Renewable Energy

[Sigmetnow]

Also note that they calculate each end-user sector energy loss in proportion to the sector's total electricity sales:

Total energy consumption, which is the sum of primary energy consumption, electricity retail sales, and electrical system energy losses. Losses are allocated to the end-use sectors in proportion to each sector’s share of total electricity retail sales.
http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/annual/diagram1.cfm

[Laurent]

Is the Road to Solar a Solar Road?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/x-prize-foundation/is-the-road-to-solar-a-so_b_6681534.html?utm_hp_ref=green&ir=Green

We are not asking ourself the good questions !!! Will we learn anything some time ?
Where is the analysis of the amount of CO2 required to build and install these panels ? (not to speak of pollution, etc...)
I am not saying that it must not be done, I am just saying producing electriciy is not the only thing to be taken into account.

[Sigmetnow]

Is the Road to Solar a Solar Road?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/x-prize-foundation/is-the-road-to-solar-a-so_b_6681534.html?utm_hp_ref=green&ir=Green

We are not asking ourself the good questions !!! Will we learn anything some time ?
Where is the analysis of the amount of CO2 required to build and install these panels ? (not to speak of pollution, etc...)
I am not saying that it must not be done, I am just saying producing electriciy is not the only thing to be taken into account.

The Solar Roadways project in Idaho addresses many environmental concerns besides clean electricity.  The panels can incorporate heating, like the defroster strips in car windows, which melts ice and snow, eliminating the need for salt on the roads.  Channels beside the road trap runoff water, which can be treated to reduce pollution.  Other channels provide space to run power cables, eliminating above-ground cables with their vulnerability to extreme weather and accidents.

Their FAQ page has lots of good information:  http://solarroadways.com/faq.shtml

Also, keeping in mind that cement production is the largest contributor of global CO2 emissions after fossil fuels, deforestation, and agriculture -- this technology could help reduce that.  Recycled glass is used where possible in the glass surface, for example.  So I think the overall benefit could well be positive.

[Sigmetnow]

More on the Desert Sunlight and other U.S. solar projects. It's record big, but that may soon be moot.  It looks like the future will be smaller solar installations, not bigger.  After all, air pollution is not a concern....

Utilities faced with renewable energy mandates, Antoun said, will more likely turn to projects in the 100-megawatt range, located closer to energy consumers. Projects built near cities require far less transmission infrastructure, which is expensive to build and poses a host of environmental concerns.

http://www.desertsun.com/story/tech/science/energy/2015/02/09/worlds-largest-solar-plant-opens-riverside-county/23148349/

[Sigmetnow]

Nigeria signs Memorandum of Understanding for 1000 MW solar energy plant, including financing from local banks.

He also urged the firm to tap into the huge power technology abounding in South Korea to deliver quality power plant in Nigeria.

He noted that South Korea has abundant solar energy farms and that such could be replicated in Nigeria to power cluster industries with advanced battery storage systems and that such plants require huge financing.

The Chairman of the company, Kelvin Iyke Asogwa, said that the project has buoyant financiers, following collaboration with local banks for the projects.

http://www.evwind.es/2015/02/13/nigeria-signs-mou-for-1000-mw-solar-energy-plant/50493

[Sigmetnow]

Google buys a wind energy PPA which will replace 370 wind turbines from the 1980’s (Altamont Pass in California) with 24 new ones, incorporating better efficiency, siting, and wildlife protection.

From Harvard to Amazon, several unexpected organizations are turning to wind power. Google is the latest to add more wind power, purchasing one of the first wind farms in the world, which project owner NextEra Energy Resources will repower with modern turbines that will produce an equal amount of energy with far fewer units, which do so with far lower wildlife impacts.

Google was one of the first non-utility companies to invest in wind and has been doing so ever since, both through power purchase agreements (PPAs) and direct project investment. This week, it announced a PPA that will provide enough electricity for the entire energy usage of its Mountain View, Calif. headquarters. The map below illustrates how a host of companies and organizations have also found the win-win benefits of wind power—energy for their operations that’s not only clean but affordable and comes with stable prices they can count on for years to come.

