[Hi all. As I’ve mentioned, I’m shifting most of this blog to the newsletter platform Substack. The focus and substance stay the same — and for free readers, it’s still simply an email showing up as usual. Posts may come a bit more frequently rather than bundled together, or combining pieces as I’ve been generally doing (and do again today — see more personal note below the article). If you’d rather not receive more emails, you can switch delivery to “Prefer the app” in your Substack notification settings. If you don’t see emails at first, they may have landed in spam or promotions folders. Otherwise, no action is required. I’ll still use this space from time to time, but most new pieces will appear there. Thanks as always for your readership and support — it is greatly appreciated!]
2025 was a heroic year for clean energy, almost everywhere.
In the U.S., it was merely good.
Data through November (via Reuters’ in “8 charts”) nearly locks in some key results for 2025:
The good news:
– China surged. Clean power hit 42% of grid electricity, a record
– China exported a lot of clean tech. About $180B in 10 months: $66B in batteries, $55B in EVs
– Solar’s share of grid power kept breaking records across dozens of countries
– Battery storage jumped globally a lot, even in the U.S. (up 43%), to 100GW added globally
The meh news:
– U.S. electricity got a bit dirtier, going against global trends. Coal-fired electricity output rose 13%. Wind and solar also grew, but policy headwinds mattered. Trying to shutdown a wind farm that was 80% built had impact..
Earlier reports showed global coal and gas use finally flattening. That’s what a real transition looks like. Not everything declining at once, but the old stuff stops growing.
The direction we’re going is clear.
[Image, stock photo]
Fyi, Another message before I shift over to Substack
I just posted this on LinkedIn this morning as we face work after a really hard week in America…
If you’re finding this Monday particularly hard given what’s going on in the U.S., I’m with you.
I know, we’re on a professional platform — yet none of us leave our humanity at the door when we log in. Who we are, how we feel, what we carry with us (which for everyone is a lot, so it’s good to have some grace) absolutely impacts how we work, interact with colleagues, and take care or our responsibilities. If you’re feeling distracted, unsettled, worried, overwhelmed — you’re not alone.
Recent events have piled on quickly, some of them heartbreaking:
– The U.S. executed a dramatic military action (ok, invaded another country) and took out its leader and his wife. A big part of the justification was to get access to oil…oil which apparently even Exxon doesn’t want to pursue.
– A 37-year-old, unarmed woman, Renée Nicole Good, was killed by a federal ICE agent in Minneapolis. It sparked nationwide debates, protests, and more.
– Last night Fed Chair Jerome Powell issued a video saying he recieved a criminal indictment from the Justice Department (which apparently was not too busy blocking local police and DAs from evidence needed to assess the killing in MN).
That was all in the last WEEK.
You’re not imagining it. Across the federal government, powerful institutions and enforcement agencies are being wielded in aggressive and authoritarian ways. My head is spinning trying to orient and figure out what it means for our society, our communities, and our future.
This is heavy, emotional, historic stuff. It’s ok to be scared and distracted. Most of us are carrying more than we pretend at work.
And yet, somehow we have to keep SHOWING UP — being present and aware of all of it and somehow operating in parallel on many things. We have responsibilities to our families, communities, and work colleagues. We can choose to show up with integrity, compassion, and connection.
My wife and I went to a protest yesterday, leaving a gathering of friends early. Today, we’re both at our desks (through one wall) doing our thing. After I stop writing this, I’ll be thinking, researching, and posting about corporate strategy and sustainability, or clean tech, or climate change…
If you’re finding today challenging, I see you.
*A lot more to say about this, but for context, see historian Heather Cox Richardson who says, even though the Supreme Court recently “seemed to limit Trump’s power to use military forces within the United States,” the administration surged 2,000 agents into Minneapolis.
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