Alternative Energy

[Pitcher]

I have been seeing and reading a lot about alternative energy, climate change, and the ground swell of people who want this.  It’s way past the stage of some kooky people who want to save the planet  I believe the technology is available and the time is right for this to start changing the world. Instead of fighting it I’m embracing this change.  Being once heavily invested in oil companies I plan on looking into new opportunities to invest and think about our future.   What changed my mind?  It started when I bought a Tesla.  I can tell you without a doubt it is the finest auto I’ve ever owned.  

Next came my wife wanting to put solar panels on our roof.  That was just finished last week.  If it works out like it is supposed to we will be at net zero on our electric bills this summer but more important I don't have to worry about losing power during a hurricane.  

 

I plan on using this thread to share some of the more interesting articles I’m reading.  If you think this is nuts that’s fine, some people have a hard time grasping change.  Just ignore and keep hoping Iraq will take its money International.  They had better get it gear before the world tells Iraq and OPEC to shove it.  

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EV Battery Breakthrough, Twice the Range, 5 Minutes to Charge

 

 

The amount of research being done into better batteries for electric cars is perhaps the clearest indication of how high the stakes are in the car world. Breakthrough after breakthrough comes from labs around the world, and the latest is among the most impressive: a new anode material that can increase a battery’s range twofold while greatly accelerating charging times.

 

The news comes from the Center for Energy Storage Research at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology. A team of scientists from the center succeeded in developing a silicon anode to replace the graphite used currently in EV batteries, greatly improving their performance.

Silicone is not a new material for the battery-making industry. It has a much greater energy storage capacity than graphite—ten times as much, according to the news release of the KIST—but it is a lot less stable than graphite. This means that silicone, unlike graphite, expands and shrinks quickly during charge-discharge cycles, which affects that impressive storage capacity and shortens the life of the battery.

The KIST researchers solved this problem by drying the material. Literally. They mixed silicone and corn starch with water and then heated the mixture up using “a simple thermal process used for frying food” to seal the result, which was a carbon silicone compound. The compound has displayed four times the energy storage capacity of graphite anodes. It has also made it possible to charge an EV battery to 80 percent in just five minutes. And it’s eco-friendly.

 

 

"We were able to develop carbon-silicon composite materials using common, everyday materials and simple mixing and thermal processes with no reactors," the lead researcher, Hun-Gi Jung said. "The simple processes we adopted and the composites with excellent properties that we developed are highly likely to be commercialized and mass-produced. The composites could be applied to lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage systems (ESSs)."

This last statement makes the breakthrough different from most others: their authors tend to be guarded in their optimism and with a good reason. Taking an innovation from the lab to the market doesn’t always work out. But if that carbon-silicon compound that the KIST researchers developed can indeed be commercialized quickly, it could do wonders for the EV industry.

A lot of research in the field seems to focus on new electrode materials and new electrolytes to make the batteries more reliable, cheaper, and—the Achilles heel of EVs—faster charging. German scientists, for example, recently developed a new electrode coating process that lowers the cost of the whole battery while boosting its energy density. Other researchers are experimenting with alternatives to lithium as an electrolyte and electrode component to improve on the dominant tech.

While the breakthroughs make headlines, the evolution in lithium-ion batteries continues without much fanfare but with impressive outcomes. A BloombergNEF study recently revealed that the cost of an EV battery pack has fallen from $1,000 per kWh a decade ago to between $156 and $200 per kWh today. This is still not as cheap as internal combustion engine cars, but it is much closer to the cost parity target, which is $100 per kWh.

In the meantime, energy density has been improving, which means the range has been growing. Tesla’s latest car to hit the market, the Model Y, has a range of up to 315 miles on a single charge.

It’s all good news, it seems, even if global EV sales are slowing down. All large carmakers are ready with a lineup of electric models to respond to emerging demand that all hope will flourish. There remains only one problem, then, over the long term. EV batteries can’t last forever. There will be millions of these ready for recycling in just a decade if sales projections materialize. And recycling costs money, too.

“What still needs to percolate through to the industry and consumers is that the end of life, whatever it is, will come at a cost, and that has to be incorporated into the selling price,” the CEO of Belgian chemicals producer Umicore, Marc Grynberg, said last year. “There’s a fee to be paid.”

 

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/EV-Battery-Breakthrough-Twice-The-Range-Five-Minutes-To-Charge.html

[Pitcher]

The Holy Grail Of Clean Energy Is Closer Than Ever

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Nuclear fusion has been seen as the unattainable holy grail of clean energy for decades, but just in the last year it’s been seeming more and more within reach. As catastrophic climate change looms just over the horizon, the scientific community has galvanized to find more and better solutions to decarbonizing the global economy and replacing fossil fuels with a commercially viable, renewable, and green alternative. While much of the time and capital investment has flowed to more realistic options like solar and wind, some researchers have been dedicating their time and energy to capturing the energy of the sun here on earth--a silver bullet solution to global warming.

 

Conventional nuclear energy has also been hailed as a good, greenhouse gas emissions-free alternative to fossil fuels, but it has some major drawbacks, from the rare but catastrophic instance of nuclear meltdown to the industrial byproduct of nuclear waste. Nuclear fission, which is what nuclear energy plants currently use to create massive amounts of energy by splitting atoms, creates radioactive waste that remains hazardous for tens of thousands of years, if not longer. 

The beauty of nuclear fusion is that, not only does it produce energy without creating radioactive waste since it can be achieved using only hydrogen or lithium, it’s also several times more powerful than fission. If we were ever able to harness it in a commercially viable way, it would mean the end of the oil-based economy as we know it. That’s why any news about nuclear fusion is major news. And in the past couple of years, there’s been a lot of new reports emerging about commercial nuclear fusion getting closer and closer to becoming a reality. 

Last summer, reps from the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), an intergovernmental project headquartered in the south of France, reported that they are a mere six and a half years away from achieving first plasma inside their tokamak--in other words: nuclear fusion by just 2025. Then, just a month later in August, 2019, Oak Ridge National Laboratory reported their own nuclear fusion breakthrough, which uses novel implementation of AI and supercomputing to successfully scale up nuclear fusion experiments and manage plasma.  Related: Shale Decline Inevitable As Oil Prices Crash

 

 

Then, in October, the Los Alamos National Laboratory's Plasma Liner Experiment (PLX) unveiled a totally new approach to nuclear fusion, using the very science-fiction combination of plasma guns, magnets, and lasers. According to the American Physical Society, “the PLX machine combines aspects of both magnetic confinement fusion schemes (e.g. tokamaks) and inertial confinement machines like the National Ignition Facility (NIF). The hybrid approach, although less technologically mature than pure magnetic or inertial confinement concepts, may offer a cheaper and less complex fusion reactor development path.” That project is projected to be up and running by the end of this year.

And now, just this week, there are new and exciting claims about yet another novel fusion technology to vie for the best path toward commercial nuclear fusion. Startup HB11, which has its impetus at Australia’s University of New South Wales, has pioneered a technology that uses lasers to encourage nuclear fusion between hydrogen and boron without the use of radioactive materials to facilitate the reaction. They’re so confident about the technology that they have already applied for and received patents in the United States, Japan, and China.

“The secret,” reports Popular Mechanics, “is a cutting-edge laser and, well, an element of luck.” According to managing director Warren McKenzie, as quoted by New Atlas, “You could say we're using the hydrogen as a dart, and hoping to hit a boron, and if we hit one, we can start a fusion reaction.” While this may sound a little wishy-washy, McKenzie says that the approach is actually more precise than using extreme heat to facilitate fusion because the laser is directed, whereas heat-based reactors waste huge amounts of energy heating up the entire reactor and waiting for a collision to take place.

This means that this new technology--which is now four decades in the making--could make machines like the tokamak obsolete. UNSW emeritus professor Heinrich Hora’s design “seeks to not just compete with but replace entirely the extremely high-temperature current technologies to achieve fusion. These include fussy and volatile designs like the tokamak or stellarator, which can take months to get up to functionality and still spin out of working order in a matter of microseconds.” 

While this technology is still a long way from commercial application, it’s one step closer to a world of limitless, clean energy. And one of these days, we can only hope that this vision will no longer be too good to be true, it will just be. 

 

https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Nuclear-Power/The-Holy-Grail-Of-Clean-Energy-Is-Closer-Than-Ever.html

[Laid Back]

Bring it my friend.... Thanks for sharing 👍🏼🙂

[Pitcher]

https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Renewable-Energy/5-Top-Alt-Energy-Stocks-Storming-Wall-Street.html
 

5 Top Alt-Energy Stocks Storming Wall Street

By Alex Kimani - Feb 27, 2020, 2:00 PM CST

As the US stock market continues to sink deeper into bear territory, stocks that are directly involved in or connected to alternative energy have remained more resilient than most, and the sector’s favorite benchmark is truly cleaning house right now. 

The alternative energy sector is comprised of companies that engage in the generation and distribution of clean and renewable energy, as well as related products and services. Alternative energy sources include solar, wind, geothermal and hydroelectric.

 The sector’s favorite benchmark, iShares Global Clean Energy ETF (ICLN), is one of the better performing funds so far this year. It’s gained 12.7% in the year-to-date vs. -3.2% return by the S&P 500 Index. It’s also gained 35% over the past 12 months. 

Analysts point to climate-change risk, the growing popularity of ESG investing and riding on the coattails of Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock as some of the reasons behind the newfound popularity of these stocks.

Here are five alternative energy stocks that Wall Street is swooning over:

#1 Enphase Energy Inc.