This week’s announcement, though, brought a couple of new twists. Google entered the 43-megawatt PPA for power coming from the iconic Bay Area wind farm at California’s Altamont Pass, which was built in the 1980’s as one of the first utility-scale wind farms. However, those older, first-generation, lattice tower-type turbines will not be providing the electricity. Rather, by the time the PPA kicks in in 2016, NextEra will have repowered the project with modern wind turbines (sleek towers and all) boasting the latest technology and relying on improved siting practices.

The PPA and repowering, therefore, is symbolic of the industry’s relentless technology advance, which continues to this day. Fewer turbines, operating at greater heights and sited further apart with the state-of-the-art techniques and industry experience accumulated across three decades, will be producing the energy this time around.

Altamont Pass’s wind projects were developed at a time when the industry had little understanding of wildlife risks and how to avoid and minimize  them through siting practices and related measures. The advancement of industry knowledge since the earliest days of facility development, in the form of both technology, siting techniques, as well as avoidance, minimization and mitigation measures, will allow the repowered wind farm to operate with far less impact on birds and other wildlife.

Notes Google on its official blog, “Once the installation is complete, and the 370 legacy turbines are replaced, it will take just 24 new ones to generate as much power as our campus uses in a year. Talk about doing more with less.”

[solartim27]

Is the Road to Solar a Solar Road?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/x-prize-foundation/is-the-road-to-solar-a-so_b_6681534.html?utm_hp_ref=green&ir=Green

We are not asking ourself the good questions !!! Will we learn anything some time ?
Where is the analysis of the amount of CO2 required to build and install these panels ? (not to speak of pollution, etc...)
I am not saying that it must not be done, I am just saying producing electriciy is not the only thing to be taken into account.

The Solar Roadways project in Idaho addresses many environmental concerns besides clean electricity.  The panels can incorporate heating, like the defroster strips in car windows, which melts ice and snow, eliminating the need for salt on the roads.  Channels beside the road trap runoff water, which can be treated to reduce pollution.  Other channels provide space to run power cables, eliminating above-ground cables with their vulnerability to extreme weather and accidents.

Their FAQ page has lots of good information:  http://solarroadways.com/faq.shtml

Also, keeping in mind that cement production is the largest contributor of global CO2 emissions after fossil fuels, deforestation, and agriculture -- this technology could help reduce that.  Recycled glass is used where possible in the glass surface, for example.  So I think the overall benefit could well be positive.

It sounds like a great idea, but it's still missing a lot of detail, and has lots of design issues.  This was covered back in July by the Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcast (episode 470)
http://www.theskepticsguide.org/podcast/sgu/470
I wonder where all the glass to be recycled is going to come from, and how much power it takes to process.  How is the current glass recycling being used, where is it going, and what will replace that volume?

[Sigmetnow]

...
It sounds like a great idea, but it's still missing a lot of detail, and has lots of design issues.  This was covered back in July by the Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcast (episode 470)
http://www.theskepticsguide.org/podcast/sgu/470
I wonder where all the glass to be recycled is going to come from, and how much power it takes to process.  How is the current glass recycling being used, where is it going, and what will replace that volume?

The folks in that podcast need to do a lot more research.  The US government was looking for projects that would replace roads with something that would give a payback, within 5 years.  The government funded Solar Roadways -- twice -- towards that purpose, and are in discussions with them again now.  Hardly the sign of a worthless project.  Of course Solar Roadways can't give a price at this point, because what would they be giving a price for?  How many miles, of what kind of highways or streets, in what kind of climate?  The entire podcast discussion is moot.

Solar Freakin' Rebuttal   http://www.solarroadways.com/clearingthefreakinair.shtml

For more, please see the Solar Roadways thread.

[Sigmetnow]

Rwanda to officially open first utility-scale solar field in East Africa

The village is leasing land to house the solar facility, the fees from which will help pay for a portion of the Village's charitable expenses. Gigawatt Global will also be providing training on solar power to students of the Liquidnet High School on the grounds of the Youth Village.

http://the-helmet.com/news/Energy/2015/02/03/Rwanda_to_officially_open_first_utility-scale_solar_field_in_East_Africa

[Sigmetnow]

South Africa Saved $69 Million From Solar, Wind Energy In 2014

The net financial saving of over $60 million is an excellent advertisement for the South African renewable energy sector which may see a further boost once the government introduces the carbon tax policy. Companies that would be required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the carbon tax policy would be able to fulfil their obligations by generating offsets from renewable energy projects which, as shown by the CSIR, would bring in significant financial savings.

http://cleantechnica.com/2015/02/17/south-africa-saved-69-million-solar-wind-energy-2014/

[Sigmetnow]

India is planning to install at least 100 gigawatts of solar power by 2022 — a goal that solar power giant China only plans on beating by two years.

