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BMW 530Le plug-in hybrid makes its world debut at the 2014 Guangzhou Auto Show. Built specifically for the fast growing Chinese automotive market, the 530Le is based on the long wheelbase 5 Series which is manufactured in China by the Brilliance-BMW joint venture. Just like the BMW X5 eHybrid, the 530Le combine a four-cylinder IC engine (the familiar N20) and

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The Coda Sedan electric car didn’t make much of an impression the first time around, but now it’s back. Set to debut this week at the 2014 Los Angeles Auto Show, the Mullen 700e is a virtually unchanged version of the troubled Coda. The Mullen Motor Company–which in the past tried to market an electric sports car–plans to pick up

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As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, as a percentage of total car sales, no auto manufacturer is selling more electric cars than BMW (not counting 100%-electric companies like Tesla Motors). The percentage (4.9%) is even more than double what Nissan has achieved this year (2.1%). Of course, in many respects, Tesla Motors is the leader in the electric

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Floating solar is “the new solar” these days. Everyone wants blue panels on top of water reservoirs. If you have been following our posts regularly, you would have seen both India and Japan stake claims at building the world’s largest floating solar power plants. Back in July, India’s National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) announced plans to set up a 50

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Two thirds of new US electricity generation capacity were from the wind sector in October. Five wind farms, with a cumulative capacity of 547 MW, went online. There were also 102 MW of biomass and 31 of utility-scale solar power. This is becoming a familiar picture, with renewable sources accounting for the most added generation during 8 months so far

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In 2007, when Google unveiled its initiative to make renewable energy competitive with coal, called RE<C, it represented a major breakthrough for the industry. The tech giant said it was prepared to invest tens of millions of dollars to boost emerging solar, wind and geothermal technologies in order to rival the economics of coal. The initiative was unprecedented for a

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Between 2012 and 2013, the amount of money invested globally in climate change mitigation and adaptation dropped by $28 billion. At a time when scientists say we need to start seeing a dramatic surge in zero-carbon energy sources, the drop seems like bad news. It’s certainly not good by climate action standards. But it’s not as bad as it sounds,

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Two weeks ago, utility Southern California Edison launched a real-world experiment in grid-edge economics, one that’s going to unfold in real time and at gigawatt scale. In a first for the utility industry, SCE announced it would buy hundreds of megawatts of distributed solar, behind-the-meter batteries, automated demand response and targeted energy efficiency as part of its 2,200-megawatt Local Capacity

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Lancaster, California was one of the first municipalities to push the envelope on sustainability by requiring homes to be solar-ready, as part of Mayor Rex Parris’ goal of becoming a net-zero city. Parris has now taken his sustainability goals one step further by addressing water consumption in new homes. Beginning in 2015, all new residential construction in Lancaster, a city

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As the year winds down, powerful conservative groups are working feverishly to kill a potential tax package with extensions of renewable energy incentives. But that doesn’t seem to worry some in the sector who remain optimistic that a favorable package will get through Congress in the lame-duck session. “I keep my Pollyannaish hope alive,” said Kathy Weiss, vice president of

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