Elon Musk announces Autopilot in 1 month, 1000km Range in 2 years, Fully Autonomous Driving in 3 years !

Yesterday in Denmark, 5 days ahead of the Model X launch in Fremont, Elon Musk made pretty big announcements, in a very relaxed mode ...

- Energy Storage
- Porsche Mission e
- Future of Transportation (Electric)
- 1000km Range: in 2017 for sure (!!)
- Autopilot will be out in a month
- Fully autonomous driving in 3 years

Dale Vince, Ecotricity | Fully Charged

Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity, is interviewed by Robert Llewellyn

Free Charge for EVs on the British Green Highway

Towards the end, he will mention something about their "Black Box", a future Distributed Energy Storage System ...



"Dale Vince, founder of renewable energy generator and supplier Ecotricity, the company that made this series of Fully Charged possible, talks about the company, it's aims and what's is in store in the future."
http://www.ecotricity.co.uk

Green Highway


The Black Box, their future Energy Storage System is in the works ....

France: Wind Energy Is a Solution in Energy Transition

France may be the world's most nuclear energy dependent country, but times are changing. When French President François Hollande took the reins of power in 2012 he pledged to reduce the country's nuclear dependency from 75 percent to 50 percent by 2025.



Today, France has a goal of reaching 19 GW of wind energy by 2020, up from its current level of 8.2 GW, according to the European Wind Energy Association's (EWEA) latest statistics. This will significantly raise the percentage of wind powered electricity in the country from the 3% wind covers today. And, according to a very recent survey, the French are behind this transition.

Some 64 percent of French people see wind energy as a solution, among others, in the context of the energy transition, says a CSA survey published in March 2014. Moreover, 80 percent of the 1010 respondents consider it necessary to invest in wind without waiting for the traditional power plants to reach the end of their lifecycle.

65 percent of those surveyed said that they would invest in renewable energy (wind and solar/photovoltaic) today if they had to personally invest in one energy source, while 15 percent chose nuclear, 7 percent chose gas and 1 percent chose coal. Meanwhile, 69 percent of French people would choose wind energy if they had to choose one energy type to be constructed in their region. 75 percent chose solar, 21 percent chose nuclear, 16 percent chose gas and 4 percent chose gas.

In short, the results show that the French are aware that an energy transition must take place, they are confident enough in renewables to invest if they could, and they know that the time to act is now. Next year is a key year for energy decision-makers in France since both the UN summit on climate change will take place in Paris, and, just two weeks before, EWEA will host is internationally-renowned annual event EWEA 2015 from 17-20 November in the same city. The event is set to be a platform for the wind energy industry to make its climate-friendly technology solutions known to global leaders at the UN summit.

France's opinions on wind power sit well with Europe-wide opinion polls on wind energy, as detailed by EWEA. EWEA believes that wind energy delivers a multitude of benefits to communities from sustainable jobs and economic revival, to fighting climate change and bolstering energy security. On a local level, renting out land for wind farms can provide income, and taxes from a wind energy business can be used by the local community to improve infrastructure and services — all of which contribute to the public's strong perception of wind power.

The results in France echo other public opinion surveys in the country: In 2011 an ADEME opinion poll found that 80 percent of French people back the installation of wind turbines. In 2013 an IPSOS survey found that wind power had a good image for 83 percent of the population. The same survey found that 80 percent of interviewees would welcome wind turbines in their region (départment) while 68 percent would welcome turbines in their local area (commune). And, according to France Energie Eolienne, public opinion becomes more favourable the closer the respondent lives to a wind farm.



Source: Renewable Energy World

DIY ESS Kit blog reaches 6,000 visits

Merci de vos visites !

Thanks for visiting !

SMA to Part Ways with Windy Boy Inverters

 

SMA will withdraw from the small wind turbine industry at the end of 2013 at which time production of the Windy Boy inverter will cease. We spoke to Volker Wachenfeld, Executive Vice President in the Hybrid Energy Solutions division, about the reasons and what the new markets of the future will be.




Volker, what are the reasons for withdrawing from the small wind turbine industry?

