Plus: Ford to invest $4B in driverless cars; Portugal goes big on solar; Calgary entertains dockless bike
Hi Everyone,
Rather than me short-listing the stories, I’m including a longer list this week. Give the list a scan for what interests you.
One noteworthy piece worth reading is this one: New evidence shows we’re still way too addicted to fossil fuels from Grist: “All our driving and shipping and air travel caused oil consumption to grow by “1.6 million barrels per day,” according to the IEA. All the electric cars on the road trimmed consumption by 30,000 barrels a day.” A good reminder to keep all the ‘clean energy’ moves in perspective.
Hope you all are having a great summer. Pass this along to any others you think might be interested.
Thanks,
Peter
31 New Solar Power Plants Bring 1 Gigawatt Of Renewables To Portugal
Excerpt: Thirty-one new solar power plants will be installed in Portugal with a total of over 1,000 MW of production capacity by 2021, according to an article on Dinheiro Vivo. The total value of the projects has been stated to be about 800 million euros. “By 2021 we will be able to triple the solar capacity in Portugal, from the current 572 MW to close to 1600 MW,” said Jorge Seguro Sanches, Portugal’s Energy Secretary of State. Clean Technica
Chinese startups floor the pedal in a driverless car race
Excerpt: Roadstar.ai is testing electric self-driving cars in the southern metropolis of Shenzhen and hopes to get 1,500 of them into the business districts of major cities by 2020. Sequoia Capital-backed Pony.ai plans to deploy a fleet of at least 20 self-driving vehicles for public ride-hailing services in Guangzhou as soon as next year, co-founder James Peng said in a recent interview. And Daimler-backed Momenta just inked a contract with the government of eastern Suzhou to deploy a self-driving fleet in the city within the year and open the service to citizens “at a suitable time.”
They join the likes of Baidu Inc. and NIO in taking advantage of local governments’ eagerness to open their city streets to testing, as each vie to become a nexus for developing future mobility. They’re making up for lost time and a deficit of crucial data but have two advantages: a central government keen on seeing 30 million autonomous vehicles on roads within a decade, and a massive base of 300 million-plus drivers. Bloomberg
Vanadium flow ‘batteries’ to be deployed on grand scale in Germany
Comment: Never heard of a vanadium redox flow battery? Wikipedia to the rescue. They’re used to store electricity for the grid. Whereas lithium-ion batteries max out at about 4 hours for grid services, VRFBs are often designed to provide up to 8 hours of power.
Excerpt: According to McGregor, vanadium redox flow energy storage could be a better fit for this type of application, due to its rugged ability to store large amounts of energy and perform full charge and discharge cycles without degradation.
“To do that all day long with lithium – it wouldn’t survive the degradation, so this is where the future of energy storage is, providing big, long duration grid services. It’s not the type of service lithium would do.” Energy Storage News
Eight L-ion battery systems coming to Ontario commercial and industrial customers in 2019
Excerpt: NRStor and IHI will deliver 42MWh of behind-the-meter lithium-ion battery systems for eight commercial and industrial customers in Ontario, Canada. Energy Storage Report
Japan and Canada’s province of BC consider ban on gas vehicles
Comment: The news from Japan sounds more declarative, whereas BC included the consideration in an ‘intentions’ paper.
Excerpt: A panel of Japan’s economic ministry declared Tuesday that it intends to make all new passenger vehicles sold in the country in 2050 either hybrids or fully electric vehicles. The Drive
Excerpt: The BC government is asking for public input on a series of intention papers that include ideas like banning the sale of gas and diesel cars by 2040, using more electric buses or even ferries, and labelling homes for their energy efficiency. National Observer
Waymo partners with Walmart to autonomously drive its customers to get their groceries
Excerpt: Waymo has been working with a group of early riders in its test program in the Phoenix metro area for over a year and it is learning how they use their autonomous ride-hailing service.
Building on what they learned, Waymo is now announcing new partnerships to help riders better make use of their autonomous service, including a partnership with Walmart. Electrek
Oil major Vitol invests €200 million in clean energy fund
I admit to not having heard of Vitol before, yet Wikipedia says they move 7 million barrels of product per day – about twice the production in Canada. This article includes a decent summary of oil companies investing in solar. PV Magazine
Lime celebrates 1-year anniversary, passes 6M ride mark
Excerpt: Many critics thought dockless bikes and scooters would be a flash in the pan but they appear to have some staying power. The dockless concept’s longevity remains to be seen, but it’s proving successful for the time being. Granted, not all operators will survive, as reflected in ofo’s decision to leave most of its U.S. markets, but the niche industry does not show imminent signs of collapse in the United States. Smart Cities Dive
Calgary to give dockless bike-share program a spin
Excerpt: Coun. Evan Woolley introduced the notice of motion asking city administration to launch a two-year pilot program to allow permitted operators to launch fleets of “dockless” bicycles, scooters or other mobility devices.
Dockless systems allow users to locate and rent GPS-enabled bikes or scooters that they can drop off within specified zones when they’re finished. The city has been studying similar services offered in Dallas, Seattle, Montreal, Victoria and other cities. Calgary Herald
Ford to invest $4B in driverless car development over next 5 years
Excerpt: The company will accelerate its manufacturing and deployment through Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC, a new business division to operate on the Ford campus in Detroit. Smart Cities Dive
Waymo’s autonomous vehicles are driving 40,000 km every day
Comment: OK, so not all those kilometers are real, but the number is still impressive.
Excerpt: Waymo has 600 self-driving Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans on the road. The company also relies on simulation as it works to build an AI-based self-driving system that performs better than a human. In the past nine years, Waymo has “driven” more than 5 billion miles in its simulation, according to the company. That’s the equivalent to 25,000 virtual cars driving all day, everyday, the company says. Tech Crunch
VW forms ‘Electrify Canada’ to deploy a new network of ‘ultra-fast’ charging stations
Excerpt: They plan to deploy the same ‘ultra-fast’ 150kW to 350kW charging stations with CCS and CHAdeMO plugs as they are currently deploying in the US.
That said, the size of the network is much less ambitious than the one in the US. They are planning an “initial phase” of “32 EV charging sites near major highways and in major metro areas in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec.” Electrek