To help lower carbon emissions the government are building heat networks across the UK using everything from factory machinery to geothermal to transport systems to heat our homes. That includes the nightmare-ish heat of the London underground too! Photo: tseyin CC2.0
Imagine an area the size of Hull - now times that by five and add 300 turbines the size of the Gherkin skyscraper in London! That's the wind farm coming soon to the UK! And not only will this mega wind farm produce enough clean energy for 1.8 million homes, it’ll also create thousands of green jobs. Photo: Vattenfall
In July the Solar Impulse 2 plane flew into the record books as the first plane to circle the globe on solar power alone. As well as completing the 42,000 km trip the plane broke a whopping 19 official flight records. But perhaps its biggest achievement is showing the world a future where we could all be flying on sunshine! Photo: Solar Impulse
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The amusingly-shaped London office block has it’s own hydrogen fuel cell in the basement. It basically combines hydrogen and oxygen and produces electricity for 7% of the 5000 people who work there. It’s a first for the City, but the owners hope it’ll set a trend. Photo: Andrew
Liss juniors, Hampshire, raised money for solar panels last year with our Solar Schools project. This year, the pupils have been fundraising for their partner school, Kafuro primary in Uganda, to buy solar panels too! It’s the first time the village of Kafuro has had electricity. Photo: Kafuro primary school.
China’s 2020 carbon emissions targets looked pretty ambitious a few years ago. But things have been progressing at breakneck speed. They’re now on course to hit their renewables target two years early, and their coal reduction targets in 2016-7- four years in advance! Photo: SF Brit
Electric cars have become more and more popular recently - since 2013 their numbers have tripled to 1.26 million. The IEA reckons we'll need 150m electric cars by 2030 and 1 billion by 2050 to help avoid the worst effects of climate change. These are ambitious targets, but right now we’re on track to meet them. Photo: Bjorn Nyland
A German start-up have created a solar plant that packs into a shipping container. Solar panels and batteries are squeezed in, sent off and can be set up and producing power within two hours. It’s especially useful for off-grid communities - it's already working wonders in west Mali. Photo: World Bank Photo Collection
Between Saturday 7 May and the following Wednesday, Portugal’s electricity consumption was completely covered by wind, solar and hydro. Portugal regularly gets about 70% of its power from renewables, but this 107 hour stretch is a record. And on Sunday, Germany was almost totally powered by renewables too! Photo: Pedro Ribeiro Simões
Santiago, Chile, will be the first metro in the world to run almost entirely on solar power. The city have signed a deal with some solar companies to provide enough power for their 2.2m daily passengers. Photo: Nicolás Aros Marzá
Brazil hasn’t had much solar historically, but new regulations are set to change that. For the first time, the government has set clear rules for community solar, and it is organisations from the cities’ favelas that are already taking advantage. Photo: Chris Jones.
The longer summer days and declining use of coal meant solar produced 50% more electricity than coal across May. This was a UK first for solar and comes after a slew of record breaking achievements by renewables across Europe in recent months. Photo: Chris Bull.
After an 18 month citizen-led campaign, Stockholm announced they will withdraw $3.5m of investments from coal, oil and gas companies. Then a few days later Berlin’s parliament announced they were divesting their €750m pension fund because it wasn’t consistent with their goal of going carbon neutral by 2050. Photo: Mariusz Kluzniak.
Since May, India has already installed more solar than they did in the whole of 2015. Photo: Kiran Jonnalagadd.
Following the success of the UN Climate talks in Paris, Norway moved their target forward by 20 years. Photo: MRoach
Berlin decided to blacklist the companies from their €750m pension fund because they're incompatible with the city’s goal of becoming climate neutral by 2050. Photo: 350.org
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