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Energy Week #382: 7/30/2020
Thursday, July 23
Tesla Solarglass Roof installation (Kyle Field | CleanTechnica)
¶ “Tesla Tripled Solar Roof Installations In Q2 2020” • Tesla released what was perhaps the most highly anticipated quarterly earnings letter to date. While much of Tesla’s business was flat quarter on quarter due to coronavirus, we learned Tesla was able to triple the number of Solar Roof installations in Q2 compared to Q1 of this year. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “Confirmed: Tesla’s Giga Texas In Austin, Texas, Will Build Cybertruck, Semi, Model 3 And Y” • In Tesla’s quarterly earnings letter, CEO Elon Musk confirmed the location of the new factory. It will be Giga Texas, built just outside Austin. It will produce the Cybertruck, but also the Tesla Semi, Model Y, and Model 3 for customers in the Eastern US. [CleanTechnica]
Solar array (Featured image: Stock)
¶ “Flexible Energy Systems For Africa Accelerated By Crises” • In South Africa, responding to the department of mineral resources and energy’s first budget speech since a departmental merger, Standard Bank Group says the Covid-19 crisis highlights that Africa needs to develop flexible energy systems, renewables and decentralized. [ESI Africa]
Friday, July 24
Tesla Semi (Tesla image)
¶ “Tesla’s Efficiency Advantage: Cheap And Abundant LFP Batteries Will Power Mass-Market EVs” • Tesla’s second quarter earnings call just confirmed what may be the hottest technology topic for the EV revolution. Relatively inexpensive and abundant Lithium Iron Phosphate (aka LiFPO₄) batteries can be well suited to affordable mass market EVs. [CleanTechnica]
Underground farm
¶ “Is Underground Farming The Future Of Food?” • Since last September, those who descend underground at Seoul’s Sangdo Station and push through the ticket gate are met with an unusual sight: behind a glass-panelled facade, leafy shoots, sprouts, and microgreens have sprung up from under bright LED lights as part of a subterranean, organic farm. [BBC]
Clouds (World Climate Research Programme)
¶ “The Best Case Scenario For Climate Warming Is So Not Happening” • The latest climate report prepared on behalf of the World Climate Research Program looks closely at three climate models and concluded that the best case 1.5°C path is extremely unlikely to happen. It says there is a 66% chance the planet will warm by 2.6°C to 3.9°C. [CleanTechnica]
Saturday, July 25
¶ “1H20 saw a rise in global renewables investment” • Renewable energy capacity investment showed great resilience in the first half of 2020, in the face of the unprecedented economic shock caused by the coronavirus, according to the latest figures from research company BloombergNEF. Offshore wind financings were up 319% from of last year. [Energy Global]
Mt Pinatubo eruption (Image credit: USGS)
¶ “Harvard Profs Plan Geoengineering Experiment, Igniting Ethics Debate” • Two Harvard professors say they are planning to inject about 2 kg (4.4 lbs) of calcium carbonate dust into the air over Arizona to see what effect it has on the amount of solar radiation reaching the Earth below. There are people who do not approve of this type of geoengineering. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “NextEra Energy To Build Its First Green Hydrogen Plant In Florida” • NextEra Energy is closing its last coal-fired power unit and investing in its first green hydrogen facility. In an earnings call, NextEra said it was proposing a $65 million pilot in Florida with a 20-MW electrolyzer to produce 100% green hydrogen from solar power. [Greentech Media]
Sunday, July 26
Inside the MTC structure (Mike Cannon-Brookes | Atlassian)
¶ “World’s Largest Hybrid Timber Tower Will Be Built In Sydney” • The world’s largest timber hybrid tower is going to be built in Sydney, Australia. This hybrid timber tower is made with a technique known as Mass Timber Construction. MTC has a steel exoskeleton supports the entire structure, largely built of wood and glass. [CleanTechnica]
Dawn (Karsten Würth | Unsplash.com)
¶ “To Solve The Climate Crisis, We Need An Investment Revolution” • We depend on our leaders in moments of crisis. We also depend on the tenacity and insights of scientists, the ingenuity and vision of entrepreneurs, and the resourcefulness and boldness of companies to solve big problems. But we also need investors. [World Economic Forum]
