Also: Iceland to divest from fossil fuels within 5 years; China pursues driverless cars; TOTAL buys majority stake in utility
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Ireland commits to divesting public funds from fossil fuel companies within 5 years
Excerpt: Ireland committed to divesting public funds from fossil fuel companies on Thursday after parliament passed a bill forcing the 8.9 billion euro ($10.4 billion) Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) to withdraw money invested in oil, gas and coal.
Members of Ireland’s Dail (Parliament) passed the Fossil Fuel Divestment Bill, which requires the fund to divest direct investments in fossil fuel undertakings within five years and not to make future investments in the industry. REUTERS
Home storage sales rocket as Australia moves towards standardisation
Excerpt: Over 1.8 million Australian rooftops are fitted with solar PV, most of which are residential. Feeding solar into the grid only makes the seller around AU$0.08 per kWh, to give the ballpark figure quoted in Finkel’s paper, while retail prices the same homeowner would pay for grid power are at around AU$0.30 per kWh. Storing the electricity generated and self-consuming it onsite instead therefore represents a significant potential for savings. Finkel found that around 21,000 home systems were installed during 2017. Energy Storage News
Comment: With only 1% of the approximately 1.8 million Australian homes with rooftop solar equipped with batteries, combined with the context of high electricity prices, its no wonder battery companies are looking to this market for substantial growth. Let’s also remember roughly 1 in 5 homes in Australia have rooftop solar. So watch for the impact of news spreading from neighbor to neighbor as more people learn about the benefits of adding energy storage.
What did an autonomous car learn to do in just 20 minutes?
Comment: Ok, so the vehicle only learned to stay in its lane, but the unique algorithm that made it possible is what sets this story apart.
Excerpt: Cambridge, England-based Wayve used machine-learning through its safety driver, correcting mistakes to teach its AV how to keep on course. Smart Cities Dive
China is giving Daimler the keys to test self-driving cars on its roads
Excerpt: Daimler, the parent company of German car maker Mercedes Benz, announced Friday that it is the first foreign company to receive permission to test its cars in Beijing. To get the permit, the company’s vehicles—equipped with some of Baidu’s Apollo tech—went through extensive closed-course testing. Technology Review
33 roads open for autonomous car testing in Beijing
Excerpt: Beijing has opened 33 roads with a total length of 105 kilometers for autonomous car testing, reports the Beijing Youth Daily.
So far, the autonomous vehicles have covered some 26,000 kilometers in testing, without incident, according to the report.China Plus
Total Completes Majority Acquisition Of Direct Energie
Excerpt: French multinational oil and gas giant Total has successfully acquired a majority acquisition of French electricity utility Direct Energie in a move which was announced in April of this year and is intended to fast-track Total’s expansion into the French and Belgium electricity and gas markets.
“Through this transaction, Total is actively pursuing its development in electricity and gas generation and distribution in France and Belgium,” said Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO of Total in April. “This friendly takeover is part of the Group’s strategy to expand along the entire gas-electricity value chain and to develop low-carbon energies, in line with our ambition to become the responsible energy major. Clean Technica