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What’s this I hear about Elon Musk inventing a new kind of battery?

Elon Musk is a media darling. The young, ambitious, physics-educated CEO has made himself the poster child for “green” entrepreneurship and gives the impression that he wants to change the world. He is behind some decidedly pretty cool ideas such as SolarCity, Tesla Motors, Hyperloop, and SpaceX. His renewable energy ambitions were seeded by fortunes acquired early in his career through owning shares in other successful projects, most notably PayPal.

Recently, there has been buzz in the news about Tesla Motors most recent gadgety output – The Tesla Home Battery. The intention is to provide energy storage for backup in the event of a power outage, and storage for consumers’ residential wind and solar systems. A SolarCity pilot program has given a few hundred customers the opportunity try it out.

Not a whole lot of information has been released about the nuts and bolts of the technology, although one very recent article claimed that more will be known this Thursday, April 30th. It has been difficult to find technical information about how this battery is supposed to work, how efficient it is, why it is unique, and if it is worth the expense. Sources say it is a large lithium ion battery, but lithium-ion battery technology has been around since the 1970s. It will be interesting to learn what the innovations actually are.

While Tesla initially planned on selling it for $13,000, they have now decided to lease it for a down payment of $1,500 plus $15/month for 10 years. [Source]. Therefore, it seems that at $3,300 for the first 10 years, and $1,800 for each additional decade, a 30-year lease will be around $6,900 rather than $13,000.

This pricing strategy raises some questions. What is the payback? It seems like you would have to look at the lifetime of the battery and the amount of money you would save in electricity costs by using the battery instead of the power grid for back-up power when the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing. Also, what are the environmental costs of producing these large lithium ion batteries? What is the total life cycle cost of the battery? Specifically, what do we do with it when it doesn’t work anymore?

Is it really as revolutionary as the news makes it seem? It seems wise to wait until more information is available.

EDIT: The Tesla Powerwall has been released! It’s quite different from what the above journalists described.

Live Blogging from GLOBALCON 2015!

http://www.globalconevent.com/

Today some energy students, faculty, and staff are attending GlobalCon in Philadelphia, PA to check out the cutting edge of the energy industry. A lot of great companies were there showing off their cool technology – lighting systems, building controls, motors, sustainable materials, textbooks, and even a new type of “microwave” oven! (I wanted to include a picture but they said it was proprietary.)

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Writers Discuss Booming Solar Industry

So, maybe you’ve seen the meme?

Here are some articles that provide background. The meme seems to come from a Jan 16, 2015 article on Fortune.com. Two Slate contributors added their own voices to the subject.

  • “Installers, panel makers, and even traditional fossil fuel energy companies helped U.S. solar employment grow nearly 22 percent in 2014.” – Fortune
  • “The solar industry now employs more Americans than coal mining.” – Slate
  • “Renewable energy finally makes sense as a utility — and that’s why it’s becoming a threat to coal.” – Slate

Energy News: Obama’s Veto of Keystone XL Pipeline

Last week, President Obama vetoed the bill that would have approved a 1,179-mile pipeline from Canada to Gulf Coast oil refiners that would have been capable of transporting 830,000 barrels of oil. Quite predictably, this decision sparked a host of debates among policy makers, pundits, economists, and industry professionals.

For background: US Department of State’s Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (PDF)

Here are a few links to various perspectives:

…and so many more.

New York Times: “Worry For Solar Projects at the End of Tax Credits”

Various utility scale solar energy development projects have been preparing for an inevitable drop in solar Investment Tax Credits from 30% of a given project’s cost to just 10% by the start of 2017. It seems likely that this would impact developers’ desire to begin new solar power projects. Is anyone doing anything about this?

Ken Johnson, chief spokesman for the Solar Energy Industries Association, the main solar trade group, said that his group planned to lobby Congress to extend the credit beyond 2016. “That’s our top priority for this session of Congress,” he said, adding that developers across the solar industry were “trying to do as much as possible before it drops to 10 percent in 2017.

Read the full article at New York Times: “Worry For Solar Projects at the End of Tax Credits”

The Cost of Pollution

An article came out yesterday in the MIT Technology Review entitled “Why Solar is Much More Costly Than Wind or Hydro.” However, the headline is somewhat misleading. Solar may be more costly in terms of pollution due to what goes into manufacturing them; for example, many scarce metals and a complex industrial process are involved in making solar panels and those resources are limited. This is not new information.

In terms of environmental cost, solar power is still far less polluting than coal fired power plants and natural gas. The data is shown in the table below. Environmental cost is measured in “euros per Megawatt hour” because the study was commissioned by the European Union, and represents 2012 measurements. The article mentions that in 2014, however, the cost effectiveness of solar may have improved over these 2012 measurements since the technology is under constant development.

Estimated environmental costs per Megawatt hour for eight different energy producing technologies. (Ecofys, 2012) - Published in 2014.

Estimated environmental costs per Megawatt hour for eight different energy producing technologies. (Ecofys, 2012) – Published in 2014. (Full Article can be found here: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/531841/why-solar-is-much-more-costly-than-wind-or-hydro/)

Free Online Training in Electricity Basics

Hello! Welcome to Fall semester, 2014. Solar Pathways went on hiatus over the summer, but I promise I’m back now and will be updating more frequently from now on.

I just stumbled across an excellent beginner’s resource for individuals struggling to understand the basics of electricity. Behold, the Siemens Technical Education Program, also known as Online quickSTEP Training. The training program comes in the form of online training videos or PDF downloads to address various learning styles.

Browse Videos
Browse PDF Downloads
Browse the Pictorial Glossary of Electrical Terms