Plus: 30,000 German home batteries pooled for grid; Luxembourg makes transit free; cost still barrier for EVs
Hi Everyone,
An Energy Shift reader and former colleague sent me this link to a remarkably straight forward dashboard model of climate change. Longtime readers know I don’t post on the science of climate change as I’d just rather not debate it, but I thought I’d pass this one along. You will need to view it on a desktop computer though.
You’ll notice I am posting more on the need for more circularity in our economy. The butterfly cup is a nifty way of getting rid of the need for a plastic lid and straw for hot and cold drinks. See below.
Encourage other you know to subscribe.
Thanks,
Peter
Daimler is buying over US$20 billion in battery cells to support electric vehicle plans
Excerpt: Securing battery cell supply is one of the first steps in achieving volume production of electric vehicles and now Daimler is getting onboard. “We plan a total of 130 electrified variants at Mercedes-Benz Cars by 2022.” …more from Electrek
Survey: Consumers keen on EV purchases, though cost remains a barrier
This short article is worth the read. It’s clear consumer behaviour and preferences related to mobility are changing and we should all be paying attention. As technology and affordability improves, transport will become more electrified and autonomous (the latter in snow-free climes, for now).
30,000 home batteries pooled to provide grid services in Germany
About a year ago I saw sonnen was installing 500-700 home batteries a month paired with rooftop solar, enabling peer-to-peer energy trading at a 25% discount to that from the grid via the sonnenCommunity. They now have 30,000 home batteries across Europe that are being pooled to provide grid balancing services. Very cool.
Excerpt: Utilities are increasingly open to exploring new partnerships to determine how new solutions like virtual power plants can solve the problems caused by other challenges on the grid like excessive daytime solar. …more from CleanTechnica
Denmark, UK, & Canada Lead In Using Technologies To Limit Climate Change
I think it would have been far more insightful if the study had looked at the magnitude of change in each of the metrics from a specified baseline year. I haven’t looked in detail at the report, but Canada’s starting point of considerable hydro and nuclear power might have had some influence In our decent ranking. I wouldn’t go bragging too much about this. I think we have plenty more to do to decarbonize our economy. Moving to net-zero building codes (over time, like BC’s step code) is an example of some low hanging policy fruit. Check out this story on CleanTechnica
So tell me what you think are the top 3 things Canada needs to being doing to lower emissions across our economy.
MIT ‘sun in a box’ uses white hot silicon for energy storage
Comment: The usual ‘careful to manage your expectations’ caveat is needed again here. Wait for commercialization. It’s just another example of the many bright minds being put to the challenge of and need for energy storage. With so many working it, I can’t help but think that somebody’s going to crack this nut.
Excerpt: Engineers at MIT have developed a grid-scale energy storage concept known as the ‘sun in a box’, which they claim would be half the cost of pumped hydro storage. …more from The Engineer
Luxembourg will be the first country to offer all public transportation for free
Excerpt: The country’s capital, Luxembourg City, is small but has some of the worst traffic congestion in the world. It has a population of about 110,000, but more than 400,000 additional commuters from neighboring countries travel into the city each day for work. …more from inhabitat
5 Predictions for the Global Energy Storage Market in 2019
Greentech Media (GTM) notes that policy issues have been holding up utility-scale storage in the US. At issue is how to reward batteries’ unique abilities to both charge and discharge from the grid at speeds traditional generators simply cannot match.
GTM predicts “that natural gas-fired peaker plants, already a dying breed in storage-rich markets like California, will continue to “lose favor” in 2019.” …more from Greentech Media
Supporting the Circular Economy with Compostable Packaging Solutions: the Butterfly cup
Excerpt: The ButterflyCup is perfectly designed to serve coffee drinkers with one-product-fits-all requirement. This 100% compostable, biodegradable and recyclable cup is designed in an innovative way which makes cup lids and plastic straws superfluous. Once the consumer has finished their drink, the whole cup can be either recycled and repulped, or composted. …more from Packaging Europe
When will the storage revolution reach your kitchen?
A pilot project in Oregon and Washington involving 270 homes shows how electric water heaters can store energy, leveraging demand response to shift loads and capture energy from renewables. The utilities involved realized that if they deployed this technology in little over a quarter of their customers homes, it could save USD$106 million compared to having to build more peaking capacity. With 94% saying they’d join a program like this, it’ll be interesting to see if the utilities can make the business case to deploy this technology at a commercial scale.
Power market needs ‘managed revolution’ if decarbonisation is to be delivered
Comment: Power market regulators around the globe are having to reconsider the options they have to keep up with the fast-moving way market participants are adapting to new realities made possible by technology, distributed generation of renewables and energy storage (see this US example). But regulators are often handcuffed by current government policy, so the rate of change is still left in the hands of politicians.
Excerpt: These drivers include the emergence of new choices for consumers, with a number of new ways to buy and sell electricity coming to the fore; a new cost base, with the uniform kilowatt-hour expected to be replaced by a new means of charging consumers; new roles for players, with networks set to play a more active role; and new players, with entrants to the energy market expected to originate from markedly more diverse business areas than ever before. …more from Current
Check out this hilariously awesome Vespa-inspired electric monowheel
Excerpt: A Barcelona-based company has borrowed those classic looks for a totally new type of vehicle: an electric monowheel.And before you laugh, check out the specs. …more from Electrek