News

Hyundai announced that it plans to produce a hydrogen-fueled SUV in 2014—the first mass-market vehicle to be powered by hydrogen fuel cells. The 2014 Hyundai Tucson was unveiled Wednesday at the Los Angeles auto show, which also featured a fuel-cell concept car from Honda. Toyota alsounveiled its concept fuel-cell vehicle at the Tokyo Motor Show. Both Honda and Toyota expect to bring their fuel-cell vehicles to market in 2015.

Facebook announced this week that its new Altoona, IA, data center would be operating entirely on wind energy. The data center, which will be operational in 2015, will get its energy from a wind project in Wellsburg, IA. The Des Moines Register reports that the new data center will bring close to $1 billion to the region over six years.

Following up on last week’s reports of a “solar surge” in the Southwest, this week Arizona’s Solana solar plant went online. The system, which is currently the nation’s largest, spans three square miles of desert and uses a solar thermal system of curved mirrors to generate electricity. Arizona Public Service (APS) has a 30-year purchase agreement with the facility, which also includes energy storage capacity. 

Computing giant Microsoft announced on Monday that it entered into a 20-year wind power purchase agreement with RES Americas, an AEE member company. The 55-turbine, 110MW, $200 million Keechi project is expected to come online by summer 2015. With this agreement, Microsoft joins Apple, Walmart, andGoogle as a top-tier company with significant investment in advanced energy.

Tom Carlson, AEE's Government Affairs Policy Associate, travelled to North Carolina to speak on a panel. The Triangle Business Journal offered video of the event and quoted Carlson: "Carlson of Advanced Energy Economy said energy companies are not only asking legislators to extend the current tax cuts so investment conversations can continue, but they are also hoping to convince legislators to create long-term policies that are tech-neutral; in other words, put more permanent tax incentives in place for market stability."

The Marine Corps is working on what it calls the  Marine Austere Patrolling System (MAPS),  which includes a built-in solar panel for recharging batteries and a water filtration system. It’s all about reducing the weight of gear a Marine needs to carry into the field – currently, as much as 100 pounds of batteries to power electronic equipment and two or more eight-pound gallons of water for a four-day mission. By contrast, the solar panel weighs just 13 pounds and can recharge batteries in the course of the mission. The concept isn’t new to the U.S. Armed Forces:  the Army has been using solar battery recharging equipment for several years .  

Oregon, Washington, California, and British Columbia announced a regional partnership to place a price on carbon called the Pacific Coast Action Plan on Climate and Energy. The three states and province will use a unified set of rules and regulations to speed adoption of advanced energy technologies. 

Utilities are being challenged to incorporate mechanisms like net metering into their business models. Some utilities are updating their business models: this week the Motley Fool profiled Edison International and other utilities that have placed a premium on customer-generated solar power. Considerations like these will be increasingly important as utilities and regulatory bodies move forward to create the 21st Century Electricity System.