ThinkProgress: Trump Just Proposed Ending All Federal Clean Energy Development
In the last week, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has repeatedly vowed to zero out all federal spending on clean energy research and development. And the plan he released would also zero out all other spending on anything to do with climate change, including the government’s entire climate science effort.
You may have missed this bombshell because team Trump did not spell out these cuts overtly. In a campaign where the media has “utterly failed to convey the policy stakes in the election,” as Vox’s Matt Yglesias explained recently, it appears only Bloomberg BNA bothered to follow up with the campaign to get at the truth of Trump’s radical proposal.
Polling guru Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com fame gives Trump a 1-in-3 chance of becoming president. So I agree with Yglesias that we ought to seriously look at the implications of Trump’s proposals -- especially since if Trump wins, he’s all but certain to have a GOP-controlled Congress to back him.
TechCrunch: Arcadia Power Launches a Solar Energy Service for Renters Across the U.S.
The renewable energy services company Arcadia Power has just launched a new product that allows renters across the U.S. to buy renewable energy.
It’s a significant step forward for the renewable energy project developer and operator, which had previously integrated with utilities as an offset provider and load management company. And it’s potentially a game-changer for the renewable energy movement.
Before this announcement, Arcadia was offering services that would offset customers’ energy use with an equal investment in a renewable energy project (typically a wind farm).
Now, because of the company’s partnerships with utilities and status as a project developer, it has amassed a small group of projects through which it’s offering renewable energy investment to folks across the country who would want to install solar, but can’t.
Reuters: China Starts to Build Its First Floating Nuclear Power Reactor for Deployment Off Coast
China has started to build its first floating nuclear power reactor, which it plans to deploy off its coast by the end of the decade.
State-controlled China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) has begun construction of the ACPR50S reactor, and will acquire the reactor pressure vessel that encloses the reactor core from Dongfang Electric, CGN said in a statement on Friday.
The 200-megawatt reactor will help power offshore facilities in China's open sea and island reefs, CGN said, adding that offshore energy supply is an issue that China has to overcome in order to become a naval power.
New York Times: Tesla’s Bid for SolarCity Gets Support From Shareholder Adviser
Investors who are betting that Tesla Motors’ bid to buy the solar panel company SolarCity will succeed received encouragement on Friday after an influential shareholder adviser blessed the union of the two.
The advisory firm, Institutional Shareholder Services, said Tesla shareholders should back the deal on three counts. The first is that buying SolarCity would help Elon Musk turn Tesla into a green energy company whose products would run from solar panels to electric cars.
ISS’ second rationale is that the estimated $150 million in cost savings that would arise from a merger of the two could eventually yield $1.5 billion when capitalized, taking care of two-thirds of the purchase price.
Vox: It’s Going to Get a Lot Easier to Road Trip in an Electric Vehicle
The electric vehicle space is evolving so quickly that it’s difficult to keep up.
Three different trends are coming together to drive EVs into the mainstream. The first two -- vehicles getting cheaper and traveling farther on a charge -- get most of the press, but the third is just as important.
If EVs are really going to catch on, people need to be confident that they can find a charge, even on long road trips. And it seems that, at long last, the charging infrastructure necessary to support EVs is being planned in earnest.
Thursday brought some important news on that front, as the Obama administration announced its latest package of initiatives designed to accelerate EV adoption. Most of them are focused on charging infrastructure.