Electric Vehicles – If It Doesn’t Make Dollars, it Doesn’t Make Sense
Electric Vehicles – If It Doesn’t Make Dollars, it Doesn’t Make Sense.
Technologies of the Future in Elizabeth Kolbert’s Under a White Sky
Kolbert describes her project as “a book about people trying to solve problems created by people trying to solve problems.”
Bhutan Is Carbon Negative – What The US Can Learn From Them
For many countries like the US, or places like the EU, policy becomes the primary driver in enabling a transition away from fossil fuels. This is where a country like Bhutan can provide valuable insights though it is vastly different in its economic and political structure.
Bhutan is carbon negative and produces 99% of it’s energy needs from hydro
Pricing In The Green EU Deal – Facing Opposition
The new Green EU Deal, announced in July, has as one of its aims, setting a high new price for carbon emissions. If it succeeds in raising the price, not even as far as it aims, it’ll make it a lot easier for clean technologies to prosper.
The Green EU Deal: It’s A Big Deal
the announcement of a European Green Deal. The coverage mentioned pronouncements of accelerated targets for reduced carbon output, and so on. The news cycle moved on.
How To Accomplish Net Zero By 2050
The International Energy Agency (IEA) recently published Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector. The IEA makes the case that in order to reach net zero by 2050, we need to accelerate the development and deployment of clean technologies by 2030 – essentially, we should be focusing our efforts today on technologies already in the market, as well as technologies that are market-ready.
Extantia Capital Hires Sustainability Professor – Francesco Pomponi
Professor Pomponi was well within his means to maintain his professional inertia and become a prominent academic in life cycle analysis and the built environment, but he has recently joined Extantia Capital as Head of Carbon Maths to go directly to the carbon war.
Banking On Climate Solutions
There are many new ways for people to take part in fighting climate change. Ravi Mikkelsen discusses how Atmos Financial is building banking solutions that anyone can contribute to and help the world transition to a clean economy while earning money on their deposits.
Small Cuts In Subsidies For Fossil Fuels
Recent news shows some governments cutting back on subsidies for oil and gas companies. But these are small moves, given the vast scale of the subsidies showered on fossil fuel companies, and they’re not yet cemented in place.
A (key) week in the death of oil
Change happens gradually, and then suddenly. This week, the endgame for oil companies became a lot closer and a lot more evident, suddenly, discontinuously, a jump.
How Startups & Climate Tech Companies Fit in with Doughnut Economics
The Doughnut Economics model–a framework represented by an area between two rings (hence the name “doughnut”) in which an economy is considered prosperous if all 12 of its designated social foundations are met without overshooting its nine major ecological capital ceilings.
Oil execs are talking about life after oil. Should we believe them?
The fossil fuel executives’ answers mostly spoke to keeping their businesses vibrant in the context of an energy transition away from oil and gas. They described capital spending peaks on oil and gas production. They didn’t push back on the need to transition beyond fossil fuels.
Will Electrolysis See The Cost Decline Solar Did?
Many have asked whether electrolysis technologies would see cost reduction curves similar to solar panels (solar) or wind turbines (wind).
Why Now Is the Time to Invest in Climate Technology
During Climate Change, it may be more about where you live and your geographic susceptibility to strengthening natural disasters or rising sea levels.
Valuing the Avoidance of Climate Tipping Points
How to value a climate-normalizing technology, or enterprise?
The Underutilization of Early Stage Clean Tech Grants
Not nearly enough entrepreneurs are aware grant funding opportunities exist for anyone willing to put in the work and to take on the risk, regardless of their university or educational background. Thankfully, funding from the California Energy Commission (CEC) through programs such as CalSEED and CalTestBed allows entrepreneurs significantly more access to grant funds where a welder in a rural community, as noted here, can develop cleantech solutions that help us meet our energy goals.
