Energy
Table of Contents
Introduction
Around 90% of humanity has access to electricity. Roughly 30% of global power is already renewable, so we need to keep pushing down the 80% that is made from fossil fuels that both heat and pollute our planet.
Who Can Harness Renewable Energy?
Our ancestors have been harnessing renewable energy since before we even understood how they worked. Unlike Fossil fuels that require special equipment, engineering degrees, and strict laws to obtain, process, and transport, some renewable energy source can safely be harnessed by anyone, including children!
If you a child or adult who wants to help teach kids about renewables and sustainable living, we have some examples of easier and more accessible options included on our Solar and Wind pages.
In contrasts, geo energy projects can be a lot more dangerous, as some rely on hot volcanic vents, but as more people turn to mini-split technology, there is a growing demand for heat pump technicians who can harness geothermal energy, ambient outdoor air, or nearby bodies of water to heat and cool buildings.
Energy Types
In this section we explore which energies are the cleanest, most efficient, safest, cheapest, and most effective for different climates or geographies.
Some regions will find that wave, wind, geothermal, or solar may be the most or least appropriate for their needs. Considerations for generation locations, distribution types, and power storage are also important factors to determine.
Images, green buttons, and underlined text or numbers will take you to more detailed information and the sources of any statistics listed.
Click the buttons to learn more about the energy options including relevant maps, pros/cons of producing that energy or storage type, informational guides, and funding opportunities. The energy sources are listed from cleanest and safest to less clean/less safe.
In addition to the energy sources listed above we also intend to create and expand the list to include:
Heat Energy Recovery - this is a form of recycling, where waste energy (generally from industrial production processes) is capture for other uses instead of letting it escape and then needing more energy for other purposes.
Geothermal Electricity Production - requires high enough temperatures in an accessible location, but new technology can harvest as low as 90°C. Geothermal heating has been used throughout history for bathhouses and industrial uses.
Heat Pumps - these can both heat and cool homes, water, and foods.
Air Sourced - This uses outside air to function.
Ground Sourced - This requires digging or drilling into the ground.
Water Sourced - this requires a suitable body of water to work with.
Tidal Energy
Wave Energy
For now these are listed alphabetically until we evaluate their efficiency and environmental or human impacts.
Solar
The sun is one of our oldest power sources, powering our diets, the water cycle, before we learned to dry and preserve food, which is still done around the world. These practices can still be done relatively easily with little to no equipment depending on ones needs.
Sun drying and sun bleaching has been used for clothes, skins, art, and more, but isn't legal in some places. If your community forbids line drying clothes, then contacting your representative is a great way to help yourself and others reduce electricity costs, reduce impact on local utilities, and help the environment.
Solar panels unfortunately use water and rare earth metals, but efficiency is constantly improving, and advances being made that will hopefully make this method less of a pollution source. Companies and governments need to pay special attention to ensuring that a circular economy is developed to keep precious metals in the loop, and pollution contained, instead of allowing old solar panels to end up in landfills.
While these is some concern about chemicals shedding from the panels themselves, studies have found encouraging results where panels keep crops cooler, and shaded from intense sun. This not only protects them during droughts and hail, but reduces the amount of irrigation water needed to grow crops. Panels shade roof tops too, providing cooling benefits, but a planted rooftop with panels actually cools the roof enough to improve the efficiency of the panels, meaning more energy is produced. Planted rooftops, organic crops, or prairie/meadow flowers grown under solar panels also has the ability to boost biodiversity of the area, meaning more pollinators and other keystone species.
In addition to solar panels which turn sunlight directly into electricity, there are other solar devices that heat water for use in homes or that reflect energy to a specific focal point where water is heated into steam, or other materials such as thermal oil or rocks are heated.
To help ensure adequate energy production despite the fact that solar cannot be harnessed at night and is impeded by season and weather, a hybrid system may be optimal.
Click the Solar button to learn more!
If you are a farmer click the Solar for Farmers button for a list of programs around the world designed to help farmers produce their own green energy.