Offshore wind turbines (© Getty)
¶ “Recent Gutting Of Regulations Is Inhibiting Adequate Review Of Renewable Energy Projects” • With offshore wind energy activities underway in states along the Atlantic coast, we stand at the start of an exciting offshore wind energy boom. But these states are acting in the absence of federal leadership, and that poses an unnecessary hindrance. [MSN Money]
Monday, July 27
High Lonesome wind farm in Texas (Enel Green Power image)
¶ “Renewable Energy Provides More Than 25% Of US Electricity In May Of 2020” • Renewable energy produced significantly more electricity than either coal or nuclear power during the first five months of 2020, SUN DAY Campaign analysis shows. In May, renewable sources provided 25.3% of the nation’s electricity, an all-time high. [Renewables Now]
Desert PVs (Godong | Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
¶ “World’s Largest Solar Power Plant Moves Forward In Abu Dhabi With Contract Award” • Plans for developing the world’s largest solar power plant in the deserts of the Gulf have been given the go-ahead, with the authorities in the UAE awarding the project to a multinational consortium. The project had been bid at the historic low of 1.35¢/kWh. [Forbes]
Standard Lithium facility in Arkansas (Standard Lithium)
¶ “Standard Lithium Ramping Up Lithium From Brine Operations” • Standard Lithium, based in British Columbia, is one of the largest producers of bromine, which is extracted from groundwater. Now it has a process that captures lithium from its wastewater. It is developing that process at sites in Arkansas and California. [CleanTechnica]
Tuesday, July 28
Solar farm in the state of Chihuahua (Source: NexTracker Inc)
¶ “Clean-Energy Optimism Soars As World Struggles With The Pandemic’s Fallout” • As companies and governments try work to recover from the Covid-19 crisis, leaders in the renewable energy sector say business is chugging along, attracting new money and new players. The momentum is being fueled by falling costs and popular support. [S&P Global]
¶ “Era Of Subsidy-Free Offshore Wind Turbines Has Arrived, Researchers Say” • Researchers found that the cost of offshore wind farms in some parts of the world is now so low that they are generating ‘negative subsidies’ that leave energy users financially better off. The paper was published in the academic journal Nature Energy. [RenewEconomy]
Traffic (Chad Myers | NWS)
¶ “EPA Watchdog To Review Trump’s Auto Emissions Rule Changes” • The Trump administration’s overhaul of vehicle emission standards is under review by the EPA inspector general to determine whether it met requirements for “transparency, record-keeping, and docketing, and followed the EPA’s process for developing final regulatory actions.” [CNN]
Wednesday, July 29
Wind turbine in Colorado (Christian Murdock | The Gazette)
¶ “Study Finds Renewable Energy Has Created 6,300 Jobs In Rural Colorado” • The renewable energy industry has created 6,334 jobs and generates $388.6 million a year in economic activity in eastern Colorado, according to a study from The Western Way, a Denver-based conservative environmental group. [Colorado Springs Gazette]
Animal rescue (John Moore | Getty Images)
¶ “Nearly 3 Billion Animals Killed Or Displaced In Australia’s Fires, Scientists Say” • Nearly 3 billion animals were killed or displaced by the catastrophic bushfire season that scorched tens of millions of acres across Australia in 2019 and 2020, according to experts. They hope the research will demonstrate the urgent need for action to prevent future disasters. [HuffPost]
Off-grid electricity charging a cell phone (Courtesy of Engie)
¶ “1.4 Million Ugandans To Access Reliable And Affordable Energy Under New Initiative” • Millions of people in villages of Uganda are set to access reliable, cheap electricity for the first time under a new off-grid solar scheme that Fenix International, an ENGIE subsidiary, and the European Investment Bank have agreed on. [Renewable Energy Magazine]
Energy Week #382: 7/30/2020
Energy, renewable energy, wind power, Solar, batteries, Nuclear, coal, oil, gas, Climate Change
Energy Week with George Harvey and Tom Finnell 