How To Reduce Cost Of EV Charging Infrastructure
Many organizations are rushing to figure out how to install direct current fast chargers (DCFC) to meet the rising demand for EV charging.
Biden’s Climate Tax Plan | How Attacking Profit Shifting Unlocks Billions In Clean Infrastructure Financing
The Made In America Tax Plan Banks On Cutting Fossil Fuel Subsidies And Re-Working Existing Investment Tax Credits (ITCs)
Does Solar Panel Recycling Make Economic Sense Yet?
The huge elephant in the room with solar panels is what happens when a solar panel reaches the end of life?
Is Venture Capital Or Project Finance The Key To Solving Climate Change?
There is a gap between lab-scale prototypes and fully commercialized plants/processes with predictable performance and economics.
ALBA Recycles Singapore’s Electronic Waste
Singapore’s National Environmental Agency (NEA) has awarded ALBA a license to develop an e-waste collection system for the Southeast Asian country.
2 Year Solar ITC Extension Likely to Happen
On Monday evening this week Congress passed a bill that extends the solar ITC at 26% out for another 2 years.
$100M To Expand Virtual Power Plant Saturation In California
This $100M round led by Sidewalk Labs – the same firm that tried building a “smart city” in Toronto – is going to help OhmConnect subsidize and front the cost of deploying smart thermostats.
The Marriage Between Smart Homes & Solar Begins
Microgrids are an emerging grid architecture as we are learning day by day. More utilities are beginning to see the advantages of having such an architecture available for them to load balance and deliver a higher level of resilience to their customers than ever before. Southern Company’s subsidiary Mississippi Power is currently piloting “smart neighborhoods” where Tesla […]
~$1B To Build A Nation-Wide, Green Hydrogen Network
Plug Power (NASDAQ: PLUG) is already a leader in the hydrogen space and expected to be one of the behemoths going forward focused on building out a truly green hydrogen network.
Is There Opportunity in Redeveloping Solar Farms?
The rise of solar farms grid wide happened in the early 2000s and really kicked into high gear in the early 2010s.
Make Way For The Short Sellers
For years people were short on Apple, Amazon, Tesla (still are) and many other companies that still stand tall and strong today.
Net Metering Has Been Chaos
Net Metering has been one of the big value contributors in the residential solar market. Allowing homeowners to receive equal bill credits for every kWh of energy they send back into the grid via a Net Metering program makes the incentive to go solar easy to understand.
The Year Of Taking Net Zero Pledges
Net Zero commitments are the new fad this year for companies. According to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), more than 1,500 companies have committed to net-zero emissions.
NextEra Briefly Tops ExxonMobil as Most Valuable US Energy Co.
Nextera is now larger than ExxonMobil based on market capitalization.
The California Rolling Blackouts
The rolling blackouts were claimed to have been both for power safety, but also because of capacity based issues. This claim that capacity was the issue was being challenged by “experts” that monitor and watch the grid – claiming that capacity wasn’t the issue but a grid management issue that caused the need for the outages.
Demystifying the California rolling blackouts
In Your Inbox: Another electric truck enters market; making sense of rolling outages in CA; an interview with Compost Crew; and an awesome podcast on EVs
California Prepares For Rolling Blackouts…Again
This past week death valley recorded 130 F temp numbers and due to this excessive heat crazy thunderstorms and weather patterns seem to be on the horizon, especially for Northern California. The California ISO even declared a stage 3 emergency to protect the grid from causing wildfires or entirely collapsing due to excessive heat.
Using leftovers to tackle climate change??
In Your Inbox: Startup automating trash sorting; Small acquisitions with big impact; Big moves for big tech in the energy industry; and an awesome interview with Renewal Mills!
Big Tech Is All In On A Green Revolution
Amazon partners with Vector to make all of Australia a smart grid; Tesla may become a utility in Germany; Microsoft is committed to the hydrogen economy
What Is The Cost Of Innovation In Energy?
the DOE loaned Tonopah Solar Energy LLC $737 Million to fund its solar thermal plant in Nevada. Sadly, Tonopah filed for bankruptcy while still owing the government $425 M on its loans
Wait. You Throw Your Leftovers In The Trash?
