By Naveena Sadasivam

For more than a decade, the clean energy economy has been on a steep growth trajectory. Companies have poured billions of dollars into battery manufacturing, solar and wind generation, and electric vehicle plants in the U.S., as solar costs fell sharply and EV sales surged. That momentum is set to continue surging in much of the world — but in the United States, it’s starting to stall.

According to a new report from the clean energy think tank E2, new investment in clean energy projects last year was dwarfed by a cascade of cancellations for projects already in progress. For every dollar announced in new clean energy projects, companies canceled, closed, or downsized roughly three dollars’ worth. In total, at least roughly $35 billion in projects were abandoned last year, compared to just $3.4 billion in cancellations in 2023 and 2024 combined.

“That’s pretty jarring considering how much progress we made in previous years,” said Michael Timberlake, a director of research and publications at E2. “The rest of the world is generally doubling down or transitioning further, and the U.S. is now becoming increasingly combative and antagonistic towards clean energy industries.”

Timberlake said the Trump administration’s attacks on renewable energy are the main driver of the slowdown. Companies began pulling back their investments shortly after the November 2024 election, when a victorious Trump telegraphed that he would promote fossil fuels over solar, wind, and other clean energy technologies. For instance, TotalEnergies, the French oil-and-gas giant, paused development of two offshore wind projects in late November 2024, citing uncertainty after Trump’s election. The company has not restarted the projects since.

Trump followed through on those promises once in office: One of his first actions in office was to pause leasing and permitting for offshore wind. The freeze resulted in several wind developers indefinitely pausing or abandoning their projects while lawsuits trickled through the courts. (Federal judges have issued judgments in favour of the wind companies in recent months.) Trump’s administration also pulled billions of dollars in funding for a range of clean energy projects and cancelled or retooled Biden-era policies favourable to the industry, such as energy-efficiency measures, IRS tax guidance, and loans for a transmission line expected to carry solar and wind power.

Congress, at the behest of Trump, also passed the “One Big Beautiful Act” over the summer. In addition to sunsetting lucrative tax credits for renewable energy production, the law hammered the electric vehicle industry from multiple sides: It ended investment credits supporting the buildout of battery manufacturers, and simultaneously nixed the $7,500 tax credit available to American consumers who purchase EVs.

Timberlake cautioned against pinning clean energy’s disappointing year on any one policy. While the One Big Beautiful Act was the “biggest signifier” of the shift, “the overall policy and regulatory attack” is to blame for the glut of project cancellations, he said. “It’s not an environment that encourages more investment because no one knows what six months from now will look like.”

Electric vehicle and battery manufacturing have been hit the hardest over the past year. Each sector lost roughly $21 billion in investment over the past year, according to E2’s analysis, which includes some overlapping projects that serve both purposes. The industries also lost an estimated 48,000 potential jobs. These two industries likely lost the most investments because they had been growing the fastest in recent years, meaning they had more projects in the pipeline to cancel or downsize once President Trump was elected. The EV industry’s outlook, in particular, changed once Congress repealed consumer tax credits made available by former President Joe Biden. That, along with the general policy uncertainty, led to automakers revising their expectations for EV demand in the U.S. and reallocating their investments accordingly.

Some states were hit harder than others. In 2025 alone, Michigan lost 13 clean energy projects worth $8.1 billion — more than twice as many as any other state, due to its role as the capital of the U.S. auto industry. Illinois, Georgia, and New York also lost billions of dollars in investments.

Many automakers that scaled back electric vehicle plans last year redirected those investments rather than abandoning them outright. Ford, for example, had originally planned to build all-electric commercial vehicles at its $1.5 billion Ohio Assembly Plant in Avon Lake. But after revising its EV ambitions, the company pivoted the facility toward gas-powered and hybrid vans. Because Ford did not scrap the plant altogether, Timberlake said, facilities like Avon Lake could still be retrofitted for electric vehicle production if market conditions and policy outlooks improve.

“The silver lining view is they’re hopefully maintaining those facilities so that when there is certainty, those factories will still be available for making EVs down the road,” said Timberlake.

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Toronto-based energy storage developer Hydrostor has secured permission to build a 500-megawatt compressed-air energy storage system in the Mojave Desert and is now seeking customers to contract the project’s full capacity.