      YTD Returns: 94.8%

Enphase Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:ENPH) is a Fremont, California-based company that 

designs and manufactures software-driven home energy solutions that span solar generation, home energy storage and web-based monitoring and control.

ENPH stock has been on a tear, surging 40% post-earnings after its fourth quarter earnings comfortably beat Wall Street estimates with the company following it up with strong guidance. Fourth quarter revenue of $210M (+127.5% Y/Y) beat by $4.87 million while GAAP EPS of $0.88 beat by $0.62. The company generated $102.3M in cash flow from operations during the fourth quarter and exited the year with $296.1M in cash.

Enphase issued upside guidance for Q1 revenue in the $200M-210M range, including $44.5M for ITC safe harbor shipments, vs. $174M analyst consensus estimate. Meanwhile, the company sees GAAP and non-GAAP gross margins of 36-39%. Analysts were forced to raise the company’s Q1 2020 non-GAAP estimate from $0.23 per share to $0.33.

Enphase has formed a habit of easily exceeding Wall Street's earnings estimates leading to huge post-earnings rallies. Related: Major Bank Sees Abysmal Demand Growth For Oil

 #2 Tesla Inc.

      YTD Returns: 91.2%

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) is one of the leading electric vehicle manufacturers in the world. TSLA stock has been flying ever since the company posted a surprise profit during the third quarter of 2019 and also managed to open gigafactory 3 in China in January, the company’s first manufacturing facility outside the United States. In a previous article, we also discussed how Tesla’s solar business is maturing and could one day compete with its core vehicle manufacturing business.

TSLA stock was up in triple digits YTD but has given up some gains after a report that auto deliveries in China are forecast to fall 70% in the current month and 40% for the first two months of the year due to the coronavirus outbreak. The stock has also been sliding after the National Transportation Safety Board said at a recent hearing  that the company’s forward collision warning system did not provide an alert during a fatal Model X accident and its automatic emergency braking system did not activate before the crash into a highway barrier.

#3 Plug Power 

      YTD Returns: 52.9%

Plug Power Inc. (NASDAQ:PLUG) is a leading manufacturer of hydrogen fuel cell systems that replace conventional batteries in equipment such as forklifts and warehouse equipment. 

PLUG stock has been plagued by plenty of false starts in the past after its business failed to live up to the hype. However, that seems to be firmly in the back mirror to with the shares rising to a five-and-a-half-year high after the company announced a partnership to build zero-emission commercial trucks for Colorado-based Lightning Systems, a global developer of zero-emission drivetrains. PLUG shares are up 179.1% over the past 12-month period and received a price target hike to $6from B. Riley (25% upside) in November who believes the stock and PLUG's fuel cell technology are at an inflection point and that the company is better positioned in its core material handling business than ever before.

#4 Sunrun Inc.

      YTD Returns: 52.5%

Sunrun Inc. (NASDAQ:RUN) is a San Francisco, California-based provider of residential solar electricity. The shares have rallied nearly 30% on a report that it'sjoining the S&P SmallCap 600 Index. The rally, however, began well before that after J.P. Morgan initiates coverage with an Overweight rating and $19 price target saying the stock should appeal to investors seeking exposure to the de-carbonization, decentralization and digitization of energy. Related: The Real Reason The Middle East Is Pivoting Towards Renewables

JPM analyst Mark Strouse believes Sunrun is well positioned within the "high-growth" U.S. residential rooftop solar market, and its leading scale could present adjacent opportunities for growth.

#5 Bloom Energy

      YTD Returns: 45.7%

Bloom Energy Corp. (NYSE:BE) (formerly Ion America) is another California-based fuel cell company that went public in 2018. Bloom Energy produces solid oxide fuel cells and power generators called Bloom Energy Serversthat utilize natural gas or biogas as fuel. According to The New York Times, solid oxide fuel cells are considered the most efficient but most technologically challenging fuel-cell technology. The stock has mainly been doing well on the ESG investing trend.

BE shares, however, have come under pressure after the company revealed that it mis-stated revenue figures for 15 quarters though Cowen has come out and defended it for the apparent accounting malpractice.

 

[Pitcher]

I have been in and out of ENPH and Tsla.  I also like Hasi.  

 

I will  be looking to play Tsla on a bounce this week if the conditions meet my disciplines. 

[Pitcher]

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Ron-Baron-Believes-Tesla-Could-Be-Worth-15-Trillion-In-2030.html
 

Ron Baron Believes Tesla Could Be Worth $1.5 Trillion In 2030

By Tsvetana Paraskova - Feb 28, 2020, 12:30 PM CST

Billionaire investor Ron Baron believes that Tesla could be worth as much as US$1.5 trillion by 2030, because the recent stock rally and revenue rise is “only the beginning,” Baron, whose funds hold Tesla shares, told Barron’s in an interview published on Friday.

Baron, whose funds hold 1.62 million Tesla shares, thinks that Tesla’s recent stock rally is just the beginning as Elon Musk’s EV manufacturer is set to grow its revenues and operating profits exponentially over the next ten years.  

Baron is a long-term investor and his funds bought almost all Tesla shares that they currently hold between 2014 and 2016, at a total cost of US$355 million. Baron doesn’t plan to divest any Tesla stock anytime soon because he believes the company has a lot more potential and is racing ahead of the competition on the EV market.

“We’re going to make 10 times our money from here,” Baron told Barron’s, referring to his funds’ holdings of Tesla stock.

According to the investor, Tesla—which increased annual revenues from US$2.5 billion in 2013 to US$25 billion in 2019—could book revenues of US$33 billion this year. In 2024, Tesla’s revenue could jump to US$100 billion-US$125 billion, and the company could be worth US$300 billion-US$400 billion, compared to US$150 billion currently.

The billionaire also says that Tesla, which sold 367,000 vehicles last year, could be selling 2 million EVs per year in two years, and ultimately—at least 10 million cars a year.

In 2030, Tesla’s revenues could hit US$1 trillion, Baron said.

“By then, Tesla could be worth $1.5 trillion, ultimately putting it among the largest and most valuable companies in the world,” the investor told Barron’s.

This year, Tesla’s stock has rallied and tripled in value since the summer. At the end of January, Tesla easily beat market expectations and posted a profit for Q4, the second consecutive quarter in which the company beat outright analyst expectations and defied skeptics. Tesla’s stock continued to rally in February, hitting an all-time high closing price of US$917 last week.  

[Rochester]

I have followed the battery development for electric cars for a long time, invested in a company doing cutting edge research, they failed, I lost a lot of money. But I have not given up the dream of cheap electric cars to replace oil and gas. I know it will happen. A lot of people like me are investing a lot of money into the science and it looks very promising. ....Just a matter of time. Yankee can do know how will change the world, once again. The leaders in Iraq are fools for squabbling and throwing away what precious little time they have, till the one thing they have to sell to the world.....oil... will be valueless. Oh, that will be a few decades till they are dead and oil is worthless, but I'm older, so I know a few decades are very little in the grand scheme of things. 

[Pitcher]

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Is-Tesla-Really-The-Emerging-Energy-King.html
 

Is Tesla Really The Emerging ‘Energy King’?

By Alex Kimani - Feb 23, 2020, 6:00 PM CST

About 22 months ago, Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk fired an ominous warning that the shorts were about to experience ‘the short burn of the century.’The heads-up came at a time of intense short interest in the company, with the CEO even threatening to take Tesla private. As usual, the bears quickly dismissed it as idle bluster and just another round of Musk’s marijuana-infused trolling. 

Fast forward to the present and TSLA shares have nearly tripled since the cautionary note and rallied 115% in only the first two months of the year. 

The foreboding [for the bears] came after Tesla posted a surprise second quarter profit that pushed the shares to an eight-month high. The second wave came after Beijing gave Tesla the go-ahead to build a $5bn gigafactory in Shanghai, the first facility outside the U.S.

The third act could come when Tesla converts its hordes of customers, investors and admirers into buyers of products from its sidekick business, SolarCity. That’s according to Piper Sandler who recently assigned a Wall Street high price target of $928 (from $729) for TSLAsaying the company has managed to turn its customers into ‘unwitting climate warriors’ that could become big buyers of its clean energy products.

The latest upgrade has propelled the stock into record territory. Can’t say the bears were not warned.

 

Source: CNN Money

The Clean Energy Revolutionary

For a company that was once given an outside chance against deep-pocketed ICE heavyweights, Tesla is suddenly being hailed as a clean energy revolutionary and Wall Street cannot seem to get enough of the EV maker. 

The latest bullish thesis coming from Wall Street based on renewable energy does not seem too far-fetched either.

Piper Sandler’s Alexander Potter and Winnie Dong say that Tesla’s next challenge will be to convince its EV customers that charging their vehicles using coal-based electricity isn’t very green and urge them to generate and store their own solar power. The analysts say that their experiment to install a solar system to charge a Model X has already yielded "illuminating" results and “shows significant promise” for Tesla's future in the energy-generation industry.

Tesla’s acquisition of SolarCity for close to $5bn in 2016 left many observers scratching their heads given that it came at a time when Tesla needed large amounts of capital to expand production and solar companies were out of favor. But that purchase could turn into one of the company’s best decisions in hindsight. 

Currently, it’s easy to overlook Tesla’s solar business considering that the solar-panel and battery segment brought in just six percent of the company’s revenue in 2019. But with meteoric rise in ESG investing over the past couple of years, many companies, including traditional fossil fuel companies, have been investing in clean energy projects including solar and wind energy at an unprecedented rate.

