Yes, you are right. This is exactly the time of year when a well-known Polish EV pioneer (a real one, unlike the many who are simply followers) takes to the roads of Europe to test e-mobility in real life.
When covering Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week for CleanTechnica a month ago, I got invited to interview Caleb Waugh of Lockheed Martin Energy, who is Head of Business Analytics for Energy Storage there. Yes, Lockheed Martin. Knowing how many everyday innovations originated from the military sector, from GPS to microwaves, I was curious to see what is in hiding for the energy storage industry.
The pace is fast here at Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week — panels, press conferences, announcements, round tables, interviews, and more presentations. For an inexperienced rookie journalist like me, it feels like a rollercoaster. Thank God the rollercoaster stops from time to time, and today it stopped for me with a roundtable interview with Bader Al Lamki, Executive Director of Clean Energy at Masdar.
I toured Masdar City for the first time this week. It is difficult to not be overwhelmed with the vision and execution taking place there. If you are new to cleantech news, make sure you go to the Masdar City website and check out its amazing architecture, admire its focus on residents instead of cars, and share with others its ambitious energy efficiency targets (which, by the way, Masdar* often exceeds).
Attending the 9th session of IRENA’s General Assembly on Friday, we were all looking forward to one item on the agenda – launch of a new report, The Geopolitics of Energy Transformation.
COP24 is behind us and I am still deep in materials, interviews, and reflections after the event. And trust me, reflections are not easy when you are Polish. I bet you all remember the famous phrase: “Life is Stranger than Fiction.” That is basically what I felt listening and watching to our government in action. Having said that, I will say almost no more about the Polish contribution to climate change and will focus on what I learnt and didn’t learn during the 2018 Sustainable Innovation Forum held in Katowice, Poland, alongside COP24 itself.
When writing my letter to Elon Musk a few weeks ago, little did I know about the real actions undertaken by so few for so many. Tesla is a dream — a dream of an extraordinary electric vehicle everybody wants to own, a dream of an out-of-the-universe leader, Elon Musk, who everybody wants to follow, and a dream of a gigafactory every nation wants to attract. It seems now that Poles around the world are joining forces to save Elon from making a terrible mistake by going some other place than Poland. 🙂 Here is the story.
I wonder how many times you have heard about the chicken and egg dilemma in the context of EV rollout and charging infrastructure. Should charging infrastructure come first to encourage EV buyers or should EV drivers come first to force the development of the charging infrastructure? I bet you’ve heard that more than actually necessary since market-driven changes usually happen simultaneously and opportunity attracts business initiatives from both teams — chickens and eggs.
I have decided to write this short letter to you following rumours of a Tesla factory opening in Germany. As a Tesla fan, user and campaigner, I feel somehow obliged to tell you there are better places for your European presence (not saying Germany is a bad choice, but simply that there are better). The location I have in mind, naturally, is Poland. Here are just a few reasons behind it, in random order (or not).
There seems to be some kind of attachment I feel towards Shenzhen as I have already used it as benchmark (high one!) for some Polish activities related to e-mobility. Yet again, let me use it to praise one of my favourite cities — that is Wrocław in Poland.
