The Verge: Apple's Shareholders Really Want Tim Cook to Buy Tesla
With the Apple Watch now out in the open, shareholders have already begun to press Apple CEO Tim Cook for the next big thing. At the company's annual shareholders meeting, investors had one particular idea in mind: Apple buying Tesla.
"We don't really have a relationship with them," Cook said, wearily, after being asked about Apple's ties to Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk. "I'd love Tesla to pick up CarPlay. We now have every major auto brand committing to use CarPlay, and maybe Tesla would want to do that."
"Was that a good way to avoid the question?" Cook added, causing the room to erupt with laughter.
Energy Post: Interview With Johannes Teyssen, CEO of E.ON: ‘The Future Energy World Has Drifted Far Apart From the Classical One'
In the interview for World Energy Focus, Teyssen explained why the company has decided to split off its conventional generation business and focus henceforth only on renewables, distribution and customer solutions.
“The energy world is diverging,” he said. “On the one hand, the energy world of the future -- characterized by renewables, intelligent networks and tailor-made customer-oriented energy solutions -- is taking shape rapidly. On the other hand, the classical energy world -- of the backbone systems characterized by high-volume production and trading structures for electricity, gas and other commodities -- remains irreplaceable for the public good. Our analysis shows the two worlds have drifted so far apart -- due to different applied technologies, investment cycles and costs of capital -- that they require different entrepreneurial approaches. We want to regain the entrepreneurial initiative in both areas. By doing so, we believe we’ll create value for shareholders.”
Think Progress: Here’s Another Thing to Love About Hawaii
Hawaii is on track to pass legislation this year requiring the state to go 100 percent renewable by 2040.
Earlier this month, committees in the Hawaii House and Senate both unanimously recommended bills that would raise the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) from the current target of 70 percent by 2030 to the ultimate goal of 100 percent by 2040. Hawaii has had an RPS since 2001, and right now the state gets just over 21 percent of its power from renewable sources -- a 12 percent increase in just six years.
Gizmodo: Goodyear's Concept Tires Harvest Heat to Power Your Car
In the world of electric cars, efficiency is king -- wasted energy is just more miles you can't travel. While regenerative braking is old news, regenerative tires that use heat and vibration to recharge the battery would be something completely new.
That's the concept that Goodyear introduced at the Geneva Auto Show this week. The tires -- which are very much still a concept, and barely a twinkle in the manufacturer's eye -- would harvest heat from several different processes, and then feed that back into the batteries.
CleanTechnica: Florida Utility Looks To Buy (and Then Shut Down) Coal Plant
Florida Power & Light filed with the Public Service Commission last week for approval to purchase the 250-MW coal-fired Cedar Bay Generating Plant (near Jacksonville, Florida) for $520.5 million. Cedar Bay comprises three reheat circulating fluidized boilers fueled by low-sulfur coal.
With 4.7 million customers, FPL is the nation’s third-largest electric utility and the state’s largest investor-owned utility. FPL has had a long-term power-purchase agreement with the Cedar Bay plant’s direct owner, Limited Partnership, that began in 1988 and will expire in 2024. The purchase, expected in August, will enable the company to terminate the PPA immediately, which will reduce the plant’s operations by 90%. FPL will then permanently decommission Cedar Bay within the next several years. Says the utility:
“In 2017, when Florida’s access to clean natural gas is expected to be enhanced by the new interstate natural gas pipeline entering commercial operation, FPL believes that the Cedar Bay plant will no longer be economic to dispatch or needed for reliability, and therefore would be retired nearly eight years sooner than it otherwise would have been.”