They are planning the world's largest:

...the 750-megawatt solar plant in Madhya Pradesh will be inaugurated on August 15, 2016 — India’s Independence Day. The plant will be significantly larger than the world-leading solar farms in California, including the recently-commissioned Desert Sunlight Solar Farm.
...
With an average Indian household using only around one-thirteenth of the power required by an average American home, the 750-megawatt project, which will be on 90 percent government-owned land, could bring power to some two million households.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/02/17/3623515/india-building-worlds-largest-solar-farm/

As well as the maximum number of smaller installations -- which are seen as a great business opportunity:

This unmet demand for electricity presents a huge opportunity for off-grid renewable energy solutions, in particular solar home systems (SHS), and decentralized renewable energy (DRE) systems.

The Climate Group, in partnership with Goldman Sachs Center for Environmental Markets, has published a flagship study to identify promising off-grid energy business models in India with the greatest potential for scale-up.

http://www.theclimategroup.org/what-we-do/publications/the-business-case-for-off-grid-energy-in-india/

[Sigmetnow]

Ocean waves now powering part of Australia's grid.
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2015/worlds-first-grid-connected-wave-energy-array-switched-perth-77510

[Sigmetnow]

GM announces its Mexican factories will be powered by wind.

...it’s cheaper than our current source of power in Mexico—and it makes sense from a sustainable standpoint.”

http://www.wired.com/2015/02/gm-will-soon-use-wind-power-factories/

[Sigmetnow]

In 2011, one million Bangladeshi homes were powered by solar power.  Today, there are over 15 million homes (and counting) that are powered by solar power.  Every month, the Bangladesh governments adds solar panels to 50,000-60,000 homes through their Solar Home System (SHS) government program.  The idea, is that the entire country will be operating on solar power by 2021.

https://www.minds.com/blog/view/414130823768313856/bangladesh-to-become-world039s-1st-nation-100-powered-by-solar-panels-on-every-houseu

[Sigmetnow]

@tcktcktck: To meet its climate goals, Jamaica is aiming to plant 700 trees every day for four years.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/environment/1-million-trees-over-4-years_18417543

[Sigmetnow]

Tajikistan’s women take solar power into their own hands
http://www.rtcc.org/2015/02/20/tajikistans-women-take-solar-power-into-their-own-hands/

[Sigmetnow]

Pakistan's northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province plans to supply solar power to 5,800 off-grid households in 200 villages, promoting clean energy amid conventional electricity shortages.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/18/us-pakistan-energy-solar-idUSKBN0LM0OR20150218

[Sigmetnow]

Kaiser Permanente, already a big user and promoter of solar power, has signed deals to obtain half of its electrical power in California beginning in 2016 from renewable sources, and is taking other steps to drastically reduce the health care system's huge carbon footprint.

Kaiser Permanente's facilities around the U.S. release more than 800,000 metric tons of harmful greenhouse gases annually, according to company figures.

If all goes according to plan, officials said Wednesday, the Oakland-based health care giant will reduce its nationwide greenhouse gas emissions by one-third in 2017, compared to 2008 totals. It plans to hit that goal three years earlier than it predicted in 2012, when it aimed to reach that milestone in 2020.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2015/02/kaiser-permanente-electricity-renewable-energy.html?page=all

[Sigmetnow]

New German study says solar could be the cheapest source of electrical power in many regions of the world by 2025.

EU:
http://www.euractiv.com/sections/energy/solar-could-be-cheaper-coal-and-gas-2025-study-says-312320

Tcktcktck:
http://tcktcktck.org/2015/02/study-solar-could-be-worlds-cheapest-energy-source-by-2025/66683

Australia (with the study paper itself):
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-24/solar-track-becoming-cheapest-energy-source-agora-energiewende/6251322

[Sigmetnow]

Specially-camouflaged wind turbines have been installed on the Eiffel Tower.
http://cleantechnica.com/2015/02/24/eiffel-towers-custom-painted-micro-wind-turbines-will-wow-millions/

 

[Sigmetnow]

