Electrek: Tesla Reveals More Details About ‘Gigafactory 1’

Tesla held an event for investors at the Gigafactory in Nevada last week and more information is now coming out of it. Tesla disclosed the start of battery cell production during the event, and CEO Elon Musk commented about Trump’s stance on renewables potentially changing.

Now the company has released more details about the ‘Gigafactory 1’ (GF1) and its plan to build the largest rooftop solar array in the world by releasing the handout given to investors before the tour of the cell production floor.

Since the announcement of the project, Tesla has been claiming that it will not use any fossil fuel and instead be powered by renewable energy -- mainly a solar array.

Scientific American: Will Trump's Climate Team Accept Any "Social Cost of Carbon"?

President-elect Donald Trump and members of his proposed cabinet and transition team have taken aim at many of President Obama's climate and clean-energy policies, programs and legacies -- from the Paris Agreement to the Clean Power Plan.

But there's probably no more consequential and contentious a target for the incoming administration than an arcane metric called the "social cost of carbon."

This value is the government's best estimate of how much society gains over the long haul by cutting each ton of the heat-trapping carbon-dioxide emissions scientists have linked to global warming.

Bloomberg: Australia’s Set to Lose a New Electric Engine to Silicon Valley

For the cost of a Sydney home, Paul Evans would be able to market an electric car engine that could help put Aussie innovation back on the map. In risk-averse Australia, most investors would prefer to buy a house.

The entrepreneur has been shunned by local venture capital funds in attempts to raise AUD$3 million (US$2.2 million) for a product that’s been a decade in the works, despite what he describes as strong interest from some global carmakers. Now, after a series of fruitless investor meetings, he’s heading down the inevitable path: straight to the U.S.

“The private sector just won’t step up,” said Evans, 51, managing director of Sydney-based Evans Electric, which he co-founded with former Thales SA executive Bruno Lambla.

Washington Post: Obama's Energy Department Announces New Policy to Protect Scientists

Speaking at the National Press Club Wednesday, outgoing Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz announced a new “scientific integrity” policy for an agency recently wracked by concerns about how an administration led by President-elect Donald Trump will treat employees who worked on climate change and other sensitive energy-related issues.

“It’s part of establishing the environment that allows scientists to do their work, to stay with us, and to recruit new people,” Moniz said in announcing the new policy.

Moniz, a physicist, gave an example of his own role in negotiating the Iran nuclear deal. “Seven of our laboratories were providing near-real-time support to our negotiating positions in a highly technical negotiation,” Moniz said, “and I certainly needed correct answers, stated clearly, as opposed to anything that somebody may have thought was the answer I wanted. That would not be helpful.”

IEEE Spectrum: Calculating the Full Cost of Electricity -- From Power Plant to Wall Socket

The Full Cost of Electricity is an interdisciplinary initiative of the Energy Institute of the University of Texas to identify and quantify the full-system cost of electric power generation and delivery -- from the power plant to the wall socket. Its purpose is to inform public policy discourse with comprehensive, rigorous and impartial analysis.

The Full Cost of Electricity (FCe-) study employs a holistic approach to thoroughly examine the key factors affecting the total direct and indirect costs of generating and delivering electricity. As an interdisciplinary project, the FCe- synthesizes the expert analysis and different perspectives of faculty across the University of Texas at Austin campus, from engineering, economics, law and policy.