The Hill: Trump Will Talk More About Energy, Says GOP

Donald Trump will go into further depth about his energy and environment positions as the campaign carries on, the Republican Party's top spokesperson said Tuesday.

Sean Spicer, communications director for the Republican National Committee, said the presumptive GOP presidential nominee doesn’t like talking about policy matters at his rallies.

Trump is likely to outline more specific energy positions in briefings and other means, he said.

“I think you might see briefings and policy papers and things put on websites, but I’m not sure that a lot of the discourse is going to delve into deep policy issues,” Spicer said at an American Petroleum Institute event.

Washington Post: This Is How China Can Live Up to Its Wind Energy Potential

In a study published Monday in the journal Nature Energy, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Tsinghua University in Beijing developed a model to predict how much wind energy China could generate and integrate onto its electricity grid in the coming years. The model suggests that wind-generated electricity could deliver 11.9 percent of China’s primary energy demand in the year 2030 -- and by improving the flexibility of the nation’s coal fleet, that number could even jump to 14 percent. 

China is already the world’s top wind installer, accounting for about a third of global installed wind capacity. But previous research has suggested that the nation is delivering less wind-generated electricity than should be expected, particularly compared to countries with lower installed capacity, such as the United States.

MIT Technology Review: Toyota Makes a U-Turn on Autonomous Cars

Determined to make up for lost time, Toyota’s 60-year-old CEO, Akio Toyoda, is spending $1 billion for a new Toyota Research Institute with offices in Michigan, Silicon Valley, and Cambridge, Massachusetts, that will focus on autonomous cars and robotics. He has recruited Gill Pratt, a top robotics researcher, to run the institute, giving him authority to hire hundreds of engineers and scientists. At the same time, Toyota is striking up partnerships with Stanford, the University of Michigan, and MIT to rethink cars’ capabilities, even if provocative new approaches might take a decade or longer to show up in dealer showrooms.

It’s clear that Toyota, like most established carmakers, isn’t making an all-out bid to match Google’s efforts to build fully autonomous vehicles. Instead, Toyota envisions drivers and software sharing control for years to come. Pratt is championing “guardian angel” technology that could find the best evasive strategies in an instant if trouble looms.

Electrek: Solar Panel Recycling Will Be a $15 Billion Business in 30 Years

According to a new study released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), old solar modules could be worth up to $15 billion in recyclable material by the year 2050. This potential influx of materials could produce 2 billion new panels. IRENA estimates that PV panel waste, comprising mostly glass, could total 78 million tons globally.

This end-of-life recycling ability will help finance future solar growth, and...when combined with current industry recyclability at 96% (with the ultimate goal of 100%) will mean that solar power has...[more] environmental credibility.

Morning Consult: House Republicans Signal Cooperation on Energy Bill

House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and House Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) released a joint statement Monday indicating a willingness to work with senators on reconciling the two chambers’ energy bills.

The Senate passed a bipartisan energy bill in April 85-13. The House then amended the bill to include its own more partisan GOP language, adding several provisions that had attracted veto threats from the White House. Efforts to go to conference have stalled in recent weeks, but Upton and Bishop said Monday that they don’t intend to pass something that President Obama will veto.