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The jagged outcrops of the Hajar Mountains that border UAE and Oman. Photo by Amena H. Saiyid, May 5, 2025 — Harnessing nature to store CO2
This demonstration project in the United Arab Emirates is showing how carbon dioxide can be stored in rocks. Explainers
Amena H. Saiyid 6 min read

Illustration of a little grey house with a green lightning bolt on it connected by a green cord to an old-fashioned alarm clock that is ringing, as indicated by red lines coming from it. The background is a swirly light blue. — Here are four fast solutions in the current ‘race’ for power
With the rise of artificial intelligence, increased domestic manufacturing and growing electrification of vehicles and more, electricity demand in the U.S. is expected to soar in the coming years. Explainers
Cat Clifford 5 min read

An illustration of a pie chart in the foreground; the pie chart has six segments, one has a picture of a solar panel and a wind turbine in it; one of the other segments have a — Five states lead on solar and wind manufacturing. Here’s why.
Texas, New York, Georgia, Ohio and New Mexico — in that order — together attracted nearly half of all solar and wind manufacturing dollars in the U.S. from 2018 through 2024. Explainers
Jillian Mock 4 min read

Image showing a hand holding a trophy with a Chinese flag, a windmill, an electric car and element symbols in the background — How China dominates critical minerals in three charts
The tariff war has laid bare the Western world's dependency on China for key elements such as rare earths, silicon, graphite and more. Explainers
Anca Gurzu 4 min read

Natural gas presents an energy transition puzzle

Natural gas has arrived at a watershed, one critical to the energy transition. The complex interplay between gas, renewables and coal will shape the future of the world’s energy landscape. Explainers

Bill Spindle 5 min read

Geoengineering quantified: Heat is deadlier than air pollution

As the Earth’s temperature keeps rising, scientists and entrepreneurs around the world are exploring increasingly novel ways of tackling climate change — including lessening deadly levels of heat. Explainers

Cat Clifford 5 min read

Illustration showing the comparison of risks between heat and air pollution. By Nadya Nickels

How United Nations climate conferences work

In partnership with Encyclopædia Britannica, Cipher will be publishing occasional articles offering background and context on important climate programs, technologies and leaders. This article is the first in the series. Explainers

Anca Gurzu 6 min read

An illustration that has a globe in one corner, multicolor puzzle pieces in another, a document with a blue ribbon on another corner, and people talking around a table in the other corner.

How to protect clean energy projects against extreme weather

The trials of floating solar projects in India point to a broader trend: extreme weather exacerbated by climate change is increasingly impacting the clean energy projects intended to help combat climate change worldwide. Explainers

Anuradha Varanasi 4 min read

A photo of solar panels floating on the surface of a lake under serene blue skies.

Land is hard to find for solar farms. Asia’s answer? Float them.

The solar farm on the Omkareshwar dam reservoir in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh is part of a rapidly growing trend across Asia of building large-scale solar farms not on land, but over water. Explainers

Anuradha Varanasi 5 min read

A photo of islands of solar panels floating on a large lake, photo taken from the air.

Chile offers case study in critical mineral mining

Critical minerals — from copper to lithium and rare earth elements — are essential to the energy transition. But getting them from the earth into use isn’t easy. Explainers

Bill Spindle 5 min read

A photograph of a barren looking desert landscape with a white salt lake in the foreground and tall rocky mountains in the background. The landscape has a reddish quality to it and the sky is clear and blue.

Selling more American gas to Europe: What’s possible and when

Donald Trump's threat to slap tariffs on Europe has sparked a debate about what more U.S gas might mean for the continent. Explainers

Anca Gurzu 4 min read

An illustration which shows one set of hands holding up a canister of gas (marked with a little flame and the initials

China has a new sweeping energy law. Here’s what you need to know.

