Who Is Zach?

M&Z0116Looking for a little background, eh?…

Of course, all of this is just the external, but take it for what it is:

I’m currently the CEO and chief editor of CleanTechnica (the #1 most-loved cleantech news and analysis site on the internet).

You can find my work all over the internet, including on Scientific American, Reuters, The Economist Group’s GE Look Ahead, ABB’s Conversations, the World Economic Forum’s Agenda, Renewable Energy World, TreeHugger, and several other media sites.

I have been referenced or interviewed by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, CNBC, and numerous other news outlets and websites. I have also presented, provided workshops, and moderated panels at clean energy and electric vehicles conferences such as Renewable Cities and the EV Transportation & Technology Summit.

I was named one of the top 20 influencers on fuel economy matters in a Spring 2013 industry influence study — alongside President Obama, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, the US Secretary of Energy, Nissan & Renault Chairman & CEO Carlos Ghosn, GM’s CEO and president, and several other car company execs as well as a few leading auto journalists.

I have a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies and sociology (from New College of Florida, the Honors College of Florida), and a master’s degree in city and regional planning (from UNC-Chapel Hill). UNC–Chapel Hill was the #1 university in the nation for my specialization the year I graduated. You can read my master’s thesis on bicycle transportation and bicycle infrastructure if interested. 😉

I have been blogging professionally since 2008. Before that, I was the executive director of a nonprofit organization promoting clean transportation options and sustainable development in Charlottesville, Virginia. And before that, I was an urban research consultant and I worked in a couple of government positions (in city planning and environmental education).

For some of my most notable achievements, check out my Services Provided page.

I have lived in Wrocław (Poland), Groningen (the Netherlands), Chapel Hill & Carrboro (North Carolina), Sunnyvale (California), Ithaca (New York), Charlottesville (Virginia), and Sarasota & Bradenton (Florida).

  • smithjim1961

    Zach,

    I really enjoy reading Cleantechnica. I’d rather focus on solutions than argue with climate change deniers.

    I wonder why there is very little discussion about methane leakage among environmentalists. Why is this topic not covered by Cleantechnica?

    • http://zacharyshahan.com Zachary Shahan

      hello, thanks for the note. are you referring to methane leakage from natural gas fracking and use? or something else?

  • smithjim1961

    I’m no expert but I’ve read that natural gas leakage occurs from fracking and from other leaks. Sometimes I see the local gas company trucks fixing leaks and I’ve smelled the odor of natural gas (or the stuff they put in natural gas to make leaks detectable) as I drove past.

    I first learned about natural gas leakage from NPR.

    http://www.npr.org/2011/04/14/135417679/natural-gas-may-not-be-clean-energy-source

    http://www.npr.org/2012/05/17/151545578/frackings-methane-trail-a-detective-story

    Natural gas probably causes as much or more warming than coal. I’m concerned that this HUGE issue is being ignored by environmentalists.

    • http://zacharyshahan.com Zachary Shahan

      yeah, we’ve covered it a bit. we just don’t spend much time on natural gas, in general.

  • http://MrEnergyCzar.com/ MrEnergyCzar

    Great background Zach…. this field will become a greater issue in the coming years….

    MrEnergyCzar

    • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

      Definitely. Happy to now be in it.

  • Fay

    Hey Zach – Just launched a new iPad magazine which focuses on how we can make intentional choices that make a difference from sustainable living to voting. Would love you to check it out: http://www.deliberatelifemag.com

    • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

      Thanks. Looks great. Unfort., i don’t have an iPad, but good luck! 😀

  • http://www.facebook.com/garry.gentry Garry Gentry

    Our local Technical College had a course in installing solar on homes/farms but lost the grant. I am in Southern GA and wondered if you are aware of any reputable on-line courses in that field.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ev-Yves/1047613834 Ev Yves

    Please visit evdomains.com and let me know if you are interested in jointly developing a name of your interest.

