Advanced Energy Perspectives

To wrap up the year, we are taking a look at the top advanced energy stories for 2013. Be sure to check in on Monday, when we will publish Part Two! [Here it is!] Did we miss one of your favorite stories? Let us know in the comments. 

1) Consumers take a spin in advanced vehicles

We began 2013 with the Tesla Model S being named Motor Trend Car of the Year. Then the Model S scored 99 out of 100 on its Consumer Reports Road Test and broke the safety test machine that was supposed to crush the car’s cab. The future continues to be bright for Tesla Motors and advanced vehicles as a whole: airless tires promised to increase vehicle efficiency, mass-market hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles were announced, as well as dual-fuel natural gas vehicles like the Chevy Impala and Ford F-150.

ExxonMobil issued its Outlook for Energy this week, predicting that global energy demand would rise 35 percent from 2010 to 2040 due to steady growth in countries now lacking electricity, appliances, and transport. “People want a warm home, a refrigerator, a TV, someday a car, and a cellphone,” William Colton, ExxonMobil’s vice president for corporate strategic planning, told the Associated Press. That means dramatic growth, but there’s more, buried in the fine print of the ExxonMobil press release: “Without gains in efficiency, global energy demand could have risen by more than 100 percent.” In other words, it will take huge growth in advanced energy technologies to keep the increase in energy consumption down to 35 percent by 2040. That makes the advanced energy opportunity even greater.

This week we saw news that SolarCity and Tesla Motors would be expanding their partnership in battery storage technology. The two companies, which already collaborate on electric vehicle supercharging stations, have joined together to create a solar panel system with a battery storage unit included. The system, dubbed DemandLogic, would automatically store electricity during low-use hours for use during peak hours – offering savings for commercial and institutional customers that pay charges based on their peak electric load.

This week 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 also unveiled 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.