Google’s biggest clean power project is 40 miles north of xAI’s unpermitted gas power plant

TechCrunch

By: Tim De Chant

15 July 2026 at 18:39

Google's biggest solar and battery project stands in sharp contrast with xAI's nearby unpermitted power plant.

Coalition and One Nation’s plan to ditch net zero would not lower power prices, CSIRO report finds

The Guardian - Energy

By: Graham Readfearn Environment and climate correspondent

14 July 2026 at 15:01

GenCost report contradicts parties’ claims about abandoning emissions target, and finds nuclear would be most expensive way to generate power

Claims by the Coalition and One Nation that abandoning a net zero climate target would bring down power prices are contradicted in a new CSIRO report on the costs of generating electricity.

Generation costs will probably rise after 2030 regardless of Australia’s policy on net zero, according to the CSIRO’s annual GenCost report, but prices should then stabilise at levels below recent price spikes.

Britain’s biggest community solar farm forced to shut over grid overload fears

The Guardian - Energy

By: Jillian Ambrose

12 July 2026 at 15:00

Timing of Devon switchoff ‘could not be worse’, says board, as members face an estimated £2m in lost revenue

Britain’s biggest community solar project has been forced to shut for the duration of its first summer by the government’s energy system operator to avoid overloading the local grid with renewable energy.

The north Devon solar farm was ordered to shut weeks before record high temperatures across Europe led to power supply warnings, due to concerns that the large amount of rooftop solar in the area could destabilise the power grid by triggering a “thermal overload”.

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

The Guardian - Energy

12 July 2026 at 14:00

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

This week’s question: Why is there no rugby culture in Germany?

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

Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com.

China’s giant Gobi solar plant runs after dark on salt, not batteries

Electrek

By: Fred Lambert

9 July 2026 at 20:53

China Three Gorges Corporation (CTG) has put the world’s largest solar PV-plus-concentrated-solar hybrid into commercial trial operation in the Gobi Desert — and its headline trick is delivering power after sunset without a single lithium battery.

The 1-gigawatt Hami project in Xinjiang stores the sun’s energy as heat in molten salt, letting it keep generating for up to eight hours after dark.

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