Renewable energy grew by the largest amount ever last year, while coal-fired electricity also reached a record high, according to new global data from oil giant BP.

A new study from researchers at the Colorado School of Public Health suggests that living near oil and gas operations could result in exposure to dangerously high levels of carcinogens — and that current state regulations aren’t sufficient to protect public health.

The UK has been powered without coal for three days in a row, setting a new record and underlining the polluting fuel’s rapid decline.

Coal has historically been at the cornerstone of the UK’s electricity mix, but last year saw the first 24-hour period that the country ran without the fuel since the 19th century. New records were broken last week when zero power came from coal for nearly 55 consecutive hours.

Renewable energy needs to be scaled up at least six times faster for the world to meet the decarbonisation and climate mitigation goals set out in the Paris Agreement, says Global Energy Transformation: A Roadmap to 2050.

Central banks are emerging as a bigger threat to the green-energy revolution than Donald Trump.

While the U.S. president is tinkering with rules to give coal a leg up over wind and solar, it’s higher interest rates that threaten to scale back the flow of cheap financing that helped funnel $2.9 trillion into renewables in the past decade.

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) – an industry body which counts more than 150 governments as members – has set up a commission to look into the geopolitical impact of the shift away from oil, gas and coal and towards renewable energy. It is the latest sign of a new seriousness in the green energy industry, which is growing fast and expected to continue doing so in the coming years.

Natural gas is getting edged out of power markets across the U.S. by two energy sources that, together, are proving to be an unbeatable mix: solar and batteries.

In just the latest example, First Solar Inc. won a power contract to supply Arizona’s biggest utility when electricity demand on its system typically peaks, between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. The panel maker beat out bids from even power plants burning cheap gas by proposing to build a 65-megawatt solar farm that will, in turn, feed a 50-megawatt battery system.

The Japanese Coast Guard has confirmed that the oil that is being washed up on islands in the south of the country is “highly likely” to have come from the stricken Iranian tanker, the Sanchi.

Samples of clumpy oil that washed up earlier this month on the shores of the Okinoerabu and Yoron islands chain “were found to be linked to the Sanchi’s sinking” according to the Japanese Coast Guard. The islands are famous for their pristine beaches and seafood.

It’s going to be a big year for solar around the world.

The global solar market grew by 26 percent last year, with 99 gigawatts of grid-connected PV capacity installed. According to GTM Research’s new Global Solar Data Hub, 2018 will be the first-ever triple-digit year for the global solar market, with an anticipated 106 gigawatts of PV coming online.

Amid all of that growth, several notable shifts are expected to take place. The solar analysts at GTM Research have highlighted 10 trends that will shape the solar market in 2018.

If a single structure can define a community, for the 90,000 residents of Kashiwazaki town and the neighbouring village of Kariwa, it is the sprawling nuclear power plant that has dominated the coastal landscape for more than 40 years.

When all seven of its reactors are in operation, Kashiwazaki-kariwa generates 8.2m kilowatts of electricity – enough to power 16m households. Occupying 4.2 sq km of land along the  Sea coast, it is the biggest nuclear power plant in the world.

But today, the reactors at Kashiwazaki-kariwa are idle. The plant in Niigata prefecture, about 140 miles (225km) north-west of the capital, is the nuclear industry’s highest-profile casualty of the nationwide atomic shutdown that followed the March 2011 triple meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi.