From the Ashes: Coal Ash May Offer Rich Source of Rare Earth Elements - For most of history, the world got along fine without the rare earth elements. We ... - https://hackaday.com/2025/03/19/from-the-ashes-coal-ash-may-offer-rich-source-of-rare-earth-elements/ #hackadaycolumns #rare-earth #scandium #yttrium #reeysc #news #coal #ash

I seldom share these things (yeah yeah, that's a cliché in itself), but this one is important. It could have serious #environmental consequences for #SouthAfrica: https://dearsouthafrica.co.za/livinglimpopo/?utm_source=MastodonAfrica #coal

UK emissions down in 2024

[Read on Ethical Revolution]

Some good news in as much as the constant rise in greenhouse gas emissions is being curbed in the UK. Still a long way to go to get to real reversal numbers, but this new analysis by Carbon Brief tells that our emissions decreased 3.6% in 2024.

Above average temperatures, a rise of almost 40% in electric car numbers* and the largest proportion of renewable energy going in to the grid were all factors in the decrease.

It means the UK’s emissions are now 54% below 1990 levels. Roughly half of the drop in emissions was due to a 54% reduction in demand for coal.

Coal use dropped to the lowest level since the year of the Great Fire of London, in 1666. This was in large part thanks to the closure of the UK’s last coal-fired power station and one of the last remaining blast furnaces at the Port Talbot steelworks.

Meanwhile oil demand fell 1.4% and gas demand fell 13% thanks to lower gas-fired electricity generation as a result of higher electricity imports and increased output from low-carbon sources.

*1.4m EVs, 0.8m plug-in hybrids and 76,000 electric vans cut oil-related emissions by at least 5.9MtCO2e. The benefit to the UK’s EV motorists was a saving of about £800 on average, relative to the cost of driving petrol or diesel vehicles.

[Via Ethical Revolution]

"A glut of Chinese overcapacity means that the price of panels in #Pakistan has gone from 24 cents a watt to 10 cents a watt in just the past year or two. Distributed #solar is breaking over Pakistan like a tidal wave..."

https://www.volts.wtf/p/pakistans-solar-boom

(big expensive #coal projects resulted in raising rates so much that payback times for residential solar are down to 1-1.5 years! Annual panel imports are 16GW into a country that had 45GW total from all sources in 2020)

Researchers find #carbon capture more costly than switching to #renewables

https://techxplore.com/news/2025-02-carbon-capture-renewables.html

This is who is supposed to ensure the safety of Alberta's new stunningly backwards and wildly unsafe #Coal projects. The #AER is a total joke & an indication of exactly how stupid they think we are.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/article-alberta-energy-regulator-appoints-former-oil-and-gas-executive-rob/

Emergency Crews Mobilize as Chinese Cargo Ship Runs Aground in Russia’s Far East

Authorities in Far East #Russia’s Sakhalin region are preparing to pump fuel from a Chinese cargo ship that ran aground off its coast overnight Sunday.

#Sakhalin region Governor Valery Limarenko declared a high alert in the #Nevelsky district, where the bulk carrier An Yang 2 with 20 crew members became stranded 200 meters (650 feet) offshore.

The ship is carrying 700 metric tons of #fuel oil, 100 tons of #diesel fuel and 1,000 tons of #coal, but no #spills have been reported so far.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/02/10/emergency-crews-mobilize-as-chinese-cargo-ship-runs-aground-in-russias-far-east-a87927

Don't burn coal,
if you live in a greenhouse.

Ukraine Daily summary - Wednesday, February 5 2025

https://writeworks.uk/~/UkraineDaily/Ukraine%20Daily%20summary%20-%20Wednesday,%20February%205%202025/

The Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting analyzed a federal dataset to find the industrial facilities that directly released the most greenhouse gases in Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee and West Virginia.

More than two-thirds of the facilities are power plants and most — more than 70% — burn coal to make electricity, while more than a third use natural gas.

#EnergyMastodon #Climate #EnergyTransition #Coal #Kentucky

https://www.lpm.org/investigate/2024-12-31/a-look-at-biggest-greenhouse-gas-polluters-in-kentucky-indiana-and-nearby-states

Despite security concerns, China is going to make lots of "friends" around the world with its ability to manufacture and install wind and solar. Meanwhile the US will backslide — to fulfill MAGA wishes, to procure grift for the Orange Menace and out of spite (it's all connected) — and so-called strongmen will brag, "Drill baby, drill."
https://mastodon.social/@CelloMomOnCars/113911973736184688
h/t @CelloMomOnCars
#China #UnitedStates #geopolitics #solar #SolarPower #renewables #RenewableEnergy #WindEnergy #coal #FossilFuel

EU’s #solar and #wind growth pushes fossil-fuel power to lowest level in 40 years https://www.carbonbrief.org/eus-solar-and-wind-growth-pushes-fossil-fuel-power-to-lowest-level-in-40-years/

"Over the past decade, #coal power use in the European Union has fallen by 61%... #SolarPower output in the EU more than tripled between 2014 and 2024... with last year seeing coal generation overtaken for the first time. Meanwhile, #wind generation has more than doubled over the same period."

Europe made more electricity from solar than from coal in 2024
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/22/rising-star-europe-made-more-electricity-from-solar-than-coal-in-2024
#SolarPower #renewables #RenewableEnergy #solar #coal #FossilFuel
#GoodNews

Today in Labor History January 15, 1946: 260,000 U.S. electrical workers struck against General Electric, Westinghouse and General Motors. It was part of the Great Strike Wave of 1946, the largest in U.S. history. In that wave, 43,000 oil workers struck in October, 1945; 225,000 autoworkers in November, 1945; 93,000 meatpackers in January, 1946; 750,000 steel workers, in January 1946; 340,000 coal miners, in April, 1946; and 250,000 railroad workers in May 1946. There were also General Strikes in Lancaster, PA; Stamford, CT; Rochester, NY; and Oakland, CA.

Working-class residents of Curtis Bay and other South Baltimore neighborhoods marched through the streets of Annapolis -- and delivered a giant stocking full of coal to the Governor’s mansion.
They are demanding Gov. Wes Moore intervene in a generations-long struggle to stop #rail #giant #CSX transportation from polluting their bodies, homes, and communities with #toxic #coal #dust.
CSX is not the only polluter in South Baltimore: industrial areas near Curtis Bay house oil tanks, a wastewater treatment plant, chemical plants, landfills, the country’s largest medical waste incinerator, and more. But a recent air quality studyconfirmed what residents have been complaining about for generations: Coal dust from the CSX Transportation coal export terminal is present all over Curtis Bay. CSX has denied culpability and called the study “materially flawed.” Residents say they’re fed up with the company refusing to take responsibility for the coal dust, and with the city government for ignoring their cries for help for years. So they are demanding that Gov. Moore and the Maryland Department of the Environment deny CSX’s operational permit for the coal terminal, a permit that the MDE has been reviewing for renewal.

https://therealnews.com/csx-coal-terminal-curtis-bay-baltimore-residents-capitol