Opinion:
¶ “International Code Council Votes To Restrict Involvement By Cities In New Building Codes” • The International Code Council announced that it would effectively limit the input of states and cities in the development of new building codes that can help cut energy use and emissions. Doing so, the ICC decision caves to industry groups. [CleanTechnica]
Urban landscape (Chuttersnap, Unsplash)
¶ “Georgia’s Renewable Energy Future Is Bright” • With nearly 2,000 residential and commercial solar installations, Georgia is already one of the Top 10 states for solar capacity. After a 30% increase in jobs over the previous year, in 2019 Georgia ranked Number 1 in solar jobs growth in the Solar Foundation’s Solar Jobs Census. [Atlanta Business Chronicle]
Science and Technology:
¶ “Dramatic Decline In Western Butterfly Populations Linked To Fall Warming” • Western butterfly populations are declining at an estimated rate of 1.6% per year, according to a new report to be published this week in Science. The report looked at 450 species. Among them, the western monarch has undergone a decline of 99.9% since the 1980s. [Science Daily]
Monarch butterfly (Sandy Millar, Unsplash)
¶ “Elon Musk: 10× More Tesla Cars To Get Full Self-Driving Beta Soon” • CEO Elon Musk says Tesla will double the number of cars in the “Full Self-Driving Beta” system with the coming 8.2 version update. He said it will increase the number of cars with the firmware by 10× when version 8.3 comes along – which may be in just 2 to 3 weeks. [CleanTechnica]
World:
¶ “The Xpeng P7 Achieves 20,000 Sales Quicker Than Any Other Vehicle From A Chinese EV Startup” • Xpeng’s P7 electric sedan reached 20,181 cumulative sales thanks to 1,409 deliveries in February. Being a little more than a year old, that’s the quickest that any car from a Chinese EV startup has reached cumulative sales of 20,000. [CleanTechnica]
Xpeng G3
¶ “US Sets Up An Alliance To Help India Achieve Its Renewable Energy Goals” • John Kerry, the US special presidential envoy for climate, said the United States has put together a coalition of several countries to help India achieve its ambitious target of producing about 450 GW of renewable power by 2030, costing around $600 billion. [India Today]
¶ “UK Plugin Vehicle Share Hits 13% In February, Up 2.3× Year-On-Year – Diesels Down 61%” • Europe’s third largest auto market, the UK, saw 13% plugin electric vehicle market share in February, up 2.3× from 5.7% a year ago. The overall auto market was down 35.5% year-on-year due to the continuing lockdowns. Diesel sales fell over 61%. [CleanTechnica]
Tesla Model 3 (Tesla image)
¶ “JR East To Boost Renewable Energy Use In Rail Operations” • East Japan Railway, Japan’s biggest railway company, plans to boost the use of renewable energy in its operations to meet its goal of cutting carbon dioxide emissions to zero by 2050. JR East’s railway business emitted 1.99 million tons of carbon dioxide in fiscal year 2019. [Nikkei Asia]
¶ “UK Hills Could Be Used As Massive Renewable Energy Batteries” • British startup RheEnergise has invented an energy storage solution called High-Density Hydro that uses gravity on hills to store energy. The low-cost, energy-efficient, and environmentally-benign process is similar to existing pumped storage hydropower plants. [Intelligent Living]
High-Density Hydro system (RheEnergise image)
¶ “Germany Settles Nuclear Phaseout Legal Disputes For $2.9 Billion” • The German government has agreed to a multibillion-euro compensation deal with major utility firms over its ongoing nuclear energy phaseout. After the Fukushima disaster, the German government announced all the nation’s nuclear power would close by 2022. [Greentech Media]
US:
¶ “GM And LG Energy Solution Plan Second US Battery Factory” • Citing a report by the Wall Street Journal, Autoblog says General Motors and LG Energy Solution are in the planning stages for a second US battery factory. Currently, the two companies are building a $2.3 billion battery factory next door to the former Lordstown factory in Ohio. [CleanTechnica]
Cadillac Lyriq electric car (Image courtesy of Cadillac)
¶ “Drive Electric USA – Electrifying 14 States” • Electric vehicle leaders in 14 states have launched a three-year effort to develop “Drive Electric” programs at the state level for their states. The states do not include clear leader likes California and Oregon, but rather focus on places that need a boost or are just getting off the ground. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “With New FERC Office Of Public Participation, You Can Help Shape Energy In Your Community” • Now FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, is creating an Office of Public Participation after 35 years of dodging the issue. This truly is a once in a lifetime chance for reform in a very important US government agency. [CleanTechnica]
Public speaking (Marcos Luiz Photograph, Unsplash)
¶ “VinFast Plans US Factory And California Sales In 2022” • VinFast is the short name for VinFast Trading and Production, a subsidiary of Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup. Recently, it announced plans to open an automobile manufacturing facility in the US in the near future. It will start with an R&D office in San Francisco. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “Community Solar Bill Passed By New Mexico Senate, Would Expand Access To Renewable Energy” • A bill that would allow electricity customers in New Mexico to tap into local solar power facilities passed on the New Mexico Senate Floor Thursday on a 27-14 across party lines. The bill allows community solar systems of up to 5 MW. [Carlsbad Current-Argus]
Have a superbly satisfying day.
geoharvey 