Dive into the rapid rise of solar, surging industrial innovation, and the policy choices that could accelerate—or derail—climate progress.

THE GLOBAL SOLAR AGE: In a New Yorker excerpt from his upcoming book, “Here Comes the Sun,” climate activist and writer Bill McKibben points out that solar power “is now growing faster than any power source in history.”

Despite some critical setbacks in the U.S., the global outlook for the clean energy transition remains encouraging, most of all on the solar front. The market is being driven by innovation. Scalable breakthroughs have cut the cost of solar panels by 99 percent since 1979, when Jimmy Carter put them on the White House roof. “For the past three or four years,” McKibben observes, “we’ve lived on a planet where the cheapest way to generate energy is to point a sheet of glass at the sun.” In 2024 alone, the average residential solar panel price dropped by 30 percent, based on data from Wood Mackenzie. On average, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency, solar became “41 percent cheaper than the lowest-cost fossil fuel alternatives.” Alongside wind and grid-scale battery storage, it is leading a charge that saw zero-carbon sources meet more than 80 percent of last year’s global growth in electricity demand.

As McKibben acknowledges, solar’s ascent has been spearheaded by China, the world’s dominant exporter and deployer (56 percent of the global total). In May, China installed “a gigawatt every eight hours.” In fact, solar is fast passing hydropower and wind as China’s leading source of clean power. It enabled the world’s largest emitter to reach what could be a pivotal milestone: In the first quarter of 2025, despite rising power demand, China’s overall carbon dioxide emissions fell for the first time in a period of economic growth.

We’re seeing similar momentum worldwide. In India, the world’s fastest-growing big economy, a leap in solar production has flattened the country’s coal use and cut natural gas by a quarter, year over year, over the first four months of 2025. This May, Poland’s clean power generation surpassed coal power after a wave of solar construction. Last year in Pakistan, solar-powered farms may have reduced diesel sales by nearly one third.

After the invention of the PV solar cell, as McKibben notes, it took 72 years for the world to install one terawatt of solar power. In 2024, just two years later, the second terawatt arrived. The third will come on line by early 2026. The author’s conclusion: “Sun and wind are no longer alternative energy but the obvious path forward.” As we often say at Speed & Scale, it’s up to innovators, investors, and policymakers to make the right outcome the profitable outcome—and hence the probable outcome.

OKRs in the News

🚗 1.0 – Electrify Transportation

• Robotaxis Reloaded: Uber announced plans to invest $300 million in the EV-maker Lucid to deploy over 20,000 autonomous Gravity SUVs, starting in 2026. The investment marks a bold re-entry into the robotaxi race for Uber and highlights renewed momentum in both EV adoption and self-driving innovation (Reuters).

• Propelled Pollution: A new study shows that ships traveling through shallow waters can release methane from the seabed, emitting up to 20 times more than in undisturbed areas. With most major ports in shallow zones, this finding reveals a hidden, global-scale emissions problem (Environment Energy Leader).

Note: “Clean energy days” are days where the California grid ran on 100% clean energy for at least part of the day.

🐄 3.0 – Fix Food

• The AI-Ag Revolution: U.S. farms are entering an AI-powered era, where autonomous tractors, drones, and robotic pickers boost efficiency while shrinking agriculture’s carbon footprint. Precision technologies cut emissions by slashing fertilizer use, reducing diesel dependence, and optimizing water and soil health (Wall Street Journal).

💡Local progress spotlight!

On just a 40-by-45-foot parcel of land behind a city library, Groundwork Elizabeth planted New Jersey’s first microforest, now one of five thriving mini-ecosystems that help to cool neighborhoods, absorb stormwater, and improve air quality.

Using the Miyawaki method, these densely planted forests grow up to seven times faster than conventional trees, enabling rapid impact and scalability. Researchers estimate each dollar invested returns close to eleven dollars in public benefits, with soil permeability increasing up to 50 times and surface temperatures up to 50 degrees cooler than adjacent asphalt parking lots.

The model is already spreading to cities like Yonkers, New York, and Providence, Rhode Island—proof that small-scale climate solutions can make a big impact.

🌳 4.0 – Protect Nature

• Slippery Slope South: New satellite data reveals a startling shift in the Southern Ocean: Rising surface salinity is unlocking deep heat that’s melting Antarctic sea ice from below, creating a dangerous feedback loop. With a Greenland-sized loss of sea ice since 2015, scientists warn of the potential for supercharged global warming and disrupted climate systems worldwide (Science Daily).

OKR Highlight

New Chinese clean power mandates require steel, cement, and polysilicon manufacturers to meet between 25 and 70 percent of electricity demand with renewables over this year and next. They’re even stricter with data centers, which must reach at least 80 percent of total demand.

China’s new decarbonization goals mark progress toward the global targets set by Speed & Scale’s Objective 5.0: Reduce 12 gigatons of industrial emissions to four gigatons by 2050.

As the world’s largest emitter, China’s move to electrify and clean up its most carbon-intensive sectors shows how policy can accelerate industrial decarbonization at scale.

