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How Sustainable is Stored Sunlight?

Whether or not to include storage is no longer just an academic question. Driven by better battery technology and the disincentivization of grid-connected solar panels, off-grid solar is about to make a comeback. How sustainable is a solar PV system if energy storage is taken into account? Picture: Tesla’s lithium-ion home storage system. In the  previous article , we have seen that many life cycle analyses (LCAs) of solar PV systems have a positive bias. Most LCAs base their studies on the manufacturing of solar cells in Europe or the USA. However, most panels are now produced in China, where the electric grid is about twice as carbon-intensive and about 50% less energy efficient. [ 1 ] Likewise, most LCAs investigate solar PV systems in regions with a solar insolation typical of the Mediterranean region, while the majority of solar panels have been installed in places with only half […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Can Tesla’s Battery Hit $1 Billion Faster Than the iPhone?

Tesla Motors Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk Unveils New Generation Of Batteries Tesla’s new line of big, stackable batteries for homes and businesses started with a bang. The reservations reported in the first week are valued at roughly $800 million , according to numbers crunched by Bloomberg. If Tesla converts even a fraction of those reservations into actual sales, the battery roll-out could measure up as one of the biggest ever for a new product category. Photographer: Tim Rue/Bloomberg The chart below compares the estimated value of Tesla battery reservations—these are not ironclad commitments to buy—with the early sales of three breakthrough products: the original iPhone, released in 2007; Viagra’s debut in 1998; and the introduction of the Tesla Model S battery-powered car in 2012. The iPhone surpassed $1 billion in sales by its third quarter on the market, while Viagra and the Model S needed a bit longer.  The new line […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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At the gas pump, US biofuel lobby scores a point against big oil

NEW YORK In a long-running battle between oil refiners and the U.S. farm lobby over the future of ethanol fuel, biofuel producers may have just made a small, but important dent in big oil’s formidable defenses. Over the past few months, privately held retailers Kum & Go and Sheetz have become the first significant chains to announce plans to start selling E15, a gasoline with 15 percent of ethanol, 50 percent more than the typical U.S. blend. By the end of 2016, those two retailers plan to add E15 at pumps at 125 stations. That will more than double the number of U.S. outlets offering cheaper fuel with a higher ethanol content than the standard E10 blend that contains 10 percent of ethanol. If retailers continued to add stations at a similar pace over the next five years, there would be some 1,300 stations offering E15. That would still […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Germany builds wind energy reputation

One of the largest offshore wind farms of its kind, Nordsee Ost, inaugurated off the German coast. Photo courtesy of RWE. HAMBURG, Germany, May 11 (UPI) — Wind energy is a vital part of a German move to a low-carbon economy, the German economic minister said during the inauguration of RWE’s Nordsee Ost wind farm. German Economics Minister Sigmar Gabriel hosted ministers from the Group of seven industrialized economies, along with representatives from RWE, for the inauguration of the 48-turbine wind farm off the northern German coast. "Offshore wind energy is a strategically important element of Germany’s energy and climate policy and is key to the success of the energy transition," Gabriel said in a statement. In April, German company E.ON started producing electricity from its Amrumbank West wind power project in the German waters of the North Sea . Germany is one of the world leaders in renewable […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Tesla’s New Battery Doesn’t Work That Well With Solar

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk  introduced a new family of batteries designed to stretch the solar-power revolution into its next phase. There’s just one problem: Tesla’s new battery doesn’t work well with rooftop solar—at least not yet. Even Solar City, the supplier led by Musk, isn’t ready to offer Tesla’s battery for daily use. The new Tesla Powerwall home batteries come in two sizes—seven and 10 kilowatt hours (kWh)—but the differences extend beyond capacity to the chemistry of the batteries. The 7kWh version is made for daily use, while its larger counterpart is only intended to be used as occasional backup when the electricity goes out. The bigger Tesla battery isn’t designed to go through more than about 50 charging cycles a year, according to SolarCity spokesman Jonathan Bass. Telsa CEO Elon Musk points at the sun. Here’s where things get interesting. SolarCity, with Musk as its chairman, has decided not to install the 7kWh Powerwall that’s optimized […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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UPS to Use Renewable Natural Gas for Part of Delivery Fleet

