Azuri Technologies’ official distribution partner in Zambia, Kazang Solar, has been awarded $1.6 million from the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund to provide solar home lighting to 7,000 mostly off-grid homes. Azuri answered some questions about the project for CleanTechnica.
EVBox recently announced the acquisition of the French ultra-fast and fast EV charger manufacturer EVTronic. With the acquisition, EVBox added 700 of the EVTronic fast-charging stations to its European network. EVBox currently has about 60,000 charging stations worldwide, the largest network globally.
Kodiak Robotics was founded in April and just raised $40 million in series A funding. CRV, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Battery Ventures, and Tusk Ventures are some of the backers. Currently, the company has about 10 employees and will use the funds to grow the team and for product development.
About 236 orders were recently placed for Teslas in Russia, which would be about an 80% increase in the current fleet if they are all fulfilled. The total there now is approximately 300, even though there are no Tesla stores or charging stations. The orders were placed on the website of Svyaznoy, a company that is now working with the Moscow Tesla Club to import more Teslas.
University of Missouri researchers have found that a common songbird, the Acadian flycatcher, could decline greatly in numbers within this century if the climate continues to increase in temperature. In fact, it is possible it could be driven into near extinction in just 90 years. Dr. Thomas Bonnot and research wildlife biologist Frank Thompson collaborated on the research, and Bonnot answered come questions for CleanTechnica.
John Zelek, a professor in the Department of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo, has been leading a research group to study how AI could be used to better maintain road surfaces. (Their work may also apply to bridges and buildings.) AI has shown promise in its ability to process huge amounts of information in collections of images to detect patterns. Zelek and his colleagues used images from Google Street View to develop their system. He answered some questions for Cleantechnica.com about the research.
The Canadian startup InOrbis transports travelers between Calgary and Edmonton using Tesla Model S and Model X vehicles — echoing the business models of similar startups such as Tesloop and Tesla Shuttle. The company was founded by Rosario Fortugno, who answered some questions for CleanTechnica.
The Rocky Mountain Institute’s Business Renewables Center recently reported US corporate renewable energy procurement achieved a new record in 2018, with 3.57 gigawatts of announced clean energy projects so far this year. The previous record was 3.12 GW set in 2015. Kevin Haley, a program manager at the Business Renewables Center, answered some questions for CleanTechnica.
Twenty billion dollars in loans and $1.6 billion in financial aid was recently pledged by Chinese President Xi Jinping to countries in the Middle East to help boost economic growth there.
An amendment was approved by the upper house of the Polish parliament recently to support more investment in green energy. This development might be a step in the right direction for a country which relies heavily on coal, but the amendment still needs to receive the President’s signature.
