Environment

Audi sold almost 50,000 e-tron electric SUVs in 2020 – a significant increase over last year and launching Audi’s electrification effort ahead of new models hitting the market. Audi e-tron The Audi e-tron is starting to come into its own as an electric vehicle program. The German automaker released its 2020 delivery results and confirmed

January 12th, 2021 by U.S. Energy Information Administration  Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory, October 2020 According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest inventory of electric generators, 9.1 gigawatts (GW) of electric generating capacity is scheduled to retire in 2021. Nuclear generating capacity will account for the largest share of total capacity

General Motors plans to launch a new all-electric van called the EV600 by the end of this year. The first 500 vehicles will be sold to FedEx. GM General Motors said Tuesday it plans to launch an all-electric van called the EV600 this year. The van – part of GM’s plan to invest $27 billion

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from Electrek. Quick Charge is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players. New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded Monday through Thursday and again on Saturday. Subscribe to our podcast in Apple Podcast or your favorite podcast player to guarantee

January 11th, 2021 by U.S. Department of Energy  Zach Berzolla at VERMOD Homes, a project that he sought out, which was inspired by his Solar Decathlon work. Image courtesy of Zach Berzolla/DOE. Resilient Home 411: Strategies to Weather and Recover from Natural Disasters Thursday, January 21, 2021, 1–2 p.m. E.T. Learn more about this webinar

Tesla is again expanding Gigafactory Shanghai with new buildings coming up on the eastern side. The automaker is also looking to add a design director to its Chinese team ahead of the new planned $25,000 electric car. Tesla Gigafactory Shanghai Gigafactory Shanghai was a big success story for Tesla in 2020. After quickly managing to

January 10th, 2021 by Jennifer Sensiba  Irish researchers recently figured out where a lot more rare earth minerals could be found, which could make a big difference for renewable energy technologies. Why Rare Earth Elements Matter Rare earth minerals are a big part of today’s renewable energy technologies. Metals like ytterbium, scandium, and neodynium are

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from Electrek. Quick Charge is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players. New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded Monday through Thursday and again on Saturday. Subscribe to our podcast in Apple Podcast or your favorite podcast player to guarantee

January 10th, 2021 by Jennifer Sensiba  Image: Zach Shahan, CleanTechnica If 2021 were given to all of us on a 7-day trial, most of us wouldn’t have kept the subscription. Violence, political strife, and worse have given all but Trump’s most loyal supporters a bad taste in their mouths. I know he didn’t want to

Teasers late last month indicated that Vmoto’s Super Soco was planning to unveil an electric motorcycle soon. Vmoto’s presence in much of Asia, Europe and Australia has led to increased interest in the launch, as the new bike stands a good chance of reaching multiple international markets. TS Street Hunter unveiling clues Super Soco currently

Important note but not a very important one and you don’t have to read this: Elon Musk was not actually wearing a CleanTechnica shirt at the Model Y reveal event. Photo by Chanan Bos, CleanTechnica. It may feel like 2020 just grew a tumor, but we are indeed in a new year. That means it’s

NIO unveiled today an impressive new electric car, the NIO ET7, with a massive battery pack and with the potential to be fully autonomous. NIO NIO is a Chinese electric vehicle company that has been growing fast over the last few years. Often called ‘the Tesla of China’, the electric vehicle company has had success

January 9th, 2021 by U.S. Department of Energy  The Sun Has Set on Another Round of the American-Made Solar Prize, Awarding Two New Solar Startups for Their Innovations [embedded content] On Friday, Dec. 4, more than 200 solar industry experts, entrepreneurs, and enthusiasts joined a virtual Demo Day and Networking Event to find out which

Robots aren’t going to take over the world, but they can definitely make life a lot easier for humans. And that was the aim of BladeBUG, a UK startup that has developed insect-like robots to inspect, maintain, and repair offshore wind turbine blades without the need for rope access. BladeBUG’s founder and CEO, Chris Cieslak,

January 9th, 2021 by U.S. Department of Energy  Intersections Between Wind Energy and Wildlife Set Up Opportunities for Coexistence As wind energy continues to supply more power to the electric grid, development of cost-effective solutions to detect and deter wildlife from wind energy facilities grows with increasing importance. Wildlife impacts can extend permitting timelines, add