California:

In the latest sign that a Bay Area renewable energy trend is picking up steam, San Mateo County is taking a close look at buying its own power on the open market, instead of relying on PG&E, in a bid to lower its greenhouse gas emissions.
...
"A single measure can achieve two-thirds of the greenhouse gas emission reduction that the city is required to meet through our climate action plan," said Kathy Kleinbaum, the city's sustainability manager.
...
Marin Clean Energy and Sonoma Clean Power have seen promising results. Marin forecasts that its basic package, which consists of 50 percent renewable energy, will be $80.14 a month for a typical user in 2015, compared to $81.58 a month for PG&E power that is 22 percent renewable.

Marin customers can pay more for premium plans -- $84.77 for power that is 100 percent renewable and $107.92 for energy delivered entirely from local solar farms.

http://www.mercurynews.com/san-mateo-county-times/ci_27583128/san-mateo-county-looks-ditch-pg-e-jump

[P-maker]

Apple has decided to spend 1 Billion USD on a new data centre near Viborg in Denmark (see http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2015/02/23/apple-spend-2b-two-massive-european-data-centers/ ).
Located in the sweet spot between Danish wind power, Norwegian hydropower and German solar power hubs, Apple has decided to skip the diesel-electric back-up generators altogether to keep costs down. Excess heat from the plant will be used in the Central District Heating system in nearby Viborg (40,000 inhabitants).

[P-maker]

Today, President Obama did the only right thing to help efficient renewables reach a tipping point. He refused to sign the Keystone XL bill (see http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/feb/24/obama-vetoes-keystone-xl-pipeline-bill ).

As he stated:

“Climate change is real, it is caused by human activity and it is already causing devastating problems. Our job now is to aggressively transform our energy system away from fossil fuels into energy efficiency and sustainable energy,”

Go for it!

[Sigmetnow]

Production of wind turbines and solar panels soared in 2014, thanks to growing demand from China http://tcktcktck.org/2015/02/renewable-energy-industry-soaring-as-chinese-demand-grows/66785

[Sigmetnow]

Solar beer!

The largest solar power installation at an American Brewery has been completed. 3.2 megawatts is the capacity of the new solar power system at a MillerCoors plant in Irwindale, California. The 10,000-panel solar power system will provide enough electricity to brew about 7 million cases of beer each year.

http://cleantechnica.com/2015/02/01/millercoors-brew-7-million-cases-beer-solar-annually/

[Sigmetnow]

In Portland, Oregon, hydropower is underground.

In Portland, one of the city’s major drinking water pipelines has been upgraded to LucidPiping — the resulting electricity can now power large buildings or offset the city’s energy bill.

http://www.springwise.com/portland-water-pipes-harvest-green-energy-city/

[Sigmetnow]

Google and SolarCity announce a new fund worth $750 million to help install distributed rooftop solar on homes across the country.

That’s the largest investment in such a fund ever, according to SolarCity. It means “roughly 25,000″ new solar households and about 500 megawatts of new capacity, SolarCity spokesperson Jonathan Bass said in an interview.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/02/26/3627172/google-solarcity-big-solar-fund/

[Sigmetnow]

Solar power's health benefits are more than just low carbon emissions, particularly in emergency situations.

Life is hard enough in disaster zones and refugee camps. New, low-cost solar lamps and charging stations restore a slice of normalcy

http://www.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2015/02/refugee-disaster-solar-energy

[Sigmetnow]

There are many ways and styles of living off the grid.  The folks on this isolated Canadian island span quite a few.  Documentary video.

Lasqueti is a small island between Vancouver and Vancouver Island, home to a little known community of off-gridders who take pride in their isolation from both mainstream culture and mainland Canada.

http://nativewarriors.net/one-hour-from-vancouver-there-is-a-secret-island-where-everyone-lives-completely-off-grid.html

[Sigmetnow]

Middle Eastern bank says solar is the future.

A new report from a MENA region bank shows that solar will be at grid parity within two years in 80% of the world. The Middle East's leading bank, the NBAD, presented the report on Sunday, concluding that the recent DEWA solar auction demonstrated that solar is competitive with oil at $10/barrel and gas at $5/MMbtu.

http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/solar-pv-at-grid-parity-in-80-of-globe-by-2017_100018388/

[Sigmetnow]

Starting in April, solar users across Arizona will be subject to an additional rate charge of about $50 per month.
...
SolarCity, the largest rooftop solar installer in Arizona, has threatened to sue SRP over the charges, a scenario that is now all the more likely. Last week, SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive sent a letter to SRP’s board stating that the company “has made all necessary preparations to file suit.”

