TEXAS DETHRONES CALIFORNIA FOR SOLAR: Texas is officially the state with the most utility-scale solar capacity installed in the country – even surpassing California, a new analysis shows.
The deets : A new report from American Clean Power says Texas has added 3,293 megawatts of new solar since the beginning of the year, and is now home to 21,932 megawatts of capacity – 20% of the total U.S. solar fleet. During the second quarter of the fiscal year, the state brought online more than 1.6 gigawatts of new solar – propelling it beyond California for the first time. Meanwhile, the Golden State has pivoted more toward building energy storage in recent quarters.
Why this matters : Houston, Texas, is known as the energy capital of the world – and being a leader in solar adds to the state’s vast portfolio. Along with being the largest oil-producing state in the U.S., the Lone Star state is also the country’s biggest wind producer, and is now second in battery storage.
Texas also installed 574 MW of storage and 366 MW of onshore wind.
In comparison, California installed 1,947 MW of new clean power capacity in the second quarter – 70% of which was energy storage. The report projects that the trend of focusing on energy storage is set to continue, with storage providing 64% of the state’s clean energy capacity in the pipeline.
Arizona, Ohio, and Indiana follow behind Texas and California as top clean power installers in the quarter.
Totals: As of June this year, the U.S. has more than 283,500 MW of clean power capacity in operation – enough to power 70 million homes. Read the full report here.
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PODESTA CITES PROGRESS IN CHINA CLIMATE TALKS: Climate advisers for the United States and China found common ground in climate change talks this week, including on sending funds to developing countries and setting new targets for lowering emissions, climate envoy John Podesta said.
Podesta, President Joe Biden ’s senior international climate adviser, said differences remained between the countries’ methods for combating climate change but noted the two had “excellent discussions,” Bloomberg reported. Podesta led the meetings with China’s climate envoy, Liu Zhenmin . Podesta also mentioned that officials spent time analyzing each side’s work to reach the goals of their nationally determined contributions for 2030, which include cutting greenhouse emissions and mitigating damage from climate change, and are discussing new targets for 2035.
“Notwithstanding some friction in our bilateral relationship, we can find places to collaborate for the good of our people and the good of our climate,” Podesta said Friday afternoon while in China, according to Bloomberg.
The conversations between the two countries, the world’s two largest polluters, come after several rocky years of relations, which saw climate discussions broken off at one point because of tensions relating to Taiwan. These will likely be the final talks between the countries before November, which will see the U.S. elections and the United Nations’ global climate summit in Azerbaijan. Lowering emissions will be contingent on agreements reached between the two countries and others as developed nations and rising economies look to decarbonize and reach net zero. Read more here.
WARMEST NORTHERN SUMMER ON RECORD: The globe has experienced its hottest summer on record for the northern hemisphere – setting up 2024 to be the warmest year in recorded history, the Financial Times reports.
The average temperature globally this summer was 16.8 degrees Celsius, 0.69 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average and 1.5 degrees Celsius above levels seen before the industrial revolution, according to the Copernicus earth observation agency.
The forecast comes as the world grapples with more extreme natural disasters, such as wildfires, and officials warning of a rapid increase of heat-related deaths.
“The temperature-related extreme events witnessed this summer will only become more intense, with more devastating consequences for people and the planet unless we take urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Samantha Burgess , the deputy director of the Copernicus, told the Financial Times.
2023 set records for the hottest summer and year. Read more on that here.
SANCTIONS LINKED TO ARCTIC LNG 2: The U.S. has imposed sanctions on companies and vessels that are connected to Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project, in an attempt to add further economic pain on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reports.
The Treasury Department said it had imposed sanctions on Gotik Energy Shipping Company and Plio Energy Cargo Shipping, reasoning that Gotik is the owner of the liquefied natural gas carrier New Energy, while Plio Energy is the company’s commercial manager. The State Department has claimed that New Energy would use misleading shipping practices, such as shutting off its identification system, to bring abroad cargo from the Arctic LNG 2 project through a ship-to-ship transfer.
The Treasury also added New Energy and another vessel operated by Pilo – called Energy Mulan – to its sanctions list.
"The U.S. government will continue to answer attempts to operationalize the sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 project or otherwise expand Russia's energy capabilities with a swift response," U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told Reuters.
Why this is important : The sanctions could force Novatek, which largely owns the Arctic 2 project, to scale back the project. Read more here.
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