Final permitting approval from the California Energy Commission (CEC) positions its Willow Rock project to be “shovel-ready in 2026,” Hydrostor said in a mid-December release.

The grid-connected advanced compressed air energy storage (A-CAES) is designed to store and deliver enough electricity to power more than 400,000 average California homes for more than eight hours.

Willow Rock is also projected to deliver US$500 million in direct and indirect economic benefits regionally, “supporting thousands of jobs over the course of construction, with 700 workers onsite at peak construction,” Emily Smith, Hydrostor’s director of external affairs, told The Energy Mix. Once it goes into operation, the facility is expected to support 25 to 40 full-time jobs.

Unlike lithium-ion battery storage systems, Willow Rock will require neither critical minerals nor hazardous materials, Hydrostor says. The storage process begins at the point of its grid connection, where excess renewable energy, like that generated at mid-day by solar plants, spins compressors that produce heated compressed air.

The heat is captured and stored in tanks, while the cool compressed air is pushed 600 metres below ground into a water-filled cavern. As the air enters the cavern, the water is pushed up into a surface reservoir. The A-CAES system becomes a fully-charged battery when the cavern is full of air.

When power is needed, like during periods of peak power demand or when solar or wind production drops, the process reverses, using gravity to draw the stored water back down into the cavern, displacing the air and forcing it back up to the surface. The air is reheated using the heat stored in the tanks, then used to spin turbines to generate electricity.

Hydrostor has secured a retail supply agreement with the local water agency for a one-time water draw of 800 acre-feet, or around 987,000 cubic metres, Smith told The Mix. It’s a considerable volume of water—more than twice what’s used annually by a U.S. National Security Agency data centre in Utah, for example. But the draw will occur only once.

Willow Rock is in fact expected to be a net water producer, with the water generated as a byproduct of the compression process collected for reuse in the reservoir, Smith said.

The CEC approval comes almost three years after Hydrostor signed a 25-year contract with Monterey’s Central Coast Community Energy to reserve 200 megawatts of Willow Rock’s capacity for the non-profit utility.

With an additional 50 to 100 megawatts being negotiated, that “leaves 200 to 250 megawatts up for grabs,” reports Canary Media. The uncontracted capacity remains an obstacle to securing the US$1.5 billion in financing needed to begin construction, but Hydrostor has declared itself encouraged by the California Public Utilities Commission’s September recommendation that the state secure 10 gigawatts of long-duration storage by 2031.

“They’ve identified the need for very near-term procurement, so we’re looking forward to participating in that,” company president Jon Norman told Canary Media.

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By Chris Bonasia

In Australia, a major battery energy storage project and a new requirement for data centres to invest in renewable energy show some ways the country is preparing for the energy transition.

Australia’s largest energy storage battery will be paired with gas turbines, with past statements by one of the project’s partners hinting the move is part of a plan to set up battery infrastructure in anticipation of future clean energy supply.

“When you look at the technology improvement curve of batteries, even over the next two to three years, it’s nothing short of breathtaking,” said David Scaysbrook, co-founder and managing partner for Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, as reported in Renew Economy. Scaysbrook explained that surplus solar energy can be stored in batteries as a reliable source of cheap energy, “and if you’ve got 320 sunny days a year, that is a very, very powerful combination.”

“Forget subsidies,” he added. “I’m not talking about subsidies. I’m talking about Quinbrook, or someone else, building a large-scale solar-battery hybrid with an eight-hour battery,” capable of “delivering incredibly competitive energy cost without government handouts.”

Quinbrook offshoot Private Energy Partners is currently building the Gladstone State Development Area Energy Hub Project in Queensland, where it proposes to combine a 780-megawatt, eight-hour battery energy storage system with up to 1,080 MW of open-cycle gas turbines. The firm recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Stanwell, a state-owned regional energy generator, which gave Stanwell exclusivity over the project.

The agreement is part of Stanwell’s efforts to move away from burning coal, Renew Economy says. For Quinbrook, the project is part of a strategy to set up long-duration “infrastructure batteries” in Australia that are poised to help soak up cheap renewables and power big industrial loads.

