Monday, 12 October 2026

A 15-year study at eight wind farms in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in southern Mexico found that bird deaths fell far more heavily on resident, native and ground-foraging species than on the migratory birds that have long drawn public concern about wind energy, according to scienmag.

The findings draw on carcass searches carried out across the eight sites over the study period. According to scienmag, resident species accounted for 78% of the recorded fatalities.

Pigeons and doves were the most affected group, making up nearly 40% of all fatalities recorded over the study, scienmag reported. The White-winged Dove alone concentrated 17% of the registered carcasses.

Granivores, omnivores, insectivores and scavengers showed the highest collision rates in the analysis, according to scienmag.

Bristol Airport generated a record amount of renewable energy this year, with its solar arrays producing more than 1.7 million kWh so far in 2026. The airport said that output was enough to power the equivalent of around 680 homes for a year.

In a separate renewable deal, Cargill agreed to a 12.6-year virtual power purchase agreement for 87 MW of wind power from the Sweetland Wind project in South Dakota, United States.

Residents in Matheson, Colorado, are worried about two proposed solar projects next to their farmland and what approval could mean for the area, according to Denver7.

In emails to Denver7, residents cited concerns about the 6,000-acre sites and their effects on farmland, water runoff, property values, and the area's natural beauty.

Residents Wayne Brown and Clint Buhring told Denver7 they support renewable energy but questioned why the projects need to be built in their part of Colorado.

Four hydropower projects along Nepal's Budhi Gandaki River and its tributary streams, holding 412.09 MW between them, took damage from fresh flooding, IPPAN said in a statement.

The worst hit was the 341-MW Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project, still under construction, where floodwaters carried off the main camp area along with some construction equipment, according to IPPAN.

At the 30.59-MW Yaru Khola Hydropower Project, the water damaged a Bailey bridge used for construction and carried off materials and equipment on site.

The 16-MW Machha Khola Hydropower Project lost an access road and the bridge linking its site, IPPAN said.

The Belo Monte hydroelectric plant in the Brazilian Amazon reaches 10 years of operation while its environmental license renewal remains disputed, according to Mongabay.

Oil slicks from vessels and offshore oil operations repeatedly drifted into marine protected areas around the world between 2022 and 2025, an analysis cited by Mongabay found.

In Clayoquot Sound, British Columbia, the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation is working to replant degraded kelp forests through a restoration partnership, contributor Jennifer Cole reported for Mongabay.

Tropical forest ecologist Zuzana Burivalova won the 2026 Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award, Mongabay reported.

Ørsted has contracted OEG to run temporary power across construction of the Hornsea 3 offshore wind farm, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported. The work spans commissioning of the offshore converter station and the installation and commissioning of the wind turbines.

At the offshore converter station, OEG's setup can supply up to 1,400 kVA during commissioning, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

During turbine installation and commissioning, OEG will run 150 kVA generators fed by 3,000-litre mountable fuel tanks, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

South African utility Eskom has opened a qualification round to pick strategic partners for as much as 6 GW of renewable and storage projects, according to pv magazine.

Eskom plans to bring at least 2 GW of solar PV plus 1 GW / 4 GWh of battery storage into the tender, and may add projects owned or originated by the chosen partners, pv magazine reported.

Those partners will sit on a pre-qualified panel and co-develop, finance and build the projects with Eskom across five years, according to pv magazine.

Qualified developers then compete in later rounds run through one or more requests for proposals, pv magazine reported.

EDF power solutions UK and Ireland has acquired RWE's 33.33% holding in the Five Estuaries offshore wind project in the U.K. and will steer its development, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

The planned wind farm carries a capacity of 1.1 GW. With the stake sale closed, EDF now leads development for the joint venture partners.

RWE plans a short-term role to ease the handover, then intends to put the sale proceeds back into its portfolio of consented offshore wind projects.

Pushing PV system voltage higher accelerates potential-induced degradation, and the conductivity of the module encapsulant shapes how much performance slips, according to pv magazine, citing work by French researchers.

The team also flagged a second failure path, partial-discharge-induced electrical treeing, in medium-voltage modules, pv magazine reported. According to pv magazine, the scientists said this was the first study to examine PID in passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) modules at voltages up to 6,000 V and to pin down that treeing mechanism.

Running modules at 6,000 V drove front-side power losses as high as 13.5% and rear-side losses as high as 19.5%, pv magazine reported.

The treeing effect turned up only in ionomer-based modules tested at 3,000 V, clustering around metallic cell ribbons and the glass-encapsulant boundary, according to pv magazine. The researchers named it PID-discharge, or PID-d.

Five large dam developments stretching from Tajikistan to Pakistan are moving through different stages of construction, according to Water Power Magazine, illustrating the scale of investment in new hydropower infrastructure.

The projects range along a corridor from the Vakhsh River in Tajikistan to the Indus in Pakistan, with embankments rising, diversion tunnels breaking through and concrete placement systems being prepared for structures that will support thousands of megawatts of generating capacity, according to Water Power Magazine.

Tajikistan's Rogun project on the Vakhsh River is designed with a dam height of 335 metres, Water Power Magazine reported. The development combines a rockfill dam with a power station designed for six 600 MW units, giving a total installed capacity of 3,600 MW, according to Water Power Magazine.

The Lesotho Highlands Water Project is an interconnected system that captures water in the mountainous highlands, transfers it through reservoirs and tunnels, generates hydroelectricity and delivers supplies to South Africa, according to CCE Online News.

Phase II of the project is extending that infrastructure through construction of the Polihali Dam and a new tunnel connecting its reservoir to Katse, CCE Online News reported.