China has just approved a set of sweeping new energy regulations that will set the tone for the country’s future energy development. Explainers

Xiaoying You 4 min read

An illustration that shows a multiple choice test. The question is just the Chinese flag, and the options are a solar panel, a wind turbine, a piece of coal, and a piece of paper representing a law. The answer, which is being hovered over with by a giant mouse cursor is

How to improve life for humanity — and not worsen global warming

Access to reliable energy dramatically improves the quality of people’s lives. And the world needs a lot more energy to bring billions of people out of poverty. Explainers

Cat Clifford 4 min read

An illustration with dots coming out from a globe.

Five things to know as COP29 kicks off in Azerbaijan

Money talks are front and center as the United Nations summit gets underway — but the election of Donald Trump as the next U.S. president is also set to loom over the summit. Explainers

Anca Gurzu 4 min read

An illustration where

With Donald Trump victory, here are his energy and climate positions

Donald Trump won the presidential election, injecting uncertainty and a possible slowing of the energy transition, both domestically and around the world. Explainers

Tory Lysik & Amena H. Saiyid 2 min read

An illustration of the white house surrounded by energy icons — solar panels, wind turbines, hydrogen tanks — and president elect Donald Trump smiling.

Get caught up fast: Comparing Harris and Trump on energy and climate

As Americans head to the polls, they face a clear choice between two contrasting visions for climate and clean energy policies. Explainers

Tory Lysik & Amena H. Saiyid 3 min read

Illustration showing Kamala Harris in blue and Donald Trump in red with the U.S. Capitol building in green between them. Icons for solar panels, nuclear, wind, hydrogen and fossil fuels surround them.

Why cleantech is booming in GOP-led states

Whether it’s storing carbon dioxide, making wind turbines, installing solar panels or producing electric vehicles, Republican-leaning states are outpacing their Democratic counterparts in drawing coveted investment dollars. Explainers

Amena H. Saiyid 4 min read

An illustration of the United States, with some of the states highlighted in red. Around the map there are green icons of wind turbines, solar power, nuclear energy, biofuels and batteries.

How to get solar power from space

A step-by-step breakdown that involves 60,000 layers of power modules the size of coffee tables tens of thousands of miles away from Earth. Explainers

Anca Gurzu 5 min read

An illustration of the Earth on the left and the Sun on the right, with a robot arm holding up a satellite in between both.

Demand is growing for hydrogen-making electrolyzers. What exactly are they?

As demand grows for electrolyzers, Cipher explains what these machines are and why they are so critical to meeting U.S. goals for clean hydrogen as a viable alternative to emissions-intensive fossil fuels. Explainers

Amena H. Saiyid 6 min read

An illustration with a blue background showing a contraption in green in the foreground that has an electronic-looking device on the left and a bottle on the right, the two are connected by a thin tube and there's

Nuclear energy could undergo a renaissance. Here’s what to know.

So much innovation is happening in the nuclear industry right now. There is fresh optimism about new ways nuclear power can help decarbonize global economies. And, at the same time, the nuclear industry must show it is up to the challenge. Explainers

Cat Clifford 11 min read

How to understand new nuclear energy

The nuclear industry is attempting to reinvent itself. To meet growing demand for clean, always-on energy, companies and governments are developing innovative nuclear plants that come in smaller sizes and use more advanced, and potentially safer, technologies. Explainers

Cat Clifford 6 min read

A hand from above reaches down and selects the medium size of three cups; there is also one small and one large, and they all have a nuclear power symbol on them.

Inside a (nearly) ‘net-zero’ natural gas plant

NET Power's demonstration plant is an example of innovative efforts in a small but growing segment of the oil and gas industry to find ways to reduce emissions associated with using their products. Explainers

Cat Clifford 6 min read

An exterior view of the NET Power demonstration plant in LaPorte, Texas.

Latin American energy spotlight: Guyana, Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago

Many Latin American and Caribbean nations could become major clean energy players — but may rely on fossil fuel revenues to do so. We take a look at the energy transition in three countries. Explainers

Amena H. Saiyid 5 min read

Illustration of a wooden boat on a sandy beach, pointing toward wind turbines on a small island in the distance.

