There have been significant milestones met and exceeded the world over, but also some tremendous failures — an awkward combination which came together in Australia, where political turmoil and antipathy were bypassed by state-level and independent action to bring about a record year of clean energy investment.
China is making a major push to add grid storage batteries to its utility grid. In addition to lithium-ion batteries, it is also encouraging vanadium flow installations like the one in Dalian province.
Norwegian oil, gas, and wind company Equinor announced just before Christmas that it is exercising an option to acquire a 50% interest in the 1,560 megawatt (MW) Bałtyk I offshore wind farm located in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Poland.
Two companies — one in the UK and one in the US — are working to bring perovskite solar technology to market. Perovskites use inexpensive and abundant raw materials, which could cut the price of solar panels in half.
US farmers and rural communities will continue to benefit from renewable energy and energy efficiency funding through the US Department of Agriculture.
Leading clean energy analysts IHS Markit released a new solar PV installation forecast before Christmas which expects to see 2019 deliver the highest level of new solar capacity installed in a year, with annual installations to increase by 18% and reach 123 gigawatts (GW).
First surfboards, then the world: plastic from algae kicks into high gear with new $2 million BETO-funded polyurethane project.
We’ve now had a 2015 BMW i3 REx for 6 months. We’re a family of four. The young ones are 2 years old and 4 years old, so don’t go to school. We have no other car in the household, but I work from home and my wife is a full-time (+ overtime) mom. We could pay for a garage and have a place to charge, but we decided after moving here that we didn’t need that.
Elon Musk took to Twitter on the day after Christmas to remind everyone how important driving an electric car is for the environment and to let them know that the Supercharger network will cover all of Europe, North America, Mexico, and China by the end of 2019.
Hackers targeting the electrical grid, your local utility, or the solar microgrid your home is linked into will have a harder time disrupting your electrons in the near future. Manufacturers of electronic equipment used in smart homes, in microgrids, and in utilities are beginning to adopt a set of cybersecurity standards set out by the Underwriters Laboratory. At the same time, manufacturer-sponsored test hacking is helping to drive more frequent —and more secure — firmware and software upgrades.
