Plus: 1.5 million e-rickshaws in India; Blockchain to trade renewables in the US; Lime dockless e-bikes in Calgary
Hi everyone,
It was cool to see a bunch of dockless e-bikes parked out front of my office building this week. US-based Lime picked Calgary as the first Canadian city, launching their 350-bike pilot this week.
Thanks to several of you who sent me material to answer my questions from the last post. I’m still working through it all to get you some answers.
Please forward on to others you think would be interested. As always, questions and comments welcome!
Thanks,
Peter
Peter Tertzakian and Jackie Forrest: Electric cars and the oil age – 30 min podcast
Who has time for a 30 minute podcast? I say: make time for this one, where Peter and Jackie “review the latest electric car sales statistics, the economics and utility of EV ownership and the implications of a growing electrically powered fleet on the future of oil demand.”
India’s 1.5 Million Electric Vehicles & Why You’ve Never Heard Of Them
Excerpt: The mass adoption of electric rickshaws is being driven by pure economics as rickshaw operators opt for the silent, low maintenance, lower cost to operate electric rickshaws over petrol or manual cycle rickshaws because it’s just good business. …more from CleanTechnica
Free public transit is becoming more popular in European cities
Excerpt: Dunkirk joins roughly two dozen French cities that have gone fare free. Earlier this year, five German cities said they would try free public transit, though they’ve since decided to dramatically reduce fares rather than waive them entirely. …more from Quartz
Biggest U.S. Power Market to Test Blockchain to Trade Renewables
Excerpt: Blockchain, the technology that underpins cryptocurrency transactions, is about to get tested in a trading system for matching clean-energy buyers and sellers in the largest U.S. power market. …more from Bloomberg
UPS is experimenting with delivering packages by e-bike
Excerpt: In Seattle, a regular delivery vehicle will tow a trailer with four of the bike-size cargo boxes from UPS’s distribution center into the city’s downtown. Then it will drop them off for a bike delivery person–UPS calls them “industrial athletes,” though an electric motor can do some of the work–to transfer onto the bike and bring into congested areas, like Pike Place Market, that trucks can’t currently access directly. Right now, trucks are often forced to double-park on the periphery as drivers walk back and forth. …more from Fast Company
sonnen to start making batteries in Australia next month
Excerpt: The manufacturing plant, first proposed under the state’s [South Australia] former Labor government, aims to produce 10,000 batteries a year to meet soaring demand from Australian households, as well as for export to the neighbouring Asia Pacific region.
The repurposed factory got the go-ahead from the new Liberal government, just a day after it unveiled the details of its $100 million Home Battery Scheme, a subsidy of up to $6,000 per household that will be supported by a further $100 million in finance from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. …more from RenewEconomy
Zero-Subsidy Wind Energy is New Reality, Says Engie: Q&A
Excerpt: Developing renewables subsidy-free in mature markets is a new reality, and the 300-megawatt Goya wind project in Spain will set the standard for how developers can counterbalance increasing exposure to market prices, said Loreto Ordonez, chief executive of Engie Spain, in an interview with BNEF. …more from BloombergNEF
Volkswagen, Intel, and Mobileye will launch a self-driving taxi service in Israel in 2019
Excerpt: The venture, which plans to launch commercially in 2019, will act as a global beta test site for Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) using autonomous EVs. …more from The Verge
Uber’s Clean Air Plan to help London go electric
In London, Uber says it will add on a 15-pence-per-mile “clean air fee” onto rides to create a 200-million-pound-fund to help Uber drivers convert to electric cars. …more from Uber
More than 275 companies, governments and others have signed on to ending plastics pollution
Excerpt: In a first-of-its-kind collaboration, the signatories to the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment — collectively responsible for producing 20 percent of all plastic packaging globally and represent the full value chain for plastics — have pledged to eradicate plastic waste and pollution. The scale, scope and shared approach of today’s announcement, made at the Our Oceans conference in Bali, makes it one of the most significant actions around plastic pollution to date. …more from GreenBiz
Paris is building the world’s greenest business district. What can other cities learn from it?
Excerpt: By adopting a bold sustainability strategy as Paris did, cities could attract a new breed of conscious entrepreneurs with business minds, social hearts and ecological souls to invigorate the local economy, strengthen social bonds and help reverse climate change. …more from WE Forum