The town of Kisielice in Poland is 100 percent powered by renewable energy! In recognition of its achievement, the town has just been awarded a European Commission ManagEnergy Award 2014 in the self-sufficiency category. The achievement is even more remarkable given that Poland as a whole derives around 90 percent of its energy from coal. Surrounded by expanses of open
Although there are plenty of grid-scale energy storage procurement and deployment announcements, the truth is that utilities are still figuring energy storage out. While the grid-scale energy storage industry aspires to enter commercialization, utilities might still be rooted in the demonstration stage. Unveiled today, Southern California Edison’s demonstration project at the Monolith substation in the Tehachapi Mountains happens to be
Donald Sadoway and colleagues have already started a company to produce electrical-grid-scale liquid batteries, whose layers of molten material automatically separate due to their differing densities. The new formula – published in the journal Nature by Sadoway, former postdocs Kangli Wang and Kai Jiang, and seven others – substitutes different metals for the molten layers used in a battery previously
The solar pipeline in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region has primarily been driven by South Africa and Israel, however, NPD Solarbuzz believes that that trend is set to change as numerous countries throughout the region begin pushing forward on their own projects. According to the NPD Solarbuzz Middle East and Africa Deal Tracker, the current batch of projects
Tesla Model S owners, rejoice! Another software update recently made its way over the air, giving owners further personalization options and a number of new features/tweaks. The Software v6.0 over-the-air update also introduces a new traffic-based navigation system which provides real-time advice on possible travel routes, as well as a number of other new features. Some of the other interesting
The Chinese city of Shenzhen was recently awarded the top honors for urban transportation at the C40 City Climate Leadership Awards in New York. The city — located in China’s southern Guangdong province — was also a finalist in the finance and economic development category of the awards, but didn’t manage to take the top spot in it, as it
1Sun4All. Ryan Abendroth is the founder, principle, and practitioner of Passive Energy Designs in St. Louis, Missouri—a company that consults on high-performing, low-energy buildings. To date, he has consulted on more than 100 buildings to help others design and achieve ultra-efficient houses that are aesthetically pleasing and functionally livable. He credits this career to his participation in the U.S. Department
Greentech Media has published interviews with Tesla co-founders Elon Musk and Marc Tarpenning and Tesla CTO JB Straubel. We’ve spoken with Tesla investors Ira Ehrenpreis, Nancy Pfund and Steve Jurvetson. But we haven’t yet heard from early Tesla hire and VP of business development Diarmuid O’Connell. He spoke with investor and Tesla board member Ehrenpreis at the REFF-West event last
The all-electric version of Kia’s most popular vehicle will start at $33,700 when it goes on sale in October. That price doesn’t include destination or any state or federal tax credits or incentives. Buyers in California could lop off $2,500 for the state’s electric-vehicle rebate, and up to $7,500 for a federal tax credit, depending on their income, pushing the
Scientists at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory have identified a new kind of polymer that provides an inexpensive way to improve the efficiency of solar cells. The new compound, called PID2, is a type of polymer that forms familiar materials such as plastics. It allows electrical charges to move more easily through the cell, increasing the production