Bloomberg profiles a new startup company in Texas that aims to install batteries in homes super-cheaply and then aggregate the energy they store and sell it into the state’s market-driven grid.
Texas is a hotbed of clean energy innovation due to its freewheeling, market-driven power market. The start-up is co-founded by the son of Michael Dell, who upended the PC market in its early days.
In a new report, the World Bank says agriculture and food sectors are responsible for a third of global GHG emissions and mitigating those deserves more attention and funding, POLITICO reports.
Key quote, bottom line: “We have to stop destroying the planet as we feed ourselves.” The World Bank suggests redirecting subsidies for high carbon foods (red meat and dairy) to lower carbon options.
The U.S. Energy Department released a preliminary list of 10 national interest electric transmissions corridors, areas it says have the most potential to relieve backlogs of clean energy projects.
These projects, which will be eligible for $2 billion in federal loans after environmental review, are aimed at complementing related rules expected out of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The New York Times looks at how lithium-ion batteries are transforming power grids across the United States, particularly California and Texas.
Good graphics and overview. No mention of pumped hydro though, and the story only hints at longer duration energy storage at the end.
After a few years of rocky returns, exchange-traded funds tied to renewable energy generation and transmission are starting to outperform those tied to oil and gas, Reuters reports.
It's too soon to declare a victory for funds tied to clean energy, though. The article notes that continuing tensions in the Middle East along with high interest rates could erode this momentum.
Climeworks will open its next biggest direct air carbon capture (DAC) facility, called Mammoth, later this week in Iceland, and it is set to be the largest DAC facility in the world, E&E News reports.
Mammoth will remove 36,000 metric tons of CO2 per year. Occidental's DAC plant, STRATOS, is still under construction, but when it opens it plans to remove 500,000 metric tons per year.
The Washington Post reports on how political ideologies are dictating decisions to buy electric vehicles across the country.
Saving money on gasoline while protecting the environment could be seen as a plus; instead it has become a culture war issue.
Governments and leaders around the world are trying to figure out how to pay for the energy transition and are considering all manner of taxes and levies, Financial Times reports.
Notable from an energy strategist: “This is a false problem,” he says. “The sums involved are actually quite limited and it’s absolutely solvable." But they will require bold, strategic regulation.
Canary Media goes deep on what factors might be influencing Elon Musk’s decision to lay off a large portion of Tesla's team responsible for its supercharging networks.
It was eye-opening to learn about the degree to which electric-vehicle charging stations may or may not be profitable, despite the core role in facilitating more EVs.
Salesforce's Marc Benioff and the World Economic Forum launched their goal to plant or conserve one trillion trees by 2030 at Davos in 2020. So far, the project is behind schedule, Bloomberg reports.
The number of trees pledged to the effort is less than 15% of the goal and 2.6 billion trees, less than 0.3% of what's needed, has been planted or conserved, according to admittedly imperfect records.