Energy

SpaceX's Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas.Michael Sheetz | CNBCSpaceX is expanding the solar farm at its Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, according to documents obtained by CNBC from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.The FWS documents, known as a draft biological conference and opinion (BCO), reveal that SpaceX is increasing the size of its on-site solar farm by 1.7 acres, or about 30%, making the solar array a total of 7.1 acres. The company has begun clearing and leveling for construction at the site already.Elon…

BODEN, Sweden — Tucked away in snowy Swedish Lapland is a modern-day gold mine. But instead of picks and shovels, it's filled with thousands of computers.These machines, known as mining rigs, are working around the clock to find new units of cryptocurrency — in this case, ethereum, the second-largest token globally.To do so, they must compete with others around the world to find the answer to a complex math puzzle, which grows in difficulty as more and more computers, known as "miners," join the network. The aim is to…

Credit: CC0 Public Domain Tariffs on Russian energy imports could provide the EU with a lever to reduce Russia's financial gains from its oil and gas exports and allow it to flexibly react to Moscow's actions in Ukraine, a team of economists from the European think tank Bruegel, Harvard, and the University of Cologne propose in a letter to Science and in a working paper. Among the authors is the University of Cologne's energy…

Some of the biggest names in bitcoin — including Jack Dorsey, Tom Lee, and Michael Saylor — have banded together to refute claims made by House Democrats calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate the environmental effects of crypto mining.Bitcoin operates on a proof-of-work (PoW) mining model, meaning that miners around the world run high-powered computers to simultaneously create new bitcoin and validate transactions. Proof-of-work mining, which requires sophisticated gear and a whole lot of…

Hydrogen packs a lot more punch than lithium-based batteries. India's federal minister Nitin Gadkari (second from left) seen here launching the country's first green hydrogen-based advanced fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV), Toyota Mirai, at his residence in March.Hindustan Times | Hindustan Times | Getty ImagesThe sun's searing heat can be punishing on summer days and India's enormous coastline makes it a challenge to defend. But vast amounts of water and abundant sunlight have opened a path to green energy that could…

U.S. Secretary of Energy and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm speaks Monday, May 2, 2022, following a ribbon-cutting ceremony commemorating the completion of the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams at at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich. Credit: Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal via AP Continuing its push to dramatically boost sales of electric vehicles, the Biden administration on Monday announced $3.1…

The Department of Energy (DOE) opened up billions of dollars in funding today to build up domestic supply chains for batteries. Batteries will be crucial in the Biden administration’s plans to transition the nation to electric vehicles and clean energy. The DOE says in its announcement that it will give $3.1 billion to companies to boost “the creation of new, retrofitted, and expanded commercial facilities” to process materials, make batteries, and recycle them at the end of their lives. Another $60 million in grants…

For the first time ever, California, the world’s fifth-largest economy, was powered by 100% clean energy on Saturday, April 30. That milestone was driven largely by solar power. UnderstandSolar is a free service that links you to top-rated solar installers in your region for personalized solar estimates. Tesla now offers price matching, so it’s important to shop for the best quotes. Click here to learn more and get your quotes. — *ad. California’s 100% clean energy milestone Energy demand statewide reached…

A 10.5 gigawatt (GW) solar and wind farm will be built in Morocco’s Guelmim-Oued Noun region, and it will supply the UK with clean energy via subsea cables. The twin 1.8 GW high voltage direct current (HVDC) subsea cables will be the world’s longest. April 21, 2022, update: Subsea cable manufacturer XLCC is going to build a factory in Hunterston, Scotland, and its first output will be for the Xlinks Morocco-UK Power Project. It will supply four 2,361-mile-long (3,800 km) subsea cables, with the first phase between…

The Biden administration set a goal of permitting 25 gigawatts (GW) of solar, onshore wind, and geothermal energy on public lands by 2025. It’s well on its way to exceeding that goal. 25 GW by 2025 clean energy – and then some In January 2022, the White House reported that since President Joe Biden took office, his administration had approved 18 onshore projects totaling 4.175 GW (including eight located on public lands and 10 with interconnection lines on public lands) and initiated processing of another 54…