At the center of our green energy drive are solar and wind power, both of which are expected to contributenearly half of the global power mix by 2050 as per Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Global supplies of renewable power are expected to grow 50% over the next five years led by a resurgence in solar energy.

Here in the United States, utilities are trying to cut down on emissions by implementing utility-scale solar projects coupled with battery storage units (one megawatt (MW) or greater power capacity).

In March 2019, NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) announced plans to build a 409-MW energy storage project in Florida that will be powered by utility-scale solar.

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) plans to replace its Comanche coal units with a $2.5-billion investment in renewables and battery storage, including 707 MW of solar PV, 1,131 megawatts (MW) of wind and 275 MW of battery storage in the State of Colorado.

In October, Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) announced plans to build an energy storage project at the Anderson Civic Center, Carolina, including investments to the tune of $500 million in battery storage projects for electricity generation capacity of 300 MW.

It’s this ongoing clean energy revolution that has infused renewed enthusiasm into Tesla’s management which sees the energy generation and storage business competing with the core automotive business someday.

Vertical Integration

Tesla’s insistence on having a complete clean energy ecosystem and trying to make almost everything in-house has been criticized in the past by veteran automakers like Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz. But this kind of extreme vertical integration is beginning to yield dividends with the leading EV company with its EV consistently coming at or near the top in quality tests. Teardown specialist Sandy Munro has hailed Tesla’s electronics as superior to off-the-shelf components and compared them to the electronics of a fighter jet.

A lot of Tesla’s resources are currently dedicated to battery improvements. Tesla’s batteries stand out among its rivals in the EV marketplace primarily due to their superior efficiency and range. To this end, the company has made strategic acquisitions including Maxwell Technologies and Hibar Systems and partnered with CATL to produce batteries for its China gigafactory.

And this in-house model and dedication to quality is paying off in spades. Companies that were once viewed as Tesla rivals are simply unable to keep up due to supply shortages of critical components. For instance, the Mercedes-Benz EQC--once dubbed a Tesla Killer--has seen its 2020 production cut in half to 30,000 units because Daimler is unable to secure enough batteries. Meanwhile, another premium EV model--the Jaguar I-PACE--has had to halt production for weeks for the same reason.

Tesla already has a big head-start on its competitors on many critical aspects of production as the success of its gigafactories and extreme vertical integration model have demonstrated. The company has been winning the trust of even staunch critics by proving that it can consistently deliver. 

Don’t be too surprised if it becomes a major supplier of some of these components—and give Elon Musk another opportunity to gloat.

 

 

[Pitcher]

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/What-Happens-When-You-Mix-New-Solar-Tech-And-Artificial-Intelligence.html
 

What Happens When You Mix New Solar Tech And Artificial Intelligence?

By Haley Zaremba - Mar 03, 2020, 3:00 PM CST

The writing is on the wall. Every major global governmental agency is warning of the imminent tipping point towards catastrophic climate change, even the world’s largest oil company Saudi Aramco is now talking about reaching peak oil within the next 20 years, and the International Energy Agency projects that it will happen in more like 10. Solar and wind are cheaper than ever, and large-scale solar mega-projects are quickly becoming the norm. 

It makes sense, then, that even the supermajor oil companies are diversifying their portfolios and investing in their own demise--also known as the renewable energy sector. Way back in July, 2017 Oilprice reported that France’s Total S.A. was “leading the charge on renewables”. At the time, Total’s website boasted: “For Total, contributing to the development of renewable energies is as much a strategic choice as an industrial responsibility. We are doing our part to diversify the global energy mix by investing in renewables, with a strategic focus on solar energy and bioenergies.”

In the past three years, many other major oil and gas companies have followed suit and begun investing more heavily in renewables, which is great news for the clean energy industry, which has long struggled with inadequate research and development funding from either the public or the private sector. Just this month Oilprice reported on another supermajor diving into the clean energy game: Royal Dutch Shell is investing in a clean energy combo platter in the Dutch North Sea with an offshore wind farm which will create energy to be used for the production of green hydrogen, which is one of the cleanest fuel sources possible, releasing only water vapor when combusted.  Related: The Ultimate Guide To Well Logging

Other, smaller oil and gas companies have also been climbing aboard the clean energy train. This month it was reported that “for the past six years, a major US oil and gas holding company has been collaborating with the National Renewable Energy Lab on new breakthrough perovskite solar cell research.” that company is Hunt Consolidated, Inc., the umbrella company that includes the nearly hundred-year-old Hunt Oil and the much younger branch known as Hunt Perovskite Technologies.

According to reporting by CleanTechnica, this novel perovskite research being pushed forward by Hunt “could have a profound, widespread impact on the energy marketplace and accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to renewables [...] because perovskite technology can push down solar costs far below today’s costs. Perovskite solar cells are also lighter and more flexible, which means they have a greater range of application.” 

These perovskite solar cells are also efficient and easy to scale up for mass production, as they can be “printed” without needing too much customization for the production process, as they use “a relatively conventional high-volume manufacturing process.” That being said, these cells are still a ways away from being mass produced, much less from hitting the market. While researchers have “worked out the kinks” according to CleanTechnica, these cells are “only just beginning to edge out of the laboratory.” Related: Why Hydrogen Stocks Are Soaring

The CleanTechnica article also suggests that this Hunt venture is particularly special because it’s not just driven by expanding their horizontal market share, unlike other oil companies branching into renewable resources. Comparing the Hunt perovskite project to renewable energy projects by supermajor BP and major Italian energy company Enel, CleanTechnica makes the argument that although “other global oil and gas stakeholders are venturing into renewable energy” these projects are “mainly focused on market-proven technologies that don’t disrupt their fossil fuel business, at least not for the time being,” whereas Hunt’s project has potential to create serious market disruption and real positive change. 

Hunt is not the only company working on the future of perovskite solar cells, which are thought to be superior to more antiquated silicon-based cells. The University of Central Florida seems to be dreaming even bigger, pairing perovskite solar cell technology with artificial intelligence to “make generating energy from the sun even more ubiquitous by creating a spray coating that can be used on bridges, houses, or even skyscrapers so they can be energy self-sufficient.” These lofty goals, paired with the advances being made by companies like Hunt, point to a sunny future indeed. 

[Pitcher]

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Is-Artificial-Photosynthesis-The-Holy-Grail-Of-Renewables.html
 

Is Artificial Photosynthesis The Holy Grail Of Renewables?

By Irina Slav - Mar 08, 2020, 2:00 PM CDT

The new gold rush in the digital world is all about renewable energy. But more than that, it is about making this energy reliable, which means finding ways to not just generate it but to store it when it is not needed and release it when it is needed. 

Like many other groundbreaking inventions, scientists have turned for inspiration to nature.

The energy that our planet—and our dominant species—consume comes from the Sun in one form or another. Besides solar, however, which is probably the first energy source that comes to mind when one mentions the Sun, there is another way to harness its energy: photosynthesis.

Photosynthesis is the process through which plants use the energy of the sun to convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose. Scientists have been trying for years to replicate the process, with the end result being electricity rather than glucose, and they have made some notable successes albeit all contained in the lab.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Energyannounced funding of up to $100 million to be spread over five years for research into artificial photosynthesis.

“Sunlight is our most basic energy source, and the ability to generate fuels directly from sunlight has the potential to transform our energy economy and vastly enhance U.S. energy security,” DoE’s Under Secretary for Science, Paul Dabbar, said in the news release.

Indeed, making electricity directly from sunlight would enhance any country’s energy security, notably, the security of developing countries that lack the infrastructure necessary for storing large amounts of unused energy, writes Dyllan Furness for Digital Trends. Furness interviewed several researchers involved in artificial photosynthesis to shed light on the latest development, and although it will be quite a while before this sort of technology becomes as mainstream as solar or wind, it does hold substantial promise. Related: Oil Prices Rise As Market Expects Large OPEC+ Cut

So, how does artificial photosynthesis work? For starters, it uses solar cells instead of chlorophyll to absorb sunlight and turn it into electricity. Artificial “leaves” also use either an artificial or an organic catalyst to split the water from the air into hydrogen and oxygen. Artificial photosynthesis, in other words, can produce not just one but two types of fuel: electricity and hydrogen.

Two years ago, researchers from the DoE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) published a paper on a new solar cell that could do just that: take in carbon dioxide and water from the air and use sunlight to turn them into electricity and hydrogen.

Another team focused on a chlorophyll molecule found in some bacteria that can absorb light from the infrared part of the spectrum. Applied to artificial photosynthesis, this could boost the efficiency of the process, which is one of the keys to making the technology viable.

These are just two examples of the work that is being done in the lab on artificial photosynthesis, aiming to improve on nature because, as one researcher in the field told Digital Trends’ Furness, plants are not exactly optimal converters of sunlight into energy.

“[Plants] should be black, not green, to absorb most of the colors in the solar spectrum,” said Nathan Lewis, a chemist at Caltech and principal investigator at JCAP.  “And they have other constraints, too. They’re just good enough to do the functions they need to do biologically.”

For human use, however, we would need something better: a more efficient, faster conversion process. One such alternative to natural photosynthesis is a sort of tarp equipped with solar cells that can be rolled out on any flat surface to absorb water and light. Then the tarp is put into a tank full of catalysts to convert CO2 into chemical fuels that can be either stored or used immediately. Related: Here’s Why Oil Prices Should Go Higher

It may sound far-fetched—photosynthesis, a tarp, tanks of catalysts—but scientists, and the Department of Energy, seem to believe it could become one more weapon in our arsenal against climate change. That, and constantly improving solar cells.

