The longest-running study of its kind reviewed death records in the path of pollution from coal-fired power plants. The numbers are staggering − but also falling fast as US coal plants close.
A large-scale battery storage system in Long Beach, Calif., provides renewable electricity during peak demand periods.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
Fossil fuel power plants can avoid most emissions by capturing carbon dioxide and pumping it underground. But to be a climate solution, that carbon has to stay stored for thousands of years.
The James H. Miller coal power plant in Alabama emitted as much carbon dioxide in 2021 as 4.6 million cars.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
After the Supreme Court overturned the Obama administration’s strategy for reducing power plant carbon emissions in 2022, the Biden administration is taking a narrower but still ambitious approach.
Hydrogen has potential, but it faces some big challenges, including a lack of pipeline infrastructure.
Petmal/iStock/Getty Images Pluss plus
Hydrogen is getting a lot of attention as the EPA prepares to propose new emissions rules for power plants. But it has a problem: almost all of it used today is made from fossil fuels.
Coal was the dominant fuel for U.S. power plants until 2016. This PacifiCorp power plant in Utah still uses it.
George Frey/AFP via Getty Images
An economist explains coal power’s rise and fall in charts.
Most carbon dioxide captured in the U.S. today is used to extract more oil.
Citizens of the Planet/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Eskom’s CEO talks debt, power cuts and green energy.
Fire a set of high-power lasers at a tiny speck of hydrogen isotopes and you can initiate nuclear fusion, the process that powers the Sun.
National Ignition Facility
Scientists are working on ways to make lots of energy by converting matter into energy. The trick is keeping the process under control. One possibility is nuclear fusion – the Sun’s power source.
The use of coal for electric power has been declining fast in the U.S.
AP Photo/J. David Ake
Climate change affects power plants in Indonesia, eventually disrupting energy supply to consumers.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh participates in a climate strike event as he makes a campaign stop in Victoria on Friday, Sept. 27, 2019.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan
A study of the social cost of carbon emitted by the shrinking fleet of Texan coal plants suggests that closing more of them down would be good for the climate and public health.
The Indian Point nuclear power station outside New York City will be decommissioned by 2021.
AP Photo/Seth Wenig
Nuclear power plants don’t just pump out steady, carbon-free electricity; they also help produce the people the US needs for nuclear weapons inspections.
Yallourn Power Station in the Latrobe Valley is one of the emissions intensive power stations that remains open.
AAP Image/David Crosling
Environment and energy minister Josh Frydenberg said that eight out of Australia’s 12 most emission intensive power stations closed in the last five years. Is that right?
Guest researcher of Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences (BMS), Department of Governance and Technology for Sustainability (CSTM), University of Twente