🧱 5.0 – Clean Up Industry

• Biomaterial in Style: Fashion designer Caroline Zimbalist is bringing the ocean to the runway, using seaweed to create biodegradable dresses for Chappell Roan and other celebrities. While her designs aren’t yet ready for mass production, Zimbalist joins a growing cohort of innovators turning to biomaterials to spotlight fossil fuel-free fashion and challenge an industry hooked on petroleum-based synthetics (AP News).

• The Cost of Rare Minerals: While China’s rare earth industry is a cornerstone of the global clean tech boom, decades of poorly regulated mining in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, have left a four-square-mile lake of toxic sludge laced with lead, cadmium, and radioactive thorium. Despite modest cleanup efforts, two million residents are forced to contend with polluted groundwater and metallic-tasting air from dust blowing off a dammed lake (The New York Times).

🧹 6.0 – Remove Carbon

• Going Deep on Carbon: In an effort to meet its goal to be carbon-negative by 2030, Microsoft has bought close to five million metric tons of removed carbon from Vaulted Deep. The company locks carbon underground by blending biochar with solid waste and burying it deep underground. This deal highlights a growing interest in durable sequestration methods that scale fast and cut costs without relying on risky chemical processes (TechCrunch).

• Scaling Carbon Storage: Carbon capture and storage (CCS) capacity is set to increase from 50 million metric tons today to 430 million metric tons in 2030. With industrial giants, oil majors, and climate tech startups backing the boom, the CCS market could play a pivotal role in decarbonizing hard-to-abate sectors, including cement, steel, and chemicals. Experts stress, however, that it must complement—not replace—aggressive emissions cuts (Carbon Credits).

🏛️ 7.0 – Win Politics And Policy

• From Setback to Scale: Amid recent clean energy rollbacks that threaten U.S. decarbonization and competitiveness, climate experts Jesse Jenkins and Jane Flegal joined Ezra Klein’s podcast to consider the path forward. From their point of view, it lies in scaling proven technologies, permitting reform, and investments in advanced geothermal, carbon removal, and other next-gen solutions. With electricity demand on the rise from AI and industry, they stress that climate progress now hinges on building faster and smarter (New York Times).

• OBBB’s Cost to Climate: An analysis of the Trump Administration’s climate policies, including the One Big Beautiful Bill, estimates that the U.S. will add an extra 7 billion tons of emissions to the atmosphere by 2030. By weakening industry emissions standards and revoking clean energy tax credits, the policies will result in climate-linked damages estimated at more than $1.6 trillion globally (Carbon Brief).

🏃 8.0 – Turn Movements Into Action

• Tile by Tile Triumph: In a grassroots push to make cities greener and fight climate change, municipalities throughout the Netherlands have replaced more than 15 million concrete tiles with green space over the last four years. The NK Tegelwippen competition empowers citizens to recast their cities while building climate resilience one flipped tile at a time (NK Tegelwippen).

⚡ 9.0 – Innovate!

• Storm of Misinformation: As interest grows in geoengineering to combat drought and climate impacts, cloud-seeding start-up Rainmaker is facing a wave of conspiracy theories that falsely link it to the deadly recent floods in Central Texas. Despite expert consensus that the technology can’t trigger extreme storms, misinformation has spread rapidly, amplified by politicians like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. The backlash reveals the growing risks that face nascent climate technologies in an era of distrust and misinformation (Washington Post).

• Iron Will, H₂ Thrill: Scientists at Koloma, a Bill Gates-backed startup, told U.S. senators that they’ve successfully produced hydrogen by stimulating iron-rich rock, mimicking a natural process known as serpentinization. Though still years from commercialization, the research could open a new frontier in clean hydrogen production if scaled economically (Hydrogen Insight).

💰 10.0 – Invest!

• Digging Into Demand: Ivanhoe Electric plans to develop the first major U.S. copper mine in over 15 years. Backed by a $100 million feasibility study, the mine is projected to produce 72,000 tons annually over its first 15 years. In the context of growing demand from EVs, data centers, and clean energy, the project reflects broader efforts to scale domestic copper supply amid rising import tariffs (Wall Street Journal).

• Backlash to Breakthroughs: Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla argues that U.S. climate investments should focus on technologies that can beat fossil fuels on cost without long-term subsidies, a requirement he says is essential for global adoption. He highlights fusion, superhot geothermal, and low-carbon cement and steel as standout opportunities where the U.S. can lead. Khosla criticizes the Inflation Reduction Act for overfunding “mature” solar and EV technologies, and urges policymakers to redirect support toward breakthrough innovations that drive manufacturing and economic competitiveness (The Economist).

• Back to the (Industrial) Future: The Reindustrialize Summit and the New American Industrial Alliance are urging U.S. founders to build the technologies needed to make physical goods at scale and power the nation’s industrial comeback in energy, materials, manufacturing, and biotech. A similar call for new startups echoed through the Reindustrialize 2025 conference in Detroit, where some saw climate tech as a catalyst for U.S. reindustrialization (Y Combinator and New York Times).

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