Recently I visited the Botanical Garden and was immediately struck by the sight of a single yellow tree that stood there in all its autumn glory. A wake up call for me 🙂 I almost had forgotten that it is Autumn. How can that happen? Well, most trees are still green or look a bit awkward, like crumpy brown, as they suffered from the recent summer heatwaves.

And, here in Marseille, the temperature after the summer has settled to around 24°C / 75.2°F, like a nice summer I know from my childhood in Holland. In the Calanques it has been different, more flowers than usual, from tiny to Heather-like. Meanwhile, MIT – Massachusettes Institute of Technology has come out with its annual report on energy transition.

In India, where 70% of the 200 million registered vehicles are 2-wheelers, the company Ather Energy builds e-scooters for the middle class, competing with the highly-polluting gas-guzzling models. It could inspire the building of other e-vehicles like cars and trucks. That is successfully being done by Traton in Germany, diesel trucks will be outdated soon if the government and EU keep supporting this trend.

As China is the world’s first in solar power capacity so is Envision Energy the country’s biggest manufacturer of smart wind turbines – a network of turbines can synchronise its energy performance. The company has also expanded into batteries, green hydrogen and industrial parks designed to run heavy industry on clean power. Wind energy is today one of the cheapest and largest sources in renewable energy transition.

Another company in China, HiNa Battery Technology, is a forerunner in developing and mass-producing batteries using sodium, which can be extracted from sea salt which harvesting is already a centuries-old practice. The batteries can power small vehicles and energy storage plants in China and are a unique alternative to lithium-based batteries.

These are only a few quotes from the 2025 MIT Technology Review, a world renowned independent American media company determined to remain independent even in today’s tough political pressure.

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