The bill would make it mandatory for big companies doing business in California to share how much greenhouse gas emissions they’re creating. The SEC is weighing a similar federal mandate, but has faced steep industry pushback. California could beat the SEC to the punch; its bill is expected to be voted on by September 14th.
Puerto Rico’s Energy Bureau authorized grid operator Luma to build the new Virtual Power Plant (VPP), Electrek reports. A VPP harnesses the collective strength of a fleet of batteries, usually from electric vehicles or residential solar setups. Together, they can act as a backup power source during an emergency or energy shortage — problems Puerto Rico is no stranger to, especially after Hurricane Maria decimated its power grid.
If LK-99 is the real deal, it could be a game-changer for everything from quantum computing and medical imaging to energy and transportation. But there are a lot of red flags.
Early results are in from attempts to recreate LK-99 and see if it truly is the room-temperature superconductor of people’s dreams.
CMTC cites discouraging results from the CSIR-National Physical Laboratory in India and the International Center for Quantum Materials in China. We’ll hear from more labs soon, but at this point, it’s looking like LK-99 was too good to be true.
The deep sea is an untapped source of battery materials. But world leaders missed a July deadline to craft regulations on deep sea mining. Since so little is known about marine life at those depths, Scientists warn that exploiting those resources would be disastrous — especially without international regulations in place. The International Seabed Authority was scheduled to discuss a potential moratorium on deep-sea mining during a meeting last week, but ultimately pushed talks to 2024.
Marques Brownlee got a top-of-the-line Tesla system installed in his home to figure out the costs, benefits, and quirks of it all. He found huge fluctuations season to season, which mostly washed out over the course of the year.
The end result was a very high-tech and nearly cost-free home electricity system... it’s just going to take a while to pay itself off.
The new Solis Pocket 36B comes standard with an EcoFlow PowerKit I reviewed last year. It starts with a 5kWh battery that can be expandable to 15kWh, which is a ton of LFP storage capacity for a van. It’s available to buy in the US and Canada from August.
Or maybe wait for Winnebago’s production version of the all-electric eRV2. Decisions, decisions.
This ad from European energy provider Vattenfall promotes the use of hydrogen fuels that emit water as waste instead of carbon dioxide. “The emissions are so clean that they can be used in a refreshing face mist and put on your face.” While this may in fact be greenwashing, it’s also clever and weird enough that — for the moment — I do not care.
Lunar System — from Tesla’s former head of energy — is a solar energy backup system with modular battery units that can power your whole home. It might even make you some money... eventually.
Energy prices are high, the grid is increasingly unstable, and solar panels and giant batteries are more affordable than ever. No wonder Tesla Powerwall sales are accelerating, according to Electrek. But competition is getting fierce, with newcomers like Anker and EcoFlow joining the mix just this week.
In a (now-deleted, as of 12:20PM ET) post, the Tesla Powerwall Twitter account said it had “Just surpassed 500k Powerwall installs globally!” and promised a $500 rebate per unit. The tweet has not been reposted so far.
Tesla buys cobalt and nickel from Glencore, a mining giant with at least 70 allegations of human rights abuses against it.