Meanwhile, Australia’s recently-released National AI Plan is requiring that data centre developers pair projects with their own renewable energy generation. Australia’s data centres already consume roughly four terawatt hours of electricity each year—around 2 per cent of the country’s total electricity demand—and that number is expected to triple by 2030 and eventually make up more than 10 per cent of grid demand by 2035, says Renew Economy.

The National AI Plan, broadly, is an attempt by the Australian government to chart out a course for the country to manage the proliferation of AI throughout the economy. But according to The Conversation Canada, the plan’s requirement for renewable energy—and what that could mean for building out infrastructure that will be needed for an energy transition—is a major selling point.

“The government is working with the states and territories, energy market bodies, network service providers, and the data centre industry to harness opportunities from the growth of data centres to promote investment in renewable energy and maintain affordable energy for households and businesses,” the National AI Plan states.

“Australia has the opportunity to take advantage of ambitious AI infrastructure initiatives in ways that accelerate our renewables transition and drive investment in skills, research, and sustainable technologies.”

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By Andrew Iraola, Trinity Manning-Pickett

The average number of active rigs per month that are drilling for oil and natural gas in the U.S. Lower 48 states has declined steadily over the past few years from a recent peak of 750 rigs in December 2022 to 517 rigs this October. The declining rig count reflects operators’ responses to declining crude oil and natural gas prices and improvements in drilling efficiencies.

Since December 2022, the oil-directed rig count has dropped 33 per cent to 397 rigs in October 2025, and the natural gas-directed rig count has declined 23 per cent to 120 rigs over the same period. Natural gas-directed rigs dropped to 96 rigs in September last year amid historically low and prolonged natural gas prices. Both natural gas- and oil-directed rig count declines stabilized in October 2025.

The traditional link between rig activity and output has weakened recently, with production at record highs despite reduced rig counts. In July 2025, crude oil production in the Lower 48 set a monthly record of 11.4 million barrels per day (b/d), and in August 2025 natural gas production set a record of 117.2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d). Operators have been focusing on the most productive plays, drilling longer lateral lengths to access more hydrocarbons, and using more efficient completion techniques to ensure economic viability.

The Permian region is the largest U.S. crude oil producing region and the largest contributor to U.S. crude oil production growth despite the total number of rigs dropping 29 per cent since December 2022. Over this period, operators have increased oil production in the Permian by 18 per cent, or 1.0 million b/d.

The largest U.S. natural gas producing region is Appalachia, where the total number of rigs dropped 29 per cent while natural gas production increased 10 per cent (3.3 Bcf/d) after stagnating in 2024 during a period of relatively low natural gas prices.

In our November Short-Term Energy Outlook, we forecast Lower 48 crude oil production in 2026 to decline slightly by 0.1 million barrels per day (1 per cent) and natural gas production to increase by 0.4 Bcf/d (less than 1 per cent). We expect the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil price to average $51 per barrel in 2026, 21 per cent less than the 2025 average, and we expect the lower crude oil prices will limit oil-directed drilling activity. Conversely, we expect the Henry Hub natural gas price to rise to $4.02 per million British thermal units, 16 per cent above the average for 2025. With these price shifts, we expect that increasing production from natural gas-directed drilling will more than offset decreases in natural gas produced as a byproduct of oil-directed drilling.

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By Matt Simon

Depending on whom you’re asking, renewable energy and electric vehicles will either destroy the grid or save it. The sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow, true enough, while a gas-fired power plant can generate electricity any time. That supposed precarity of renewables will get even shakier, critics argue, as Americans ditch conventional vehicles for electric ones, which will draw ever more power from an already strained grid.

Luckily, that’s not a realistic scenario because of what renewables and EVs have in common: giant batteries. Solar and wind farms are plugging into huge banks of them to store energy to use as needed, fixing their intermittency challenge. (Engineers are turning Earth itself into an even bigger battery.) And a growing number of cars with cords feature vehicle-to-grid technology, or V2G, also known as bidirectional charging. They can draw clean power when renewables are humming on the grid, and their owners get paid to send some back to a utility to meet growing demand — creating a vast distributed network that could make the electrical system more reliable, not less. Research has found that globally, less than a third of EV owners would have to opt into such a system to meet the rising need for energy storage.

