Stories by Melissa C. Lott

Plugged In will unplug on Friday. It’s been a great seven years and we look forward to continuing the conversations that we started here

Renewables are booming worldwide. But, 70 percent of energy demand growth was met by fossil fuels in 2017, leading to a rise in greenhouse gas emissions

Electricity generation from both natural gas and coal fell in 2017. At the same time, renewables—especially hydropower, wind and solar—continued to rise

A new recycling process could provide a way to restore lithium ion battery cathodes to “mint condition.” What’s better, this new process only uses half the energy of conventional recycling methods

Hydroelectric power plants (aka water and dams) have long been the leading source of renewable electricity in the U.S. Wind power, however, is expected to surpass hydroelectricity by 2019, according to a new forecast

Wind turbines in the U.S. have grown both taller and stronger during the past decade, according to analysis by the Energy Information Administration

Just 1 percent of the vehicles currently on the road are electric. Could this grow to 100 percent?

Don’t be too quick to throw away those Thanksgiving leftovers. By saving that turkey and stuffing to eat another day, you can help save a lot of energy from ending up in the garbage bin

More than one billion people in the world do not have access to electricity and 2.8 billion lack clean cooking options

Just five years ago, coal represented about 40 percent of the electricity mix—a stark contrast as the country moves to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and tackle its air pollution challenges

As the largest source of human-produced greenhouse gases, the energy sector is at the forefront of efforts to curb emissions. 

Due to land constraints in the small city-state, Singapore is placing a cap on the number of cars on its roads while doubling-down on public transportation

Located just over 15 miles off Scotland's coast, the 30 Megawatt (MW) wind farm is expected to power around 20,000 households.

This month, a start-up company called Hyliion that is looking to hybridize Class 8 trucks around the world raised $21 million in Series A funding

The end of a policy to support carpooling in Jakarta, Indonesia led to an 87 percent increase in evening rush-hour traffic, according to a study published this summer in Science

The world’s largest floating solar farm spans the size of 160 football fields and is now generating electricity atop a former coal mine in China

Hurricane Harvey took hundreds of electric lines and more than 10,000 megawatts of electricity generating capacity offline, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration

Whole Foods versus Hilton. NAVY versus Air Force. Boston versus Atlanta. Check out this series of videos from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Buildings initiative, which focus on increasing energy efficiency in buildings

More than half of medical facilities in London are blanketed with air pollution at levels in excess of legal limits. This dirty air poses a health risk to health care workers and patients throughout the city

This month 53 teams (around 170 middle school students) gathered at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to spend the day racing vehicles that they designed and built

This week, current U.S. Secretary of Energy and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry accepted the “Good Neighbor Award” given by the U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce

New research shows how climate and air quality policies can work together to clean up China's air

Engineers already knew how to make hydrogen gas using solar power, but a new approach makes the process more durable

Earlier this month, Solstice Energy Solutions—a start-up working to bring an energy-metering program to homes across Nigeria—took the $100K grand prize at the MIT Clean Energy competition