Vermont is the first state to enact an organic waste ban. The goal is to prevent food waste being sent to landfills. In 2012, the state of Vermont passed the Universal Recycling Law
💰 $700M DOE funded solar project goes bust
In your inbox: Wastewater management is a industry of opportunity; $700M DOE loan project falls through; Organic waste recycling; a break down of Ecosia
An RFP for 4,000 MW of Renewable Energy…
NY State Governor Andrew Cuomo sent out one of the largest solicitations for renewable energy within the state of NY. In turn setting the bar for what kind of actions need to be taken to address climate change across the US and abroad.
How Low Can Solar & Storage Go? A Price Analysis Of Getting To A Carbon Free Grid
UC Berkeley and Gridlab have published a new report that challenges previous plans to decarbonize the grid. With the latest renewable energy and battery prices, the US can reach 90% clean electricity by 2035, compared to 2050, by installing 70 GW of new renewable energy infrastructure each year.
🔋 Energy Storage With Public Sector Support Steams Ahead Rapidly
The nationally covered blackouts in The Bay Area last year was a pivotal point for accelerating policy & enabling battery storage to surge in popularity.
$200M for non-dairy milk 🥛
In Your Inbox: Plants that pull CO2 out of the air finally make financial sense; Hydrogen super cars and new pipeline development; Oatly raises $200M for non dairy milk; and public sector support for energy storage.
How Do ♻️ Net Zero Communities Play Into Carbon Reduction Strategies
Net Zero Communities are developments or pilots that have been actively piloted in various parts of the world, but still today the value prop of buying a net zero home hasn’t been fully developed.
Deconstructing Sunrun’s Acquisition of Vivint Solar
Sunrun to acquire Vivint Solar for $3.2 Billion which would push Sunrun to 500,000 customers and more than 3 GW of assets on their books. The combined value of Sunrun + Vivint pushes it to an estimated $9.2 Billion based on the closing price July 6, 2020.
How Batteries Reduce The Cost Of Microgrids
oday the predominate way of approaching grid modernization is adding IoT like capabilities to as much of the grid as possible, adding new solar and wind farms where possible to fill energy demand and shifting to natural gas as opposed to coal.
🔋 Batteries make electricity cheaper
In Your Inbox: A conversation around grid modernization; car manufacturers unlock cheaper batteries; how ESS reduces the cost of microgrids and energy in general!
What It Is Going To Take To Fully Transition To Clean Energy
In 2020, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) is forecasting that renewables will surpass coal in energy generation.
What Its Going To Take To Drive Major EV Adoption
EV adoption is on a rise, but no where near to effect true impact on the path of grid modernization and combating climate change.
Enel Backs Hydrogen As A Future Fuel
Enel will begin with 2 – 3 projects first before they decide if now is the right time to invest into more projects. It all comes down to economics.
California Microgrids Push Forward
California is doing everything they can to provide increased resilience to wildfire impact communities.
Explaining The NKLA Stock Surge. Do HEV cars stand a chance against BEV?
NKLA this past week reached $79.73/share and fetched a valuation of over $22B – putting it in the value range of Ford.
California Needs Natural Gas To Keep The Lights On
Solar and battery storage groups and environmental activists aren’t letting PG&E deploy natural gas based generators to ensure resiliency – citing that it doesn’t help get California closer to their aggressive renewable energy goals.
Electrification Is Necessary to Control Emissions Post Covid-19
As cities, states, and countries slowly start to open back up, many governments are reassessing transportation. As travel habits have been disrupted, there is the opportunity to influence and shape the future of commuting and transportation.