Life Expectancy: 25-30 years for solar panels, then their parts can be recycled into new panels. "The estimated life of a Sun Oven is 15+ years. With proper care it should last a lifetime." Drying racks may only last 2 years if poorly built, but well made and cared for racks can "last a lifetime".
Pro: Solar energy can be used for drying, heating, even cooking without any particularly complex or fancy equipment. As the cost of panel production costs, PV systems are increasingly affordable for middle and lower income homes. With the growing number of financing programs available, even cash-strapped farmers and schools can apply for assistance to install their own solar power system, saving them money into the future. Many of the school-specific programs also include resources and tech that allows students to learn about their own school's power use.
Con: Solar panels' efficiency can be negatively impacted by hot weather, and snow build up or hail can also cause issues. Solar panel waste has been a big problem until recent advances in panel recycling drastically increased the percentage that can be recycled from old equipment.
Solutions: Grow with plants such as crops, or on green roofs to reduce ambient temperature during heatwaves.
Materials: Gold, silicon and other technological parts for solar panels, though the exact composition changes as technology improves. Some natural substances such as pokeweed berry juice have been found to increase efficiency. Drying racks can be made from wood, metal, bamboo, or other natural materials. Solar dryers can be made from simple and accessible materials such as pizza boxes and kitchen foil, while more complex designs can include electric fans, hinges, and multiple racks. Solar water heaters can be build with a solar panel system, or out of retrofitted water boilers painted black and set in an enclosed box to magnify ambient solar energy directly into heat instead of electricity.
Nuclear
Nuclear has a bad reputation after a few famous plants had their safety features disabled, or suffered damage from earthquakes, but historically speaking they have caused far fewer deaths by energy production than most other types of energy.
With new innovations this technology is becoming increasingly safe, even at the end of life options appear to be improving.
Hydrogen (despite being advertised as clean) is generally created using fossil fuels, and has not caught on as well as other energy types, but could be an important solution for vehicles including ships. By using renewable energies and nuclear we may be able to ween ourselves off oil much faster.
Wind
Wind power is one of our oldest power sources. From drying our clothes to sailing, we moved on to wind mills which ground grains countries like Iran, Persia, China, Greece, and the Netherlands. Now the cost of generating electricity with wind power keeps dropping as manufacturers find increasingly efficient designs. Wind power can pose a danger to flying animals, but is otherwise among the safest types of energy production allowing for grazing and cropping in the open spaces beneath the blades. Fortunately scientists have been finding ways to improve safety for birds who are statistically more likely to die from habitat loss, or being disoriented by urban lights and crashing into windows. Turbine speed changes or even switching to bladeless wind generation are among the methods used.
To help ensure adequate energy despite the ups and downs of wind energy, a hybrid system may be optimal.
Sailing and air drying laundry are even more obviously wildlife friendly options, as line drying reduces emissions instead of blasting hot air outside through a vent. Sailing reduces both noise pollution, and reduces the chance of a fatal collision with species like whales or manatees. Rowing and sailing should be considered the best options for use in wildlife preserves, protected areas, and migratory routes to avoid serious harm.
Hydropower
Click the hydropower button for an overview of this type of energy harvest.
Dams
Dams unfortunately have massive negative impacts on wildlife and humans who's homes are often destroyed to create huge lakes. They disrupt river flows, preventing species like salmon and eel from reproducing, which in turn hurts other species throughout the food chain. Dams also create conditions that produce greenhouse gases.
Functionally they can produce very reliable electricity, so long as water levels remain stable, but during heavy rains, the risk of a dam collapsing and killing people rises. During increasingly common and long-lasting droughts, many communities have lost their primary source of electricity, and risk increasingly frequent power outages.
In addition to electricity, dams can help save drinking water for communities who might otherwise would have limited resources.
Due to the extreme damage caused by dams, and the increasingly cheap alternatives to dam power, installations of new dams has slowed, and the rate of dam removals has risen.
Click the Dams button to learn more.
Micro Hydro Turbines
These can be put in rivers creating a constant source of energy the the amount of energy can fluctuate throughout the year with different river conditions. The have been designed to be fish-safe.
Pro: 4-8 cents per kwh depending on size and location of the turbine. Reduces need for large battery storage, which wind and solar generally need.