Until now, we’ve been customers of utilities — with power flowing one way to homes — but more and more we’ll be active participants in the grid, sending extra battery power the other way. That shift is getting a head start in Maryland, where last month the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company partnered with Sunrun, which provides home solar and batteries, and Ford, which makes the electric F-150 Lightning, to activate the nation’s first residential V2G pilot project.

“This is the first time there are actual customers who are off-boarding power from their electric vehicles to the grid, and we’re doing it at peak times in the evening,” said Chris Rauscher, vice president of grid services at Sunrun, referring to the periods of greatest need for electricity. “So we’re actually reducing the stress and the demand on the grid — crushing the curve, crushing the peak — which helps lower costs for everyone.”

To understand how this works, think of EVs less like vehicles and more like immense batteries on wheels. In fact, the Lightning’s battery is 10 times bigger than a residential pack, Rauscher said. “There’s more energy capacity deployed today in electric vehicle batteries on the road in the U.S. than in all stationary batteries combined,” Rauscher added. “This is a massive resource.” And it’s only getting more massive: The Natural Resources Defense Council has estimated that if California V2G’ed all of the 14 million EVs it’s expected to have by 2035, it could power every home in the state for three days.

In these early days of the tech, though, only a handful of models sport V2G capabilities, but the number is growing. The hardware and software aren’t wildly complicated. A special charger juices up the vehicle’s battery, then draws from the car to power a house, in the case of vehicle-to-home systems, or sends it back to the utility, in the case of vehicle-to-grid.

Utilities will have to communicate with anyone participating in such a program, for instance with an app that allows a customer to, say, ask that their vehicle never be discharged below a certain percentage. Each utility will also need to figure out how much to compensate people for their power in order to incentivize them to join in. That might mean paying for the amount of energy provided, the same principle behind net metering, in which residential solar customers are reimbursed for the energy they give to the grid. “We’re still in a bit of an early stage here,” said Divesh Gupta, director of clean energy solutions at Baltimore Gas and Electric Company. “There are a lot of things that need to be worked out, particularly on the customer-experience side.”

That battery power need not go all the way back to the grid, though, to help utilities. For years now, owners have been using their Ford Lightning trucks to power their homes. These batteries are mammoth — the extended-range version can go 300-plus miles — and powering a home with one uses just 5 or 6 miles of that range per hour.

So say an owner returns home at 6 p.m., when demand on the grid is skyrocketing as everyone else is knocking off work and switching on air conditioners and other energy-hungry appliances. Because consumption is rising, so too is the price of electricity. But a Lightning owner doesn’t have to pay that if they’re using their battery to power their home for five hours until they go to bed, using 25 to 30 miles of range on their battery. “It basically makes the house disappear, effectively, from the grid,” said Ryan O’Gorman, Ford’s business lead for vehicle-to-grid and vehicle-to-home.

Then the owner can charge again when demand, and electricity prices, are lower. If they work from home, for example, they can charge during the day, when lots of solar power is coursing through the grid.

More homes tapping EV batteries also eases demand on the grid, which is especially welcome during a heat wave when everyone’s running their AC units. Those heat waves will only get worse from here — a growing challenge for utilities to provide the power that keeps people cool and safe. At the same time, ever more data centers are devouring ever more power and stressing the grid to its limits. That infrastructure also must accommodate other forms of decarbonization, like heat pumps and induction stoves, that are essential for weaning us off fossil fuels.

Instead of sitting idly in a garage depreciating, V2G turns an EV into an asset for bolstering the grid and powering the home cheaply. “Cars are parked more than 22 hours a day,” O’Gorman said. “When we look at the advantages of an EV, now that vehicle can provide savings and potentially revenue flows for the customer.” (Interestingly, even electric trains can now send juice back to the grid and generate revenue, thanks to what they gain from regenerative braking: In the Bay Area, the Caltrain system is now being compensated for that energy, slashing its estimated annual power cost from $19.5 million to $16.5 million.)

The residential V2G program in Baltimore follows other experiments across the nation with larger vehicles. In Oakland, California, for instance, the utility Pacific Gas & Electric worked with the electric bus provider Zum to deploy vehicles that take kids home in the afternoon, return to the lot, and plug back into the grid. Because their batteries are so large, they have ample power left over, sending that extra energy to the grid just as demand is spiking. They charge overnight, take kids to school, and plug in again to charge.