Clean Energy Fuels produces a product called Redeem, which is the first renewable natural gas available in commercial quantities. The RNG will be used in stations across California beginning this month to fuel tractors and delivery vehicles. The stations in Sacramento, Los Angeles and Fresno will provide about 1.5 million gallon equivalents of RNG fuel to about 400 vehicles in the state. The company already uses natural gas on tractors in the U.K. RNG, or biomethane, can be created from sources such as decomposing organic waste in landfills. “Renewable natural gas is critical to our effort to minimize UPS’s environmental impact while meeting the growing demand for our services,” said Mitch Nichols, UPS senior vice president of transportation and engineering. The Atlanta-based delivery giant said in April that revenue for U.S. ground packages grew 5.3% to $6.36 billion in the first quarter. That helped buoy total U.S. domestic-package operating […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Vestas Lifts Outlook After Orders for Wind Turbines Surge

An employee walks between wind turbine blades at the Vestas Wind Systems A/S blade factory in Lem, Denmark. Photographer: Freya Ingrid Morales/Bloomberg Vestas Wind Systems A/S raised its sales and income forecast after strong orders in the usually weak first quarter drove the backlog at the biggest wind turbine maker to a record. Shares surged to a five-year high. The Aarhus, Denmark-based company reported net income of 56 million euros ($63 million) in the first three months, almost double the 29.7 million euro average that analysts had expected. It also enjoyed a 13 percent increase in revenue from its services business even though the year-ago period was fattened with rare contracts maintaining machines offshore. “This has been a historically strong first quarter on revenue, margins, order intake, and return on invested capital,” Chief Executive Officer Anders Runevad said. “Vestas is making good progress toward achieving its profitable growth objectives. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Natural gas, renewables projected to provide larger shares of electricity generation

Republished 1:15 p.m. May 4, 2015 to correct an error in the graph. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Outlook 2015 EIA’s Annual Energy Outlook 2015 (AEO2015) Reference case projects that electricity consumption will increase at an average annual rate of 0.8% from 2013 to 2040, nearly in line with expected population growth. Continuing a recent trend toward lower levels of carbon-intensive generation, natural gas and renewable generation meet almost all of the increase. Electricity generation from renewable sources provided 13% of U.S. electricity in 2013. In the AEO2015 Reference case, which reflects current laws and regulations—but not pending rules, such as the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan —this percentage is projected to increase to 18% by 2040. Wind and solar generation account for nearly two-thirds of the growth in renewable generation. Solar is the fastest-growing renewable generation source, but wind accounts for the largest absolute increase […]

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Suppressed French report says 100% renewables is possible

Over the Easter break, French daily Le Monde reported that an official study for a conference to be held last week was being held back. The energy experts investigated a 100 percent renewable supply of electricity by 2050. Craig Morris got hold of a copy, which still lacks an executive summary. So he wrote one. France has the potential for 100% renewable electricity – but the subject is too touchy for the country’s political leaders. Last week, a conference was held in France to investigate, as the title puts it ( website in French ), whether France is ready for 40 percent renewable electricity by 2030. But as Le Monde pointed out at the beginning of the month ( report in French ), French energy agency Ademe announced at the beginning of the year ( press release , PDF in French) that the centerpiece was to be “the presentation […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Tesla launches line of Li-ion stationary storage systems for homes and businesses: POWERWALL and POWERPACK

« ITF report finds self-driving shared vehicles could take up to 90% of cars off city streets; total kilometers travelled increases | Main As widely expected, Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled the company’s new product line: scalable stationary battery systems for homes, businesses and beyond. Available for immediate order on the Tesla Web site (teslaenergy.com or teslamotors.com/powerwall) is the modular wall-mounted POWERWALL system, which is targeted at homes and perhaps some small commercial applications, Musk said. Delivery is projected for sometime later this summer (3-4 months from now.) The sleek, sculpture-like Li-ion packs come in 7 kWh ($3,000) and 10 kWh ($3,500) configurations. Both are guaranteed for 10 years (with an optional 10-year extension), and can be combined to up to 9 units—i.e., up to 90 kWh of storage. The packs contain all the integrated safety systems, the liquid thermal control and the DC/DC converter, and work with solar […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple