admin

This year about 15.5 million new automobiles will be sold in the U.S., according to Edmunds, with an average transaction price of around $31,000. The vast majority of these sales will be for traditional gas-powered vehicles, with a tiny fraction being for electric cars. Two of the most popular electric cars are General Motors’ (GM) Chevy Volt, which sold 23,461

Read more

Panasonic Corp said it expected to become the sole manufacturer in Tesla Motors Inc’s planned multibillion-dollar U.S. battery factory, firming up its commitment to the electric car maker’s project. The Japanese electronics conglomerate had until this week made only cautious comments about Tesla’s plans, for which the carmaker is seeking total investment of around $3 billion in addition to the

Read more

Investments in advanced energy storage initiatives worldwide have recently reached billions of dollars. Funding has been in furthering Research & Development (R&D) initiatives in this critical emerging market, which produced advancements in batteries for automotive applications and electric vehicle charging, stationary power systems, Lithium-ion battery value chain, technologies exploring “beyond lithium”, and more. At the Silicon Valley/SEEDZ Energy Storage Symposium

Read more

OK, clearly he shouldn’t have said, “I hope you don’t buy it.” But last week’s little media explosion over Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne’s negative comments on the 2014 Fiat 500e electric car his company sells–in limited numbers, in California only–shouldn’t be a surprise. To summarize his comments in a Reuters article that appeared last Thursday, Marchionne said of the

Read more

Modern electric cars like the Tesla Model S and Nissan Leaf are slowly getting better-known to consumers today, but their history stretches back much further. This year marks the 100th anniversary of Washington D.C’s original “Electric Sociability Run” of 1914, and local enthusiasts are planning a commemorative re-creation set to take place June 7. Few of today’s car buyers realize

Read more

Today on Green Car Reports: A drive report on the brand-new 2014 BMW i3 REx range-extended electric car from the very first owner, a new book offers Tesla Model S ownership advice, and we drive BlueIndy’s electric BlueCar as well. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Lots to catch up on, including last week’s stories in reverse …

Read more

In late 2013, Mexico’s congress approved historic legislation that altered the 1938 ban on private sector participation in the Mexican energy sector. These reforms, that end the 75-year monopoly of Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and allow for greater foreign investment, are the first to include constitutional change, and promise to address many of the challenges that have resulted in a decade-long

Read more

Can distributed solar continue to grow in the U.S. when the ITC ratchets down and net energy metering gets trimmed? GTM Research VP Shayle Kann explored solar finance scenarios with the experts at last week’s DOE SunShot Summit in Anaheim, California. “We are sitting amid an infinite amount of capital,” said Jeff Weiss, co-chair and managing director of Distributed Sun.

Read more

Jon Wellinghoff, a partner at Stoel Rives and former FERC chairman, was added to the advisory board of First Fuel, a building efficiency analytics firm. Wellinghoff was also added to AutoGrid’s advisory board this month, along with Tom Kippola, co-founder of the Chasm Group. Building energy management firm Daintree Networks added Wellinghoff to its advisory board this month as well.

Read more

Consumers have been able to choose renewable energy for many years through both competitive power suppliers and regulated utilities. But solar has never been more than a bit player in these markets. Wind power, cheap and popular, has always dominated customer choice supply. In 2012, wind made up 80 percent of supply, followed by landfill gas and biomass (12.8 percent)

Read more