Arizona regulators gave the state’s two largest utilities the green light to enter the residential solar market last week, a move that allows regulated utilities to compete directly against third-party installers. The decision could be the start of a trend for rate-based rooftop solar, as regulated utilities around the country look to build their own solar portfolios. The Arizona Corporation
Elon Musk, the CEO of electric vehicle builder Tesla Motors, sent out some tweets today announcing the launch of a pilot Model S battery-swap program: An entry on the Tesla blog today notes that “[s]tarting next week, we will pilot a pack swap program with invited Model S owners. They will be given the opportunity to swap their car’s battery
Powervation Ltd. today announced it has closed a $3.0 million term debt agreement with Ares Capital Corporation that supplements a $4 million private equity financing that closed in the December quarter. All existing investors participated in the equity financing, including: Scottish Equity Partners (SEP), Braemar Energy Ventures, Intel Capital, VentureTech, 4th Level Ventures, and Semtech Corporation. The funding will be
Austria Technologie & Systemtechnik Aktiengesellschaft (AT&S) together with the EmPower consortium consisting of important industrial players and scientific partners, the development of embedded power packages is now ready for industrialization. This solution provides a significant increase in efficiency and performance for industrial and automotive applications. After 18 months of project work, first results have become visible especially by benchmarking with
The European offshore wind industry has been a darling of the global industry for some time now, with countries such as the UK and Germany pioneering massive amounts of offshore energy. However, according to new analysis from MAKE, even with a healthy 2015 ahead, the European offshore wind industry may be heading towards a 2016 cliff. Over the past couple
The pseudo-rivalry between BMW and Tesla Motors looks set to continue into the foreseeable future, judging by recent comments made by BMW’s head of EV sales and strategy for North America. BMW is apparently looking to spread its new DC charging stations all throughout the US next year — chargers utilizing an SAE standard plug, thus working with nearly every
Lithium-sulfur batteries provide theoretical specific energy densities greater than those of lithium ion batteries. To create the sulfur cathode, the research team led by Dr. Vasant Kumar at the University of Cambridge and Professor Renjie Chen at the Beijing Institute of Technology used Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) ‘as a template’ to produce a conductive porous carbon cage – in which
Four pulses of laser light on nanoparticle photocells helped to discern a pathway of sunlight to electricity using lead-sulfide quantum dots as a photoactive semiconductor material. The research is detailed in a paper placed online by the journal Nature Communications. In the process, each single photon that is absorbed potentially creates multiple packets of energy called excitons. The packets can
Imagine a device the size of large, flat-screen TV that uses sunlight to produce fresh drinking water. Then imagine what you could do with that device. Would you reduce your own dependence on the grid? Give it to a family in need? Send one to a school in Africa? The team from Desolenator is exploring those possibilities – and you
CODA Energy, which was formed out of CODA Automotive when its electric car sales weren’t going too well, has just installed the largest behind-the-meter energy storage system in the Los Angeles basin. Using lithium-ion batteries, it is a 1,054kWh / 510kW system. CODA Energy has a contract with South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) regarding this project, and the