Net Metering Might Get A Face Lift
Net metering might get overhauled to a point where it will most definitely be more valuable to include battery storage or utilize load shaping technologies to get the best value from your solar system.
Xcel Energy Agrees To 7 New Micro-Grid Developments In Settlement
If the settlement passes state regulators – Xcel energy has scoped with the help of multiple parties, a $23.4M Micro-grid development plan.
Tech Companies Lead The Way For Climate Action
Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, pledged $10 billion to fight climate change and created the Bezos Earth Fund. Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, announced a $1 billion climate innovation fund. And many other companies followed. The money is there, all that is left are the actions.
Emissions Are Set To Rebound Far More Than They Decreased Due To COVID-19
The IEA does warn that there may be a rebound in emissions, and this rebound could be larger than the decline.
Two fights in California to keep an eye on this week – one in natural gas and the other against Tesla.
Two fights in California to keep an eye on this week – one in natural gas and the other against Tesla.
Shell Didn’t Really Just Make That Investment…
Fascinating week in oil! As you may have seen in the headlines, oil prices went negative. Specifically West Texas Intermediate (the benchmark for US crude oil) oil price went negative for two days because they’re traded as futures contracts. Production has barely changed but usage has sunk so we have way more supply than we can even […]
Big Oil 🛢️ Takes A Step In The Right Direction? Shell Commits to Net Zero
Net Zero for Shell by 2050 – but still doesn’t meet expectations outlined in the Paris Agreement. However a heavy dose of skepticism is required.
🛢️ 800k tonnes of Hydrogen a year
The Impact To: The Impact Readers Greetings! 🧐 Spring seems to be finally here, even though we saw some snow earlier this week in NY. The environment is getting more attention and people have now – hopefully – canceled all of their unnecessary subscriptions and are learning more about the value of saving and resource management. In your inbox: […]
New California Battery Project Could Edge Out Gas Peakers
California is taking a different direction and is making more investments in battery-based grids. Using battery plants in power peaks is still mostly uncharted territory, but that’s right where the new battery project is aiming. Clean Power Alliance Executive Director Ted Bardacke told Greentech Media, that the goal is to show California that battery plants can […]
Europe is Making Commitments and Bets on a Carbon-Free Hydrogen Future
Europe, still on track with the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to well below 2°C, are more committed than ever and are starting the process of phasing out coal plants. What’s going to replace them? Many companies and countries are betting on carbon-free hydrogen. The Netherlands calculates that gases will still make up 30-50% of […]
The Model Y in public proves it’s going to be tough for automakers to beat
Tesla Model Y rollout is really starting to roll and reviews are pouring in! In short? People Love it. The Model 3 is the best selling electric car in the world and was the 9th best selling of all cars in the US in 2019. Pair that with the massive popularity of crossovers in the […]
Strike 3!! Coal is OUT–
Economically, Coal is Out Right now, in every major market, it’s cheaper to make new investments in renewables than in coal. According to Carbon Tracker, if governments and investors don’t cancel coal projects they stand to lose more than $600 billion. AND by 2030 it will be cheaper to build new renewable energy than to […]
EPA Suspends Environmental Rules Enforcement In Response To Covid19
Last week we talked about how lower economic activity can mean lower emissions (until they come roaring back on the up-turn). It’s – at the very least – a slim silver lining to economic disruption. But the white house has different plans. EPA Suspends Environmental Rules Enforcement In Response To Covid19 Last week we talked […]
Existential thoughts 😳 about the solar industry while in quarantine
We are in some interesting times especially when we look at the solar industry. Is the cost of solar going to skyrocket now that demand has dropped?
Solar Industry Goes 🖥️ Digital To Stay Alive?
It really should be no surprise to you that people are just not buying solar right now and the industry has come to a somewhat “slow” point due to Covid-19.
The Good & Bad In Solar
Massachusetts solar had a rough year. In 2019, new installations fell 50% and the sector’s workforce shrank by 30% – and not from lack of interest!