An international team of scientists recently announced a breakthrough in thin solar cells. Their thin-film cell was as efficient as a traditional solar cell, at 25 percent. This would make the new cell perfect for roof installations and other solar systems for buildings but it is also indicative of a trend: making solar cells as thin as possible to increase their versatility.

If artificial photosynthesis is to take off, it would certainly benefit from this trend in solar cells. It would also benefit from evolving technologies for energy storage, including hydrogen storage. It is a difficult task to orchestrate so many areas of research but ultimately, the common goal could make it all work. We might see a renewable energy dominated world within our lifetime, utilizing the power of the sun in all the ways it can be utilized, emission-free, of course.

 

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The Main Challenges For Electric Cars This Decade

Volkswagen (VW), the world’s largest carmaker recently announced plans to spend 35 billion euros to dramatically expand electric vehicle production. VW is targeting production of 26 million electric vehicles within nine years. It seems that its goal is to eclipse Tesla in the electric vehicle (EV) market. What is more VW’s chief executive insists that the company can produce and sell those vehicles at a high profit margin. And that is the big question. Many industry observers have doubts on this score. However, like military adventure that becomes a lost cause, no one doubts the corporate ambition embedded in these capital plans nor the company’s determination to effectively take the lead as a preeminent global EV manufacturer.

Another indication of the move toward vehicle electrification can be found in the Consumer Reportsautomotive issue. The editors devote far more space to electric vehicles than one might think is deserved given the relatively modest EV sales to date.

In a funny way, both automobile manufacturing and the electric utility businesses face a similar dilemma.. How do they integrate new, expensive battery technology as they seek to decarbonize their product? Whether from tailpipe or smokestack both industries are seeking emissions reductions. And in both cases batteries makes up a very large component of projected capital investment.

In the US, for example, we estimate that relatively rapid decarbonization of the electricity grid might require a $2 trillion investment in battery storage over the next twenty years. In the case of a new vehicle manufacturer like Nissan, for example, a battery alone costs $12,000 and it degrades more rapidly than the internal combustion engine it replaces. Related: Warren Buffett’s Secret For Super Cheap Energy

Grid decarbonization, given the present state of technology, means radically increasing dependence on intermittent sources of energy production such as wind while harvesting and storing the excess energy produced for later use. A site planner today would we believe automatically assume that a large battery array would accompany a new wind farm.

Batteries expenditures alone could account for one third of the cost of decarbonizing the electric grid in the US, a several trillion dollar prospective expenditure. The question the utility industry faces is whether to incur very high capital costs upfront in order to completely eliminate fossil fuel expense. The alternative is to gradually phase out fossil plants while retaining maximum flexibility.

Car manufacturers face the same dilemma with internal combustion powered vehicles. But in the case of VW, it is, as they say in Las Vegas, going “all on” on EVs. This is a much bigger risk for car manufacturers than electric utilities. Electric cars are essentially storage batteries with wheels. Since most vehicle owners prefer to sleep during the night, the grid can avoid much incremental investment if most vehicle owners primarily recharge car batteries at night.

And yes, a vehicle battery recharging infrastructure is not yet available on scale appropriate for 25 - 50 million vehicles. Tesla has 762 charging stations in 47 states. Other companies have more, The Department of Energy figures that there are presently over 30,000 charging stations in the United States. However, if electric vehicle owners in large numbers need to charge up during the day, and during peak periods of electrical demand, then the electric grid will have to have its own relatively high cost storage system. And that duplicates storage, first in the grid and then in vehicles. Luckily, according to Consumer Reports, 80% of charging takes place overnight and mostly in homes. If that were not the case, electric vehicles could go from great opportunity for incremental electricity sales to a big operating headache rather quickly. Related: China Could Start A New Solar Price War

There is still another disruptive type of problem for the carmakers and possibly also for the electric industry. The question is whether technology firms choose to enter the mobility business—making people and goods mobile across varying distances. With the exception of Toyota, none of the automakers have free cash flow even close to the big tech firms. The U.S. electric industry has not had free cash flow for ages. Considering that cars are essentially a battery, drive train and computers, tech firms going into the auto business doesn’t seem like that much of a reach.

Selling electricity to vehicle owners will become a big part of the electricity business. However an entire retail delivery system will also have to be built to accommodate this prospective load. This both an opportunity and a risk. If the technology companies enter this business in scale we would expect them to rapidly move to aggregate load. We doubt the electric industry is ready for this.

[MyLadiesDaddy]

Thank you 

[climber7]

1 hour ago, ladyGrace'sDaddy said:

Thank you 

Are you the original Sandfly? Lol 

[Moxie64]

Thanks for all the great articles guysI, I pray some time everybody can afford anything they need or want.

 

There has been so many companies that have buried their technology patents because of greed. These certain companies want the the big bucks as long as they can. There are so many ideas that have been buried 1/2 way to China that are bring dug back up. They could have saved us ????$   long time ago. You ever watched the Death of the Electric Car?? How old is that movie?? Pretty sad what we could have had long time ago if it wasn't for a few people. These cars were rented only and lots of people wanted to buy them instead. Not sure but I think GM had them. over 60 cars I think were taken straight to the metal shredder instead. The people had gotten together and had the money already to purchase them but company refused. Now that certain  technology has been refined  is worth big bucks cause now we the people are tired of paying higher prices, hope there will be cars people afford. All this research done on all fronts that done it with free grant money   You are talking about health, growing food, energy and etc, now worth a lot of "BIG  BUCKS"!! Look at some of the new cancer treatments they are offering now? They make big money being the first to come out with the treatments but as time goes on prices go down thank the lord.  NC offers free solar panels for your home with "NO" $$ down  so you save on your electric bill!!!!!!!!!!! I called on a few different ads and the costs is around $20,000 and payments will be billed monthly. How many monthly payments will that take you plus the interest to pay it off??? Do you think poor people can afford solar heat?? Oh well such is life they say. Hope this all made sense. Good thing dreams don't cost $.

 

  for now

Moxie64

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6 Stocks Cashing In On The $30 Trillion Impact Investing Trend

By Ian Jenkins - Mar 30, 2020, 6:00 PM CDT

Impact Investing.

That’s what they’re calling it… 

And it’s a movement that has grown by over 600% in the past decade. 

In fact, there are over $30 trillion in assets under management in portfolios with a focus on sustainable investments…and the revolution is showing no sign of slowing anytime soon.

To say that it is just a trend would be a major mistake. 

Impact investing - or socially responsible investing - is here to stay. And as ‘woke’ millennials continue to force the markets in line with their beliefs – the money flowing into sustainable stocks is likely to accelerate in the coming years. 

Investors in this niche lean towards companies incorporating positive environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies into investment decisions. 

This has pushed companies and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with high ESG ratings into focus in recent years, but more than that, it has sparked a revolution in even some of the world’s ‘dirtiest’ companies.

Fossil fuel giants, miners, and more are making the switch. Either through offsetting emissions, or simply pouring money into greener endeavors.  

“We are at the cusp of one of the biggest ever shifts in the allocation of capital, and if you follow the money, it’s largely flowing into companies with an emphasis on doing better for the world,” said the CEO of Facedrive Inc, Sayan Navaratnam. 

Millennial’s greener preferences, in addition to a number of new youth-focused trading platforms like Robinhood, have fueled the meteoric rise of companies like Tesla, Google, Apple, and more. 

Here are six companies to keep an eye on as the world’s cash flow heads towards “greener pastures.”

Google: “Don’t Be Evil” 

Google’s parent company Alphabet (GOOGL) is a shining star in the tech world. Despite being one of the largest companies on the planet, in many ways it has lived up to its original “Don’t Be Evil” slogan. 

Though it has had its controversies in the realm of data collection and advertising, Google has led a revolution in the tech world on multiple fronts. 

First, and foremost, it has officially powered its data centers with 100% renewable energy over the last two years. A massive feat considering exactly how much data Google actually processes. 

Not only is Google powering its data centers with renewable energy, it is also on the cutting edge of innovation in the industry, investing in new technology and green solutions to build a more sustainable tomorrow.

Its bid to reduce its carbon footprint has been well received by both younger and older investors. And as the need to slow down climate change becomes increasingly dire, it’s easy to see why.   

Facedrive: “The Way To A Greener Future” 

A small Canadian company with big ambitions is looking to take on some of the biggest names in personal transportation with a simple, but important philosophy: “take something as simple as hailing a ride, and turn it into a collective force for change.” 

Facedrive Inc. (FD.V) has lots going for it. 

It’s leveraging the framework built by the indebted ride-sharing giants, Uber and Lyft…

But with a twist. 

For the first time in ride-sharing history, Facedrive is giving customers a choice to be more environmentally conscious. 

That’s because it’s utilizing new technology to calculate the estimated CO2 emissions for each ride, and allocating a portion of the proceeds accordingly to local organizations to help offset those emissions.

With their partner, Forest Ontario, they have already planted over 3,500 in their soft launch alone. 

Not only that, it also gives customers a choice to pick between electric vehicles, hybrids, or traditional cars when they order a ride. That’s something that no ride-hailing service has ever offered.

“We’re all about grabbing onto the biggest trends in tech before they’re mega-trends. So that takes us back to 2016, when we first came up with the idea. Whenever a major new trend emerges, it’s the job of the truly innovative to step back and say ‘OK, this is an explosively great idea - so what’s wrong with it?’ When you figure that out, and you’ve got the right network and the right people behind you, you can jump in on one of the biggest trends and disrupt a massive market at exactly the right time,” Sayan Navaratnam, CEO of Facedrive, said in an interview with Oilprice.com.