This kind of predictability could make commercial fleets even more powerful for V2G than residential vehicles, experts say. A school bus is on a schedule a utility can rely on — it’s parked and available at certain times of day and making the rounds at others. Plus, in the summer, they would be available almost constantly. Other fleets, like delivery and government vehicles, follow regular timetables as well.

Fleet managers can also procure large numbers of the appropriate chargers, buying into the system en masse, compared to a homeowner shelling out for just one. “In the short term, we see commercial-level V2G applications as more viable due to infrastructure costs, but we expect affordable domestic units to emerge as the market matures and demand grows,” said a spokesperson for Nissan, which has long included bidirectional charging in its electric Leaf.

Utilities are still figuring out how to coordinate this ballet between vehicle, charger, and grid on a citywide scale. But the payoff could be big, because all those EVs are existing infrastructure that could help reduce the need to build dedicated battery plants to store renewable energy. The less a utility has to build, the fewer costs it has to pass on to ratepayers. And with more V2G, a utility that has to import lots of electricity from a neighbouring state can now store power locally.

Thus this technology could reduce energy bills. And for participants, their vehicles now provide transportation and energy storage. “It would seem pretty easy to imagine that that’s going to be cheaper than building just stationary battery storage facilities that do nothing but support the grid in times of need,” said Rudi Halbright, product manager of VGI pilot implementation at Pacific Gas & Electric. “Because you’re not getting that secondary use with those batteries. They’re kind of sitting around a lot of the time.”

People are more complicated than battery banks, though. Folks with busy lives want the convenience of charging their cars whenever they like and might not even realize how much prices fluctuate throughout the day, said David Victor, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, who studies the behavior of EV drivers. Many like the peace of mind of having a fully charged vehicle ready at all times. “I take from that that V2G is going to be really, really hard for fleets outside of professionally managed fleets,” Victor said, “that we know reliably are going to be available at the time that the V2G asset is going to be needed.”

Still, given the number of EVs out there, only a fraction of owners need to participate to make a sizable impact. And residential and commercial V2G can complement each other — and in turn, complement a utility’s larger battery facilities — a widescale diversification of energy storage that could accelerate the adoption of renewables. “I fundamentally believe that bidirectional electric vehicles are going to be something that no one’s ever heard of, until suddenly everyone has it,” Rauscher said. “Once we have enough customers enrolled and deployed out there, some percent of customers not plugging in and performing doesn’t really matter.”

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Dr Andrew Dickson, engineering executive at CBi-electric: low voltage, explains that multiple factors are accelerating the continent’s switch to solar. “Energy poverty remains a major issue across Africa, with reliable grid electricity reaching only 14% of Zimbabweans, for example.”

He adds that unreliable power supply is another key driver. “Persistent nationwide blackouts are affecting countries like Botswana, disrupting day-to-day operations. And in hydro-electric dependent countries such as Zambia, climate change is reducing water levels, leading to lower electricity generation and higher prices.”

Dr Dickson points out that in countries like Namibia which are dependent on electricity imports, affordability is a growing concern, with N$8.8 billion expected to be spent between January 2024 and December 2025. “As a result, Namibia now has the highest electricity prices in Southern Africa. Yet it has a unique geographic advantage: its solar PV systems can produce twice as much electricity as comparable systems in central Europe.”

Some African nations are proactively investing in solar to reduce their grid dependence. “Malawi is rolling out its National Compact for Energy, which creates a competitive framework for private-sector investment in off-grid solar through grants, subsidies, and credit lines that improve access to foreign exchange,” he notes.

Safeguarding solar investments

The shift to solar is also being driven by cost-effectiveness. Dr Dickson shares that on-site solar is now cheaper than the electricity tariffs paid by C&I clients in at least seven sub-Saharan markets.

Pointing to research by GreenCape, which found that solar PV can reduce business energy costs by 15%, with a return on investment reached within three to 12 years, he highlights that after that, businesses can benefit from up to 15 years of free electricity.

