Blogger Michael DeGusta sparked a minor uproar in the electric vehicle community this week when he posted about the “devastating design flaw” that he said left many Tesla cars “bricked:” their batteries depleted, unable to move, with the only repair being a new $40,000 battery.

Tesla responded today with a long blog post that tried to answer Mr. DeGusta’s accusations point by point. “If ever the battery in your Tesla runs low, the car is designed to let you know with repeated visual and audible warnings…. Starting with Roadster 2.0, owners can also elect for their car to contact Tesla headquarters once the state of charge falls below a specified level, and we can then contact the owner.”

Mr. DeGusta has his own spin on what Tesla describes as their exemplary service. “In at least ...

 

OK, I’m doing my top 10 list now. Following up on AWEA’s top 10 wind energy stories and SEIA’s top 10 solar energy stories, I decided I may as well give my own opinion on the top 10 clean energy stories and energy efficiency stories of 2011 (plus one bonus story). There will be some overlap, of course.

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1. 40% drop in cost of solar. This tremendous drop in the cost of solar was, to say the least, massively influential. It helped tons of people and businesses to go solar for less, increased work for numerous solar installers, and helped to put some companies out of business who were working on alternatives to traditional solar PV. The full ramifications are still unclear, but recent reports have shown that ...

Photo courtesy Mining Artifacts

The potential is there to re-purpose abandoned open pit iron ore mines in northeastern Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range to store energy from wind turbines and farms, according to a team of researchers at the University of Minnesota-Duluth’s Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI). Doing so would not only enhance the competitiveness of wind power, it would make beneficial use of land that’s been severely degraded.

Wind energy has been growing fast in Minnesota, thanks to its geography, climate and impetus from the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), which requires that utilities and electric co-ops at least 25% of their electricity from qualifying renewable sources by 2025.

Thing is, wind power production typically picks up at night when wind energy is higher. Electricity demand is lower at night, however, and suppliers selling ...

  There are now so many story lines that one can look at when examining the debate over the Keystone XL pipeline--among them pollution, greed, and a pervasive lack of leadership. The one that I gravitate toward is accountability. For instance, is President Obama accountable for his words in his 2008 campaign, when he promised to help "end the tyranny of oil?" And is the national media accountable when they misreport the facts about the pipeline? Take CNN's Steve Hargreaves, who went on TV last week and issued several inaccurate and misleading statements about Keystone XL.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Yes, it’s more complicated than that — this was a hard story to come up with a title for — but this is the gist of a new proposed plan (or several new plans) for balancing the nation’s budget that would ALSO, by chance, cut CO2 emissions considerably, thus slowing or stopping human-caused global warming and saving us trillions of dollars in damage and healthcare costs in the process. Here’s a little more: The Peter G. Peterson Foundation funded six groups from across the political spectrum to put forward plans addressing our nation’s fiscal challenges.  All the plans are here.   The Center for American Progress plan, “Budgeting for Growth and Prosperity” brings the deficit below 2% of GDP within 6 years and fully balances by 2030. The CAP budget does ...

The long rumored acquisition of L+G by Toshiba has finally happened. It appears Bayard Group, the investment group that assembled the current incarnation of L+G from more than five companies, got their price ($2.3 billion) without the originally anticipated IPO, making their investors happy. Perhaps it is fitting that L+G have been picked up by a Japanese company, as this effectively rounds out the regional scope of the U.S. and European components from which L+G was built. So does this make L+G the first truly global smart grid company?

Well, no, not really, but the answer hinges on the definition of “smart grid.” Certainly companies like GE, ABB, Siemens, and even Toshiba itself, would validly claim a long-term global presence in grid infrastructure, including smart technologies. But if the definition includes smart metering, then we might have to say “maybe.” ...

In a move that will shake the global PV industry like an earthquake, the Italian Government approved on 3rd March a long awaited Renewable Energy Decree that marks an unanticipated, early end to its incredible solar race. After months of intense negotiations with Parliament and Industry representatives that seemed to have reached positive results, the Italian Minister for Economic Development, Paolo Romani, presented a final, “surprise” version of the Decree that will set the new standards for all future renewable energy incentives. The Decree was due to address Italy’s path to its EU 2020 renewable energy targets (17% of primary energy consumption and 30% of electricity from renewables). The result? All that had been discussed until now is no more valid, and the deadliest blow goes to solar power, effective immediately. The third “Conto Energia”, the brand ...

Psh. Plugs. They’re, like, so 2008.

There’s been a surge of attention over the last year towards products that that can charge your smartphone wirelessly, like the devices PowerMat makes. Just set it down on the charging mat and let your phone juice up.

But according to a new report from Pike Research, the technology that makes your plug-free iPhone charging possible is also showing promise for uses in other products — other consumer electronics,  military and industrial applications and — yes, electric vehicles. In fact, the report predicts that that wireless charging for electric vehicles will be a $272 million business by 2015.

As electric cars prepare to go to market in the next year or so, charging infrastructure is working overtime to keep up. Companies like EcoTality and Coloumb have been rolling out networks of chargers across the country, fueled in ...

We are bombarded daily by advertisements selling us soft drinks, pharmaceuticals, cars, insurance, junk food, teeth whitener, diet programs, and on and on. But when was the last time someone tried to sell you on using more electricity? I cannot think of a single commercial that encourages us to plug-in, even though electricity is the chief product of 3,000 utilities in the United States. This speaks to how easy it is to access and use electric energy; its relative cheapness, invisibility, and integral role in daily life. No need exists for utilities to market electricity; we devour electrons blindly. So how do you convince people to conserve something that they use so much, yet hardly even notice they buy? Behavioral science may hold the answers, as pointed out in a new report by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, “Visible and ...

One more giant solar project on Federal land has made it in time for funding under ARRA!

Solar Millenium’s Amargosa Farm Road Solar Project is a 500 megawatt project on BLM land, 80 miles from Las Vegas. It is a concentrated solar project comprising two 250 MW parabolic trough dry-cooled power plants.

It includes some thermal energy storage, which enables the solar plant to keep supplying electricity after sundown. Although Las Vegas, like all desert areas, has peak needs in the hottest afternoons, the included thermal storage means the famous neon signs of Vegas can be solar powered well into the night.

The BLM (Bureau of Land Management) reports that through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s incentives for specified energy programs, Solar Millennium would be eligible for approximately $1 billion in Investment Tax ...