Environment

October 25th, 2020 by Zachary Shahan  “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” That’s a maxim that I imagine could get you fired from Tesla. Tesla is obsessively focused on “fixing” what is working fine but not working as well as it could be. Tesla is obsessively trying to take products and systems apart, whittle

A Tesla Model 3 vehicle set to be delivered to a company employee moves off an assembly line during a ceremony at the company’s Gigafactory in Shanghai, China, on Monday, Dec. 30, 2019. Tesla spent over $1 billion in the most recent quarter on factories, including one in Germany, and Elon Musk has hinted that

LONDON — When Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, it proved to be a tipping point for Walmart, the world’s largest retailer.  While the business was doing well at the time, it was focused on customers and employees over the broader environment, according to CEO Doug McMillon. “We were a large company but had

October 23rd, 2020 by Zachary Shahan  People who don’t follow cleantech, or individual cleantech industries, often think that solar, wind, and batteries are sort of small, niche markets. Actually, these have become large markets in recent years and are often the quickest growing markets. Similarly, related smart grid and energy efficiency companies are booming. Need

October 23rd, 2020 by Zachary Shahan  Texas-based Vistra (NYSE: VST), an integrated retail electricity and power generation company, plans to build 6 utility-scale solar power plants across Texas. It will buy the solar modules for these power plants from Arizona-based First Solar (NASDAR:FSLR). How many solar modules do you need for 6 utility-scale solar power

Kenny Williamson | Moment | Getty Images A local authority in the U.K. is to provide university researchers with a house to test low-carbon technologies, with the collaboration set to gather potentially valuable data which could inform how buildings are designed in the years ahead.  The partnership, between Hull City Council and the University of

October 23rd, 2020 by Carolyn Fortuna  In early 2020, all indications were that it would be a robust decade for the renewable energy industry. Consumer awareness of the need for zero emissions was never higher. Costs of solar and wind had fallen exponentially since the turn of the 21st century. But COVID-19 and associated economic

October 23rd, 2020 by Tina Casey  The US oil and gas industry boomed under the Obama administration, and now it’s going bust thanks in part to the Trump* administration’s failure to keep the clean power revolution in check. For the latest twist in that sorry saga, check out the new bioeconomy partnership being forged as

From street lamps and neon signs to phone screens and reading torches, artificial light plays an integral role in modern life. While this technology has brought a raft of economic and social benefits to humanity, there are also drawbacks. According to the U.K. government, for instance, artificial light is not always needed and also “has

October 22nd, 2020 by Zachary Shahan  As I wrote earlier today, New Jersey has a legal requirement to cut its greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050, based on 2006 levels. Its biggest source of emissions is transportation, accounting for more than 40% of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions, so I focused my earlier article entirely

Gold bullion bars are pictured after being inspected and polished at the ABC Refinery in Sydney on August 5, 2020. DAVID GRAY | AFP | Getty Images Goldman Sachs is forecasting a bull market for commodities in 2021 based on its outlook for a weaker dollar, inflation, and the prospect of further economic and fiscal

October 22nd, 2020 by Johnna Crider  TransAlta Renewables has announced the commercial operation of WindCharger, a milestone energy storage project powered by Tesla Megapacks. The project just went live in Alberta, Canada, and is actually Alberta’s first utility-scale battery storage project. The lithium-ion energy storage project has a nameplate power capacity of 10MW and a

October 22nd, 2020 by Zachary Shahan  California recently announced a plan to start banning sales of gas cars in 2035, an increase in the timeline from an earlier plan to do so by 2040. The 11th most populated state in the country, New Jersey, isn’t quite ready to announce a plan to ban sales, but

A Boeing 737-990 (ER) operated by Alaska Airlines takes off from JFK Airport on August 24, 2019 in Queens, New York. Bruce Bennett | Getty Images Microsoft on Thursday said it plans to buy alternative jet fuel for some Alaska Airlines flights, the technology giant’s latest effort to reduce carbon emissions, this time those generated

October 21st, 2020 by Johnna Crider  Tesla has broken yet another record. This time it’s for energy storage installations. Tesla’s storage business deployed 750 MWh in Q3. Tesla noted in its Q3 earnings update that the production of its Megapack continued to ramp up at Gigafactory Nevada. Production volumes more than doubled in Q3 2020

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The International Monetary Fund downgraded its outlook for Middle East and Central Asian economic recovery, predicting a 4.1% contraction for the region as a whole — 1.3 percentage points worse than its previous assessment in April — in its latest regional outlook report released Monday.  Jihad Azour, director of the