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Made in China 2025 plan irking Beijing’s trading partners
Communist leaders want to transform China from a low-cost factory into a creator of profitable technologies in areas including electric cars, solar and wind power, robotics and information technology. China assembles 90 percent of the world’s mobile phones and 80 percent of its computers. But it relies on technology and components from the United States, Europe and Japan, which get most of the profit. Its leaders want China to capture more of that, securing better-paid jobs and restoring China’s historic status as a leading cultu [ read more … ]
Policy & Politics
Bids for emergency grid order are opened for public comment
The Department of Energy has created an informal public comment process for a proposed emergency order to keep financially stressed coal-fired and nuclear power plants running in the eastern U.S. At issue is a request from FirstEnergy Solutions Corp. for emergency orders under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act, which empowers DOE to order temporary connections for the generation, delivery, interchange or transmission of electricity.
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BP teams up with Tesla to venture into battery storage for South Dakota wind farm
BP has teamed up with Tesla to build its first battery storage project at one of its U.S. windfarms as part of a strategy to expand its renewable energy business, the energy group said on Tuesday. Tesla will supply the 212 kilowatt (KW)/840 kilowatt hour battery at BP’s Titan 1 windfarm in South Dakota in the second half of this year. It operates 12 other windfarms in the United States. [ read more … ]
Calif., enviros sue EPA for scrapping Clinton policy
California officials have joined environmental groups in suing to stymie the Trump administration’s decision to scrap a long-standing EPA policy intended to limit industrial pollution. “Instead of prioritizing the health of hardworking Americans, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt wants to let major polluters off the hook,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) said in a news release yesterday announcing the lawsuit challenging repeal of the “once in, always in” policy. “That is unconscionable, and it is illegal.” [ read more … ]
China’s Built a Road So Smart It Will Be Able to Charge Your Car
The road to China’s autonomous-driving future is paved with solar panels, mapping sensors and electric-battery rechargers as the nation tests an “intelligent highway” that could speed the transformation of the global transportation industry. The technologies will be embedded underneath transparent concrete used to build a 1,080-meter-long (3,540-foot-long) stretch of road in the eastern city of Jinan. About 45,000 vehicles barrel over the section every day, and the solar panels inside generate enough electricity to power highway lights and 800 homes, according to builder Qilu Transportation Development Group Co. [ read more … ]
World’s largest solar battery? Tesla’s may get beat
An energy company wants to build another huge solar farm in the California desert — and it may come with the world’s biggest battery. That battery would be triple the size of the one Tesla drew worldwide attention for building in Australia last year. [ read more … ]
Trump’s team ignoring Obama sustainability mandate
Dozens of federal agencies have not released reports on environmental sustainability during the Trump administration, failing to abide by an Obama-era rule. In 2015, President Obama signed an executive order on federal sustainability, requiring agencies to write reports called strategic sustainability performance plans, or SSPPs. The reports provide synopses of what agencies do on a swath of energy and environmental topics like climate change resilience, greenhouse gas reduction, power-hungry data centers, water use and the vehicles in their fleets. The order required agencies to publish them online annually. [ read more … ]
Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.