Archive for the 'Energy' Category
Why Hacking a Tesla Battery May Foreshadow an Energy Revolution
March 13th, 2015Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — Guys are recovering the battery packs from wrecked electric cars and using them for off-grid solar systems. In the spirit of Quake 3, I salute you: Via: Bloomberg: Afoot is an unprecedented worldwide effort — equivalent to a kind of a tech-age version of the […]
800,000 Microinverters Remotely Retrofitted on Oahu—in One Day
March 11th, 2015Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand that include Enphase products and services. — Enphase systems are now helping stabilize the grid in Hawaii. Via: IEEE: Utilities are asking more of the rooftop solar systems that increasingly are popping up throughout their distribition grids. As we profile in this month’s Spectrum, leading utilities […]
Gas Industry’s Solution to Toxic Wastewater: Spray It on Roads
March 9th, 2015Via: Newsweek: The wastewater spread on roads comes from oil and gas wells. To drill, production companies send large volumes of water down the well shaft. The water rises back to the surface as a brine laden with chloride (a salt) as well as a number of other constituents like radium and barium, which are […]
New Zealand: Meridian Energy CEO – Solar Power Users Hurt Poor People
March 6th, 2015Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — Although grid-tie solar power users pay daily site and network charges like everyone else, because we’re drawing less power from the grid, we should have to pay more, according to Meridian CEO Mark Binns, “For fairness.” I don’t know if Mark Binns is an idiot […]
Enphase Promotes STEM Careers for Women
March 2nd, 2015Disclosure: I sell solar power systems that include Enphase products in New Zealand. This is far off topic, but I thought I’d share this for people with young daughters, or for any young women who happen to be reading. The media is saturated with stories about women leaving tech jobs because of entrenched nonsense. Let’s […]
Britain: Tidal Lagoon Power Stations
March 2nd, 2015“Man needs only to exercise his engineering ingenuity to convert the ocean’s surge into a great national asset.” –John F. Kennedy, July 16th, 1963 Via: Wired: The world’s first electricity-generating tidal lagoons are to be built in six locations across Britain, with at least one already in the planning stage. Four of them will be […]
BASF Doubles Nickel-Metal Hydride Energy Storage
February 19th, 2015Via: MIT Technology Review: Almost every automaker interested in producing electric cars is betting on improvements to lithium-ion batteries to make the cars cheaper and extend their driving range. But scientists at BASF are exploring the possibilities of an older type of battery, nickel-metal hydride, now used in hybrids. They recently doubled the amount of […]
Buffett Dumped Entire $4 Billion Position in Exxon
February 18th, 2015Disclosure: I’m long one oil exploration and production company. Via: Yahoo Finance: The Warren watch is on. Warren Buffett revealed in a SEC filing yesterday that he sold his entire stake in Exxon Mobil (XOM) – roughly four billion dollars worth last quarter. Investors like to pay attention to what the Oracle of Omaha is […]
LG Chem to Build Battery Storage Systems Worth $272 Million for Japanese Solar Plants
February 16th, 2015Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. I’m doing a solar power deal for a guy who wants a normal grid tie rig for his house, but he also wants to charge his electric farm vehicle with solar. “Would that work?” he asked me. Oh yes. We’re going to set up his hot […]
Tesla Plans Battery for Household Energy-Storage Market
February 12th, 2015Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. Via: Bloomberg: Tesla Motors Inc., best known for making the all-electric Model S sedan, is using its lithium-ion battery technology to position itself as a frontrunner in the emerging energy-storage market that supplements and may ultimately threaten the traditional electric grid. “We are going to unveil […]