However, Dr Dickson stresses that unlocking these savings requires protecting system components from damage and disruption. “Voltage spikes caused by lightning or grid instability can seriously damage inverters and batteries. Installing surge protection devices (SPDs) is critical, not just to prevent damage, but also to avoid voiding manufacturer warranties.”

Arcing is another serious threat. “When electrical currents jump across gaps, the heat generated can damage components or even start fires,” he explains. “DC circuit breakers designed specifically for solar systems are essential for mitigating this risk. They’re built to handle the direct current generated by PV panels, ensuring safer and more reliable operation.”

Smart tech enables smarter solar use

In addition to physical protection, Dr Dickson advises businesses to embrace smart energy management tools to extend system life and optimize performance. “A smart power indicator can detect grid interruptions and send immediate alerts, helping businesses respond quickly. These systems can temporarily disconnect non-essential high-energy devices during an outage to prevent overload and preserve battery life. At the same time, they ensure that essential systems like security and lighting continue operating during downtime.”

Optimizing solar ROI in 2025

He believes that the key to unlocking solar’s full potential lies in strategic system design and management. “By combining surge protection, DC breakers, and monitoring tools, businesses can reduce unexpected costs, minimize downtime, and extend the life of their investment.”

“As Africa’s solar energy market continues to expand in 2025, organizations have an opportunity to capitalize on its long-term benefits. With the right technologies and safeguards in place, solar is not only a clean energy solution it’s a strategic asset that pays off,” concludes Dr Dickson.

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By Faouzi Aloulou, Merek Roman, Jozef Lieskovsky

We estimate that the average number of wells completed simultaneously at the same location in the Lower 48 states has more than doubled, increasing from 1.5 wells in December 2014 to more than 3.0 wells in June 2024. By completing multiple wells at once rather than sequentially, operators can accelerate their production timeline and reduce their cost per well. The increasing number of simultaneous completions reflects significant technological advances in hydraulic fracturing operations, particularly in equipment capabilities and operational strategies.

Using data from FracFocus to estimate simultaneous completions, we defined wells that were drilled within a 50-foot radius to be at a single location. FracFocus reports the well completion date for each of these wells, and we calculated the average number of completions per month. By grouping the wells together by location, we derived the number of wells completed on the same day at the same location across the Lower 48 states.

Simultaneous completions allow operators to reduce the time from post-drilling to production, lower overall completion costs per well, and increase operational efficiency through shared resources and equipment. Although the number of active locations has decreased since 2014, the number of wells has increased, likely because of simultaneous completions. Our analysis of FracFocus data suggests that simultaneous completions have increased since 2017, with operators now routinely completing multiple wells at a time on a single location. Although operators recognized the potential benefits of completing multiple wells at once prior to 2017, the practice initially faced technical barriers, such as the need for more hydraulic horsepower at the location to fracture multiple wells simultaneously.

The adoption of electric frac fleets, which provide better power management, has played a crucial role in the increase in simultaneous completions. Traditional operations relied entirely on diesel-powered pumps requiring constant fuel delivery by truck, but modern electric fleets use generators that can utilize field gas or compressed natural gas and electricity from the grid, if available.

The transition from diesel-powered to electric frac fleets has streamlined operations by reducing costs and minimizing transportation logistics by utilizing locally available fuel sources. Additionally, improvements in equipment monitoring, optimization, and automation have helped operators manage the complexity of simultaneous completions.

The trend toward more simultaneously completed wells continues to evolve as operators refine their simultaneous completion strategies. Although not all operators choose to perform simultaneous completions, the technology enabling these operations has become increasingly common across major shale basins. The penetration of electric frac fleets, advanced control systems, and improved process deployment suggests that simultaneous completions could continue to increase further.

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By Akielly Hu

Raymond Ward wants to see solar panels draped over every balcony in the United States and doesn’t understand why that isn’t happening.

The technology couldn’t be easier to use — simply hang one or two panels over a railing and plug them into an outlet. The devices provide up to 800 watts, enough to charge a laptop or power a small fridge. They’re popular in Germany, where everyone from renters to climate activists to gadget enthusiasts hail them as a cheap and easy way to generate electricity. Germans had registered more than 780,000 of the devices with the country’s utility regulator as of December. They’ve installed millions more without telling the government.