This is a big deal as the climate crisis continues to worsen. And investors will certainly take note.

While the giants of the industry scramble to jump on the new movement, Facedrive was there straight out of the starting gate. 

And it’s growing. Fast.

It has gone from 100 rides per day to over 1,000 rides per day in a matter of monthsMost startups only dream of that kind of growth. Especially in a market that is becoming increasingly difficult to enter. 

And now is when things get serious.

Facedrive is now considering further expansion into the U.S. and/or Europe, and the timing couldn’t be better. 

Most of the groundwork was already laid by its much-larger competitors, so it will not need to go into the red and pray for profitability…

They simply need to do exactly what they’re already doing, expand and conquer. The $235 billion global ride-sharing industry is going green with or without the giants…

And that’s great news for Facedrive.

Apple: “Think Different.” 

It’s no secret that Apple (AAPL) has always thought outside of the box. And when it brought back Steve Jobs in 1997, the company really took off. 

Jobs also paved the way to a greener future for the company. 

From the products themselves, to the packages they came in, and even the data centers powering them, Steve Jobs went above and beyond to cut the environmental impact of his company. 

After his passing, Tim Cook took these principles to heart, and picked up the torch, transforming all of Apple’s operations into models of a sustainable future.

Now, all of Apple’s operations run on 100% renewable energy. 

"We proved that 100 percent renewable is 100 percent doable. All our facilities worldwide—including Apple offices, retail stores, and data centers—are now powered entirely by clean energy. But this is just the beginning of how we’re reducing greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. We’re continuing to go further than most companies in measuring our carbon footprint, including manufacturing and product use. And we’re making great progress in those areas too."

And it’s already having an impact.

Not only have they decreased their average product’s energy use by 70 percent…

They’ve reduced their total carbon footprint by more than 35 percent in just a few short years…

All while securing the title as the World’s First Trillion Dollar Company. 

Microsoft: Be What’s Next

Microsoft (MSFT) is one of the most innovative and well-known companies within the tech sector, but its Windows platform is the most widely used operating system on the planet. First launched in 1985, Windows has shaped what is expected from a personal home computer. 

But Microsoft is appealing to investors for more just its Windows platform. It is diving head first into an entirely new market. With key partnerships utilizing and implementing blockchain technology, the company’s upside could have huge potential as the tech takes off. 

Not only has it always been on the cutting edge of innovation, it’s taking  a serious stance on the climate crisis. In fact, it’s pushing so hard that it is aiming to be carbon NEGATIVE by 2030. That’s a huge pledge. And if anyone can do it, it’s Microsoft. 

NextEra Energy: “We Heard You”

NextEra (NEE) is the world’s leading producer of wind and solar energy, so it’s no surprise that it has received some love from the ‘millennial dollar.’ 

In 2018, the company was the number one capital investor in green energy infrastructure, and fifth largest capital investor across all sectors. No other company has been more active in reducing carbon emissions. 

And they’re just getting started. 

By 2025, the company aims to reduce their own emissions by 67 percent while doubling their electricity production from a 2005 benchmark. 

To put this into perspective, if all of America’s utilities were able to achieve NextEra Energy’s projected 2025 emissions rate, absolute CO2 emissions for the power sector would be approximately 75% lower than they were in 2005.

That is huge. 

Jim Robo, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of NextEra,  explains, “We are deeply committed to doing well by doing good, and that means respecting our environment, providing value for our customers, sustaining our communities, focusing on continuous improvement and innovation, investing in our team and growing shareholder value,”

Total: "Committed to Better Energy"

Despite being one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, Total (TOT) is worth a look for investors eying greener alternatives. 

Total maintains a ‘big picture’ outlook across all of its endeavors. It is not only aware of the needs that are not being met by a significant portion of the world’s growing population, it is also hyper-aware of the looming climate crisis if changes are not made. 

In its push to create a better world for all, it has committed to contributing to each of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

From workplace safety and diversity to societal progression and reducing its carbon footprint, Total is checking all of the boxes that the next generation of investors hold close to their hearts.

The International Energy Agency projects that renewables will meet up to 40% of global energy demand within the next 20 years…

And Total will not be left behind.

Through its subsidiaries and new investments, Total is making major waves in the “green revolution.” Already it’s gross low-carbon power generation capacity worldwide is currently nearly 7 gigawatts, of which over 3 gigawatts from renewable energies. And the company estimates that by 2040, up to 40% of its sales could be generated from its portfolio of low-carbon businesses. 

Canadian companies are getting involved in the green push, as well:

BCE Inc. (TSX:BCE) is a Canadian giant. Founded in 1980, the company, formally The Bell Telephone Company of Canada is composed of three primary subsidiaries. Bell Wireless, Bell Wireline and Bell Media, however throughout its push into the position of one of Canada’s top telco groups, it has bought and sold a number of different firms. 

For the past 25 years, BCE has been at the forefront of the environmental movement. Their environmental management system (EMS) has been certified to be ISO 14001-compliant since 2009.

The Descartes Systems Group Inc. (TSX:DSG)(commonly referred to as Descartes) is a Canadian multinational technology company specializing in logistics software, supply chain management software, and cloud-based services for logistics businesses. The company is making waves in the tech industry with its futuristic products and visionary leadership. Not only is Descartes a leader in Canada’s tech industry, they also have a strong portfolio of renewable investments.

Kinaxis Inc (TSE:KXS) is a provider of cloud-based subscription software for supply chain operations, a key in reducing emissions. The Company offers RapidResponse as a collection of cloud-based configurable applications. The Company's RapidResponse product provides supply chain planning and analytics capabilities that create the foundation for managing multiple, interconnected supply chain management processes, including demand planning, supply planning, inventory management, order fulfillment and capacity planning.

Computer Modelling Group (TSE:CMG) is a software technology company producing reservoir simulation software for critical infrastructure. Computer Modeling Group LTD. Is a tempting trade for investors as it brings together two essential industries - tech and resources- which are going anywhere any time soon. Especially as the need for security grows, a tech company involved in the oil and gas industry has an incredible opportunity to offer other services. 

While Computer Modelling Group focuses on the resource industry, its technology is definitely breaking ground. Founded nearly 40 years ago by Khalid Aziz, a renowned simulation developer, the company has proven that it has staying power.  As the resource industry meets technology, this will be a stock to pay attention to.

Shaw Communications Inc (TSE:SJR.B): Shaw Communications, a giant in the Canadian telecoms sector, saw a drop in its share price following its disappointing forecasted earnings growth in 2017. In a sector that is set to see growth, undervalued and experienced companies such as this can make for a great hold play.

Not only is Shaw a leader in Canada’s communications industry, it is also working hard towards reducing its carbon footprint, and even building out a portfolio of clean energy investments.  

By. Ian Jenkins

**IMPORTANT! BY READING OUR CONTENT YOU EXPLICITLY AGREE TO THE FOLLOWING. PLEASE READ CAREFULLY**

Forward-Looking Statements

This publication contains forward-looking information which is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements.  Forward looking statements in this publication include that the demand for ride sharing services will grow; that the demand for environmentally conscientious ride sharing services companies in particular will grow; that Facedrive will be able to fund its capital requirements in the near term and long term; and that Facedrive will be able to carry out its business plan. These forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information.  Risks that could change or prevent these statements from coming to fruition include changing governmental laws and policies; the company’s ability to obtain and retain necessary licensing in each geographical area in which it operates; the success of the company’s expansion activities; the ability of the company to attract a sufficient number of drivers to meet the demands of customer riders; the ability of the company to attract drivers who have electric vehicles and hybrid cars; the ability of the company to keep operating costs and customer charges competitive with other ride-hailing companies; and the company’s ability to continue agreements on affordable terms with existing or new tree planting enterprises. The forward-looking information contained herein is given as of the date hereof and we assume no responsibility to update or revise such information to reflect new events or circumstances, except as required by law.

DISCLAIMERS

ADVERTISEMENT. This communication is not a recommendation to buy or sell securities. An affiliated company of  Oilprice.com, Advanced Media Solutions Ltd, and their owners, managers, employees, and assigns (collectively “the Company”) has signed an agreement to be paid in shares to provide services to expand ridership and attract drivers in certain jurisdictions outside Canada and the United States. In addition, the owner of Oilprice.com has acquired additional shares of FaceDrive (TSX:FD.V) for personal investment. This compensation and share acquisition resulting in the beneficial owner of the Company having a major share position in FD.V is a major conflict with our ability to be unbiased, more specifically:

This communication is for entertainment purposes only. Never invest purely based on our communication. Therefore, this communication should be viewed as a commercial advertisement only. We have not investigated the background of the featured company. Frequently companies profiled in our alerts experience a large increase in volume and share price during the course of investor awareness marketing, which often end as soon as the investor awareness marketing ceases. The information in our communications and on our website has not been independently verified and is not guaranteed to be correct.

SHARE OWNERSHIP. The owner of Oilprice.com owns shares of this featured company and therefore has a substantial incentive to see the featured company’s stock perform well. The owner of Oilprice.com will not notify the market when it decides to buy more or sell shares of this issuer in the market. The owner of Oilprice.com will be buying and selling shares of this issuer for its own profit. This is why we stress that you conduct extensive due diligence as well as seek the advice of your financial advisor or a registered broker-dealer before investing in any securities. 

