To green the grid, we must adopt a strategy of meeting our energy needs with low-cost renewable wind and solar resources. The obvious question is how to resolve the intermittency issue (what happens when the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine). Solving this problem is a necessary ingredient for “saving the planet.”
Following some of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s comments regarding battery production during the quarterly Tesla conference call for shareholders last week, I decided to have two long conversations with Howard Klein and Rodney Hooper of RK Equity about the EV battery production and mining industries.
The Atlantic Coast Pipeline went kablooey over the weekend, signaling a broader pivot from gas to renewables, energy storage, and EV infrastructure.
The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) has been promoting and tracking clean energy in the US Southeast for many years. It now puts out an annual Solar in the Southeast report. Along with state comparisons on megawatts of solar installed, policy, and other matters, SACE actually calculates and shares installed solar capacity per customer for states and utilities.
North Carolina offers one of the beautiful coasts in the country. I’ve slept in the sand dunes of that coast, waking early to drift with the wind out to sea. With all that to offer, the good news is that, beyond beauty, the North Carolina coast offers an opportunity for clean energy and green careers, invaluable technical and service jobs in the renewable energy sector.
Pipeline giant Kinder Morgan is cutting a 400-mile line across the middle of Texas, digging up vast swaths of private land for its planned Permian Highway Pipeline. The project is ceaseless, continuing through the coronavirus pandemic. Landowner Heath Frantzen said that dozens of workers have showed up to his ranch in Fredericksburg, even as public health officials urged people to stay at home.
Compared to most states, the large installations of North Carolina’s solar industry have been less influenced by the economic slide from the pandemic. The question is, will those numbers hold over the next few months? The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) recently released state data on solar job losses. Better news than others only slightly abates the concerns, as North Carolina is still showing 19% fewer solar workers than expected in June according to the data.
“Dear Tesla and Elon Musk,” writes a user on Reddit in a post that has been deleted by the administrators, “thank you for your technology. Because of you, I won’t be going to a funeral this weekend, because you saved a family member.”
2020 could be the big year for electric big rigs. Many truck makers are accelerating their electric truck projects toward launches this year, and Tesla has already taken orders for its futuristic, battery-powered Semi from several big fleet operators.
I absolutely appreciate the network of charging stations that Electrify America is providing. I used the network almost exclusively in a 4 state drive with a short-range electric vehicle (EV). I drove the 2015 BMW i3 from Electrify America charging station to charging station from deep in Florida to the Appalachians and then back. I had some problems, some small delays, but never had to leave any group of stations without a charge. Yet, I think my suggestions should be taken seriously.
