Lifeboat Foundation

analysis from BloombergNEF (BNEF) highlights that for applications requiring two hours of energy, batteries are beating gas peaker plants. While the 2019 LCOE benchmark for lithium-ion battery storage hit US$187 per megawatt-hour (MWh) already threatening coal and gas and representing a fall of 76% since 2012, by the first quarter of this year, the figure had dropped even further and now stands at US$150 per megawatt-hour for battery storage with four hours’ discharge duration.

The cost of battery energy storage has continued on its trajectory downwards, making it more and more competitive with fossil fuels. That in itself will come as no surprise to many in the industry. As we wrote last week, analysis from BloombergNEF (BNEF) highlights that for applications requiring two hours of energy, batteries are beating gas peaker plants. While the 2019 LCOE benchmark for lithium-ion battery storage hit US$187 per megawatt-hour (MWh) already threatening coal and gas and representing a fall of 76% since 2012, by the first quarter of this year, the figure had dropped even further and now stands at US$150 per megawatt-hour for battery storage with four hours’ discharge duration.

Andy Colthorpe spoke to Tifenn Brandily, BNEF’s lead author of the latest LCOE report, which covers solar, wind and more than 20 other technologies including battery storage from 47 regional markets around the world.

Continue reading “Behind the numbers: The rapidly falling LCOE of battery storage” »

When we first covered the high-power Delfast TopCop electric bicycle, the company was still pitching its bikes to various police departments around the world. Now we’re hearing some of the first feedback from actual cops who have incorporated the e-bikes into their daily service.

Tesla has made even more battery improvements on its new ‘million-mile battery’ now with less cobalt, which could result in lower cost and even more energy density.

Last year, we were the first to report on Tesla’s battery research partner, Jeff Dahn and his team at Dalhousie University, unveiling the impressive results of tests on a new battery cell that could last over 1 million miles in an electric vehicle.

Continue reading “Tesla improves on its ‘million-mile battery’ with less cobalt and higher energy density” »

Renewable sources including solar, wind and hydropower generated more electricity than coal-based plants every single day in April, a new report says.

Analysis shared by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEFA), based on data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), said the finding marks a major “milestone” in an energy transition that is now underway.

Continue reading “America’s renewable energy sources have produced more electricity than coal every day for 40 days straight” »

https://youtube.com/watch?v=h5jBjso6l6I

Circa 2015

Fittingly, these rifle-sized weapons would gun for other electronics.

Continue reading “The Army Is Testing Handheld Ray Guns” »

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Thousands of Evergy customers in the metro are without power Monday after strong storms move through the metro.

According to the outage map on Evergy’s website there were 133 active outages at 11:40 a.m., and those 133 outages were impacting 14,296 customers.

There is no word yet on how long it will take crews to fully restore power.

Many people in the Northwest separate out their table scraps, wilted leaves and old fruit, carting them off eventually to a compost bin or joining their grass clippings and pruning remains in the green waste bin. In the City of Seattle, food waste is required to be separated from garbage.

But most of our actions still revolve around a simple concept: Collect your household waste, sit it on the curb, and somebody will come and pick it up. Businesses do the same thing, just on a larger scale. We have applied industrial-age logic to waste: create a production line that starts at a home or business, automate as many of the tasks as possible, and coordinate through centrally managed processes and destinations.

This centralized approach to waste collection is labor and energy intensive, and it doesn’t give back much.

The US firm, known for its electric vehicles, also has operations in battery energy storage and solar panel manufacturing.

Circa 2017

The process is so efficient it extracts all of the potential energy from the food scraps.