Volker: Unfortunately, changes to the political landscape in important sales markets have caused the market for small wind turbines to collapse. The UK government, for example, has cut funding for wind power plants below 1.5 kW – the size typically used in domestic applications – so unfortunately, in some cases, it is simply no longer worthwhile for the customer. In Denmark, the subsidy model has been modified to the point where it is no longer worth it to operate small-scale wind turbines. There has been a clear downturn since 2010 and for this reason, we made the decision to pull out of this business area and to discontinue the Windy Boy, Windy Tripower and Windy Boy Protection Box protects.



Windy Boy – the inverter for small wind turbine systems – was one of SMA’s first products. Won’t it hurt a bit to say goodbye to it?

This has not been an easy decision. As an engineer, I am probably even more affected than others by the withdrawal from this area as it is very interesting in terms of system technology. It is really enjoyable to tailor wind turbine systems to the specific wind conditions of a location. Nevertheless, the bottom line is that these markets must also be lucrative for a company like ours, particularly when times are as tough as they are now for the solar industry. As a result, it makes sense for us to concentrate on important topics for the future. This also means that we have to be resolute in stepping back from business segments that are less promising.

How does this change impact projects that have already been planned with Windy Boy? Depending on the particular site, the approval processes and certification for wind energy systems can take a very long time.

For this reason, we informed our customers right away that we would be phasing out the products gradually throughout the year. This gives our customers the opportunity to stockpile an appropriate supply of inverters and corresponding system technology. And we will of course continue to offer related services.


So the customers have already been informed, how did they react?

Of course, customers were not exactly thrilled. After all, we were the only supplier in this fragile market to offer products from large-scale production of PV technology that were tailored to the requirements of small wind turbine systems. The quality we offered was undoubtedly above average for the market segment. On the other hand, we noticed that this market was becoming increasingly fragmented with more and more smaller manufacturers offering very specialized systems, all with their own special requirements that needed to be met by inverter manufacturers. Even if the market volume trend in the segment we are interested in had declined in recent years, a shift toward more diversified system suppliers was evident. This type of supplier is also capable of operating successfully in a smaller market, whereas some of the larger plant manufacturers have reduced their involvement. This environment particularly tends to favor highly specialized electronic start-ups, which are a great deal better at fulfilling the customers’ very specialized requirements than large-scale manufacturers like us.

You have addressed some important topics for the future. What is on SMA’s agenda?
One of the really hot topics at the moment is energy management. In order to manage the energy transition, we need intelligent solutions that help us exploit renewable energies preferably on-the-spot. For the market here in Germany, we are developing system solutions for increased self-consumption. The aim is for photovoltaic systems operators to be able to use as much as possible of the solar energy generated on their roof for their own consumption. This will help them save on costs associated with buying electricity. And, on an international level, we see tremendous potential in the area of industrial photovoltaic diesel hybrid systems. By this, we mean the use of photovoltaics to supplement existing diesel systems. This will allow operators of large-scale industrial systems to save diesel costs and reduce CO2 emissions.


So how do photovoltaics and diesel systems fit together?
Actually, they complement each other perfectly. With the aid of solar energy, the power output from diesel systems can be reduced. And by the way, this topic is not all that new at SMA. Most conventional PV systems for rural electrification have an integrated diesel generator that takes over the energy supply when there is little sunlight. In large-scale industrial plants this situation is reversed. Instead of the diesel system being used to supplement photovoltaic output, photovoltaics supplement the diesel. This field combines our core competencies in the areas of off-grid electrification and large-scale PV power plants. The combination of rising diesel prices and falling prices for PV system technology means that this development is already a commercially attractive alternative for industrial large-scale consumers in off-grid but sun-rich regions. SMA’s first system was installed at the end of 2012 in Thabazimbi, South Africa. Since then, we have been working on PV diesel hybrid projects all around the world – in South Africa, Australia and India. Two additional projects have already been sold. Out of approximately 500 gigawatts worldwide of installed power from diesel generators, there’s a potential of approximately 50 gigawatts that could benefit from being supplemented with photovoltaics.


Volker, thanks a lot for the interview.



Source: SMA Sunny. The SMA Corporate Blog

Wind related commercial on the blog

It is the first time I see a wind turbine ad on my blog ... (lower right corner)

California Sets 50MW Target for Grid Energy Storage

Moving past “paralysis by analysis,” the CPUC asks Southern California Edison to find 50MW of grid energy storage by 2021

California has just set a big new target for energy storage on the grid -- 50 megawatts of it, to be exact.

