By Kristen Lawrence, The Cool Down.  Excerpt: Soluna, a leading developer of sustainable data centers that convert excess renewable energy into computing power for energy-hungry applications — such as bitcoin mining and artificial intelligence — announced that it secured 60 acres of land to build a new 187-megawatt data center in Texas, an important milestone in its expansion efforts.  According to a  company news release , the data center, called Project Rosa, will be conveniently co-located next to a 240 MW wind farm, allowing it to directly harness a significant amount of renewable energy. ...While capturing wasted power from solar and wind farms and hydropower plants reduces cryptocurrency's massive pollution footprint and adds capacity to the grid, many  crypto transactions consume huge amounts of energy  — often derived from dirty fuel sources such as coal, oil, and gas. According to a  United Nations University study , nearly 70% of the ele...

By Michael Muir, The Cool Down.  Excerpt: Renewable energy received a major boost in Texas with the opening of a 1.6-gigawatt solar module factory in Brookshire. Waaree Solar Americas, a subdivision of Indian conglomerate Waaree Energies, began production in January 2025. The manufacturer told  PV Magazine , "The launch of commercial production marks a critical step in localizing solar manufacturing in the United States, contributing to job creation and economic growth while reducing reliance on imported solar products." The company plans to ramp up production in 2026 to three gigawatts and five gigawatts by the end of 2027. For reference, one gigawatt is enough energy to power around  876,000 homes  for a year, per Carbon Collective. ...Solar power is incredibly popular across the political spectrum in the United States, with a recent poll finding that almost  90% of citizens  support federal incentives to install it. ...As a clean energy source, it a...