The Clean Power Hour – a weekly clean energy headline review and commentary podcast run by Tim Montague, and yours truly – the CommercialSolarGuy – John Fitzgerald Weaver.
First of course, here’s the podcast – Episode 19.
Now, to the news!
First we covered an article written here last week: 10 terawatts of solar power generating 18 petawatts of electricity in 2050, riding the long wave. The topic is how much solar might get deployed as we approach 2050– 30 years away. We noted first, that yes, there’s a lot of opportunity through 2050. However, this specific analysis might be undershooting energy storage and wind+solar capacity due to sticking to a lot of gas capacity.
The group starts the graph based on real 2018 data, and then projects through 2050 – modeling that solar will grow 21-fold reaching 10 terawatts of generating capacity just before 2050. Electricity from solar will have grown from 2.4% of the world’s supply in 2019, to 33% in 2049 – totaling 18.7 petawatt hours generated. Source
Love the blue of the Onyx solar panels:
(2/2) Each #glass module, which measures 1,849×1,245 mm, will produce 150 kWh every year, enough energy to power up 9 light points.
We will keep you informed!#sustainability #PVglass #solarenergy pic.twitter.com/Kb1cyUrTb9
— Onyx Solar (@onyxsolar) November 5, 2020
PPA for PV facade in Germany – first is that we have a cool building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) installation, and second, we’ve got a third finance party who trusts it enough to own.
The Sonneninitiative association and the Marburg municipal power utility, Stadtwerke Marburg, now want to demonstrate this with an urban lighthouse project. The facade of the local radiology center at Marburg’s main train station will be equipped with a photovoltaic facade system with an output of 50 kW. This is made possible by a long-term PPA that was concluded on Thursday between the Sonneninitiative association and the Marburg utility. Source
China plans to phase out conventional gas-burning cars by 2035 – this and India are the world’s largest country. China is, right now, the largest volume good manufacturer. Its citizens are pushing forward toward middle class western lifestyles – if they own their first car as an EV, that is huge.
China: “Of all new vehicles sold that year in the world’s most populous nation, 50% are to be “new-energy” vehicles — electric, plug-in hybrid or fuel cell-powered. The other half are to be hybrids” “ratio of hybrids to 75% of all gasoline cars by 2030 and to 100% by 2035” Source
Listen, I know that ‘true autonomy’ Level 5 isn’t here, but this dude’s car just drove itself around town for 15 minutes. This is some ground breaking technology.
#FSDBeta drive in the rain. No disengagement’s for a 14 minute drive. The future is here folks and brought to you by @elonmusk @tesla. Part 1 here. https://t.co/AhwNVtM7T7 pic.twitter.com/wdmGMNRsrE
— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) November 9, 2020
First Passengers Travel Safely on a (Virgin) Hyperloop – A high speed train in a vacuum sealed tunnel. Science fiction idea that is from a hundred years ago. On the one hand, no one seems to be building trains – let alone subways – in the USA, so this idea has some hard upward work to do. As well, putting those trains in tunnels – even harder. However, trains are the most efficient way to travel, and it’s good to see technology advance.
The occupants made their maiden voyage on the newly-unveiled XP-2 vehicle, designed by BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group and Kilo Design, which was custom-built with occupant safety and comfort in mind. While the production vehicle will be larger and seat up to 28 passengers, this 2-seater XP-2 vehicle was built to demonstrate that passengers can in fact safely travel in a hyperloop vehicle. 2020 Source
Since Tim invented Tracker Tuesday, we make sure to share videos of solar projects. Here’s a video of a site – Prairie State Solar – being built in Illinois.
Developed by Ranger Power / EPC: Swinerton | Sources: Vid1 Vid2 Vid3
Tesla (TSLA) receives massive new order of Tesla Semi electric trucks — biggest yet?
Pride Group Enterprises, a holding company with its main business being truck leasing, announced that it placed a reservation for 150 Tesla Semi electric trucks with the option to buy 500 trucks from Tesla: ‘~$22 million, option $100 million, $3 million deposit”expected to cost $150,000 to $180,000, efficiency <2 kWh/m full load’ Source
TESLA, GIGA BERLIN, November 07 2020+++ Weekend update +++ great Progress on the whole site. – just a drone video of the new Tesla factory being built in Germany.
GigaBerlin Coming to Life Source
And, of course, the podcast itself: