Bloomberg: Tesla Is Burning Through Cash
Elon Musk is burning through cash and may need to raise more soon to produce the mass-market electric sedan Tesla Inc. is banking on to reach the mainstream consumer.
A capital raise would provide more cushion to the smallest and youngest publicly held U.S. automaker, which has huge expenditures planned ahead of introducing the Model 3 sedan in July. Tesla burned through cash in the fourth quarter and expects to spend as much as $2.5 billion in the first half of the year before fielding its first mass-market car.
“It’s certainly clear that some kind of capital raise is coming,” David Whiston, an auto analyst at Morningstar Inc., said by phone Thursday. “They might want to do it soon.”
MIT Technology Review: The EPA Is Bracing for Big Change
Yesterday, Donald Trump sketched out his first federal budget and, while short on specifics, he did say that his plan involved a $54 billion increase in military spending to improve national security. That money will, of course, have to be re-routed from other federal initiatives, and the EPA will, the White House has suggested, take a hit.
Perhaps quite a big hit. Officials have told Axios that we can expect “massive, transformational cuts, particularly to climate-change programs” at the agency. Currently, its budget is $8.3 billion, with a staff of 15,000. But Myron Ebell, who led the Trump transition team’s analysis of the EPA, reckons that the administration could cut the workforce to 5,000.
Android Headlines: Nest Finally Gets Its Energy Star Rating From the EPA
Big news from Nest as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gave their Nest Learning Thermostat its long-awaited Energy Star rating. Since the EPA took away Energy Star ratings from all programmable thermostats, in 2009, the Nest Thermostat is the only thermostat in the U.S. to have an Energy Star rating. It’s not that programmable thermostats cannot help you save energy, but the EPA lost confidence in them when it was determined that many were too complicated to operate and others were just not being used in their programmable form. Most people just set them manually, not taking advantage of lowering the temperature at the proper times or for the appropriate period to make a true difference in fuel savings.
Guardian: U.K. Nuclear Power Stations 'Could Be Forced to Close' After Brexit
Nuclear power stations would be forced to shut down if a new measures are not in place when Britain quits a European atomic power treaty in 2019, an expert has warned.
Rupert Cowen, a senior nuclear energy lawyer at Prospect Law, told MPs on Tuesday that leaving the Euratom treaty as the government has promised could see trade in nuclear fuel grind to a halt.
The U.K. government has said it will exit Euratom when Article 50 is triggered. The treaty promotes cooperation and research into nuclear power, and uniform safety standards.
Inhabitat: NASA Releases Images of the World’s Largest Solar Farm From Space
China is home to the world’s largest solar farm, which is so immense that it is visible from space. With around 4 million solar panels, Longyangxia Dam Solar Park has a capacity of 850 megawatts -- pushing the country closer to its ambitious renewable energy goals. NASA recently shared satellite images of the solar park as seen from space -- and they are admittedly impressive.
The award for world’s largest solar farm has switched hands rapidly in the last few years. In 2014, California’s 550 MW Topaz Solar Farm was the biggest, but a year later the state’s 579 MW Solar Star claimed victory. The next year, 2016, saw India’s 648 MW Kamuthi Solar Power Project topple the throne, only to be ousted by the Longyangxia Dam Solar Park this year.