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From our bird's-eye view of the renewable energy industry, we often see positive developments for humanity before they become common knowledge. The purpose of this blog is to highlight the clean energy innovations and sustainability actions that are legitimate cause for optimism despite the very real threats to people and the environment posed by climate damage.
A torrent of political attacks on renewable energy, clean technology, and environmental regulations are a recipe for pollution to run amok in America, unimpeded by the EPA and unmitigated by beneficial electrification.
The Sea Lightning's all-electric outboard motor, from Flux Marine In the face of dire threats to clean air, water, and land, how can we maintain positivity about the future health of the biosphere for ourselves and generations to come, and bend the long arc of justice in a more sustainable direction?
One answer is to bear witness as innovators create disruptive technology that is cleaner, cheaper and better than the 100-plus year practice of burning coal, oil and gas in earth’s closed atmosphere.
During a recent outing on my 100% electric boat (the ‘Sea Lightning’) in Portland Harbor, the captain and passengers were startled to discover an enormous new piece of electric charging infrastructure looming over Casco Bay Lines’ ferry terminal.
There are now clean tech innovations that were unimaginable when we started ReVision Energy 22 years ago. The Sea Lightning’s silver Flux Marine outboard motor, which started out as a prototype just four years ago, has already matured into a commercially viable product that delivers the equivalent of 100 horsepower, with zero fumes/emissions and very little noise compared to a gas engine.
FerryCHARGER on the dock in Portland But even more impressive is the giant white robotic FerryCHARGER that will be used to replenish Casco Bay Lines’ new hybrid electric boat (the ‘Battery Steele’) when it is delivered later this year. Equipped with a 900 kWh battery that can recharge in 10 minutes, the Battery Steele will be able to take up to 599 passengers on its route from Portland to Peaks Island, without burning a drop of fossil fuel. Although the 164-foot ferry will also have a backup diesel engine in case of extreme winter conditions when the electric propulsion might need support, this modern hybrid ferry is expected to eliminate the emission of 1,764,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per year by drastically reducing fuel combustion.
Another astounding signal of clean energy progress culminated in May in China, when nationwide installation of solar arrays reached the almost incomprehensible rate of 100 panels per second. This resulted in a spike of solar deployment that resulted in more solar arrays installed in one month than the entire U.S. installed in all of 2024.
courtesy of Bloomberg News In the face of America’s extreme, irrational policy pivot away from renewable energy and beneficial electrification, China is demonstrating steadfast leadership and commitment to an inevitable clean energy future.
Although the U.S. federal government passed some of the worst anti-renewable energy legislation in history last month, it would be a mistake not to mention the opposite outcome that occurred simultaneously in Texas. In its most recent session, three bills were proposed in the Texas legislature that would have devastated the Lone Star State’s wind and solar industries. But in an extraordinary demonstration of the economic benefits of renewable energy to Texas, the bills were soundly defeated.
These state and national renewable energy policy gyrations over the past two decades spawned the term “solarcoaster” to describe an industry that rises steeply under pro-renewable government policies and plunges downward when anti-renewable policy takes hold. Since 2003, ReVision Energy’s experience on this solarcoaster has taught us to focus relentlessly on the long-term viability of the company, knowing that erratic policy swings can distort the marketplace and create sudden vulnerability, as well as unexpected boom times. Becoming a Certified B Corp in 2015, and a 100% employee-owned company in 2017 are two examples of our long-term strategy to be the strongest possible company we can be, under whatever policy conditions we find ourselves operating.
Today’s federal policy environment, explicitly designed to harm the renewable energy industry while propping up a declining fossil fuel industry, compels us to not only bear witness to clean energy progress around the world, but also to take any action within our means to move away from coal, oil, and gas. Crucially, it has become cost-effective for almost any business, organization, homeowner or car owner to take positive clean energy action despite the new administration’s anti-renewable energy agenda. Now that solar electricity has become the cheapest form of energy in history, and clean tech solutions like heat pumps, electric vehicles, and battery storage can all be financed, we all have agency to start moving away from fossil fuels while deriving a strong economic and environmental return on a clean energy investment.
We think it’s rational cause for optimism that most of the world, and a strong majority of Americans, are still committed to the clean energy transition. Innovations in solar panel manufacturing, cutting-edge battery storage technologies, electric transportation, and heat pump efficiency are continuing domestically and abroad, illuminating the fact that the clean energy genie is out of the bottle and even magical thinking and extreme political acts by the fossil fuel-funded Trump administration are incapable of putting it back in.
Want to hear Phil Coupe discuss the clean energy future in person? Join us September 18 in Portsmouth for a presentation and solar-powered concert.