The Big Green Bang: How renewable energy became unstoppable

Climeworks is focusing on pulling carbon dioxide directly out of the air to store or reuse in some capacity as a way to lower global greenhouse gas emissions. The Swiss company has 16 plants around Europe, with their biggest one in Switzerland that removes 900 tons of carbon dioxide a year that is then sold to Coca-Cola Co. to put in soft drinks or to local industrial greenhouses for plant growth. Scaling the operations to capture more carbon is costly, but the startup recently raised $76 million from investors.

Hywind Scotland is the world's first commercial wind farm using floating wind turbines to generate power for about 36,000 homes a year. This approach — which is being seriously looked at by several countries seeking to reduce their carbon emissions and oil-and-gas companies wanting to expand into renewable energy — allows wind farms to work in deeper waters where there is often stronger winds.

Iceland, hit by the oil crises of the 1970s, turned to geothermal energy - and they haven't turned back. The island is now powered by 100% renewable energy, and they are taking it one step more, looking to further cut emissions using a unique carbon capture system called CarbFix. It is being pioneered at the Hellsheidi geothermal power plant in western Iceland.

Ashton Hayes- a small town in England- adopted a Carbon Neutrality mission, meaning they hoped to produce as much energy as they consumed. Over the past 10 years they have reduced their emissions by 40%, attributing their success to the resulting neighbourhood cohesion, dedication, and it being a public decision as opposed to one made or implemented by politicians.

Rahr Malting, a brewery in Shakopee, MN, has found a creative way to sustainably address their energy needs. The company partners with the Mdewakanton Sioux Community to use waste barley hulls from the malting factory to generate electricity for their facilities, selling excess power to the public grid while the waste heat sprouts the malt to make beer.

Three major US companies are leading the way in developing the technology to extract carbon dioxide from the air: Global Thermostat, Carbon Engineering, and Climeworks. With federal tax credits per ton of carbon dioxide captured and a prosperous system of injecting the CO2 back into the ground to stimulate crop yield, the companies' three different approaches all offer a way to cut into the massive amount of global emissions, an opportunity to make a lot of money with new technology, and a helping hand for states working on achieving new federal guidelines and restrictions for a green future.

Hydrogen fuel has made promising strides from Germany to Japan, thanks to shifting markets for renewables, improved storage technologies, and emissions-reduction goals. Electrolysis that uses renewables to make the fuel could transform transportation and energy infrastructure, but a few concerns about the unintended effects persist.

With the prices of solar technology dropping and the opportunity to save drastically on energy usage and costs, businesses and organizations across the country are investing more in solar infrastructure for their buildings and facilities. The Better Buildings Initiative of the US Department of Energy is helping by providing guidance and documenting effective approaches and financing for renewables installations - from hotels, to schools, to big box retail.

Madison Equities is investing in significant efficiency upgrades to a number of buildings in downtown St. Paul, overhauling their energy systems in an upgrade driven in part by tenants' interest in energy efficiency and in part as a major effort to shrink the city's carbon footprint and save on long-term operating costs. The the timeline for the St. Paul project was impressive and shows what's possible, not just for the planet but for a company's bottom line.

Solar power is an important renewable energy in Germany, but when the sun is out, it can overpower the grid. Likewise, when the sun is not out, the reception of solar power decreases. Germany has piloted battery installations that store solar energy for use when the sunlight is not plentiful and has successfully incentivized citizens to use them to lower costs.