The United States wind energy industry installed a total of 612 megawatts (MW) of new capacity in the third quarter, according to the most recent figures from the American Wind Energy Association published Tuesday, paving the way for 7 states to double their capacity in the near-term.
Elon Musk says he is considering doubling the size of Gigafactory 1 in Nevada and tripling the number of people working there, provided the state of Nevada and the local community can solve the critical lack of affordable housing in the area.
The Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development has conducted an audit of Tesla’s and parter Panasonic’s spending in Q4 2017. The office found that the combined capital investment at the Reno Gigafactory continued to exceed benchmarks set to earn state tax incentives.
As the Gigafactory in Nevada continues to grow, so does Tesla’s commitment to local schools. Tesla is looking to “give students more access to specialized fields of study such as Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM),” according to Teslarati. JB Straubel, Tesla’s co-founder and CTO, explains, “The demand for STEM jobs in Nevada will continue to grow dramatically over the next few years.”
Panasonic is ramping up its 2170 cell production “more than 30%” at the Gigafactory by the end of 2018 in response to increased demand for Tesla’s Model 3, the Japanese publication Nikkan reports.
The idea of using abandoned surface coal mines for new utility scale solar farms has been tossed around for awhile now, and the idea certainly is appealing. The NIMBY issue would practically fade away into nothing, and a new study suggests that the potential area for solar development climbs into … [continued]
We have seen solar power in the Middle East come into the low 2 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) range. We have seen it under 2 cents per kWh in Mexico. Misguided, casual observers claimed these prices only occurred due to heavily exploited labor, but now we have also seen 2.155 cents per kWh in the United States. This contract was one of six contracts that Nevada Power recently signed. All six contracts came in under 3 cents per kWh.
In a move that could upset the US political apple cart all over Washington, Nevada Congresswoman Jacky Rosen has introduced a bipartisan bill to the House of Congress which, if successful, could overturn the 30% tariff on imported solar cells and modules introduced by President Donald Trump earlier this year.
It’s pretty common nowadays to hear the claim that the only reason that Tesla, or SpaceX, or any of Elon Musk’s other ventures exists is because of government subsidies. I’ve myself heard the claim quite a lot over just the last few weeks. The funny thing: I haven’t heard any specifics from those making these claims about how they are “subsidized.” The general consensus when pressed seems to be: “Well, that’s what I heard (and I don’t like him).”
Across the world, power downtime keeps going up. Power outages increased in frequency and were more widespread in 2016, affecting 33% more people, showing that we definitely need a solar storage solution.