In the letter, Rive says the new price plan is “unsupportable by any economic analysis” and that the “fundamental purpose of the plan is to undermine solar leasing companies in SPR territory.”

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/02/27/3627891/arizona-utility-adds-50-dollar-rooftop-solar-fee/

[Sigmetnow]

The CEO of E.ON described his company's decision to ditch fossil fuels and focus on renewables, as reported by BusinessGreen in December, as a "bold new beginning". Johannes Teyssen pointed to drastic changes in the German energy market that triggered the development of a new strategy which will see the energy giant split into two independent firms - one focused on clean technologies, the other housing its interests in fossil fuels and nuclear.

It's the sort of transition that could soon become the norm among the big energy players in the not-too-distant future....

For the last 25 years, I have fought hard against defenders of finite carbon fuels. And I have lost battle after battle against the dark side. But in 2013, something changed and the tide began to turn. Now, in 2015 - buoyed by moves such as that made by E.ON - I'm genuinely hopeful the light side can win the war....

http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/opinion/2397599/the-demise-of-fossil-fuels-is-finally-in-sight-heres-why

[Sigmetnow]

America's First Offshore Wind Farm to Start Construction This Summer

A small wind project in New England just made history. Deepwater Wind announced Monday that its Block Island wind farm is fully financed and on track to become the nation's first offshore wind project.
...
At full capacity, the so-called "demonstration" project is expected to supply enough power for 17,200 homes in Rhode Island. The plant will supply energy to Block Island, which has about 1,000 people, and excess power will be sent to the mainland via underwater transmission lines.

http://insideclimatenews.org/news/04032015/americas-first-offshore-wind-farm-start-construction-summer

[Sigmetnow]

Three of the 10 lowest-priced plans offered in Dallas this week were advertised as 100 percent renewable energy plans.
http://www.dallasnews.com/business/energy/20150305-once-extravagant-renewable-power-plans-go-cheap.ece

[Sigmetnow]

Deutsche Bank: Solar Electricity Is Competitive Globally, without subsidies

Roughly 30 countries have reached “solar grid parity,” according to Deutsche Bank in a bullish report issued on February 27.

We all know solar energy is clean but the question on investors’ mind is: Can the solar industry survive on its own without government subsidies?

Yes, said Deutsche’s Vishal Shah, who looked at 60 countries globally and concluded that in about half of them – the largest markets from U.S. to Japan to Germany – the cost of solar electricity is already below the cost of retail electricity. Building solar systems have become cheap, from $1 per watt at the low-end for utility scale applications in India and China to $2.90 per watt at the high-end for small residential installations in the US. China and India are very close to grid parity.

http://blogs.barrons.com/asiastocks/2015/03/02/solar-electricity-is-competitive-globally-deutsche/

[Sigmetnow]

This Sleek Solar Backpack Was Inspired By Hurricane Sandy
http://www.fastcoexist.com/3042899/this-sleek-solar-backpack-was-inspired-by-hurricane-sandy

[Sigmetnow]

Finland's new offshore wind farm will include bird radar.

The radar, which costs about $550 million, will track avian flight patterns and potential changes in them. The bird research is to carry on as long for the entire lifespan of the wind farm.
...
“Turbines can be automatically braked if a bird flies too close to the wind park or an individual unit,” ...

http://www.evwind.es/2015/03/05/wind-turbines-aims-to-limit-harm-to-birds/50817

[Sigmetnow]

Largest U.S. grid operator (PJM, the grid operator for 60 million people in 13 Mid-Atlantic and Great Lakes states) finds wind energy saves consumers money under EPA’s Clean Power Plan.
http://www.evwind.es/2015/03/05/largest-u-s-grid-operator-finds-wind-energy-saves-consumers-money-under-epas-clean-power-plan/50815

[Bob Wallace]

And if the surplus is not needed, wind turbines can easily be shut down....

That is the obvious answer.  Do people who "concern" themselves about overproduction not realize that we, in the US, turn our coal plants off about half the time and our natural gas plants off over 70% of the time?  That France turns off or down their reactors over 20% of the time?

