Energy Archive

The Energy Department announced the ‘largest ever’ investment in the power grid today. That includes funding for microgrids that can protect residents from outages. It’s a solution The Verge wrote about and New Orleans residents have been calling for since Hurricane Ida caused a deadly blackout in 2021. The story was selected for HarperCollins’ The Best American Science and Nature Writing last year, and one of our photos by Avery Leigh White won an American Photography 38 award.

It’s also the first time that a massive, next-generation wind turbine called the Haliade-X has come online offshore. Imagine the Washington Monument teetering atop the Statue of Liberty (pedestal included) — that’s about how high this turbine towers above the water at 853 feet (260 meters) tall. Each rotation can power an average British home for two days. The Dogger Bank Wind Farm being built in the North Sea and its first Haliade-X is now sending power to Britain’s national grid. By 2026, when the project is complete, it should be able to power six million UK homes.