It feels auspicious to be relaunching the Recharge digital platform as the global energy system passes a most important milestone – almost an obelisk – in its history, with power generation capacity in renewable energy for the first time now greater than in coal-fired plants.
We have been reporting from the front lines of the renewables industry on five continents since late-2008. Even for dyed-in-the-wool believers in the Grand Transition, this momentous achievement in build-out, fuelled by a record $310bn in investment streamed in to clean-energy projects around the world last year, gives new courage to our editorial mission.
Much as ‘change’ is a force at the heart of renewables – the engine of the energy transition and hope for a world facing a daunting climatic future after 150 years of turning the planet on fossil fuels – so it is for contemporary journalism.
Worldwide-webbed readers access information in a medium where free is the norm. But pause and question the value of this ‘news’, especially in the speeding evolution of the renewable energy industry, where only the ‘what’ is reported, not the ‘why’ not the ‘how’, not the market insight or intelligence.
The new Recharge digital platform is designed to bring depth and dimension to coverage of the renewable energy industries: the news that matters, with the accent on the many important angles of a story beyond the news – including analysis, opinion and relevant in-depth features.
Take our coverage of GE’s recent takeover of LM Wind Power. We carried the news, including industry analyst opinion pieces, but also ran our own market analysis, an interview with GE Renewable Energy chief Jerome Pecresse, and an in-depth feature on LM’s pioneering blade technology. This to give both immediacy and context to the story.
The homepage on the new website – which has a ‘responsive’ architecture for reading on smart-phones, tablets or computer screens – is split into three by two editorial ‘carousels: In Depth, our long-read features and profiles, and Circuit, building on our Thought Leaders’ group with contributions from industry players and observers on the existential challenges facing renewables.
Each section will feature an ‘anchor’ module: On Point, where we’ll run a piece focused on a key industry talking-point; The Big Deal, a stand-out contract or order; and Newsmaker, looking at an industrial influencer.
Articles will now have the potential for much more interconnection to related Recharge materials: thumbnail links to features and analysis, photo carousels, and embedded videos and maps.
For quick access, the site has been constructed as five ‘supersections’ – Wind, Solar, Markets, Technology and Circuit – so a click will take you directly to the news you need.
All our articles will be free to access for two weeks, and we hope first-time visitors to the site will stay with us for months and years to come. You can also sign up for our new newsletters, here.
Since our launch eight years ago, Recharge, like the wider renewables industry, has espoused change for the better in the global energy system and, as a business intelligence title, aspired to do the same for energy journalism.
We hope you find the new digital platform serves both objectives faithfully.
(rechargenews)