Or are they just spreading FUD?

(Sorry if I'm late to the dance, but this one bothered me.)

[AbruptSLR]

The linked article shows how private power utilities are gaining traction for putting the "squeeze" on solar panels:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/utilities-sensing-threat-put-squeeze-on-booming-solar-roof-industry/2015/03/07/2d916f88-c1c9-11e4-ad5c-3b8ce89f1b89_story.html?hpid=z1

[JimD]

Will Tesla Ever Make Money?

Everything is not so rosy under the hood.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-04/as-tesla-gears-up-for-suv-investors-ask-where-the-profits-are

Yet there are plenty of skeptics who question whether Tesla will ever be capable of competing with the Toyotas and General Motors of the world -- or get out of the red any time soon. Since its founding in 2003, the company, which went public in 2010, has earned a profit in just one three-month period. In 2014, it lost $294 million on $3.2 billion in revenue.

Some $217 million of that revenue came from the sale to its competitors of zero-emission-vehicle, or ZEV, credits and other pollution allowances.

“You’re talking about a company with no cash flow,” says Matthew Stover, an analyst at Boston-based Susquehanna Financial Group, which in the three months ended on Jan. 31 sold more than half its 1.5 million Tesla shares. “One hundred percent of the value of the shares is associated with some view of the future that has not manifested itself in the past.”...

In a Feb. 11 conference call with investors after releasing Tesla’s fourth-quarter financial statements, Musk, 43, predicted the company would have positive cash flow by the third quarter of this year. He has also forecast that Tesla will be making a full-year profit under generally accepted accounting principles by 2020.

Stover isn’t the only investor skeptical of Tesla’s prospects -- and of its stock price, which at $199.6 on March 3 valued the company at $25.1 billion. (That’s almost 40 percent of the market capitalization of Ford, which last year sold 6.3 million vehicles, almost 200 times as many as Tesla.)

As of Feb. 13, 26.8 percent of Tesla’s shares had been sold short, with more investors betting on their decline than for any other company in the Bloomberg Intelligence Global Automobiles Valuation Peers Index.....

[Bob Wallace]

Will Tesla Ever Make Money?

Does it really matter?

What if Tesla never makes any money and down the road goes out of business?  That is unimportant.

What is important is that Tesla has sped up the development of EVs by years.  Left on their own car manufacturers would have sat back and waited for battery prices to slowly work their way down to the point at which EVs could be sold at a competitive price.

200 mile EVs and affordable batteries might be a decade further off into the future.

BTW, Tesla sells their cars for a nice margin over the cost of manufacturing.  They plow their revenue back into expansion, just like Amazon, another company that isn't "making money".

[jai mitchell]

solar city is expanding to he Reno/Sparks/Carson City region off Nevada.

http://www.rgj.com/story/money/business/2015/02/17/elon-musk-solarcity-enters-reno-nevada-market-solar-technobubble/23527357/

This is where the gigafactory is being built (video at link of construction site).  The move is seen as further ties to the TESLA efforts in the region.

[Sigmetnow]

What is important is that Tesla has sped up the development of EVs by years.  Left on their own car manufacturers would have sat back and waited for battery prices to slowly work their way down to the point at which EVs could be sold at a competitive price.

Which is why Elon Musk opened up his patents for all to use, for free.

Some rough quotes (my transcription) from his news conference -- in Detroit! -- last January:

"We are more than happy to supply other manufacturers with batteries (given advance notice), as soon as we're up and running."

"My goal is the acceleration of the advent of electric cars.
And so, I'll be quite pleased to see other manufacturers make lots of electric cars.
How Tesla does in that will be a function of how good are the cars that we make.
Are our cars better, worse, about the same as other cars?"

"Making electric cars and offering them to the mass market is an extremely important thing.  So even if people are negative or say we're going to fail, I don't care.  We're still going to do it.

At the beginning of Tesla, and even for the first several years, people kept saying how we were going to fail, as though somehow this was new information.  I knew the probability of failure was extremely high."

http://chargedevs.com/newswire/video-mister-musk-goes-to-detroit-presses-automakers-to-get-serious-about-evs/

[Sigmetnow]

Cross-posted from Money and Politics thread:

Hawaii is on track to pass legislation this year requiring the state to go 100 percent renewable by 2040.

