EGEB: 10 ‘Gigafactories’ under construction, future price of solar *equation*, more

Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial and political review/analysis of important green energy news.

10 Battery Gigafactories Are Now in the Works. And Elon Musk May Add 4 More – Two things 1. What a great list of projects underway. Thanks GTM. 2. By 2030, BNEF expects battery pack prices to fall to $73 per kilowatt-hour, down from a volume-weighted average of $273 per kilowatt-hour in 2016. – Our good friend Fred told us a couple of days ago that Audi was buying batteries at $114/kWh. You know how the amazing price falls of solar power caught everyone off guard? Part two seems to be happening before our eyes.

Xi Jinping Is Set for a Big Gamble With China’s Carbon Trading Market – The Chinese government said in a greenhouse gas policy guide released on Wednesday that the 2017 start was on track. The next time someone tells you that China is doing nothing about Climate Change, remind them that they have more solar than anyone, more wind than anyone, more electric cars than anyone, more battery factories than anyone – and now they are going to have the world’s largest carbon trading market by the end of the year.

Temperatures in Iranian city of Ahvaz hit 127.4F (53C) degrees, near hottest on Earth in modern measurements – weather historian for Weather Underground, has exhaustively analysed world temperature extremes and determined the 129.2 degree readings posted in Mitribah, Kuwait on July 21, 2016, and Death Valley, Calif., on June 30, 2013, are the hottest credible temperature measurements that exist in modern records – The world that we evolved in is going away. Time to evolve again.

How to predict the future price of PV – And here it is in an equation format:

P =0.119048720990208+0.930860320330261x−0.000108888719476707y−0.00922272573929036z

P= Predicted future PV Module price in 3 months time
x= Current PV module price
y=Current silver price
z=Silicon price 2 months ago

Energy storage already cost-competitive in commercial sector – Many businesses pay a ‘demand’ charge. A demand charge is a measurement of your peak energy usage during the month. If for one moment during the entirety of the month, your electricity usage hits an extreme high value – you pay for that extreme high value. This is because power companies are legally liable to add up all of those peak values, multiply them by a variable, and then provide enough electricity production to meet EVERYONE’S peak demand at once. Commercial battery systems that are specifically installed to limit how high this peak demand hits are already economically viable – its called ‘peak shaving.’ My company just started selling these systems (call John Mosher if you’re interested in Massachusetts :-).

The American South Will Bear the Worst of Climate Change’s Costs – The paper finds that climate change will cost the United States 1.2 percent of its GDP for every additional degree Celsius of warming. Almost every county between El Paso, Texas, and Charlotte, North Carolina, could see their mortality rate rise by more than 20 people out of every 100,000. By comparison, car accidents killed about 11 Americans out of every 100,000 in 2015. – Direct life and economic costs of climate change. See image of county level damage that’s going to be caused by climate change. Time to start moving north folks. Seriously.

German Tenants Win Right to Generate Solar Power on Rented Roofs – This law allows those who own apartment buildings to build solar power on the top and pass those savings onto residents. As a salesman who works with commercial customers, its a challenge to sell solar power to businesses that don’t own their building. Who is going to invest in a structure that isn’t theirs? And since the building owners aren’t bearing the costs of the electricity – why would they invest? Massachusetts in 2018 is trying to fix that by letting a building owner sell solar electricity directly to the utility at a reasonable rate.

House Republicans OK Measure Asking Military to Study Climate Change – The amendment asks the Defense Department to issue a report within a year identifying the 10 military sites most vulnerable to the many manifestations of climate change, and what steps are needed to protect them. It also asks for a discussion of how climate change will affect top commanders of fielded forces who may have to deal with instability brought on by a climate crisis. The US Military has said climate change is THE GREATEST THREAT to global stability, and has been saying this for a while. Last year, House of Representative Republicans blocked the US Military from spending money researching Climate Change. Legislated ignorance.

Rural Electrification Corporation of India launches first green bond in London – Interesting because we get numbers: The ten year dated green bond raised $450 million, with an annual yield of 3.965 per cent. The bond was 3.9 times oversubscribed on the final order book and secured strong international investor interest, with Asian investors making up 68 per cent of the order book and investors from the EMEA region making up 32 per cent. – 1. You can buy the bond on a stock exchange. 2. Getting money from investors at under 4% a year for a ten-year note, amazing number. Cheaper money=cheaper renewable energy.

And I guess because this bond hit the headlines – there are articles on the topic all over:
1. Forbes – Should You Invest In ‘Green Bonds?’ – Short article for regular investors looking to invest in long-term bonds. Nice article because it lists bond products that you can buy as regular people.
2. Reuters – Renewable energy no longer a niche to institutional investors – BlackRock’s renewable infrastructure investment platform, launched in 2012 by Giordano’s team, now manages more than $4 billion in client assets, mostly in wind and solar projects. – This is a company with $5 trillion in money to invest globally. Just under 1% is now in renewable infrastructure.

We knew in 1956. This is science folks – this is not emotion. This is based upon research that started in 1824. We are soon gaining on the 200 year anniversary of recognizing the climate change can be caused by human activity.

We knew in 1956 pic.twitter.com/kZVPeTawy5

— Commercial Solar Guy (@SolarInMASS) June 30, 2017

Image is of the Anholt Offshore Wind Farm from DONG Energy’s media archive – they have some beautiful images under the renewable energy tab.

Considering residential solar? Understand Solar will connect you with local contractors. Tweet me to pick apart quote.

For more electric vehicle, autonomous transport and clean technology news, make sure to follow us on Twitter, Newsletter, RSS or Facebook to get our latest articles.