissions standards, which came into effect on January 1, require manufacturers to reduce their fleet-wide average emissions from new cars and vans by 15%, relative to 2021 levels.
In January, models powered entirely by fossil fuels (traditional petrol and diesel cars) saw their share of the mix slide to 39.4%, from 48.7% a year before.
- Read the full story here.
Supplementing aquifers, reservoirs, and other established sources with fog can help diversify water systems, research shows.
- Read the full story here.
The southern German state of Bavaria has retired its last major coal plant because the facility had been used less and less, even after the country completed its nuclear phase-out in 2023.
- Read the full story here.
Other articles you might find interesting:
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