Click the Micro Turbine button to learn more.
Genius Micro Hydro Turbine Is Far Cheaper Than Solar 6:43 minute video
Tidal
Tidal energy has many barriers to implementation and maintenance, but one key benefit is it's reliability.
Well-placed tidal infrastructure can harness energy for 18-22 hours a day, even when wind and solar farms are unable to function. This can be a major benefit to the grid as energy providers can use tidal energy to fill batteries, which can be used as backup energy for solar at night or on cloudy days. It would also back up wind farms on still or stormy days, during planned maintenance periods too.
Wave Energy
This is more prevalent than tidal energy which needs to be placed in some very specific locations, where tidal energy is easily captures, plus away from vital migratory routes, feeding grounds, and shipping lanes.
Wave harvesting equipment can float in a wide range of areas, and newer models are expected to work more efficiently in places with particularly high and rough waves.
Click the Wave Energy button to learn about the many devices being used around the world, companies who make and deploy them, test sites, and more.
Geothermal
According to Britannica, "form of energy conversion in which heat energy from within Earth is captured and harnessed for cooking, bathing, space heating, electrical power generation, and other uses. "
"... Normally, heat extraction requires a fluid (or steam) to bring the energy to the surface. Locating and developing geothermal resources can be challenging. This is especially true for the high-temperature resources needed for generating electricity. Such resources are typically limited to parts of the world characterized by recent volcanic activity or located along plate boundaries or within crustal hot spots. Even though there is a continuous source of heat within Earth, the extraction rate of the heated fluids and steam can exceed the replenishment rate, and, thus, use of the resource must be managed sustainably."
Deaths: A study "provides reassuring information on a large cohort of a unique geothermal power plant since no significant excess mortality for asbestos related cancers was observed."
Click the button bellow for more information.
Emissions: "Geothermal power production may result in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. GHG emissions from geothermal power production, mostly in the form of CO2 , are generally low in comparison to traditional base load thermal energy power generation. However, as the geothermal sector has expanded, a wider range of geothermal resources have been brought into exploitation, including geothermal systems with relatively high GHG concentrations in the reservoir fluid. Recent data from Italy (Mt. Amiata) and a number of sites in Turkey show that GHG emissions from geothermal power plants can be higher than 500 g/kWh and in some cases higher than 1000 g/kWh or on par with or higher than emissions from coal fired power plants.
The best estimate for a global average CO2 emission factor from geothermal plants is 122 g/kWh from Bertani and Thain (2002). Recent CO2 emission factors for Iceland (2012), California (2014), New Zealand (2012), and Italy (2013) were 34, 107, 104 and 330 gCO2 /kWh, respectively. Data to calculate the contribution of CH4 to geothermal GHG emissions are only available for New Zealand, where this amounts to 18.3 gCO2e/kWh. These national (and state-wide) average emission factors are all lower than typical emission factors for natural gas power plants (around 450 g/kWh) illustrating that, on average, geothermal plants emit significantly less GHG compared to fossil fuel fired thermal plants." - Stanford University
Heat Pumps
We haven't found a comparison of safety or efficiency for these yet rank this option relative to the others listed here, but here's what we have found!
Geothermal heat pumps have become much more efficient over the last 20 years. They cool spaces during cold months, and warm buildings or even water during colder months. Since heating water and cooling or heating buildings are the three greatest uses of energy in most buildings, this alternative to traditional heating and cooling units is expected to have a massive impact on our emissions. In fact tackling these issues could reduce global building emissions by around 30-40%.
Biomass
Biomass can refer to pretty much any organic matter being incinerated for electricity production, heating, cooking, etc. Dangers arise from the burning and sourcing of certain biomass. For example excessive wood use drives deforestation, and burning cow dung has been found to release mold spores which infected people's lungs, carried by the smoke from fires field by dung. There are also concerns that increased demand from industries such as the flight industry will only promote or even speed up deforestation as more planes switch to biofuels. Recent scrutiny has found that biofuels such as ethanol which comes from industrial scale corn production require more emissions to produce than they can prevent from entering the atmosphere.