NOT AN INVESTMENT ADVISOR. The Company is not registered or licensed by any governing body in any jurisdiction to give investing advice or provide investment recommendation. ALWAYS DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH and consult with a licensed investment professional before making an investment. This communication should not be used as a basis for making any investment.

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U.S. Solar Industry Wants Government Bailout As Bankruptcies Loom

By Haley Zaremba - Mar 30, 2020, 3:00 PM CDT

Coronavirus is hitting the energy industry hard. First, it instigated a breakup between the OPEC+ countries of Saudi Arabia and Russia, leading to an oil price war which then led to a spectacular oil price crash. Now, the Permian Basin, once the site of an unparalleled shale boom, is currently facing tens of thousands of layoffs. Then it crushed biofuel markets across the world. Now it’s hitting the renewable energy industry, and solar is begging for a bailout.  While Congress and the White House have finally come to a hard-won agreement on a $2 trillion coronavirus economic stimulus package, negotiated earlier this week, solar and wind did not receive the support they were looking for. “Although some democrats were pushing for solar and wind tax credit extensions to be included in the bill, it appears they didn’t make the final version,” reported Solar Power World. “Still, the solar industry will see some relief in the economy-wide measures included in the bill.”

President and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association Abigail Ross Hopper responded: “As Congress continues to address the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, we appreciate that they are prioritizing relief for families and small businesses. There are several elements in this legislation that can help solar businesses and solar workers, including long-term unemployment insurance, business loans and provisions that support employee retention and other employee protections. We will be working to help our members understand what resources are available to them as a result of this legislation and how they can use those resources to help get through this difficult time.

“As a result of this pandemic, the solar industry stands to lose half of our jobs — that’s 125,000 families who will no longer receive a paycheck. Congress can help stem this tide. Economic stimulus legislation can help our companies sustain families and invest tens of billions of dollars into the economy over the next couple of years. We remain committed to helping our economy recover from this pandemic. We fully expect to work with Congress on any broad economic stimulus package. This will ensure that when this awful chapter in America’s history comes to an end, the clean energy economy is well-positioned to lead our nation’s economic recovery.”

Related: How COVID-19 Could Spark The Next Recession

President and CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) also issued a statement echoing the urgency of saving the solar industry as so many other energy sectors are also taking a beating. “The renewable energy industry is fully supportive of broad measures to support the economy, protect workers, and ensure the health care system can effectively respond to the COVID-19 pandemic — which is precisely what the final Senate package is designed to do, he said. “When lawmakers turn their attention to measures aimed at bolstering specific sectors of the economy adversely impacted by coronavirus, we want to make sure they understand how supply chain disruptions and other pandemic-related delays are threatening the jobs of hundreds of thousands of workers in the renewable sector and the time-sensitive tax incentives on which renewable project financing depends. In the end, we’re all in this together and the renewable energy industry wants to be a key economic driver to help the nation through this downturn, as well as an effective climate solution over the long haul.”

The entire solar energy sector seems to be speaking out. In a letter signed by more than 550 solar companies across the United States, the solar industry is pleading with the federal government to provide support to the hundreds of thousands of people employed by the U.S. solar sector, according to Energy Live News.

Keeping the renewable energy sector afloat is essential and letting the solar sector go bankrupt or even shrink by any sizable margin would be a huge misstep at a moment that every economic decision the government makes is under a microscope. 

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The Ocean Could Be The Ultimate Renewable Energy Source

By Alex Kimani - Apr 02, 2020, 7:00 PM CDT

For all their hype as the biggest and final frontier in clean energy production, tidal and wave power have never quite lived up to their potential. The IEA estimates that we harnessed just 1.2TWh of energy from the world’s vast oceans in 2018--a minuscule fraction of the ~170,000TWh in global primary energy consumption. This sad situation is not for lack of trying, though. 

More than 70 companies have developed various technologies to generate electricity from ocean tides or the kinetic power of waves, leading to global ocean energy production rising tenfold over the last decade. Yet, most never advance past the pilot stages into full commercialization. 

The sad tale of the leader in the space, Ocean Power Technologies Inc (NASDAQ: OPTT), serves as a sobering reality of the enormous challenge of turning an interesting science project into a profitable business venture. Ocean Power--a company mostly kept alive by government largesse--has crashed 99% over the past three years as it threatens to join the trash heap of tech companies that have experienced more false dawns than Groundhog Day.

But some experts now believe that the time for a Blue Energy revolution has come and new developments in the space could flip the script.

The Ocean Energy Systems (OES), an offshoot of theInternational Energy Agency, has been working round the clock to pool all the research it can in a bid to achieve large-scale ocean power deployment in the near future.

 

Source: CNN Money

Riding the Tidal Wave

The 24-member OES, including the U.S., China, most E.U. nations, and India, believes ocean power has the potential to become the Holy Grail of renewable energy due to its sheer potential.

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), an organization that promotes the widespread adoption and sustainable use of all forms of renewable energy, reckons ocean power has the potential to generate more electricity than either solar or wind power. 

According to IRENA, 2% of the world’s 800, 000 kilometers of coastline exceeds a wave power density of 30 kilowatts per meter (kW/m), with an estimated global technical potential of about 500-gigawatt electrical energy (GWe) based on a conversion efficiency of 40%. In other words, by just utilizing 2% of our coastlines, we can generate 4,383TWh of ocean power annually, enough to meet 16.4% of the world’s electricity needs. The U.K. and U.S. have said ocean energy could provide 20 and 15% of their electricity consumption, respectively.

Related: What Happens If You Can’t Pay Your Electricity Bill?
In comparison, all renewable sources combined accounted for ~11% of the United States’ energy consumption in 2018.

Despite the vast potential, only Scotland currently generates any meaningful amounts of ocean power. 

Scotland has enormous potential thanks to its impressive archipelago of islands with heavy tidal currents that can be easily tapped. Located in the Northern territory of the U.K., the nation now boasts the largest tidal array of underwater turbines in the world. Scotland’s tidal turbines have even exceeded expectations, with the MeyGen company now planning to increase the number of installations vastly.

Other leading countries developing ocean power technologies are Canada and the United Kingdom, both endowed with some of the highest tides anywhere in the world. Canada has a number of tidal energy schemes along its Atlantic coast, primarily in Nova Scotia, where scores of competing companies are testing various prototypes. The U.K. has more than 20 of these projects in the pipeline, some still in the research and development stage, but many now being scaled up for deployment.

Meanwhile, China encourages tidal stream energy by offering a generous feed-in tariff 3x the price of fossil fuels. That’s similar to the rate deployed by countries that are trying to launch solar and wind power. The incentive is high enough that one Chinese company is already feeding ocean power into the main grid profitably.

Ocean Energy Benefits

Ocean power comes with some distinct advantages.

First off, it’s clean and compact, featuring higher energy density than either solar and wind projects. For instance,Sihwa Lake Tidal Power Station in South Korea, the world’s largest tidal project with an installed capacity of 254MW, was easily added to a 12.5km-long seawall that was built in 1994 to protect the coast against flooding. Compare that to the 781.5MW Roscoe wind farm in Texas, which takes up 400km2 of farmland, or the 150MW-Fowler Ridge wind project in Indiana that sits on a 202.3km2 parcel of land.

Even solar farms are usually bigger, such as the Bhadla Industrial Solar Park in Rajasthan, India, that is spread across 45km2 of land or the Tengger Desert Solar Park in China that covers 43km2 This means that even smaller countries with long enough stretches of coastline can use tidal power to compete with bigger, land-rich countries such as the U.S., China and India that can afford to dedicate large tracts of land for solar and wind projects.

Second, tidal power is much more predictable than either solar or wind, which can be extremely intermittent.

Finally, the equipment used in ocean power deployments such as tidal barrages are long-lived concrete structures that can have life spans up to 4x longer than typical solar or wind farms. The La Rance in France, for example, has been operational since 1966 and remains in good working order with 240MW generation capacity.

So, what’s stopping the rest of the world from jumping into the Blue Energy bandwagon?

The Cost Barrier

Money always gets in the way. 

The challenges of harnessing tidal and wave power, though, can be daunting.

Tidal power projects hold some of the loftiest up-front price tags in the renewable energy sector. The aforementioned La Rance cost 620 million francs back in 1966, or more than a billion dollars today after adjusting for inflation while Sihwa Lake Tidal Power Station cost $560m. The proposed Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon project in the U.K. has been priced at £1.3bn ($1.67bn).

In comparison, The Tengger Desert Solar Park costs around $530m--roughly the same cost as Sihwa for 3.3x as much power. Likewise, the Roscoe Wind Farm cost around $1bn for an output of 781MW, about 1.7x better cost efficiency than Sihwa Lake. Although the long-term generation costs of ocean power projects are relatively good compared to other renewable energy systems, the initial construction costs can make them unachievable for poorer nations.

The second big challenge is the lack of sufficient research. One reason why Ocean Power Technologies has been going nowhere is mainly because it dedicates so little money to R&D. The $3.3M (market cap) company has racked up more than $200 million in debt since its founding in 1984 and spends ~$1.3 million a quarter on R&D. Many tidal power technologies are simply not deployable on an industrial scale, thus limiting the expansion of the energy system.

Of course, this is exactly what OES is trying to change through concerted R&D efforts between nations.

Bright Future

The OES has identified several challenges centered around affordability, reliability, operability, installability, standardization, funding availability, and capacity building that will require to be solved before ocean power can become a mainstream renewable energy source.

