CO/2 Reduction Newsletter — Week Ending September 5, 2026

Quotes of the Week

“This US surge marks a sharp departure from previous years, showing that the transition away from fossil fuels is increasingly shaped by economics rather than policy alone.” (On solar and battery storage making up the vast majority of new grid capacity additions.) — The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

About This Newsletter

Bob Haar generally includes projects larger than $1 billion or 1 GW. An acronym guide appears at the end.

Biggest Global News

• IEA: Renewable power output is soaring across the world and is set to become the top electricity source for the first time this year, surpassing coal. Even as renewable generation surges, emissions of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change will still rise this year before declining.
• Global solar additions remain at extraordinary scale, with solar PV continuing to account for the largest share of renewable growth.
• UN Report — goal to limit climate change to 1.5 degrees C is now out of reach under current policies and near-term trajectories.
• A total of 18 GWh of large-scale BESS capacity came online in July 2026, of which China accounted for 70%.
• UAE — raises clean energy goal to 35%.
• Investors to provide $60–250B for global renewables by 2030, with a “post-oil” strategy and good returns. Hosting COP28 cemented a national mandate for global clean energy.
• Bank “Emirates NBD” is identifying finance activities that will contribute to decarbonizing high-emitting and hard-to-abate sectors. Starting with $30B.
• Alterra — started with $30B, spent $7B, targets $250B.
• Masdar — global developer with 65 GW so far, across 40 countries.
• 24/7 solar plus battery storage: Masdar’s 5.2-GW solar / 19-GWh battery project is designed to deliver 1 GW of continuous clean power.
• EU approves Greece’s €4.77B Social Climate Plan and Germany’s capacity mechanism, which could support up to €35.2B in generation, storage and demand flexibility.
• Germany’s capacity mechanism received European Commission approval.
• Global decarbonization efforts are about to be pushed hard by the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.
• Indonesia aims for 100 GW solar by 2029.
• In Brazil’s capacity reserve auction, the regulator received nearly 300 GW of bids for BESS.
• Turkey expects $200B in energy transition funding by 2035.

Global Roundup

• Africa — set for 17 GW new solar in 2026, up 45% year over year.
• China — State Grid plans to connect an average 200 GW of new wind and solar annually through 2030, expand pumped storage and battery storage, and commission 15 new cross-regional DC circuits toward 500 GW of cross-provincial transfer capacity.
• China — solar capacity has passed coal capacity for the first time.
• Finland plans more than 26 GW of utility-scale solar; 77 projects totaling 4.6 GW have already received building permits.
• Germany is nearly on track to meet its 2030 emissions reduction target, with rapid progress in renewables helping offset lagging transport and heating sectors.
• Ireland’s solar capacity has passed 3 GW.
• Modular micro-reactors — set to turn waste methane into 300K tons of fuel annually. Emvolon provides the reactors; Freepoint Commodities will provide distribution.
• Pakistan — electric two-wheeler sales rose 173% in the first half of 2026, attributed to higher oil prices and government subsidies.
• Romania — Eurowind Energy received grid-connection approvals for 2.3 GW of wind, solar and BESS projects.
• Saudi Arabia — awards about $1.2B for 8 GWh of BESS, part of its plan to reach 48 GWh of storage by 2030.

Biggest US News

• Solar has led new U.S. generating-capacity additions for 28 straight months.
• U.S. grid BESS rose by a record 20.2 GWh in Q2, bringing first-half installations to 30.8 GWh.
• Utility-scale battery capacity has nearly doubled from 88 GWh to 165 GWh in the last 18 months.
• Florida Power & Light announced that 120 solar energy centers are now operating across the state, totaling about 8.8 GW and producing more than $1.3B in avoided fuel-cost savings.

US Roundup

• Coal generation fell 10% in the first half of 2026.
• Louisiana — CF Industries starts construction of what is expected to be the world’s largest blue ammonia plant.
• Maine — regulators selected an 800-megawatt wind farm and a 1.2-GW transmission line.
• Oklahoma — Nextnova Solar plans a 2-GW n-type solar cell manufacturing facility.

Global News

• Australia — Victoria launches Australia’s first offshore wind auction, seeking 2 GW.
• Egypt — Sungrow begins construction of a 10-GWh BESS factory.
• Germany — construction begins on the German side of a green hydrogen pipeline to France.
• India — hits 288 GW renewables, 56% solar.
• Japan — six industrial companies selected to design CCS infrastructure for a 3.4-million-ton liquefied CO2 shipping hub in Okayama.
• Romania — solar and storage markets continue rapid growth.
• Scotland — Field has secured planning consent for a 200-MW / 3.6-GWh, 18-hour long-duration BESS project.
• Singapore and Brazil have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish the Singapore-Brazil Green and Digital Shipping Corridor.
• UK — plug-in solar is now legal.
• Wales — solar capacity increased strongly between July 2025 and July 2026, alongside gains in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

US News

• Avantus closed a $1.05B corporate credit facility supporting a 24-GW development portfolio, including 13 GW of solar and 44 GWh of BESS.
• California — lawmakers approved plug-in solar legislation.
• Clean energy tax credit transfers reached $21B in H1 2026.
• New Jersey — the Garden State Balcony Solar Act legalized qualifying plug-in solar systems.
• SMA Solar — announces “out-of-the-box” solar/BESS solutions for data-center power bottlenecks.
• Schools — 1 in 7 U.S. students now goes to a solar-powered school.
• Swift Current Energy secured a $750M corporate credit facility supporting more than 10 GW of U.S. clean-energy projects.
• Walmart opened its 100th company-owned EV fast-charging site, expanding the network to 100 stores across 20 states.

Acronyms

• GW is 1 gigawatt (1 billion watts), able to power about 300K homes.
• BESS is battery energy storage system. BESS systems are measured by two factors. For example, 320 MW/640 MWh: 320 MW (megawatts) represents the power capacity or power rating of the battery system, meaning the maximum rate at which the battery can instantaneously discharge electricity or charge. 640 MWh (megawatt-hours) represents the energy storage capacity of the battery system.
• PHS is Pumped Hydro Storage.
• SAF is sustainable aviation fuel.
• CDR is Carbon Dioxide Removal.
• DAC is Direct Air Capture of CO2.
• GHG = Greenhouse gases.
• 1 terawatt = a thousand gigawatts.
• Not all queued projects are implemented.
• Green hydrogen is made from clean power. Blue hydrogen is made from fossil fuel with carbon capture. Pink from nuclear. Others from fossil fuels.
• SMR is “small modular reactor.”
• VPP means “Virtual Power Plant.” This is when utilities tap customer stored power sources like EVs.