Energy & the Environment News and Discussions

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This state’s power prices are plummeting as it nears 100% renewables

South Australia is proving to the world that relying largely on wind and solar energy with battery back-up is incredibly cheap, with electricity prices tumbling by 30 per cent in a year and sometimes going negative

By Alice Klein

11 February 2026

As South Australia gets close to its goal of running purely on solar and wind energy, its electricity prices have dropped by a third in a year and are now the lowest in Australia. The state serves as a test case for the financial benefits that can be reaped from large-scale grid decarbonisation.

“South Australia is a world leader in terms of its renewable energy transition and with that comes risks, but now it is showcasing its successes,” says Tim Buckley, an independent energy analyst at Climate Energy Finance, an Australian think-tank based in Sydney. “South Australian consumers are starting to really benefit from sustained, lower power prices.”

South Australia generated 84 per cent of its electricity from solar and wind energy in the final quarter of 2025, the highest proportion of any major grid in the world. The state plans to reach 100 per cent by the end of next year.

This renewables push is driving down electricity prices. The independent Australian Energy Market Operator’s (AEMO) latest report shows that the average wholesale electricity price in South Australia fell by 30 per cent in the final quarter of 2025, compared with a year earlier. As a result, the state had the lowest price in Australia, along with Victoria, which has the second highest share of wind and solar energy in the nation.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/25 ... enewables/

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The Nation’s Largest Public Utility is Going Back to Coal — With Almost No Input from the Public
By Katie Myers & Rebecca Egan McCarthy
February 19, 2026

Introduction:

(Grist) The Tennessee Valley Authority’s quarterly meeting in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, opened with a triumphant video homage to its work during Winter Storm Fern. Energy had come through, yet again, to defeat extreme cold. The montage credited this to the utility’s “coal workhorses,” then noted that nuclear provided “uninterrupted power” and “hydro responded instantly.” The list ended there, despite years of promises that the agency would bolster renewables and battery storage. The message was clear: Solar had been unceremoniously dropped from the mix, and coal, which the agency had been phasing out, was back.

What the video hinted at, the board made official. Its seven members unanimously dropped renewable energy as a priority, ended diversity programs, and granted two of the agency’s four remaining coal plants a reprieve. The decision followed the seating of four members selected by President Trump, breaking months of paralysis that followed the termination of three Biden appointees.

The changes, made during the Feb. 11 board meeting, signal more than a routine policy reset for the nation’s largest public power provider. They will slow the TVA’s shift away from fossil fuels just as electricity demand is spiking, raising questions about future costs, pollution, and the role of federally-owned utilities in the country’s energy transition.

For years, TVA planners had mapped out a future without coal. That is now on hold. The Kingston Fossil Plant in Roane County, Tennessee, was scheduled for retirement in 2027, with all nine of its units slated for demolition and replacement with an “energy complex” of gas generation and battery storage. All of them will remain online alongside the gas plant, but renewables are no longer part of the picture. The board also shelved plans to scuttle the Cumberland Fossil Plant in Stewart County, Tennessee, in 2028.

Read more here: https://grist.org/energy/the-nations-l ... e-public/

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RFK Jr. fought pesticides for years. Now he’s backing their production

https://apnews.com/article/maha-glyphos ... ca6cfa69d9

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Please do not link to Climate Depot – a climate denial website.

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