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illuminem summarises for you the essential news of the day. Read the full piece on Grist or enjoy below:
🗞️ Driving the news: Despite political headwinds during Donald Trump's second presidency, clean energy technologies — wind, solar, batteries, and electric vehicles — are surging in the United States
• Costs have plummeted, deployment has scaled, and clean sectors are now deeply intertwined with economic growth and job creation
• Even traditionally fossil-fuel-heavy states like Texas lead in renewables, illustrating how market forces are outpacing political opposition
🔭 The context: Over the past two decades, technological advances and massive investments, particularly from China and early-stage U.S. policies, fueled rapid cost declines for renewables
• The Inflation Reduction Act under the Biden administration provided further stimulus
• Although the Trump administration has sought to curtail federal support for clean energy, the sector’s momentum — built on market economics and innovation — has made it resilient to federal policy shifts.
🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Clean energy’s rise is essential for achieving global emissions reductions necessary to limit climate change impacts
• With energy sectors like wind, solar, storage, and EVs scaling rapidly, there is greater potential to replace fossil fuels across electricity and transportation systems
• However, uneven political support could slow progress domestically, risking U.S. leadership in the global clean energy economy.
⏭️ What's next: The U.S. faces a critical inflection point: sustained investments in renewables and storage could solidify leadership in global clean energy markets, while policy rollbacks risk ceding advantages to competitors like China
• The coming years will require strategic decisions on grid modernization, workforce retraining, and incentivizing next-generation technologies like enhanced geothermal to meet mid-century climate goals.
💬 One quote: "It’s just a way to make money. It has nothing to do with the political position on whether climate change is real or not," — Eric Larson, senior research engineer at Princeton University, highlighting the market-driven momentum behind clean energy
📈 One stat: In 2023, the U.S. generated more electricity from wind and solar combined than from coal for the first time in its history
See on illuminem's Data Hub™ the sustainability performance of NextEra Energy, BYD and their peers Vestas, and General Motors
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