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Uruguay’s green power revolution: rapid shift to wind shows the world how it’s done
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Today, the country has almost phased out fossil fuels in electricity production. Depending on the weather, anything between 90% and 95% of its power comes from renewables. In some years, that number has crept as high as 98%. Uruguay, meanwhile, has moved on to what is becoming known as the second stage of its transition. It is gradually moving its buses and public vehicles over to electric, and incentivising taxi and minicab drivers to switch.
A Salute To The Chevrolet Bolt, 2023’s Underdog EV Champion
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Discontinued, outdated and outclassed, the Bolt should've been a flop in 2023. Instead, it says a lot about what EV owners really want. To go deeper, just this year alone, the Bolt:
At one point saw its sales up 101% over the same period last year
Traded places with the Mustang Mach-E as America's best-selling EV behind the two volume-focused Tesla models, which is no small feat
Which translated to its best year of sales, ever
Was a leader in fleet sales as well, making it a zero-emissions hero for corporate and government operations everywhere
Got canceled
Then sparked a furor so intense that GM had to quickly about-face and un-cancel it
And will still be the only GM car eligible for the EV tax credit come Jan. 1, 2024
Chevy Bolt EV Battery Disassembly and Charging Limitations
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Questions about the slow charging rate of the Bolt (compared to other cars) come up quite often. While the charging port being limited to 150A is often blamed, this is not the root cause. I firmly believe that the pack design (and not the cells) provides a very limited way of removing heat. If the pack were to be charged any faster, it could create unacceptable temperature gradients in the cells, which could cause severe degradation.
Hydrogen Is Just Another Hole for Natural Gas to Fill
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As the grand ambitions for that last endeavor have begun to show signs of waning, the industry has once again pivoted, this time to embrace its potential as part of America’s climate future. When the Biden administration announced this year that its build-out of facilities for hydrogen—a fuel that could help reduce emissions from heavy industry—would have a starring role for natural gas, it was hardly a surprise: The industry appears to have worked hard to ensure its place.
Do electric cars pose a greater fire risk than petrol or diesel vehicles?
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In Norway, which has the world’s highest proportion of electric car sales, there are between four and five times more fires in petrol and diesel cars, according to the directorate for social security and emergency preparedness. The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency this year found that there were 3.8 fires per 100,000 electric or hybrid cars in 2022, compared with 68 fires per 100,000 cars when taking all fuel types into account. However, the latter figures include arson, making comparisons tricky.
How to kill clean energy transition in Canada
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The aggressiveness of Alberta’s moratorium and advertising campaign suggests that the government is following a plan that involves softening up Albertans to the idea that renewable energy is bad. Policies to further obstruct investment opportunities in renewable energy will likely follow.
Through misinformation, damaging policy measures and exerting influence on AESO, the Alberta government will attempt to steer the once-booming renewable energy industry towards the same fate orchestrated by Ford’s Conservative government.
Are independent power producers delivering for South Africa?
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Part of the solution, she suggests, could come from accelerating the rollout of feed-in tariffs, through which homeowners with rooftop solar systems sell the surplus electricity they generate at peak times to the grid.
Several municipalities have introduced feed-in tariffs schemes, which typically require homeowners to pay a monthly fee, though a national-level scheme is still on the drawing board. As well as increasing the supply of power to the grid, a feed-in tariff generates some revenue for municipalities and reduces the attraction of going completely off-grid for wealthy homeowners.
Incentives for rooftop solar panel should be raised: Civil groups
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With a government-convened review committee set to decide the renewable energy feed-in tariff (FIT) rates for next year later this week, several civil groups called for incentives to install solar panels on residential rooftops to be increased by raising the FIT for smaller installed capacity.
The FIT rate for rooftop solar energy capacity is currently divided into four intervals, with the smallest being 1kW to 20kW (approximately NT$5.8/kWh) and the largest being over 500kW (approx. NT$4/kWh).
A treasure beneath our feet’: How the Dutch went down the toilet looking for heat
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“The warmth comes from showers, the toilet, wastewater from washing, from the dishwasher, from the washing machine,” says Postuma. “Together it all gives, throughout the year, a temperature between 15 and 18 degrees. And we are going to make a bypass around the main sewer, put a heat exchanger around it and bring it to the houses in insulated pipes. We place it in an electric heat pump, and the water is heated up to 60 or 70C – medium temperature.”
New Guidance to Expand Access to Clean Vehicle Tax Credits
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Starting on January 1st 2024, new IRS provisions “will allow consumers to transfer credit to car dealers, reducing purchase price of new and previously owned clean vehicles at time of sale.” This is a fundamental shift in the clean vehicle tax credit idea. Currently, if the vehicle and buyer meet the criteria, the tax credit effectively deducts what the buyer owes in federal taxes. For example, if you were buying an EV that met the criteria to claim the max of $7,500 and you owed $5,000 in taxes to the federal government, you would owe nothing on your return, but lose out on the additional $2,500 left. Now, the credit becomes effective immediately, so buyers could use it as a down payment for their purchase, enabling the full amount to be claimed much easier.
‘Go hard and go big’: How South Australia got solar panels onto one in every three houses
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Tristan Edis, an analyst with the consultants Green Energy Markets, said the lesson for those watching on was pretty simple: the generous early subsidies worked. “It really was this fortuitous accident that happened,” he said. “The message from it is pretty clear: go hard and go big, or don’t bother.”
Factcheck: 21 misleading myths about electric vehicles
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Electric vehicles (EVs) significantly cut lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions in almost all circumstances and are the key technology for decarbonising road transport.
While not having a car has even larger climate benefits, many peoples’ ability to go car-free is limited by their circumstances and the availability of alternatives.
This means EVs are “likely crucial” for tackling transport emissions, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
EV sales are growing fast, accounting for one in every seven cars sold globally in 2022 – up from one-in-70 just five years earlier.
Yet EVs are also being subjected to relentless hostile reporting across mainstream media in many major economies, including the UK.