Earlier this month, committees in the Hawaii House and Senate both unanimously recommended bills that would raise the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) from the current target of 70 percent by 2030 to the ultimate goal of 100 percent by 2040. Hawaii has had an RPS since 2001, and right now the state gets just over 21 percent of its power from renewable sources — a 12 percent increase in just six years.

This is huge for our state’s future.

“Even our utility is saying we can hit 65 percent by 2030, so 100 percent is definitely doable,” Sen. Mike Gabbard (D), sponsor of the Senate bill, SB 2181, and chair of Hawaii’s Energy and Environment Committee, told ThinkProgress. “This is huge for our state’s future. Each year, we spend $3 to $5 billion importing fossil fuels to power our economy. Our electricity bills are roughly three times the national average.”
...
As recently six years ago, more than 90 percent of Hawaii’s yearly electricity generation came from coal and oil. With renewable technologies rapidly advancing, Hawaii’s abundant solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal sources are moving in quickly as replacements for costly fossil fuels.

“We are on the leading edge of the 21st century renewable energy transformation,” Chris Lee (D), Sponsor of the House version of the bill, HB 623, and chair of the House Energy and Environment Committee, told ThinkProgress. Lee said he’s been pushing for a 100 percent RPS bill for three years, but that this is the first year there’s been overwhelming support to move forward.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/03/11/3631791/hawaii-ready-for-100-percent-renewable-energy/

[Sigmetnow]

Electricity generators will retire 12.9 gigawatts of coal-fired power plants in 2015 and add 12 gigawatts of renewable energy in 2015, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

In 2015, electric generating companies expect to add more than 20 gigawatts (GW) of utility-scale generating capacity to the power grid. The additions are dominated by wind (9.8 GW), natural gas (6.3 GW), and solar (2.2 GW), which combine to make up 91% of total additions. Because different types of generating capacity have very different utilization rates, with nuclear plants and natural gas combined-cycle generators having utilization factors three to five times those of wind and solar generators, capacity measures alone do not directly show how much generation is actually provided by new capacity of each type. Nearly 16 GW of generating capacity is expected to retire in 2015, 81% of which (12.9 GW) is coal-fired generation.

http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=20292

[Sigmetnow]

The Obama administration is setting higher goals for wind power, saying it could supply 35% of the nation's electricity by the year 2050.

Wind power currently generates 4.5% of electricity, but that number is expected to more than double to 10% by 2020, says a report obtained by USA TODAY that will be released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Energy.
...
Citing the industry's growth, the report projects a quicker pace for wind power's contributions to U.S. electricity production, which could accelerate over a longer period of time: Up to 10% by 2020, then 20% by 2030, and then 35% by 2050.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/03/12/obama-wind-power-report-energy-department/70160824/

[Sigmetnow]

The UK's largest solar farm has come online, providing enough clean electricity to power around 14,500 homes.

The 48MW Southwick Estate Solar Farm near Fareham, Hampshire, is also the country's greenest solar farm, according to developers Primrose Solar.

The woodland site, surrounded by hedgerows and crossed by a public footpath, is Grade 4 agricultural land considered unsuitable for growing crops, but will have sheep grazing among the panels during autumn and winter.

http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2399066/uks-largest-and-greenest-solar-farm-sparks-into-life

[Sigmetnow]

Apparently "floatovoltaics" are becoming a thing.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/03/12/3633029/floating-solar-in-california/

[Sigmetnow]

Germany faces big test of its grid during a solar eclipse on March 20.

When solar output decreases, utilities will need to either increase supply, decrease demand or a bit of both. During the spike in output, they will need to turn down power sources brought online during the downturn. “Utilities in Germany are preparing for this, and will draw from a number of strategies,” Fischer said.

Some of these strategies include releasing electricity stored in dams, turning on quick-starting natural-gas power plants, importing electricity from neighboring states or incentivizing reductions in power consumption during particular time periods.

““This event is highly unusual in that the magnitude of the eclipse, combined with the scale of installed solar capacity affected is going to require utilities and grid operators to do things on a scale that they’ve never had to consider doing before,” Fischer said.

“They can overcome this challenge, but it requires planning for the most dramatic impacts.”

http://mashable.com/2015/03/12/eclipse-germany-solar-power/