Related: Oil Market Chaos Has Created The Greatest Trade In Decades

The organization, in particular, emphasizes the need for significant cost reductions required for ocean energy technologies to compete successfully with other low-carbon technologies. The European target is to get tidal stream energy down to €0.10 per kilowatt-hour and wave power down to €0.15 by 2030, which would also make them competitive with fossil fuels if these traditional sources were obliged to pay for capture and storage of the carbon dioxide they generate.

Unfortunately, the United States has no tidal power plants mainly because it lacks an abundance of sites where the technology can be economically harnessed. The country will have to be content with other low-carbon technologies such as solar, wind, and biofuelswhere it has better competitive advantage.

 

 

[Shedagal]

@Pitcher, somehow I have missed this thread until now.  Kim Clement prophesied about Tesla and its success.  He also said alot about something called 'the Big E', an alternative energy that would come from the ground.  Investment in this would create billionaires.  I have not studied the prophecies in a while but this will prompt me to go back and look at them.  Thanks for all the great information.

[Pitcher]

Big E, now you got my attention.  Thanks, I will start looking for it.  

[Synopsis]

Big E.

 

Looks like we have a choice between a Professional Wrestler and A United States Of America Navy Aircraft Carrier.

 

 

 

 

Both have utilitarian aerial acrobatic functions. Both have lotsa bravado (one on Creative Theatrics the REAL one on Victorious Theatre(s)). Both float. One on the imaginations of adoring fans while the other on the nightmare dreams of the enemy.

 

Well, OK, I must admit I really like the Big E (Enterprise) The United States Of America Aircraft Carrier(s) AND ESPECIALLY ADMIRE AND APPRECIATE ALL The Men And Women Who Served On AND Supported The Big E's Operations!!!

 

                  

 

Go Moola Nova!

[ChuckFinley]

On 4/3/2020 at 6:26 PM, Pitcher said:

https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Renewable-Energy/How-Ocean-Power-Could-Reignite-The-Renewable-Boom.html
 

The Ocean Could Be The Ultimate Renewable Energy Source

By Alex Kimani - Apr 02, 2020, 7:00 PM CDT

For all their hype as the biggest and final frontier in clean energy production, tidal and wave power have never quite lived up to their potential. The IEA estimates that we harnessed just 1.2TWh of energy from the world’s vast oceans in 2018--a minuscule fraction of the ~170,000TWh in global primary energy consumption. This sad situation is not for lack of trying, though. 

More than 70 companies have developed various technologies to generate electricity from ocean tides or the kinetic power of waves, leading to global ocean energy production rising tenfold over the last decade. Yet, most never advance past the pilot stages into full commercialization. 

The sad tale of the leader in the space, Ocean Power Technologies Inc (NASDAQ: OPTT), serves as a sobering reality of the enormous challenge of turning an interesting science project into a profitable business venture. Ocean Power--a company mostly kept alive by government largesse--has crashed 99% over the past three years as it threatens to join the trash heap of tech companies that have experienced more false dawns than Groundhog Day.

But some experts now believe that the time for a Blue Energy revolution has come and new developments in the space could flip the script.

The Ocean Energy Systems (OES), an offshoot of theInternational Energy Agency, has been working round the clock to pool all the research it can in a bid to achieve large-scale ocean power deployment in the near future.

 

Source: CNN Money

Riding the Tidal Wave

The 24-member OES, including the U.S., China, most E.U. nations, and India, believes ocean power has the potential to become the Holy Grail of renewable energy due to its sheer potential.

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), an organization that promotes the widespread adoption and sustainable use of all forms of renewable energy, reckons ocean power has the potential to generate more electricity than either solar or wind power. 

According to IRENA, 2% of the world’s 800, 000 kilometers of coastline exceeds a wave power density of 30 kilowatts per meter (kW/m), with an estimated global technical potential of about 500-gigawatt electrical energy (GWe) based on a conversion efficiency of 40%. In other words, by just utilizing 2% of our coastlines, we can generate 4,383TWh of ocean power annually, enough to meet 16.4% of the world’s electricity needs. The U.K. and U.S. have said ocean energy could provide 20 and 15% of their electricity consumption, respectively.

Related: What Happens If You Can’t Pay Your Electricity Bill?
In comparison, all renewable sources combined accounted for ~11% of the United States’ energy consumption in 2018.

Despite the vast potential, only Scotland currently generates any meaningful amounts of ocean power. 

Scotland has enormous potential thanks to its impressive archipelago of islands with heavy tidal currents that can be easily tapped. Located in the Northern territory of the U.K., the nation now boasts the largest tidal array of underwater turbines in the world. Scotland’s tidal turbines have even exceeded expectations, with the MeyGen company now planning to increase the number of installations vastly.

Other leading countries developing ocean power technologies are Canada and the United Kingdom, both endowed with some of the highest tides anywhere in the world. Canada has a number of tidal energy schemes along its Atlantic coast, primarily in Nova Scotia, where scores of competing companies are testing various prototypes. The U.K. has more than 20 of these projects in the pipeline, some still in the research and development stage, but many now being scaled up for deployment.

Meanwhile, China encourages tidal stream energy by offering a generous feed-in tariff 3x the price of fossil fuels. That’s similar to the rate deployed by countries that are trying to launch solar and wind power. The incentive is high enough that one Chinese company is already feeding ocean power into the main grid profitably.

Ocean Energy Benefits

Ocean power comes with some distinct advantages.

First off, it’s clean and compact, featuring higher energy density than either solar and wind projects. For instance,Sihwa Lake Tidal Power Station in South Korea, the world’s largest tidal project with an installed capacity of 254MW, was easily added to a 12.5km-long seawall that was built in 1994 to protect the coast against flooding. Compare that to the 781.5MW Roscoe wind farm in Texas, which takes up 400km2 of farmland, or the 150MW-Fowler Ridge wind project in Indiana that sits on a 202.3km2 parcel of land.

Even solar farms are usually bigger, such as the Bhadla Industrial Solar Park in Rajasthan, India, that is spread across 45km2 of land or the Tengger Desert Solar Park in China that covers 43km2 This means that even smaller countries with long enough stretches of coastline can use tidal power to compete with bigger, land-rich countries such as the U.S., China and India that can afford to dedicate large tracts of land for solar and wind projects.

Second, tidal power is much more predictable than either solar or wind, which can be extremely intermittent.

Finally, the equipment used in ocean power deployments such as tidal barrages are long-lived concrete structures that can have life spans up to 4x longer than typical solar or wind farms. The La Rance in France, for example, has been operational since 1966 and remains in good working order with 240MW generation capacity.

So, what’s stopping the rest of the world from jumping into the Blue Energy bandwagon?

The Cost Barrier

Money always gets in the way. 

The challenges of harnessing tidal and wave power, though, can be daunting.

Tidal power projects hold some of the loftiest up-front price tags in the renewable energy sector. The aforementioned La Rance cost 620 million francs back in 1966, or more than a billion dollars today after adjusting for inflation while Sihwa Lake Tidal Power Station cost $560m. The proposed Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon project in the U.K. has been priced at £1.3bn ($1.67bn).

In comparison, The Tengger Desert Solar Park costs around $530m--roughly the same cost as Sihwa for 3.3x as much power. Likewise, the Roscoe Wind Farm cost around $1bn for an output of 781MW, about 1.7x better cost efficiency than Sihwa Lake. Although the long-term generation costs of ocean power projects are relatively good compared to other renewable energy systems, the initial construction costs can make them unachievable for poorer nations.

The second big challenge is the lack of sufficient research. One reason why Ocean Power Technologies has been going nowhere is mainly because it dedicates so little money to R&D. The $3.3M (market cap) company has racked up more than $200 million in debt since its founding in 1984 and spends ~$1.3 million a quarter on R&D. Many tidal power technologies are simply not deployable on an industrial scale, thus limiting the expansion of the energy system.

Of course, this is exactly what OES is trying to change through concerted R&D efforts between nations.

Bright Future

The OES has identified several challenges centered around affordability, reliability, operability, installability, standardization, funding availability, and capacity building that will require to be solved before ocean power can become a mainstream renewable energy source.

Related: Oil Market Chaos Has Created The Greatest Trade In Decades

The organization, in particular, emphasizes the need for significant cost reductions required for ocean energy technologies to compete successfully with other low-carbon technologies. The European target is to get tidal stream energy down to €0.10 per kilowatt-hour and wave power down to €0.15 by 2030, which would also make them competitive with fossil fuels if these traditional sources were obliged to pay for capture and storage of the carbon dioxide they generate.

Unfortunately, the United States has no tidal power plants mainly because it lacks an abundance of sites where the technology can be economically harnessed. The country will have to be content with other low-carbon technologies such as solar, wind, and biofuelswhere it has better competitive advantage.

 

 

 

23 hours ago, Shedagal said:

@Pitcher, somehow I have missed this thread until now.  Kim Clement prophesied about Tesla and its success.  He also said alot about something called 'the Big E', an alternative energy that would come from the ground.  Investment in this would create billionaires.  I have not studied the prophecies in a while but this will prompt me to go back and look at them.  Thanks for all the great information.

 

I really would like to look into this as a potential project when this hits. I am very excited about where this could go.  

["Fred"]

On 3/1/2020 at 12:06 PM, Rochester said:

I have followed the battery development for electric cars for a long time, invested in a company doing cutting edge research, they failed, I lost a lot of money. But I have not given up the dream of cheap electric cars to replace oil and gas. I know it will happen. A lot of people like me are investing a lot of money into the science and it looks very promising. ....Just a matter of time. Yankee can do know how will change the world, once again. The leaders in Iraq are fools for squabbling and throwing away what precious little time they have, till the one thing they have to sell to the world.....oil... will be valueless. Oh, that will be a few decades till they are dead and oil is worthless, but I'm older, so I know a few decades are very little in the grand scheme of things. 

