Energy – Things Are Good

Renewables Sweep Ontario’s Latest Energy Auction

solar retaining wall alongside a road

Ontario is getting more renewable power. Despite the best efforts of conservative Premier Doug Ford renewable energy keeps being a solid option for powering places. Ford has gone out of his way to mandate new homes to use gas, tear up wind turbines, make it harder for EV drivers, and so much more! Suffice to say For despises a clean economy that provides jobs and growth to the people of Ontario. It is with joy that renewable energy solutions are outperforming all the direct and indirect subsidies that the conservative party has given to the dying fossil fuel industry. Go renewables!

When it launched its latest call for bids from developers for new electricity generation, the provincial government said cost would be the deciding factor. That wind and solar beat other proposals — including natural gas — to every contract is another signal that the global shift towards clean energy is being driven by affordability above all else. Today, renewables are simply the cheapest source of electricity available.

Not Even Oil Megacorps Will Stop Clean Energy

Solar Panel School

Fossil fuels are unreliable due to political reasons and as such there is large price variation in fuel supplies, however on the renewable front the price just keeps going down. The economic success of renewables is clear and last year we saw renewables winning nearly every metric. Over at Canary Media they have a series of charts and stats that show just how well renewable energy is doing.

The latest data shows solar and wind made a speedy ascent this year — so speedy that they’re more than covering new power demand around the world.

Between January and September, power demand around the world rose by 603 terawatt-hours compared to that same time period last year. Solar met nearly all of that new demand on its own, and with a boost from wind, was able to cover all of it.

That’s a huge deal for the clean energy transition. When we produce more renewable power than is needed to cover growing demand, that’s when we can start chipping away at fossil fuels.

Renewables Overtakes All Other Energy Sources

Solar Panels during Dusk Photo by Magic K

Solar just keeps winning on every metric! The International Energy Agency (IEA) released their 2026 Global Energy Review and it provides a good look into the use and generation of energy on a global scale. Growth of energy demand slowed slightly to 1.3% while the growth in renewables is quite noteworthy. Last year solar was the single biggest contributor to energy supply and this marks the first time that renewables have led primary energy growth. It’s not just solar where the renewable success is coming, it’s across the board with renewables being the preferred energy source.

The increase in generation from renewables and nuclear power in 2025 exceeded the total growth in electricity supply. The 2025 increase in solar PV of 600 terawatt-hours (TWh) was the largest-ever electricity generation increase by any source in one year, outside of periods of post-crisis recovery. The rise in solar PV alone met around 70% of electricity generation growth. Renewables combined now virtually match total global generation from coal. In the European Union, the share of solar PV and wind reached 30% in 2025, surpassing that of fossil fuels for the first time. Electricity generation from natural gas and from nuclear power continued to grow at the global level in 2025.

Your City Could Improve Thanks to World War Oil

The American/Israel bombing of Iran and the subsequent closing of the Strait of Hormuz has sent shockwaves around the world, particularly to places that consume fossil fuels. Indeed, the energy disruption is so severe that a global recession is inevitable and that countries the world over are rethinking their commitment to burning fossil fuels.

Not Just Bikes takes a look at the current, and growing, oil shortage through the lens of how cities improve when the costs of oil increases. He looks at the last major oil crisis in the 1970s and how different parts of the world reacted. Spoiler: modern Amsterdam exists in part thanks to the high cost of oil. Governments change policies and laws to reduce reliance on oil and promote good urban design that puts people as the priority rather than cars.

There are things you can do right now to reduce your oil consumption to save money and the planet, and maybe even reduce the American desire to invade countries for oil. You can ride a bike, get solar panels, use an electric stove, and so much more!

Of course, if governments allocated subsidies to renewables and away from fossil fuels then we wouldn’t be in this position at all. People don’t go to war over sunshine.

These Solar Panels Also Turn Rain Into Electricity

Solar panels on grass

Researchers at the Institute of Materials Science of Seville have used a perovskite-based solar panel that can create electricity from the rain. They created a nanometer-thin film that covers the panel and when drops hit the panel it causes a tiny amount electricity to be produced. As a bonus the film provides protection to the panel, which the perovskite panels needs since the material is more fragile than your standard solar cell.

A decade ago we looked at perovskite , and it’s really neat to see this technology continue to improve.

This extremely thin film plays a dual role. First, it acts as an encapsulant that protects the perovskite cells’ chemistry while also increasing their light absorption. In addition to this, the layer acts like a triboelectric surface – one that can convert kinetic energy into electrical energy.
In experiments conducted at the ICMS facility, the researchers found that a single raindrop could generate a potential difference of 110 V, sufficient to power a small portable device.
“Our work proposes an advanced solution that combines perovskite solar cell photovoltaic technology with triboelectric nanogenerators in a thin-film configuration, thus demonstrating the feasibility of implementing both energy harvesting systems,” said Carmen Lopez, a researcher at ICMS, who was involved in the work in the press release.