Here in the U.S., though, there is no market for balcony solar. Ward, a Republican state representative in Utah who learned about the tech last year, wants that to change. The way he sees it, this is an obvious solution to surging power demand. “You look over there and say, ‘Well, that’s working,’” he told Grist. “So what is it that stops us from having it here?”

His colleagues agree. Last month, the Legislature unanimously passed a bill he sponsored to boost the tech, and Republican Governor Spencer Cox signed it. H.B. 340 exempts portable solar devices from state regulations that require owners of rooftop solar arrays and other power-generating systems to sign an interconnection agreement with their local utility. These deals, and other “soft costs” like permits, can nearly double the price of going solar.

Utah’s law marks the nation’s first significant step to remove barriers to balcony solar — but bigger obstacles remain. Regulations and standards governing electrical devices haven’t kept pace with development of the technology, and it lacks essential approvals required for adoption — including compliance with the National Electrical Code and a product safety standard from Underwriters Laboratories. Nothing about the bill Ward wrote changes that: Utahans still can’t install balcony solar because none of the systems have been nationally certified.

These challenges will take time and effort to overcome, but they’re not insurmountable, advocates of the technology said. Even now, a team of entrepreneurs and research scientists, backed by federal funding, are creating these standards. Their work mirrors what happened in Germany nearly a decade ago, when clean energy advocates and companies began lobbying the country’s electrical certification body to amend safety regulations to legalize balcony solar.

In 2017, Verband der Elektrotechnik, or VDE, a German certification body that issues product and safety standards for electrical products, released the first guideline that allowed for balcony solar systems. While such systems existed before VDE took this step, the benchmark it established allowed manufacturers to sell them widely, creating a booming industry.

“Relentless individuals” were key to making that happen, said Christian Ofenheusle, the founder of EmpowerSource, a Berlin-based company that promotes balcony solar. Members of a German solar industry association spent years advocating for the technology and worked with VDE to carve a path toward standardizing balcony solar systems. The initial standard was followed by revised versions in 2018 and 2019 that further outlined technical requirements.

The regulatory structure has continued to evolve. Ofenheusle has worked with other advocates to amend grid safety standards, create simple online registration for plug-in devices, and enshrine renters’ right to balcony solar. Politicians supported such efforts because they see the tech easing the nation’s reliance on Russian natural gas. Cities like Berlin and Munich have provided millions of euros in subsidies to help households buy these systems, and the country is creating a safety standard for batteries that can store the energy for later use.

Meanwhile, the United States has yet to take the first step of creating a safety standard for the technology. U.S. electrical guidelines don’t account for the possibility of plugging a power-generating device into a household outlet. The nation also operates on a different system that precludes simply copying and pasting Germany’s rules. The U.S. grid, for example, operates at 120 volts, while that country’s grid operates at 230 volts.

Without proper standards, a balcony solar system could pose several hazards.

One concern is a phenomenon called breaker masking. Within a home, a single circuit can provide power to several outlets. Each circuit is equipped with a circuit breaker, a safety device within the electrical panel that shuts off power if that circuit is overloaded, which happens when too many appliances try to draw too much electricity at the same time. That prevents overheating or a fire. When a balcony solar device sends power into a circuit while other appliances are drawing power from the circuit, the breaker can’t detect that added power supply. If the circuit becomes overloaded — imagine turning on your TV while a space heater is running and you’re charging your laptop, all in the same room — the circuit breaker might fail to activate.

This was a concern in Germany, so it developed standards that limit balcony solar units to just 800 watts, about half the amount used by a hairdryer. That threshold is considered low enough that even in the country’s oldest homes, the wiring can withstand the heating that occurs in even the worst of worst-case scenarios, said Sebastian Müller, chair of the German Balcony Solar Association, a consumer education and advocacy group. As a result, Ofenheusle said there haven’t been any cases of breaker masking causing harm. In fact, with millions of the devices installed nationwide, Germany has yet to see any safety issues beyond a few cases where someone tampered with the devices to add a car battery or other unsuitable hardware, he said.

