By Ivan Penn  and  Malika Khurana , The New York Times.  Excerpt: U.S. electric grids are increasingly under strain and utility companies are spending tens of billions of dollars on upgrades — expenses that are driving up electric bills. At the same time, power-hungry data centers, electric vehicles and heat pumps are increasing demand for electricity. ...One solution is to install more rooftop solar panels and batteries. Each such system is small, but collections of them can act like small power plants by supplying electricity to the grid when demand surges on, say, summer afternoons. ...“Putting on solar without a battery, does almost nothing to help” the energy system, Mr. Borenstein, the Berkeley professor, said....  Full article at https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/09/27/business/energy-environment/rooftop-solar-panels.html .

By Hannah Richter , Science.  Excerpt: Every time people ask ChatGPT for help, their request percolates through a whirring farm of computers kept cool inside a windowless warehouse. These facilities, known as data centers, gobbled up  more than 4% of U.S. electricity in 2023 . ...researchers reported online earlier this month in  Solar Energy  that they had come up with a clever efficiency boost. By using the Sun’s warmth to raise the temperature of vented waste heat, data center operators can  generate a significant fraction of the electricity  they need while recycling some power....  Full article at https://www.science.org/content/article/solar-bump-could-help-data-centers-recover-wasted-energy . 

By ScienceAdviser.  Excerpt: Polyethylene terephthalate or PET is one of the most widely used plastics, and therefore, a big contributor to plastic waste. But a team of researchers  has an idea for how to beat the trash—and help tackle climate change at the same time . In a recent paper, they described a simple process that turns PET into bis-aminoamide (BAETA), a compound that chemically binds carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), effectively pulling it from the air. “ Any useful carbon capture material needs to be made in the millions of tons per year from cheap and abundant sources ,” co-author Ji-Woong Lee told  Chemical & Engineering News . “Plastic waste is a cheap and abundant source.” Lee and colleagues detailed how, simply by mixing PET with 1,2-ethylenediamine (EN) at 60°C for 24 hours or room temperature for 2 weeks, they could turn the plastic into CO 2  -absorbing BAETA. ...“ The beauty of this method is that we solve a problem without creating a new one ,” lead a...

By Tim Appenzeller , Science.  Excerpt: ...In 2018, [Ben] Jones, a polar scientist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, was drilling into the frozen soil outside of Utqiaġvik, the largest town on Alaska’s North Slope, to extract a core sample. ...Inspecting the hard-won core, researchers found that an unsuspected layer of salt had thawed the permafrost. Jones and other investigators now believe such saline permafrost is an accomplice to climate change, which is warming the Arctic four times faster than the rest of the planet and turning frozen landscapes into boggy morasses. Like salt sprinkled on an icy sidewalk, the buried salt layers seem to be accelerating the thaw and, with it, the vast transformation of the landscape. “It just seems like things are happening a little faster now than you might anticipate if you’re assuming permafrost thaws at 0°C,” Jones says....  Full article at https://www.science.org/content/article/even-subzero-parts-arctic-are-thawing-ancient-salt-...

By Nature's Voice - Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).  Excerpt: America’s clean energy revolution not only stands to combat the climate crisis and drive down harmful pollution, it has the potential to reinvigorate rural communities that have been hit hard by economic disinvestment. That’s the goal of Power Your Community, a new paradigm-shifting project launched as part of a ground-breaking partnership between NRDC and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW)....  Full article at https://issuu.com/nrdc/docs/nature_s_voice_fall_2025 . 

By Nature's Voice - Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).  Excerpt: Nearly $1 billion in funds unlawfully frozen by the Trump administration to support the transition to cleaner vehicles have been restored, following a lawsuit filed by a coalition of states and joined by NRDC and our allies. A federal district court issued a preliminary injunction that unfroze the funds for 14 states that had been apportioned funding under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program, a 5 billion bipartisan program that seeks to build electric-vehicle charging stations every 50 miles on major highways across all 50 states. The transformative program will deliver good jobs while ensuring that drivers—from urban to rural areas, in every corner of the country—have access to high-quality charging stations. ...“The administration’s halt in funding has thrown state efforts to build charging stations into turmoil, and it will mean workers and drivers suffer,” says Atid Kimelman...