Archive for the 'Energy' Category
China’s Clean Energy Ambition Floats on Abandoned Coal Mine
June 12th, 2017Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — Via: Bloomberg: China’s ambitions to dominate new energy technologies are unfolding at the site of an abandoned coal mine about 300 miles (483 kilometers) northwest of Shanghai. There, in Anhui province, Sungrow Power Supply Co. has built the world’s largest floating solar farm with 166,000 panels […]
Tesla’s Vice President of Solar Products: Competitors Are, “Kind of Fucked”
June 7th, 2017Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — The quote in the title is referring to Tesla’s new solar roofing products, but as someone who sells more conventional solar products, the same can be said about the storage sector. I recently wrote: The storage industry needs to deal with the Tesla reality and […]
Trump Pulls U.S. Out of Paris Climate Agreement
June 1st, 2017Petrofascism is alive and well in the U.S., but it’s too late to stop solar and wind. Via: Reuters: President Donald Trump on Thursday said he will withdraw the United States from the landmark 2015 global agreement to fight climate change, a move that fulfilled a major campaign pledge but drew condemnation from U.S. allies […]
Bloomberg: Electric Vehicles Cheaper than Gas Vehicles by 2025
May 31st, 2017I agree with this assessment much more than the one that said no gas cars by 2025. Via: Bloomberg: Now research from Bloomberg New Energy Finance indicates that falling battery costs will mean electric vehicles will also be cheaper to buy in the U.S. and Europe as soon as 2025. Batteries currently account for about […]
Biggest Threat to Utilities Is Not Solar + Storage, It’s Their Own Greed
May 31st, 2017Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — I had written a long, obscenity laden rant about the retail energy cartel in New Zealand as the commentary on this story. Upon reading over what I’d written, and cleaning the spit off my screen, I realized that A) I’d written it all before and […]
Harnessing the Energy Generated When Freshwater Meets Saltwater
May 29th, 2017I’d never heard of this before. Via: Phys.org: Penn State researchers have created a new hybrid technology that produces unprecedented amounts of electrical power where seawater and freshwater combine at the coast. “The goal of this technology is to generate electricity from where the rivers meet the ocean,” said Christopher Gorski, assistant professor in environmental […]
Subaru to Develop Electric Variants of Current Range
May 26th, 2017Via: The Motor Report: Subaru is set to join the ever-expanding electric vehicle field, but rather than developing a new ground-up EV platform the Japanese automaker will adapt its current range.
GM Sued Over Diesel Emissions
May 25th, 2017Via: Bloomberg: General Motors Co. was sued for allegedly putting defeat devices in trucks to beat emissions tests, making it the fifth carmaker to be accused of diesel cheating since Volkswagen AG admitted in 2015 to flouting pollution rules. Owners and lessees of more than 705,000 GM Duramax branded diesel trucks filed a class-action lawsuit […]
Switzerland Votes to Phase Out Nuclear Power
May 25th, 2017Via: MIT Technology Review: It’s a tough time to be in the nuclear business. In Europe, Germany banned construction of new plants following the Fukushima disaster in 2011, and Austria stopped the practice long ago. The U.S., meanwhile, has a fleet of aging and costly reactors, and recent attempts to build new ones have been […]
Thai Company to Build a Tesla Style Lithium Ion Battery Factory
May 25th, 2017Via: Bloomberg: A little-known company from Thailand with grand ambitions in clean energy wants to take on Tesla Inc. at its own game. Energy Absolute Pcl, which has morphed in recent years from a producer of biodiesel to Thailand’s leading renewable energy company, is eyeing a major push into energy storage with plans to develop […]
