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.

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.

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.

This week AEE released Advanced Energy Now 2014 Market Report, which featured a breakdown of advanced energy’s $1.1 trillion estimated global revenue in 2013. The report itself was picked up by several major news organizations.

Rod Kuckro, writing for E&E’s Energy Wire, described the report and what it could mean for states considering advanced energy policies during this legislative year. Kuckro described AEE as “a challenge to robust efforts by the American Legislative Exchange Council to repeal state laws” that promote advanced energy. While emphasizing AEE’s pro-prosperity mission, CEO Graham Richard told Kuckro, “We are involved in protecting and keeping policies that we believe give us a fair and level playing field such as protecting the renewable portfolio standards in states, protecting energy conservation initiatives.”

In response to Superstorm Sandy in 2012, New York City began moving toward updating its grid to a more advanced, resilient system. Last year, we published a post from Lockheed Martin describing their microgrid systems, which provide reliable energy solutions for customers like the U.S. military.