Energy

On Monday, Donald Trump jolted America out of decades of bad energy policy with the stroke of his pen.

“Climate extremism has exploded inflation and overburdened businesses with regulation,” he declared in one of his myriad executive orders. “To commence the policies that will make our Nation united, fair, safe, and prosperous again … the United States [will] restore common sense to the Federal Government and unleash the potential of the American citizen.” 

The age of climate extremism is over; the age of energy realism is upon us...

U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Tuesday that aims to block...

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: 

As Congress debates budget bills proposing deep cuts in federal spending, Biden-era tax credits for clean energy have gained crucial support among some Republican lawmakers and voters.

Four Republican senators wrote to their party's leadership April 9 to "caution against the full-scale repeal" of tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that support investments in renewable energy installations, battery manufacturing, energy efficiency improvements and the production of alternative fuels.

President Trump’s ambitions to grow U.S. manufacturing, win the AI race with China and unleash fossil fuels will require massive amounts of power. Nathan Ough says he can help.

VoltaGrid, the $4 billion startup he co-founded in Houston, assembles modular, gas-fired power plants in a matter of months. It offers a shortcut to data centers and oil frackers that find there isn’t enough capacity on the electric grid for their expanding needs and has become one of the U.S.’s fastest-growing power companies.

Spain's grid operator admitted today that solar power could be to blame for Monday's blackout chaos, as mystery continues to surround what caused the historic power outage across the Iberian Peninsula.

Red Eléctrica's System Operations Chief Eduardo Prieto told a news briefing the electricity system was hit by a dramatic power generation loss in southwestern Spain, that caused instability in the system that led to its disconnection from the French grid.

Europe got a sharp reminder of its energy fragility yesterday, when, at around midday, Spain and Portugal suffered a massive blackout, forcing millions to deal with life off the grid. For hours, the incident impacted public transport, airports and phone service, and left authorities scrambling to find the cause — even as the countries return to some semblance of normality this morning. A nationwide outage is very rare in Europe, but underscores major challenges ahead.

Spain and Portugal suffered the worst blackout in living memory in Europe this week. About 55 million people were affected and it lasted more than half a day. Some have blamed renewables and net zero emissions targets, as the two countries boast high levels of wind and solar on their electricity grid and lead Europe in the technologies. But is this true?

What happened?

Six days ago, the media celebrated a significant milestone: Spain’s national grid operated entirely on renewable energy for the first time during a weekday.

At 12:35 pm today local time, the lights went out across Spain and Portugal, and parts of France. Although power was quickly restored in France, it could take a week to fully restore power in Spain and Portugal.

Let's bring you more from the recent news conference held by Spain's power company REE.

The company has said they've ruled out a cyberattack as the cause of the blackout.

Eduardo Prieto, head of operation services, has said that there were two “disconnection events”, barely a second apart, just before the blackout on Monday.

He said the incidents took place in the south-west of Spain, where there is substantial solar generation.

He added that “nothing leads us to believe that it could have been human error”.