We need to be very careful about using biomass as a last resort, and sourcing from items that can't be used any other way, or that are problematic with current lack of infrastructure. For example we can create job for people to remove invasive plant species, and process them into biofuels which produce less emissions than wood, or by encouraging farmers to sell crop residue (for example: stalks, stubble, husks, peals, and diseased or infested crops) as a fuel source for their community, instead of burning these things in fields which lends to air pollution and soil erosion.
Pro: Biomass can help us get rid of problematic waste including animal byproducts, invasive weeds, and plant-based crop waste that may be hard or nearly impossible to compost. Since the gas from anaerobic digestion is used for energy production, the left over mass can be spread over fields as part of a closed-loop system.
Con: As biomass production expands, it is estimated to increase deforestation. Biomass if often used to destroy waste that could simply be composted or recycled
Resources: Currently biomass production only uses around 4% of global farmland.
Bio-Coal
How Fast-Growing Weeds Become Charcoal And Eco-Bricks a 4:38 minute video about typha which is claiming farm land in Mauritania and Senegal. It burns longer than wood and produces less smoke, making it a good alternative to chopping down trees.
Biogas
Pro: Biogas plants only produce 1/4 of the CO2 emissions that coal plants emit.
Con:
Resources: Currently biogas production only uses
"Factory farm gas programs don’t address all greenhouse gas emissions produced by factory farms. While anaerobic digesters capture methane emitted from manure lagoons, a significant amount of methane escapes in the process and is released into the atmosphere. These programs also fail to account for enteric methane emissions from cows, or other greenhouse gas emissions such as those related to transporting the animals or their feed.
Meanwhile, factory farm gas programs completely ignore other types of pollution caused by industrial animal agriculture, such as the release of fine particulate matter, ammonia, nitrogen oxide, and volatile organic compounds — all of which contribute to health problems in vulnerable nearby communities, largely unchecked by the federal government.
Research has shown that nearly 16,000 people die in the U.S. every year due to air pollution caused by agricultural food production. Of those deaths, four out of five are linked to animal agriculture.
The factory farm gas scheme also props up the oil and gas industry, enabling petroleum companies to offset their greenhouse gas emissions by purchasing factory farm gas “credits” instead of meaningfully reducing their own carbon emissions." - ALDF: Factory Farm Biogas
Natural Gas
Natural gas warms our planet, and produced dangerous chemicals which can build up in our homes, harming our health.
Companies often burn off excess gas because it can be more expensive to harvest from drill sites than it would be worth to see. Even when companies do capture it for use, a small percentage leaks at the drill site, then each time it is loaded or offloaded from ships, then again from faulty equipment, including stoves that are turned off. Since the industry has continued to expand this "small percentage" lost at each stage, is turning out to be increasingly alarming as studies find higher rates of loss than the gas industry has been reporting to the public.
Old wells often leak, and are costly to plug. Earthquakes, and the mere fact that many orphan wells are hard to find even with historical maps, means that even when these holes are plugged, they can later be damaged, releasing natural gas into the environment again.
Why We Need to Ditch Natural Gas (ASAP)
11:55 minute video talks about the industry's honesty about the amount of emissions they leak each year, and lack of willingness to convert to greener infrastructure. One serious concern is that any plants built today
"Green" Coal
It's Time To Let Coal Die | Climate Town
29:12 minute video uncovers the history of coal, what's going on with "clean" coal, and what we can do about it.
Power generation options listed below this point are not organized by efficiency of danger levels, since we have not been able to assess this information yet, or there is too little data available at this time.
The following will be listed in alphabetical order, until we have enough information to organize them with the rest.
Fuel Cells
Hydrogen fuel cells can be powered by natural gas, methane and other unclean energy sources, but a growing body of researchers, lawmakers, and companies are helping to shift towards renewable hydrogen fuel production.
Fuel cells can be used to power buildings, planes, buses, trucks, trains, cars, and more. Click the Fuel Cells button to learn more.
