Synopsis: Climate & Renewable Energy Good News So Far In 2026

January 2026 has brought forth numerous good news stories, ideas and innovations that will have a positive impact on our planet. Here's a quick summary.

EU 'Tipping Point': For the first time, homegrown clean power generated more electricity than fossil fuels in the EU last year - a milestone described by experts as a major “tipping point”.

Green Investment: Investment in the energy transition grew by 8 percent to a record $2.3 trillion in 2025, reports Bloomberg. It says the new figures from BloombergNEF show growth has “defied fears that the shifting political landscape and economic uncertainty would halt the world’s clean-energy progress”.

Vast New Wind Power Grid: The UK and nine other European countries have agreed a landmark pact to turn the ageing oil basin into a “clean energy reservoir”. The countries have agreed to build wind farms at sea that directly connect to multiple nations through high-voltage subsea cables, in order to provide enough electricity capacity to power 143m homes from offshore wind power.

Time For Land Swap? Globally, the world dedicates an estimated 12,350 square miles of land - about the size of Italy - exclusively to grow crops to produce biofuels. But if we were to put solar panels on that land, it would produce enough electricity for current global demand. Going a step further, the researchers found that if all the world’s cars and trucks were electric, this solar energy alone could power all of them.

Halving Airplane Emissions: Researchers show how aviation emissions could be cut in half by using existing technology and simple strategies.

Credit: Incat

World’s Largest Electric Ship: The world’s largest fully electric vessel has progressed from ambitious vision to reality. And it’s finally being tested where it matters: on the water.

"Historic" Moment: In 2025, coal-fired electricity generation fell simultaneously in India and China for the first time since 1973. India cut coal power 3 percent and China 1.6 percent as record solar, wind and storage additions outpaced rising demand, according to analysts at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.

Silver Extraction: A research team at the University of Newcastle in Australia has shown that almost all (97.6 percent) of the silver inside end-of-life solar panels can be recovered in minutes using an acid-free mechanical process. Current approaches to silver recovery from end-of-life PV modules are dominated by acid leaching.

Eliminating Silver: Chinese solar panel maker Longi Green Energy Technology has announced that it will mass-produce solar cells using base metals instead of silver this year. Eliminating costly silver is expected to further drive down the price of solar, which has fallen by close to 90 percent per kWh in the last decade.

UK Energy Bills Down: Energy bills in the UK were around a third lower last year than they would have been without the country’s windfarms, says the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unity, a thinktank.

Norway Hits Target: Norway has released its year-end numbers: 95.9 percent of cars sold in Norway have no fossil power at all (up from 88.9 percent in 2024), and 97.5 percent have a plug.

EVs Overtake: Sales of battery electric vehicles (EVs) overtook petrol cars for the first time in the EU in December, reports Reuters.

Credit: Samsung

Radical New Solid-State Batteries: Samsung's long-anticipated 600 mile solid-state batteries (that can charge in 9 minutes) are heading to market this year in a three-way agreement between itself, BMW, and American battery expert Solid Power.

Strong EV Growth: Global electric vehicle sales reached 20.7 million in 2025, up 20 percent year on year, driven by strong growth in Europe and emerging markets. Europe overtook China as the fastest-growing major market, while sales outside China, Europe, and North America jumped 48 percent. Meanwhile, BYD has officially surpassed Tesla to become the world’s best-selling battery electric vehicle maker, selling a total of 2,254,714 all-electric cars in 2025.

Most Powerful Ever: The world’s first 20 megawatt (MW) wind turbine was successfully installed in the waters off China's coast, marking yet another major milestone for the renewable energy industry. It will power 40,000 households while helping save 64,000 tons of carbon emissions that would be released if this energy were generated by burning fossil fuels.

Cool Breakthrough: Scientists in Hong Kong at HKUST have built the first refrigerant-free device to reach sub-zero temperatures, a breakthrough that could reduce food waste and greenhouse gas emissions. As refrigeration uses about 20 percent of global electricity, and today’s vapor-compression technology depends on refrigerants that have high global warming potential, the good news is that the new elastocaloric cooling device - which can reach temperatures as low as -12C (10F) - does not use greenhouse gas refrigerants.