The Guardian - Energy
The great carbon capture con: behold the wasted billions Burnham could claw back | George Monbiot 8 July 2026 at 09:10

The great carbon capture con: behold the wasted billions Burnham could claw back | George Monbiot

8 July 2026 at 09:10

There are far better ways to tackle climate breakdown, but successive governments have chosen to listen to the fossil fuel companies instead

The new prime minister will be looking for money? Well, here’s £21.7bn lying on the ground. The government could cancel its deranged, disastrous carbon capture and storage (CCS) programme at no cost to public welfare: in fact, it would greatly reduce the harm we will suffer.

Sorry, did I say £21.7bn? That’s the figure the government has been putting in its press releases for spending on this programme between now and 2050. But this covers only the first phase of the project. The climate experts Dr Andrew Boswell and Simon Oldridge worked through the data produced by the government’s Climate Change Committee, which was scattered across different spreadsheets, and discovered that the projected cost of the full CCS programme between now and 2050 is £264bn.

The Guardian - Energy
Low-cost loans for solar panels could save households hundreds on bills – thinktanks 7 July 2026 at 10:00

Low-cost loans for solar panels could save households hundreds on bills – thinktanks

The Guardian - Energy

By: Fiona Harvey Environment editor

7 July 2026 at 10:00

New Economics Foundation and Finance Innovation Lab suggest loan scheme backed by Bank of England could benefit up to 8m homes

Millions of UK households could save hundreds of pounds a year on their energy bills if the government were to approve low-cost loans for solar panel installation, research has found.

Solar panels with batteries are one of the cheapest ways to generate electricity and reduce energy bills, but with an upfront cost of about £6,000 they are still beyond the reach of most cash-strapped UK households while other countries forge ahead with installation.

The Guardian - Energy
‘Why take those jobs away?’: the unionized workers decrying Trump’s war on wind 6 July 2026 at 12:00

‘Why take those jobs away?’: the unionized workers decrying Trump’s war on wind

The Guardian - Energy

By: Michael Sainato

6 July 2026 at 12:00

Workers proud of their efforts to grow renewable energy say US president pursuing ‘personal vendetta’ at their expense

Donald Trump has blamed everything – from “national security” issues, the deaths of birds and whales, and cancer – in his decades-long campaign against windfarms. But as the Trump administration continues to undermine the industry, what worries workers most are their jobs.

Since taking office for a second term, Trump has issued an executive order aiming to halt all wind-energy leases and permits, attempted to issue stop-work orders on wind projects under construction, and paid more than $2.6bn in settlements to buy out wind energy leases. And hundreds of workers have been affected.

The Guardian - Energy
‘It’s smoke and mirrors’: hope turns to fear in Scottish village chosen for AI datacentre 6 July 2026 at 08:00

‘It’s smoke and mirrors’: hope turns to fear in Scottish village chosen for AI datacentre

The Guardian - Energy

By: Aisha Down

6 July 2026 at 08:00

Suspicions grow in Lanarkshire that local people have been misled on supposed benefits of the huge development

The promise was that a Scottish community would be transformed by massive investment and empowered to chase “the jobs of the future”. Instead, local people in Lanarkshire fear they may have to sell their properties and lose green belt land because of the errors of a badly planned AI datacentre complex, even as those jobs and investments never arrive.

Late last year, representatives of Oakes Energy Services began to knock on doors in Newarthill, a village east of Glasgow. In letters reviewed by the Guardian, they invited residents to individual meetings. They told them about plans for a solar farm, say local people, and made offers: free solar panels, tree planting, or even cash for their properties.

The Guardian - Energy
Revealed: landmark Scottish AI project has no prospect of meeting renewables promise 6 July 2026 at 08:00

Revealed: landmark Scottish AI project has no prospect of meeting renewables promise

The Guardian - Energy

By: Aisha Down

6 July 2026 at 08:00

Exclusive: Government and developers privately acknowledged Lanarkshire datacentre site had power provision ‘issue’

A landmark AI development billed as delivering jobs and prosperity has misrepresented its plans to channel a nuclear reactor’s worth of power to a site in rural Scotland, a Guardian investigation has found.

When it was announced in January, the government promised that an £8.2bn AI datacentre complex in Lanarkshire – built by the US firm CoreWeave and the Scottish company DataVita – would be powered entirely from on-site renewables and built by 2030.

The Guardian - Energy
What are Britain’s AI growth zones and are the plans feasible or ‘complete bunk’? 6 July 2026 at 08:00

What are Britain’s AI growth zones and are the plans feasible or ‘complete bunk’?

The Guardian - Energy

By: Aisha Down

6 July 2026 at 08:00

Lanarkshire datacentre run by renewables and creating thousands of jobs not achievable by 2030, Guardian investigation finds

Revealed: landmark Scottish AI project has no prospect of meeting renewables promise

‘It’s smoke and mirrors’: hope turns to fear in Scottish village chosen for AI datacentre

The Guardian has examined government plans to build Britain’s AI infrastructure for the future, finding some of these to be, in the words of one source, at best unclear and at worst “complete bunk”.

The plans in question are for AI growth zones, which are supposed to be regions where the government supports companies to build massive AI datacentre complexes, of 500MW or greater. These could be bigger than any now operating in the UK.

The Guardian - Energy
Why put solar panels on green space when we could put them over car parks? 5 July 2026 at 14:00

Why put solar panels on green space when we could put them over car parks?

The Guardian - Energy

5 July 2026 at 14:00

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions considers a hot topic within renewable energy

This week’s replies: Are there places on Earth where humans haven’t been?

I would like to know why we build solar farms over green space, when we could just put them over massive car parks as a popular current internet meme suggests. Chris, Middlesbrough

Post your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published next Sunday.

The Guardian - Energy
Loch Ness hydropower project will damage shoreline and ancient woodland | Letter 1 July 2026 at 17:12

Loch Ness hydropower project will damage shoreline and ancient woodland | Letter

The Guardian - Energy

By: Guardian Staff

1 July 2026 at 17:12

Neil Mackenzie on the environmental impact of the Loch Kemp project

Your article (First major hydropower projects in Great Britain in 40 years given go-ahead, 26 June) describes the proposal to build three pumped storage schemes in the Scottish Highlands. But it does not mention the huge environmental cost.

One scheme, the Loch Kemp project, will draw water from Loch Ness and pump it into the upper reservoir created by enlarging Loch Kemp. A giant power station is to be built in protected ancient woodland on the shores of Loch Ness. This woodland is a special area of conservation, an internationally recognised site, and will be partly destroyed by the power station and access road.

The Guardian - Energy
ScottishPower owes me £1,000 in solar panel payments 1 July 2026 at 07:00

ScottishPower owes me £1,000 in solar panel payments

The Guardian - Energy

By: Anna Tims

1 July 2026 at 07:00

For months I’ve been trying to receive my FIT payment, which should be more than £1,000

I moved into my new house 14 months ago, and soon afterwards applied to ScottishPower, with whom the solar panels are registered for a feed-in tariff (Fit), for transfer of ownership of the panels and the tariff.

After many emails back and forth, I got a response saying they had all the information required.