Renewables

In April 2026, wind and solar produced 531 TWh globally versus gas's 477 TWh — the first month ever that renewables topped gas in global electricity generation.

The Interior Department paid Golden State Wind $120 million to abandon its Morro Bay lease; California subpoenaed the developer and its attorney general anticipates litigation.

A new IRENA report introduces firm levelised cost of electricity for hybrid solar/wind-plus-battery systems and finds round-the-clock renewable power now beats new coal in China and new gas globally.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers's 2026-27 budget pivots clean-energy policy from industrial subsidies toward consumer-side regulation, funding a new Clean Energy Regulator body for distributed solar, batteries, and EVs while cutting Hydrogen Headstart, Solar Sunshot, and Battery Breakthrough.

Fervo Energy, the Houston enhanced geothermal developer behind Utah's Cape Station, filed an S-1 with the SEC on April 17 to list on the Nasdaq as FRVO, with banks led by J.P. Morgan and a private valuation around $3 billion.

China Huaneng Group fully energized the 504 MW Shandong Peninsula North L offshore wind farm on April 7, 2026, installing 42 twelve-megawatt turbines on jacket foundations in 52 to 56 meters of water — the deepest fixed-bottom offshore wind project ever built in China.

A Nature Energy paper from Nanchang University achieves 26.61% certified efficiency with cesium doping, while a private Chinese cell surpasses all single-junction silicon cells at 27.98%.

Pattern Energy's 3.5 GW SunZia project in New Mexico—the largest clean energy infrastructure project in US history—started commissioning in April 2026, delivering power across a 550-mile HVDC line to California and Arizona.

Swiss researchers set a new certified record of 30.02% efficiency for a triple-junction solar cell combining silicon with two perovskite layers, published in Nature.

The International Renewable Energy Agency's latest data shows the world added a record 692 gigawatts of renewable power capacity in 2025, bringing renewables to 49 percent of total global installed capacity and within reach of the halfway mark for the first time.

Vineyard Wind filed suit against GE Renewable Energy after the turbine manufacturer moved to terminate service contracts, escalating a dispute rooted in a catastrophic 2024 blade failure that set the project back nearly two years.

JPMorgan commits to 60,000 tons of carbon removal credits from Graphyte, while Microsoft secures 626,000 tonnes from Canada's first Indigenous-owned BECCS project, as corporate buyers race to underwrite the next generation of carbon removal infrastructure.