That’s how much energy storage capacity the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is asking Southern California Edison to procure over the next eight years, according to a final decision issued Wednesday. It’s not a lot, compared to the total of 1,400 to 1,800 megawatts CPUC is asking the massive Southern California utility to procure between now and 2021 -- but it's still among the first, if not the first, state regulatory rulings that put grid storage at center stage.

The new decision also certifies energy storage as “preferred resources,” alongside energy efficiency, demand response and distributed generation resources, in California's Energy Action Plan, which tells utilities in which order they’re to buy the power and energy resources they need. Wednesday’s decision sets aside an additional 600 megawatts of capacity for SCE to obtain from such preferred resources.

All in all, it’s a “much-needed market signal that energy storage will be considered as a key asset class to help California address its long-term local reliability and environmental quality needs,” according to Janice Lin, executive director of the California Energy Storage Alliance (CESA). CESA’s member list includes some heavyweights in batteries (LG Chem, Panasonic, Saft), as well as two ice-energy air-conditioning storage players that happen to have significant operations in California: Calmac and Ice Energy.

Wednesday’s CPUC ruling comes amidst a years-long process to set energy storage requirements for the state as it grapples with the challenges of its renewable portfolio standard (RPS) ambitions. California wants to grow its share of grid power from renewable resources (mostly intermittent wind and solar, though some baseload geothermal and biomass as well) from about 20 percent today to 33 percent by decade’s end.

That’s going to introduce huge new stability problems for the grid. Energy storage expert Ed Cazalet has predicted that California could need up to 4 gigawatts of energy storagecapacity to help reach the 33 percent RPS, with both centralized, utility-scale wind power and distributed solar power as key factors to manage.

California Assembly Bill 2514, passed in 2010, called for a study of the state’s needs for grid-scale storage, but didn’t set any hard numbers on how much. The CPUC took up the issue last year, and it’s still in process.

Southern California Edison, along with big fellow state investor-owned utilities Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric, have opposed specific procurement mandates. SCE wrote in a CPUC filing that mandates “only serve to increase the return on investment of private storage developers,” while distorting the market for energy storage technologies not yet competitive in purer market terms.

There’s no doubt that many forms of energy storage -- batteries, in particular -- remain too expensive to compete against grid power. Where batteries have been deployed is in trouble spots on the grid: far-off distribution substations where batteries are cheaper than putting in new transmission lines to handle rare peak loads, or islanded grids (like Hawaii) facing an influx of on-again, off-again wind and solar power.

Of course, utilities also don’t want to be forced to engage with storage resources they don’t control -- and it’s likely they will need to be forced to open the market to third-party storage projects that work in the context of broader energy markets. Where storage is an intelligent alternative to transmission or generation build-out, and can help integrate renewables, it should be deployed. Of course, cheap natural gas also makes the status-quo approach of using peaker plants a potentially attractive option, though not so much in California, where clean air rules are the toughest in the nation.

CPUC Commissioner Michel Peter Florio, who authored Wednesday’s decision, called it a testament to the state's need to "move beyond paralysis by analysis with respect to energy storage" -- an apparent sign of impatience with the slow approach being taken to AB 2514 implementation. We’ll see if the CPUC applies similar logic to decisions for PG&E and SDG&E.

California is home to several large-scale energy storage project funded by Department of Energy smart grid stimulus grants. PG&E is building a 300-megawatt, 10-hour compressed air energy storage (CAES) system in the Central Valley, and Southern California Edison has been working with A123 Systems on an 8-megawatt, 32 megawatt-hour lithium-ion batterywarehouse of sorts in the Tehachapi mountain range. Both are aimed at stabilizing and integrating the state’s wind power resources into the grid.

We’re also seeing some examples of distributed energy storage emerge, though far smaller in scope and just getting started, with everything from backyard or garage batteries to backup solar installations (Tesla and SolarCity, Silent Power and Hanwha) to substation-scale grid balancing units in the 1-2 megawatt range (Greensmith and SDG&E).

Source: GreenTech Media

Wind, Waves and Whisky | Fully Charged

Another great episodeof Fully Charged where Robert Llewellyn is in Scotland to look at wind, waves and whisky!

Wind turbines

Water turbines

Robert Llewellyn with Gareth Dean (Nissan Europe)

Nissan's V2G equipment is used in this distilery ! 

and they are using it here to heat up their drinks :-)