I had a Prius for 7 years,besides regular maintenance it went to the shop once for an ac issue,for personal reasons I had to get a larger vehicle which in 1 1/2 years it’s been to the shop 4 times,one thing I’ve learned,it’s just my personal opinion,I’ll never buy another ford and I look forward to the day I get my next Prius 

[Pitcher]

 

Tesla Sets Record Despite Coronavirus

 

 

Tesla has just had its best month in China, selling a record high number of electric vehicles in March despite a 41-percent plunge in overall car sales in the world’s biggest car market.

According to data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), Tesla sold 10,160 vehicles in China last month, despite the fact that total Chinese vehicle sales plummeted by 40.8 percent year on year, due to the coronavirus pandemic.    

Tesla’s sales in China in March were up from 3,900 vehicle sales in February, and up from 2,620 vehicles sold in January, according to CPCA data cited by Reuters.

 

 

Tesla’s newly operational Shanghai Gigafactory was temporarily closed for a few weeks between the end of January and February due to government-mandated temporary shutdowns of industrial production because of the coronavirus outbreak. The Gigafactory resumed production in the second week of February.

To boost sales in the world’s top car market, Tesla has increased home delivery services to encourage more potential buyers to buy a Tesla, Business Times reports.

At the beginning of 2019, Tesla started the construction of a production facility in the world’s top EV market—China—in order to be able to compete on a level playing field with a growing number of local EV manufacturers. As a U.S.-made vehicle, Tesla’s cars in China have been subject to steep tariffs, and sales have suffered due to the U.S.-China trade war.

 

 

In early January this year, Tesla delivered its first cars to customers from its newly built Gigafactory in Shanghai, just a year after it broke ground on the site for the construction.

Last week, Tesla reported its “best ever first quarter performance” as it produced almost 103,000 vehicles and delivered around 88,400 vehicles globally.

Tesla’s Shanghai factory “continued to achieve record levels of production, despite significant setbacks,” the EV maker said in a statement.  

 

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Tesla-Sets-Sales-Record-In-China-Despite-Coronavirus-Crisis.html

[Pitcher]

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Renewables-Boomed-In-2019-But-This-Year-May-Be-Different.html
 

Renewables Boomed In 2019, But This Year May Be Different

By Irina Slav - Apr 07, 2020, 4:00 PM CDT

Renewable energy projects constituted three-quarters of all new power generation capacity projects in the world last year, the International Renewable Energy Agency said in a new report. In even better news, IRENA said that renewable capacity additions rose by 7.6 percent last year and that they exceeded fossil fuel power-generation capacity additions by a factor of 2.6.

2019 was a good year for renewables, it seems, with solar and wind accounting for as much as 90 percent of the total. And yet the 176 GW added during that year was lower than the 179 GW added in 2018 in new capacity, suggesting a slowdown in new solar and wind additions, which may or may not be surprising given a change in the Chinese subsidy regime for new renewable projects and cost-efficiency considerations.

“While the trajectory is positive, more is required to put global energy on a path with sustainable development and climate mitigation – both of which offer significant economic benefits,” said the head of IRENA, Francesco La Camera. “At this challenging time, we are reminded of the importance of building resilience into our economies. In what must be the decade of action, enabling policies are needed to increase investments and accelerate renewables adoption.”

This increase in investments, however, could prove challenging given the current global economic situation. As is always the case, low oil prices negatively affect renewable investments. This time, however, the situation grew even more complicated by the coronavirus pandemic that is already hurting supply chains, including in the renewables sector.

Premium: What Will $15 Oil Mean For Producers?

Several large-scale renewable energy projects already missed their deadlines last year, La Camera said. This year, things are likely to get even more complicated and not because of low oil prices or the more relevant gas prices.

“Oil plays a negligible role in power generation and therefore does not compete with renewables in this respect,” La Camera said last month after the global oil benchmarks took a plunge. “Renewables have become the dominant source of new power generation capacity over the last six years because they are competitive at the bottom end of the conventional fossil fuel power generation cost range – primarily with coal.”

However, gas is cheap too, and some governments are cutting subsidies for new renewable capacity to see if it can stand on its two feet without strong government support. China is the best case in point. After surprising markets with a cut in subsidies for new solar and wind power installations, this year Beijing announced even more reductions. The country will cut subsidies for new solar farms by 50 percent and suspend state support for offshore wind entirely.

Meanwhile, in Europe, the Netherlands is doubling its subsidies for renewable energy in a bid to achieve a 25-percent emission cut from 1990 levels by the end of the year. While the Netherlands may have 4 billion euros set aside just for that, other European governments are too busy finding a way to support the member states hardest hit by the coronavirus. This support, according to sources from Brussels who spoke to CNBC, could be worth some $260 billion (240 billion euros).

Of course, the EU’s renewable energy budget is a separate thing. However, with economies on the brink of collapse, it will be a while before the renewable industry recovers to take advantage of that budget.

A group of states in the U.S. have launched a new initiative dubbed the “100% Clean Energy Collaborative.” The aim of the action is for much more ambitious emissions targets than federal policies envisage. The initiative will seek to help individual states from that group hit their goals. How successful it will be remains to be seen after the pandemic noise dies down. Chances are there will be renewable projects that will get delayed or dropped while the industry battles the effects of the unprecedented global response to the virus. All industries have been affected. None is immune. The world’s shift to a cleaner future may have been delayed for a while.

[Pitcher]

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/EV-Sales-Could-Crash-By-43-This-Year.html
 

EV Sales Could Crash By 43% This Year

By Irina Slav - Apr 16, 2020, 6:00 PM CDT

By now, it should be clear to everyone: the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic is killing both the energy and transportation industries, and now the future of EVs is looking somewhat grim compared to ambitious pre-COVID-19 plans. 

Sales of electric vehicles, which in 2019 topped 2.2 million, could plunge 43% this year, Wood Mackenzie said in a recent report. The reason: the travel bans in response to the coronavirus and a looming recession, which has dampened people's appetite for new purchases, especially costly ones such as a new car. The economic situation, the Wood Mac analysts also noted, is also likely to increase people's aversion to new technology adoption.

The effect of the outbreak on the world's biggest EV market—China—are already visible. Electric car sales there fell by 54% by the end of January when the epidemic really took off in the country. February sales figures, according to Wood Mac, are expected to be even worse, with a decline of 90%. EV sales in Europe had been on an impressive upswing, up by 121% on the year in January. Then, coronavirus struck and rained on this parade. 

Now, three months later, while China is slowly restarting its economy despite a second wave of infections knocking on its door, Europe, the second biggest marketfor electric cars, is in the throes of the coronavirus and the outlook for the continent's economies is nothing short of horrible.

Travel bans, national lockdowns, tens of thousands of victims, disruptions across supply chains, and internal political divisions are shaking the EU. As a result, the eurozone economy could shrink by more than 10% in the first half of the year, a survey among economists made by Bloomberg has suggested. In the second quarter alone, the euro area is set for a slump of 8.3%. While that’s not as bad as the worst predictions for the US economy, it is still a devastating shock for the EV market.

Even Norway's economy, normally strong and outside the eurozone, is set for a contraction this year as a result of the pandemic. And Norway is the strongest EV market in Europe, so that's bad news for the industry. 

In further bad news, the UK, another big EV market, could see its GDP shrink by as much as 35% because of the pandemic. Germany's economy is expected to book a 9.8% contraction in the second quarter of the year alone, and the list is expanding. 

Premium: U.S. Oil Production Has Already Peaked

Meanwhile, carmakers are shutting down factories, and European governments are promising not to let any businesses fail as a result of the crisis. In the US, GM is producing face masks to address a shortage amid the crisis. The car industry is in the same shambles as almost every other industry right now.

Yet there is a silver-ish lining: "Automakers haven't changed their carbon-neutral goals and we don't expect governments to defer or cancel policies designed to phase out internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles," Wood Mac's Ram Chandrasekaran and Gavin Montgomery wrote in their report. "And while it's tempting to think that the oil price crash is bad news for EV adoption, in reality, the purchase price, charging infrastructure and available models currently have a much greater impact on sales."

The point about prices, chargers, and the variety of models is a very good one. China saw a decline in EV sales last year, for example, long before the virus came on the stage, because it reduced subsidies. 

With the worst recession since the Second World War, could Europe stick to its EV priorities and continue subsidizing them, even increasing the subsidies in order to make them more affordable for a recession-stricken population? Could the United States? This is just one of the questions rendering the immediate future of EVs somewhat murky.

The EV revolution needs money; it's as simple as that. Developing cheaper but reliable models comes with a significant price tag. So does building a dense enough network of charging points. Automakers have already spent billions on their EV programs, and were preparing for major launches. Now, these could well flop, especially if the crisis drags on beyond the end of the first half of the year, which is not out of the realm of possibility. 

Still, over the long term, EVs will undoubtedly survive. It will just take them a bit longer to replace internal combustion engines.

"The full impact of the pandemic remains to be seen," the Wood Mac analysts wrote. This is a scary line fit for a horror novel. Indeed, we have yet to see exactly how much the pandemic has hurt the world's economies and can only hope that it's not bad enough to set back the shift from fossil fuels to electricity by years.