Advanced Energy Perspectives

Tesla is at the battlements again, grappling with the state of New Jersey for the right to sell its breakout (and high-end) electric cars. This week, New Jersey’s Motor Vehicle Commission, acting at the behest of local car dealerships, blocked direct sale of vehicles to consumers. That means shutting down showrooms – previously licensed by the same Motor Vehicle Commission – in Paramus and Basking Ridge, where the company has been selling its Model S cars directly, rather than through local dealers.

The House of Representatives achieved a bipartisan advanced energy victory last week when the House passed energy efficiency legislation (H.R. 2126) championed by House Energy and Commerce Committee members Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) and Rep. David McKinley (R-WV). Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Rob Portman (R-OH) hope the Senate will follow suit and pass their recently reintroduced bill (S. 2074), which includes all of the House provisions along with additional pieces. That would set the stage for a conference between the two chambers to work out the differences in the bills and move to the President's Desk.

Hot on the heels of AEE’s Advanced Energy Now 2014 Market Report, SEIA and Greentech Media released their analysis of (and infographic on) the 2013 Solar PV Market. More solar was installed in the U.S. during the period from June 2012 to December 2013 than had been installed in the 30 years prior.

In 2007, the Oregon legislature passed SB 838 establishing the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS). Up to that time, Oregon had installed a little more than 400MW of wind power.  Last year, that number had increased to more than 2,500 MW of wind power – principally due to the RPS.

This week, Tesla Motors announced plans for a $5 billion “gigafactory,” a large-scale factory designed to produce batteries for mass-market electric vehicles by 2017. This kind of facility would allow Tesla to produce more cars, faster and cheaper, and would allow for a more vertically integrated production of Tesla vehicles. Tesla expects that, by moving the manufacturing of the batteries in-house, it can reduce the per-kilowatt cost of a battery by more than 30 percent in the first year of production.