The most recent cover story in The Economist announces, “The death of the internal combustion engine… it had a good run. But the end is in sight.” In a remarkable account, The Economist reports that the internal combustion engine’s “days are numbered. Rapid gains in battery technology favour electric motors instead. … Today’s electric cars, powered by lithium-ion batteries, can do much better.”
Darwin is set to play host to Australia’s very own – and mostly likely it’s first – solar powered battery “giga-factory,” after local renewables outfit Energy Renaissance said it had received support from the Northern Territory government for its proposed 1GWh lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant.
A study conducted by Nissan and Enel shows that electric car owners can get paid more than $1,500 a year if they participate in a V2G program and that doing so actually extends battery life.
Lithium is a key component of lithium-ion batteries and lithium-ion batteries are a key component of the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy and electric cars. But until now, it has been in relatively short supply, sparking fierce competition among mining companies. It is one of the most abundant elements in the world, but commercial mining has been limited due to limited demand. A new Stanford study offers some insight into where more lithium can be gathered. It is titled, “Lithium enrichment in intracontinental rhyolite magmas leads to Li deposits in caldera basins.”
Wow. Sounds like a real page-turner, doesn’t it?
A new report from Morgan Stanley claims that grid storage is now reliable enough to become a mainstay of the utility grid and marginalizing so-called peaker plants.
Clean air and a livable climate are inalienable human rights. And solving this crisis is not a question of politics. It is a question of our own survival.
Tesla Australia has created a Tiny House to introduce Australians to the benefits of residential rooftop solar power. It will be towed behind a Model X to every major city in Australia.
The top 20 CleanTechnica stories of the week included a handful of blockbusters. Check out the stories below if you somehow missed them.
Australia is undergoing something of an energy crisis — growing demand combined with under-investment in the electric grid has recently led to a series of embarrassing blackouts, and electric rates are soaring. South Australia has just overtaken Denmark as the place with the world’s most expensive electricity.
Coming off a landmark Tesla Model 3 launch event, Elon Musk sounded upbeat, positive and somewhat relieved on Tesla’s recent conference call discussing the company’s second quarter financial results*. He explained that this was: “maybe the best I’ve ever felt about Tesla. Last week stressed the hell out of me but I really think this is probably the best I’ve ever felt about the company.” At one point, Elon said bluntly: “At a systemic level we are substantially more efficient than other carmakers.”