Surging power demand spurs smarter electric grid use

Electricity demand is going up; building new transmission lines is really hard. But there are a number of improvements that could help us get more out of the existing grid today. Explainers

Cat Clifford 7 min read

An illustration with a blue background with overlapping pictures of different transmission towers, with a green arrow pointing up and to the right.

Changes in US tax rules provide big boost for renewables

Changes in how U.S. tax credits can be deployed are giving renewable energy financing a big boost. Explainers

Bill Spindle 3 min read

Animated illustration, dollar bills blow in front of the word

A treasure hunt for underground hydrogen is on

Producing hydrogen with current technologies takes a lot of energy and is carbon intensive. Geologic hydrogen could sidestep both obstacles, which could ultimately reduce costs. Explainers

Cat Clifford 7 min read

Your definitive guide to understanding hydrogen

What is hydrogen and why is everybody talking about it now? Consider this your hydrogen cheat sheet. Explainers

Cat Clifford 4 min read

Illustration. A hand holds a hydrogen production plant surrounded by questionmarks drawn in marker on a peach background.

After centuries worrying about energy supply, the world turns its attention to demand

Virtual Power Plants, aggregations of devices that produce, store and use electricity, are poised to bring new attention to the demand side of power systems. Explainers

Bill Spindle 4 min read

Outlines of houses overlaid with binary code in white and energy infrastructure — oil rigs, wind turbines, and solar panels in black.

Why cleantech groups want the EU’s public lending arm to prop them up

They want the European Investment Bank to offer them a safety net through so-called public guarantees, which they argue would allow for a faster scale-up of emerging technologies. Explainers

Anca Gurzu 4 min read

Betting on solar solutions where there is no grid

Innovative off-grid solar projects are gaining traction in the climate financing world as a way of more quickly and efficiently solving an energy access problem affecting hundreds of millions of people. Explainers

Anca Gurzu 5 min read

Two hands shaking above a stack of coins and a farmer tending to a field. Illustration with a green background.

How to understand direct government aid for climate change

Wealthier nations say they are on track to belatedly meet a goal of providing $100 billion a year to poorer nations for climate adaptation and mitigation, but critics say this fund won't be enough for countries buffeted by climate-fueled impacts. Explainers

Amena H. Saiyid 4 min read

Climate financing's fate at COP28 is overshadowed by devastating images of flooding in Pakistan.

Carbon markets seek a reboot in the face of existential challenges

Carbon offsets are at a crossroads after years of complaints about greenwashing and accusations of ineffectiveness in fighting climate change. Explainers

Bill Spindle 5 min read

How to build demand for clean hydrogen

Almost no clean hydrogen exists in the U.S. today, and barely any demand either. To fill these gaps, a debate is brewing about how exactly to use the odorless and abundant molecule in the most effective and efficient ways. Explainers

Amena H. Saiyid 4 min read

White pipes with a red release valve with 'Hydrogen H2' written on the side of a pipe.

In poorer nations, coal persists despite energy transition efforts

Just Energy Transition Partnerships — often referred to as JET-Ps — are seen as one of the primary ways wealthy, industrialized countries can help phase out coal use in low and middle-income countries while addressing the cost of closing coal plants and loss of employment. But progress implementing the deals is slow. Explainers

Bill Spindle 4 min read

Illustration showing one hand making a

For lower income nations, fossil fuel debate rings hollow

For low- and middle income countries with oil and gas resources they’ve barely tapped, the debate over whether to take advantage of these resources feels unfair. Explainers

Bill Spindle 4 min read

A large group of people gather on stage at the 2023 Africa Climate Conference.