Hygroelectric Energy
"Hygroelectricity is a type of static electricity that forms on water droplets and can be transferred from droplets to small dust particles. The phenomenon is common in the Earth's atmosphere but has also been observed in the steam escaping from boilers (see Armstrong effect). It was the basis for a proposal by Nikola Tesla to tap electricity from the air, an idea which has been recently revived.[1] Hygroelectric charge is the likely source of the electric charge which, under certain conditions such as exist in thunderstorms, volcanic eruptions and some dust storms, gives rise to lightning.[2][3]""
Snow
Currently countries around the world expend a lot of fuel and energy scooping up snow, melting it, or dumping it into the ocean (often with large amounts of pollutants including chemicals from roads, cigarettes, and plastics). Scientists have been experimenting with different ways to generate energy with snow.
Snow-Based Triboelectric Nanogenerator
Nanogenerator Produces Electricity from Falling Snow explains that snow is positively charged, so the scientists used a negatively charged membrane to create static, which can then be used to charge small devices.
"About 30 percent of the Earth's surface is covered by snow each winter, during which time solar panels often fail to operate, El-Kady noted. The accumulation of snow reduces the amount of sunlight that reaches the solar array, limiting the panels' power output and rendering them less effective. The new device could be integrated into solar panels to provide a continuous power supply when it snows..."
"It could usher in a new generation of self-powered wearable devices for tracking athletes and their performances."
Warm Air & Snow Driven Turbine
Scientists uses cold air from stored snow, combined with sun-warmed air from outside to spin a turbine.
"The authors claim their snow-based power generation method could reach the same efficiency as that of a solar energy plant and possibly in a much more cost-effective manner. The efficacy of this system also depends on the temperature difference factor. "The greater the temperature differences, the greater the efficiency of power generation""
Energy Use & Daily Life
General
Click the Transit & Energy link to learn about how renewable energy and transit will complement on one another. We have tried to follow the principles of Reduce > Reuse > Recycle is a valuable guidelines when considering these topics. For this reason we also offer a selection of Electricity-Free solutions for practical needs.
Click the High Efficiency Heat Pumps button to learn more about this technology, and scroll down to see a listing of Air, Ground, and Water Sourced installers, Servicers, etc. We've even included grant and interest-free loan opportunities.
Click the Solar for Farmer's button if you are a farmer, to learn how you can apply for aid such as grants. We have information for Africa, and North America.
Water Pumping
The pumping of water takes a larger amount than many people realize. Pumping ground water for agricultural, industry, or public use, moving it between facilities, etc. all require energy since water is a fairly heavy substance.
STEEP "is a free Excel-based reference guide that can be used to make system assessments and identify potential areas for energy use savings in existing or planned water supply and wastewater facility projects."
Types of Energy Storage
We often think of batteries when we thing of storage, as well as the environmental issues such as mining and end-of-life pollution. However there are more options for energy storage than many people realize.
Click the Battery Technology button to learn more about these options and as well as which companies are already offering these solutions.
Energy Transition by Region
Africa
How Power is Finally Coming to Rural Africa
9:21 minute video focuses on bringing sustainable electricity to people who live far from any stable energy grids. The aim is to help bring them out of poverty without harming the environment.
The main focus of this video is on Kenya, but this idea that revolves around microgrids can be scaled up anywhere with sufficient sunlight. Ending the need to chop trees for cooking energy, expanding people's income opportinities, and greening transport as fuel-powered bikes can be converted to electric to save people money.
Europe
The Future of Energy in Europe
42:26 minute DW documentary about the current energy challenges and transition, highlighting the energy independence already enjoyed by some communities vs the extremes that some European parents have to go to to keep their children warm.
Topics also include how some councils have been installing solar on public buildings to produce energy for low-income families who would otherwise struggle to meet basic heating needs.
At last check, the UK was able to produce 25% of our energy needs with renewable resources.
Rewiring America: Track Your Local Pace of Progress "These projections from Rewiring America worked backwards from the emissions targets for 2050, and forward from current sales of machines for cooking, water heating, space heating, transportation, and rooftop solar to set a number of new clean electric machines that must be sold each year to reduce emissions from fossil-fueled machines. Type your city, county, or state into the search bar to get those numbers broken down for your area, by each machine category.
