Last year, when I presented* at a big institutional investment conference in India, there was a lot of talk about solar, but little about electric vehicles. Of course, a large portion of my presentation was about Tesla and electric cars. The presentation* from Indian Minister of Coal, Power, and New & Renewable Energy, Piyush Goyal, highlighted the highly competitive cost of solar power but didn’t really touch electric vehicles.
Revolution is a brewing. In two weeks, we will be in the midst of our second Cleantech Revolution Tour conference in Berlin, and our 4th overall. We have a tremendous lineup of speakers and panelists scheduled for Berlin and Wroclaw, and a unique format that will result on some practical end products.
Additionally, this year’s series brings “tour” into the agenda in a deeper way — with each conference held in two cities.
Researchers in Canada and China have discovered new ways to make sustainable metals and reclaim scrap metal for battery electrodes.
The most popular articles of the past week — unsurprisingly — were about the Tesla Model 3 and how it will compete against various electric and gasoline models. Check out the full top 20 list for the stories that got the most attention.
Some people complain that electric cars are not that green because some electricity comes from burning coal. Elon Musk says all Tesla Supercharger locations will be powered by solar panels eventually. That ought to shut those people up!
Today’s grid is becoming more digitized with information technology, helping to make the transition to renewable energy a relatively smooth process.
Despite this, significant challenges — including blackouts, natural disasters, and cyber attacks — doe pose high risks to the grid.
Tesla has a new idea it calls aggregation and it is the next step in its plan to bring renewable energy to the utility grid. The first phase of that plan is the installation of Tesla Powerpack grid scale storage units at substations throughout the area served by a utility. The second phase is linking thousands of individual Powerwall residential battery systems to provide extra storage capacity.
The more than 1400 oil and gas platforms currently located in the North Sea might eventually be used to fight the problem they helped to create: unsustainable energy generation. By revamping these installation, they could become part of the energy revolution as hydrogen production and storage facilities.
Digital controls from GE Power can lower emissions from electricity generation enough to equal removing 250 million cars from the world’s roads.
Rick Perry has directed the Department of Energy to do a 60-day study of the U.S. electric grid. While the memo was not publicized, it was obtained by various news sources. I was unable to find it online, but I managed to get a copy and put up as a page on my blog for those who want to see.