Tesla has unveiled the first images of the new Model Y third row for the 7-seat option, and it’s unsurprisingly crazy small. Tesla Model Y 7-seat Third Row Option Earlier this week, we reported on Tesla opening orders for the Model Y Standard Range RWD and 7-seat third-row option. Tesla had promised a 7-seat version

January 8th, 2021 by John Farrell  Originally published at ILSR.org. A new report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance shows that America’s monopoly problem is bigger than you might think. While last year’s Big Tech hearings and House antitrust report spotlighted monopoly abuses at Amazon, Google, and other tech giants, the report from ILSR makes clear

The CEO of Daimler emphasized the importance of low-emission technologies and innovation on Friday, telling CNBC that the automotive industry was “in the middle of a transformation.” “Next to the things that we know well — to build, frankly, the world’s most desirable cars — there are two technological trends that we’re doubling down on:

There were a number of fascinating new electric motorcycles that were slated for release in 2020, but many saw their timelines stretched by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now 2021 appears to be the year of the new e-moto swarm with a score of models set to finally debut. Here are the ones keeping me on the

January 7th, 2021 by Johnna Crider  Today, Elon Musk passed Jeff Bezos as the richest person in the world. Elon Musk has created his companies to solve problems that otherwise would probably not be solved. Tesla is a great example of this. Tesla started out as an electric carmaker, but morphed into a technology company

Plug Power CEO Andrew Marsh on Thursday applauded the Democratic sweep of the Georgia Senate runoffs earlier this week, expressing an optimistic outlook for the future of green energy. Marsh, who has led the Latham, New York-based hydrogen fuel cell producer since 2008, in an appearance on CNBC welcomed the news that Democrats Raphael Warnock

Rivian is hinting at offering factory wraps on its upcoming electric R1t pickup truck and R1S SUV. Rivian R1S and R1T Late last year, Rivian released the details of the first production versions of the R1T and R1S: Deliveries are going to start in the summer. We posted all the different colors that Rivian made

January 6th, 2021 by Tina Casey  Since everyone is talking about Georgia, now would be a good time to take a closer look at the Georgia Institute of Technology and its idea for building an algae biofuel farm on Mars. Since the algae biofuel market has been slow to catch hold on Earth, why not

All-electric cars have hit a new record 54% market share of Norway’s total new cars sales in 2020 – showing that the goal of 100% of new car sales being all-electric by 2025 is achievable. Norway and Electric Cars While many countries are just now implementing goals for electric cars to replace all new car

January 6th, 2021 by NRDC  Originally published on the NRDC Expert Blog.By Kit Kennedy  Part of NRDC’s Series Reviewing 2020 Climate & Clean Energy Developments It was the year that never seemed to end. The 2020 blows kept coming as the inter-related crises of the COVID-19 pandemic, racial brutality, climate upheaval, and economic recession inflicted hardship and loss

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from Electrek. Quick Charge is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players. New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded Monday through Thursday and again on Saturday. Subscribe to our podcast in Apple Podcast or your favorite podcast player to guarantee

January 6th, 2021 by The Beam  By Rebecca Cooke In one of Caleb Clarke’s earliest memories, he runs down to the creek near his grandfather’s house to fetch casks of ale for his grandfather and his friends. The icy mountain water keeps the bottles cool for them as they sit out on the porch in

Oil markets are in for more struggles this year despite a more than 5% boost to prices this week on news from OPEC+. The oil producer group, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, announced that members would keep production largely steady rather than raising it, with Riyadh later revealing voluntary cuts of an extra 1

In today’s Electrek Green Energy Brief (EGEB): EnergySage launches a new community solar marketplace in the US so consumers can save money. Sustainable lithium mining is becoming a requirement as battery demand grows. UnderstandSolar is a free service that links you to top-rated solar installers in your region for personalized solar estimates. Tesla now offers

January 6th, 2021 by Johnna Crider  It’s a mid-late Sunday morning and as my cats race around my home like its Nurburgring, I open Twitter to see a tweet by Earl of Frunkpuppy that inspires this piece. In his tweet, below, Earl shared an image of four Tesla-related headlines over the years. Looking over the

The facility is located in Cornwall, a county in the southwest of England. Geothermal Engineering Ltd Energy firm Ecotricity has signed a ten-year deal for electricity which will be produced by a British geothermal power plant, representing another step forward for the country’s fledgling industry.    The company’s power purchase agreement with Geothermal Engineering Limited

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from Electrek. Quick Charge is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players. New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded Monday through Thursday and again on Saturday. Subscribe to our podcast in Apple Podcast or your favorite podcast player to guarantee