While creating this tool, one of things we found is that some individual communities and states are leading the way: their goals are bolder than the rest of the country and so don’t match the path laid out in our data. That’s a great problem to have. So our tool should not be considered the only source of its kind -- but one that reflects only one of the possible paths to decarbonization."
Resources
North America
USA
Tools & Apps
Water Pumping
The pumping of water takes a larger amount than many people realize. Pumping ground water for agricultural, industry, or public use, moving it between facilities, etc. all require energy since water is a fairly heavy substance.
STEEP "is a free Excel-based reference guide that can be used to make system assessments and identify potential areas for energy use savings in existing or planned water supply and wastewater facility projects."
North America
USA
Rewiring America: Track Your Local Pace of Progress "These projections from Rewiring America worked backwards from the emissions targets for 2050, and forward from current sales of machines for cooking, water heating, space heating, transportation, and rooftop solar to set a number of new clean electric machines that must be sold each year to reduce emissions from fossil-fueled machines. Type your city, county, or state into the search bar to get those numbers broken down for your area, by each machine category.
While creating this tool, one of things we found is that some individual communities and states are leading the way: their goals are bolder than the rest of the country and so don’t match the path laid out in our data. That’s a great problem to have. So our tool should not be considered the only source of its kind -- but one that reflects only one of the possible paths to decarbonization."
Education & Training Opportunities
North America
USA
Climate Tech LaunchPad program helps Black and Latinx innovators and owners of climate tech businesses to overcome the barriers that stand in their way of growing and scaling climate and cleantech solutions, especially in disadvantaged communities."
Organizations
International
DeSmog "was founded in January 2006 to clear the PR pollution that is clouding the science and solutions to climate change. Our team quickly became the world’s number one source for accurate, fact-based information regarding global warming misinformation campaigns.
DeSmog continues to expand our focus to other areas where misinformation has eroded public understanding and political action to address critical societal challenges, such as meeting the world’s energy needs, confronting environmental racism, and ensuring a just transition to a sustainable economic paradigm.
Through hard-hitting investigative journalism, in-depth research, and collaborations with other investigative outlets, DeSmog works tirelessly to provide climate accountability and serve as an antidote to science denial and disinformation. Supported by science and dedicated to equity, our team is helping to clear the way for clean energy solutions, environmental justice, and the preservation of democracy.
Now a global organization, with reporters and researchers spanning North and South America, the UK, Europe, Africa, and beyond, the DeSmog team works to expose corporate misinformation from major fossil fuel interests, including the likes of ExxonMobil, Koch Industries, and others with a documented history of undermining climate science and action. We conduct original research and reporting on a range of issues in the broader energy policy dialogue. In many cases, we find the same tactics, and many of the same people, that DeSmog first began exposing in our early research into the climate denial industry, are now sitting alongside a new breed of lobbyist, downplaying potential solutions to climate change, and promoting questionable “silver-bullet” solutions.
Our research databases provide vital information on over 800 organizations and individuals responsible for spreading misinformation on a range of energy and science topics. We first started reporting on Koch Industries’ funding of climate denial in 2007, and continue to track Koch-linked groups and operatives in our Koch Network Database. In 2020, we added two new databases — the Air Pollution Lobbying Database and Agribusiness Database — showing how vested interests are working to slow action across multiple sectors."
Asia
The Asia Society Policy Institute "works with policymakers, scientists, economists, business leaders, and experts from other fields to enhance the regional and global fight against climate change through accelerating the transition to net zero emissions, carbon pricing, clean energy and climate diplomacy."
Livable Cities "... has three operational approaches or pillars: Improve coverage, quality efficiency, and reliability of services in urban areas; strengthen urban planning and financial sustainability of cities; and improve urban environment, climate resilience and disaster management of cities.
With 65% of people in Asia and the Pacific set to live in cities by 2050, we have gathered stories and lessons that will ensure cities in Asia and the Pacific are inclusive, competitive, environmentally sustainable, and resilient."
North America
USA
The Clean Energy States Alliance "is a national, nonprofit coalition of public agencies and organizations working together to advance clean energy.
