World:
¶ “Toyota Invests In Perovskite Solar Cells, And The World Will Never Be The Same” • Toyota tapped its Woven Capital branch to put a ¥5.5 billion stake into the perovskite solar startup EneCoat Technologies. That may mean the solar-powered electric car of the future is coming, because EneCoat lists mobility applications among its areas of focus. [CleanTechnica]
Toyota Prius (Courtesy of Toyota)
¶ “Will Baidu Apollo Go Be The First Profitable Robotaxi Service?” • In the USA, most discussion of robotaxis centers around Waymo, Cruise, and Tesla. And perhaps Zoox. However, on the other side of the world, there’s a different robotaxi service making a lot of progress and getting a lot of attention. That is Baidu Apollo Go. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “BYD’s Electric Car Price Cuts Upset BYD Buyers in Thailand – Investigation Ensues As Factory Inaugurated” • Thailand is to investigate sharp price cuts from BYD. This story appears to be a bit different from the ones in the US and Europe. Reportedly, the investigation wasn’t started by competitors or an auto lobby. It was started by BYD customers! [CleanTechnica]
BYD Atto 3 in Thailand
¶ “Renewable Electricity To Outstrip Coal Next Year: IEA” • The amount of electricity produced worldwide from renewable sources is set to surpass output from coal-fired plants for the first time in 2025, the International Energy Agency said. The forecast comes as electricity demand is set to rise 4% this year and next, up from 2.5% in 2023. [Tech Xplore]
¶ “176-MW NZ Array Hits Full Power” • New Zealand’s 176-MW Harapaki wind farm is fully operational, having been delivered within a month of its original completion date and inside its $448 million capital forecast. It is the country’s second-largest onshore array and is able to produce enough electricity to power 70,000 average homes. [reNews]
Harapaki wind farm (Nzwino, CC-BY-SA 4.0)
¶ “85% Of Capacity Built In 2023 Came From Renewables” • Last year, renewables made up nearly 86% of new electric generating capacity worldwide, the International Renewable Energy Agency data shows. A whopping 473 GW of renewable capacity was put up last year, up from 308 GW the year before and nearly twice the amount for 2021. [Canary Media]
¶ “Renewable Energy Key To Forging ‘Green Iron Corridor’” • Steelmaking needs to be electrified, investors warn, but that requires governments to commit to the end of coal-fired blast furnaces. An investor survey found that 59% viewed effective climate policies as crucial for “green steel,” which most said could not be produced by burning fossil fuels. [MSN]
Wind turbines (News Oresund, CC-BY-SA 2.0)
¶ “Labour To Launch State-Owned Great British Energy With £8.3 Billion Market Intervention” • Labour is advancing its ambitious plan to establish a state-owned energy company, Great British Energy, supported by £8.3 billion of taxpayer funds. This represents one of the most significant market interventions in decades. [Business Matters]
¶ “Italy’s Renewable Power Output Overtakes Fossil Fuels For First Time” • Electricity produced from renewable sources in Italy in the first six months of the year surpassed the power generated from fossil fuels for the first time, the power grid operator Terna said. Italy plans to increase renewables to 63% of total electricity by the end of this decade. [MSN]
Solar system (Balfabio, CC-BY-SA 3.0, cropped)
¶ “Energy Ministers Reject Nuclear. Consumers Will Control Their Own Energy Needs” • Australia’s energy ministers agreed to the development of the national consumer energy resources roadmap to give consumers control over their energy needs, while unanimously rejecting nuclear as too expensive and too slow to meet emissions targets. [pv magazine Australia]
US:
¶ “Small-Scale Distributed Wind Projects Could Leave a Large Impact” • Distributed energy generates, stores, and manages power locally. Distributed wind energy is ideal for a wide range of customers. Installations can range from a less-than-1-kW off-grid wind turbine, or a 15-kW wind turbine at a home or small business, to over 2.5-MW. [CleanTechnica]
Small wind turbine (Joshua Bauer, Bryan Bechtold, NREL)
¶ “In Texas, CenterPoint Says Customers Must Pay Them Now AND Pay Them Later” • When Hurricane Beryl slammed into the Texas coast, 2.7 million people lost power. A week later, power has yet to be restored to many CenterPoint customers. The utility claims its infrastructure just wasn’t built for this kind of extreme weather. Of course it wasn’t. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “During Historic California Heat Wave, A Hero Emerged: Giant Solar-Powered Batteries” • In California, an investment in solar batteries may have saved the state from widespread blackouts and brownouts during a heat wave from June 23 to July 12. Palm Springs had a high of 124°F, and the extreme heat put millions of citizens in the state at risk. [CNET]
Solar plus batteries ( Bureau of Land Management California)
¶ “Biden Administration Moves To Bolster Solar Power In Puerto Rico” • The Biden administration made a pair of announcements that aim to bolster solar energy in Puerto Rico, which frequently deals with power outages. The Energy Department announced a conditional agreement to loan $861 million to finance two solar farms and batteries. [The Hill]
¶ “Company Can’t Dump Nuclear Plant Wastewater Into Cape Cod Bay” • Massachusetts’s Department of Environmental Protection shot down the plan in a final decision. According to the department, they can’t allow plant owner Holtec to discharge the water because Cape Cod Bay is protected under the state’s Ocean Sanctuaries Act. [WLIW]
Have an extraordinarily superior day.
geoharvey 