January 5th, 2021 by U.S. Department of Energy  Happy New Year! The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO) provides global leadership in fundamental wind energy science research, development, and validation activities that enable low-cost wind energy. The office pursues opportunities across all U.S. wind sectors — land-based utility-scale wind, offshore wind,

Journalists watch the screen as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman welcomes the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, ahead of the 41st Gulf Cooperation Council summit in the city of Al-Ula in Saudi Arabia on Jan. 5, 2021. Fayez Nureldine | AFP | Getty Images Saudi Arabia has reinstated diplomatic relations with Qatar,

Tesla has released a new map of its upcoming Supercharger stations, adding many new planned stations to the network, removing others, and updating timelines in the process. Tesla Supercharger network The Supercharger network is one of Tesla’s two charging networks along with the “Destination network.” While the Destination network focuses on providing charging solutions at

January 4th, 2021 by U.S. Department of Energy  The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) will host an informational webinar for its new $45 million Fiscal Year 2021 Systems Integration and Hardware Incubator funding opportunity on January 6, 2021, at 1:00 p.m. ET. DOE seeks to fund 10–20 research and development projects that will advance solar

View on the Bund, a waterfront area in central Shanghai, which runs along the western bank of the Huangpu River. Frédéric Soltan | Corbis News | Getty Images SINGAPORE — Several major Chinese cities have reportedly gone dark as authorities limit power usage, citing a shortage of coal. Analysts said prices of the commodity in

Wisconsin, a state that currently gets most of its electricity (42%) from coal, is quickly moving to adopt solar. The state currently has 20 solar farms under active development that will generate more than 2.2 gigawatts of power. Wisconsin’s solar future Michael Vickerman, policy director for nonprofit green energy promoter RENEW Wisconsin, says that’s enough

January 4th, 2021 by Carolyn Fortuna  On Tuesday, voters in the US state of Georgia head to the polls in twin Senate runoff elections. The elections are taking place because no candidate received more than 50% of the November votes, so Georgia law requires the top vote-getters to contend in a runoff. If both Democratic

Blacksmith Electric has added a new electric scooter model known as the B4 to its existing lineup of electric motorcycles and scooters. The Chennai, India-based electric motorbike startup appears to have drawn heavily upon the design of their previous iteration, the B3. That scooter was in turn largely based on their stunning B2 electric cruiser motorcycle

January 3rd, 2021 by Tina Casey  With all eyes on Georgia, now would be a good time to draw attention to a new “just transition” study from the Georgia Institute of Technology that suggests how the US can plot the renewable energy workforce of tomorrow. The idea of a managed, balanced transition is especially relevant

Tesla has updated the Model 3 again with a new design accent recently introduced in the new Model Y in China and the long-awaited heated steering wheel. 2021 Tesla Model 3 Tesla officially launched the Model 3 2021 refresh with more range and new features in October of 2020, but as we previously reported, the

January 3rd, 2021 by Johnna Crider  On the last day of 2020, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and his administration shared a plan that will deal a major blow to fossil fuel automakers while severely cutting the state’s greenhouse-gas emissions in the next decade and beyond. These changes include the mandate that all new cars sold

Tesla released its delivery and production numbers for the fourth quarter of 2020 and the full year 2020. They managed to deliver a record number of over 180,000 vehicles, but barely missed the goal of 500,000 vehicles delivered in the full year. Tesla Q4 Delivery and Production Over the last few weeks, we reported on

December 30th, 2020 by Zachary Shahan  Are you involved in “high-risk, innovative solar research and technology development projects with potential for commercialization?” If so, Uncle Sam wants you! More specifically, you are free to submit letters of intent to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer funding

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from Electrek. Quick Charge is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players. New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded Monday through Thursday and again on Saturday. Subscribe to our podcast in Apple Podcast or your favorite podcast player to guarantee

December 30th, 2020 by Daryl Elliott  Buying Green ETFs Instead of Individual Green Stocks — Pros & Cons ETFs are Exchange Traded Funds. The aim is to gain the growth of an industry without having to spend a lot of money on buying individual stocks. An ETF also makes it safer for the individual who

A Tesla Model S vehicle with what appears to be a new refresh design has been spotted in the wild amid the Model S/X production shutdown.. Tesla Model S Design Refresh Over the last few months, we have been extensively reporting on rumors of a possible Model S and Model X design refresh have been