CESA works with state leaders, federal agencies, industry representatives, and other stakeholders to develop clean energy programs and inclusive renewable energy markets. CESA members—mostly state agencies—include many of the most innovative, successful, and influential public funders of clean energy initiatives in the country."Rewiring America "is the leading electrification nonprofit, focused on electrifying our homes, businesses, and communities. We develop accessible, actionable data and tools, and build coalitions and partnerships to make going electric easier for households and communities. Rewiring America helps Americans save money, tackle nationwide emissions goals, improve health, and build the next generation of the clean energy workforce. We believe in an abundant, flourishing, climate-safe future, and know that, together, we can realize one."
Arizona
Navajo Power "is the leading developer that possesses the necessary combination of technical expertise, cultural and linguistic aptitude, and access to capital to successfully develop utility-scale clean energy projects on the Navajo Nation and across Indian Country"
Grants & Funding
Asia
Livable Cities: Financing Partnership Facility "The urban operations of ADB benefits from the support of notable trust funds, which are collectively referred to as the Urban Financing Partnership Facility. Under this umbrella, strategic, long-term, multi-partner investments on innovative urban solutions are implemented. These investments help to achieve the vision of livable cities." These include:
Urban Climate Change Resilience Trust Fund (UCCRTF) eligible countries include Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, and Vietnam.
North America
USA
The Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG) Program "provides $5 billion in grants to states, local governments, tribes, and territories to develop and implement ambitious plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful air pollution. Authorized under Section 60114 of the Inflation Reduction Act, this two-phase program provides $250 million for noncompetitive planning grants, and approximately $4.6 billion for competitive implementation grants."
Power Forward Communities "is a coalition of some of the country’s most trusted housing, climate, and community investment groups dedicated to decarbonizing and transforming American housing. We’re saving homeowners and renters money, reinvesting in communities, and tackling the climate crisis."
Self-Help Credit Union "Our mission is creating and protecting ownership and economic opportunity for all, especially people of color, women, rural residents and low-wealth families and communities.
Self-Help Credit Union has branches in NC, SC, FL and VA, and we offer remote services like online and mobile banking to make joining us easy no matter where you live." "We're poised to use a major funding award from the EPA to help create a clean energy future for all."
Connecticut
The Connecticut Green Bank "is the nation’s first green bank"
Oceana
Australia
ARENA: Funding "From research to large-scale deployment, our funding spans the entire innovation chain. We accelerate the affordability of new technologies and build investor confidence in renewable energy projects now and into the future."
Western Australia
The Sustainability Grants Program (in the City of Cockburn) "offers funding for projects related to six sustainability themes. Open to small businesses, schools, not-for-profits, and collective households, successful applicants can receive up to $4,000 for their project."
Maps
International
Aljazeera: How Much of Your Country's Electricity is Renewable (Interactive)
KFW: Interactive World Map of Renewable Energy Interactive map shows the solar, wind, and hydropower usage of each country. Just click a country on the map, or select the name via the dropdown. Data accurate as of (at least) 2017.
Our World In Data: Share of Primary Energy from Renewable Sources, 2021 "Renewable energy sources include hydropower, solar, wind, geothermal, bioenergy, wave, and tidal. They don't include traditional biofuels, which can be a key energy source, especially in lower-income settings." Interactive maps shows current and historical renewables use with a pop up graph for each country.
Be careful with the pop up graphs on this page because they only go as high as the maximum current or historical percent level, meaning some graphs only go as high as 17% or 50% renewable energy in the grid mix, but will look much higher if you glance at them with the assumption each is set with a maximum of 100%.
Europe
Nuclear Power Generation in 2020
Wind Energy Generation percent by country in 2021
North America
Map of Power Generation in the Northwest interactive map allows you to see the types and sizes of projects 1898 to present (2023), and slide the timeline handles to see what types of energy production where built during which time periods.
Further Reading
We try to focus on available technology and solutions that are already in use, but if you want to read about emerging technologies on the horizon, or maybe even being tested somewhere near you, then the article Novel Renewable Technologies That Could Power the Future lists a number that we haven't heard about anywhere else.
You may also be interested in some of our other pages covering related topics.
