Michelle Lewis is a writer at Electrek. She has previously worked for Fast Company, The Guardian, News Deeply, Time, and others. She lives in Massachusetts.
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Arizona utility Salt River Project (SRP) really wants its customers to drive electric cars, so it’s now offering any customer who buys an EV a $1,000 rebate in a pilot program.
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In today’s Electrek Green Energy Brief (EGEB):
Representative Anna Vishkaee Eskamani, a Democrat, represents Florida’s 47th district in Orange County in the state House.
We are at a tipping point when it comes to how we power our lives.
Nationwide, and in Florida, we are still producing, consuming, and wasting energy in ways that damage our environment and our health. In 2021, we have the opportunity and know-how to tap into clean and renewable energy from sources such as the sun and wind, but doing so will require the nation and state to transform the way they produce and consume energy.
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In today’s Electrek Green Energy Brief (EGEB):
The Alameda County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a 350-acre solar farm on agricultural land north of Livermore, California. This will be the Bay Area’s largest solar farm to date, once it’s built.
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Boston-based Nexamp, Inc., a renewable energy generator and community solar provider, has closed a $440 million senior secured credit facility for a 380-megawatt portfolio of solar and energy storage assets. It’s one of the largest debt financing agreements of its kind.
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Electrek‘s Michelle Lewis spoke with three electric car owners in Texas. They each explained how their EVs helped them get through February’s deep freeze and rolling blackouts.
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Bill Magness, CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), Texas’ power grid, was fired by ERCOT’s Board of Directors yesterday after the state’s disastrous cold weather power outages. This follows the resignation on Monday of DeAnn Walker, the chair of the Public Utility Commission (PUC) of Texas. Seven ERCOT board members have also stepped down over several weeks – many of whom did not live in Texas.
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Electrek‘s Michelle Lewis asked Anthony Allard, EVP, head of North America, Hitachi ABB Power Grids, how the US can make its power grids more resilient and better support clean energy, and what Hitachi ABB is doing to support large-scale electric vehicle deployment.
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Six utilities today announced the formation of the Electric Highway Coalition. It’s a plan to ensure that electric vehicle drivers have access to a network of charging stations on major highway systems on the Atlantic coast, in the Midwest and South, and in the Gulf and Central Plains regions.
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The Petaluma, California, City Council this week unanimously moved to ban new gas stations, and existing stations won’t be allowed to add new gas pumps – but they can add electric chargers. The council must approve the ban during a second reading in order to make it official.
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The Biden administration is calling for action in order to stem climate change for a wide range of sectors, and that of course includes buildings and transport as major emitters. It’s going to require the rapid implementation of innovative new ideas and products.
Enter ready-to-roll – literally – “organic energy company” GO-OPV. All the products and applications are manufactured by GO-OPV from organic film printed by Brazilian company Sunew. The product is a thin film called ORENgE that can capture any light and convert it to clean energy in a more efficient way than traditional solar panels. The panels are thin, flexible, ultra lightweight, and can be used both vertically and horizontally.
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During last week’s power crisis in Texas, prices surged to the market price cap of $9,000 per megawatt-hour for several days, resulting in some huge bills for a lot of homeowners. (To put that in perspective, the state’s seasonal average is $50 per megawatt-hour.) The entire US, not just Texas, has a lot of infrastructure work to do in order to avoid more power crises like this. But in the meantime, how can consumers protect themselves from exorbitant surprise power bills when extreme weather increasingly occurs?
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Consumer Reports has launched a new Green Choice program for cars. It will use a green leaf icon to identify the new cars, SUVs, and minivans with the best fuel efficiency and lowest contributions to atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and smog formation.
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