Climate cash hopes hang on development bank reforms

Reforming how huge lenders like the World Bank operate is key to channeling more climate financing to developing countries. But proposed reforms of multilateral development banks are limited and must come with fresh cash. Explainers

Anca Gurzu 5 min read

White pillars hold up the Earth, symbolizing international banking.

The words that shape our energy future

Should fossil fuels be phased downed or phased out? Or should the emissions of fossil fuels be dealt with and phased out? This may sound like semantic games, but the nuances are important. Explainers

Anca Gurzu 4 min read

The image highlights various words like

COP28’s big challenge is closing the energy investment gap

Clean energy investment is ramping up fast, but most of it is still not reaching beyond the world’s richest countries. Explainers

Bill Spindle 4 min read

The Earth, shaded red, is in the middle of a black background with the words

The many ways of removing carbon from the air

Governments and companies are increasingly betting on a mix of technologies to remove huge amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air as the effects of climate change become more and more pronounced. Explainers

Anca Gurzu 4 min read

Why we need to remove carbon from the air

To avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change—and achieve a net-zero world—we need to not only reduce our emissions, but also remove residual carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air. Explainers

Anca Gurzu 3 min read

How to understand the U.S. battle over hydrogen tax credits

A battle as complex as it is significant is brewing in the global race to secure government subsidies to scale up an American clean hydrogen economy. Explainers

Amena H. Saiyid 5 min read

Storage quest arises amid hydrogen rush

Two underground caverns nearly twice the height of the Eiffel Tower are poised to store enough hydrogen to provide seasonal backup for variable renewable electricity. Explainers

Amena H. Saiyid 4 min read

How to get the minerals we need in a clean energy future

Securing the critical minerals we need for a green energy future will require cleaning up mining practices, boosting recycling and innovating to be less dependent on them altogether. Explainers

Anca Gurzu 5 min read

The massive quest for the minerals we need in a clean energy future

The rush toward a clean energy future means we need to dig, extract and process Earth’s resources faster and better than ever before. Explainers

Anca Gurzu 5 min read

Europe scrambles to reclaim its industrial edge

The European Union wants to get its industrial groove back. The world’s largest trading bloc is scrambling to take part in the global cleantech race. Explainers

Anca Gurzu 4 min read

Renewables are cheap but not always available: storage solutions

A race for commercial solutions is underway to store renewable energy for long periods of time, but financing remains one of the main stumbling blocks to deployment. Explainers

Anca Gurzu 4 min read

Renewables are cheap but not always available: storage hurdles

The world is rapidly scaling up wind and solar electricity, but technology to store these variable forms of energy is lagging. Explainers

Anca Gurzu 3 min read

How heat powers our world and how to clean it up

Heating things up accounts for the single largest share of our energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. By things, we mean a whole laundry list of key ingredients in our lives. Explainers

Amy Harder 4 min read

Why the hydrogen rainbow doesn’t tell the whole story

There’s one energy source the world is increasingly betting on in the race to decarbonize the economy: hydrogen. Explainers

Anca Gurzu 3 min read

How Europe uses natural gas and what needs to change

Natural gas—particularly Russian gas—has been a source of anxiety for European Union leaders over the last several months as they scramble to find solutions in case Moscow, the bloc’s biggest gas supplier, decides to shut off the tap. Explainers

Anca Gurzu 4 min read

Carbon is the trash of our climate change era

We pay to get our garbage hauled away every week. Yet we’ve been letting carbon waste pile up in our skies since we first started putting it there more than 250 years ago. Explainers

Amy Harder 3 min read

Forget silver bullets. We need silver buckshot to tackle climate change.

Clichés, as trite as they are, exist for a good reason. They simplify complex topics. “Silver bullet” is one we know well. It implies one solution can solve all of a given problem. Explainers

Amy Harder 3 min read

What’s really driving the energy crisis and how cleantech fits in

Much of the world is facing an energy crisis with skyrocketing prices of oil, natural gas and coal—or even worse, no fuel at all. Explainers

Amy Harder 3 min read