Another issue in the U.S. is the lack of a compatible safety device called a ground fault circuit interrupter, or a GFCI. They are typically built into outlets installed near water sources, like a sink, washing machine, or bathtub. They’re designed to minimize the risk of electric shock by cutting off power when, for example, a hairdryer falls into a sink. Yet there are no certified GFCI outlets in the U.S. designed for use with devices that consume power, like a blender, and those that generate it, like a balcony solar setup. Germany’s equivalent of a GFCI, called a residual current device, can detect bidirectional power flows, said Andreas Schmitz, a mechanical engineer and YouTuber in Germany who makes videos about balcony solar.

Some people have raised concerns about the shock risk of touching the metal prongs of a plug after unplugging a balcony solar device. German regulators accounted for that by requiring the microinverter — which converts currents from the panel into electricity fed into the home — shut down immediately in an outage or when it is suddenly unplugged. Most of them already have this feature, but any U.S. standard will likely need to formalize that requirement.

The lack of an Underwriters Laboratories, or UL, standard is perhaps the biggest obstacle to the adoption of balcony solar. The company certifies the safety of thousands of household electrical products; according to Iowa State University, “every light bulb, lamp, or outlet purchased in the U.S. usually has a UL symbol and says UL Listed.” This assures customers that the product follows nationally recognized guidelines and can be used without the risk of a fire or shock.

While some companies have sold plug-in solar devices in the U.S. without a UL listing, the company’s seal of approval typically is a prerequisite for selling products on the wider market. Consumers might be wary of using something that lacks its approval. Utah’s new balcony solar policy, for example, specifies that the law applies only to UL-listed products.

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By Jatin Nathwani, Munur Sacit Herdem

Improving Canada’s productivity is a fundamental necessity and the core of any strategy to help overcome the challenges emerging from a tariff-driven trade war initiated by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Such a strategy is crucial for safeguarding Canada’s economic security and prosperity in a highly contested global marketplace.

Specific parameters need to be spelled out to support a concerted effort to build and maintain a robust innovation ecosystem – one focused explicitly on attracting and retaining talented individuals from across the globe but especially from the U.S., given Trump’s assault on science and research funding there.

Establishing a “Canada-Europe Talent Hub” would be the first practical step to foster an agile institution that rewards a strong start-up culture. The hub would deliver targeted, sector-specific programs to facilitate access to critical resources such as funding, expertise and market-entry strategies, supporting innovative projects from inception to commercialization.

One critical aspect of the hub would be its operational structure, modelled in part after successful initiatives such as Communitech in Waterloo, Ont.

Launched in 1997 by a group of local tech founders, with support from municipal and federal leaders, Communitech began as a peer-to-peer support network and grew into one of Canada’s most effective public-private innovation hubs.

Today, it supports more than 1,400 companies and helps entrepreneurs turn ideas into thriving businesses. Its strengths lie in fostering a strong founder-led community, collaborative culture and commitment to helping startups avoid common pitfalls.

Building on this model, the proposed talent hub could be co-established by a coalition of public innovation agencies, such as Canada’s global innovation clusters and Horizon Europe, with a governance board composed of experienced entrepreneurs, corporate partners and academic leaders from both regions.

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Recruitment could leverage existing immigration pathways, bilateral academic networks and targeted outreach to U.S.-based talent displaced by Trump’s science and research cuts.

The hub would prioritize hands-on mentorship, real-world problem solving and cross-border market integration, thus ensuring it’s driven by founders, not bureaucracy.

Unlike traditional research networks or government-to-government partnership arrangements – often plagued by bureaucratic inertia – the new talent hub would focus on enterprise formation to drive rapid, impactful innovations and market-driven solutions for business and industry writ-large.

Linking Canadian and European talent in a collaborative environment would be the spearhead of economic diversification, energy security, climate action, digital transformation and financial-system resilience.

The evisceration of the scientific and technological capacity embedded within key U.S. federal agencies through massive layoffs and significant funding cuts to venerable U.S. universities (Harvard, Columbia, Johns Hopkins and others) has created an unprecedented opportunity for Canada and Europe, both of which share common liberal democratic values and believe in pluralism.

Highly talented individuals now working in the U.S. are already exploring opportunities elsewhere, seeking bastions of stability in a turbulent world. There is now an enormous opportunity for Canada and Europe to combine efforts to attract this talent.

In addition, one of the primary benefits of the talent hub would be its emphasis on real-world applications and speed of innovation.

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By Chris Bonasia

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