  • http://www.facebook.com/sid.abma.1 Sid Abma

    Natural gas as stated at the World Energy Conference in Madagascar is becoming the worlds most important energy source. The drilling and transporting leakage is being dealt with by individual states and the EPA.
    Now America and the world has to learn that natural gas is an energy that can be consumed to near 100% energy efficiency. Cool exhaust into the atmosphere instead of hot. Greenhouse gas and CO2 reduction in big numbers, and this fuel can be combusted so efficiently that the Water can be recovered from the exhaust gases, and this distilled water is very usable.
    Check out the technology of Condensing Flue Gas Heat Recovery.
    Commercial buildings and industry and even the power plants can all be applying this technology.
    30 years of Proven operation.

    • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

      Natural gas leaks are anything but simple to take care of, and certainly aren’t adequately addressed today.

      The GHG reductions are highly debatable still.

      As far as efficiency, I’m not sure where you’re coming up with that claim. Could you provide a link? That, again, seems incorrect.

  • Mike Diethelm

    Zachary, the last two posts I’ve read have had spelling errors. I was wondering why that would happen on such an important site. But the real kicker was the ‘fight back Obama on abortion rights’ ad. It was on your pro Obama story from today! I was really wondering if I was seeing things then. Can y’all not discriminate on ads or is that a cleantechnica.com desired ad. Do you agree that abortion is a bad thing or is that a sell out? It’s the first time I’ve wanted to leave your site and decrease your user hit count so that maybe an ad like that wouldn’t appear due to the numbers. Kinda want to fight back on that one. My disregards on that ‘choice’ as you would so elegantly write. As I rechecked my sanity on cleantechnica before posting this, I noticed lots of anti-Obama ads. Wow. Cutting off the hand that feeds us. No hard feelings… I reckon. Then again, maybe a reality check is what I’m implying.

  • Jesse Cardinal

    hello Zach, i would like to talk with you, how can i get in touch with you. Thanks Jesse

  • http://www.facebook.com/gus.escher Gus Escher

    Hi Zach –
    Great bio and nice post. We “agents of change” need many more like you !
    But why live in Poland? Come and join us here in New Jersey – the per
    capita solar zenith of the world. Best regards, Gus Escher (Princeton, NJ)

    • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

      ha, thanks! 😀

      i moved here for a lady. haven’t yet gotten her to relocate for awhile. 😀

      • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

        oh yeah, btw, i expected NJ to be the per capita leader, but found out AZ actually beat it! (though, with a utility-scale solar focus, not rooftop).

        and 4 European countries also top those two states: http://cleantechnica.com/2013/01/29/top-solar-states-vs-top-solar-countries-cleantechnica-exclusive/

        • LookingForward

          Hey Zachary,
          Don’t know if you’ve read my comment/question below this one allready, just wanted to let you know it was there, incase disqus doesn’t notify comments to you on your page…

          • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

            Hmm, not seeing another one… Can you send again? Or tweet it to me.

          • LookingForward

            don’t have twitter 😛

            Here it is:
            Hey Zachary,

            For a couple of weeks now, I have been commenting on cleantechnica, among other sites.

            I have some ideas for articles (if they are good ideas), but I have absolutely no idea where to start to create a proffesionally made/written article and I have no education in any field remotely in the area of the environment (my education is in sports, mostly, I was going for personal trainer).

            Maybe you could write the articles? If they be worthy of the power of cleantech? 😛
            This would just be to get the ideas outthere, maybe it will spark a (better) idea in someone, give food for thought?
            Also, you probably have more sources and experience for extra information if my ideas are possible, for numbers and costs?

            3 of my ideas/questions are the following:

            CCS or trees?
            How much would it cost for a coal/gasplant to have CCS? Wouldn’t it be cheaper (in the US) to just plant a million trees in desolate (but not to dry) (remote) areas? Relatively affordable (in the future) CCS will only capture half the CO2. How much CO2 is taken out of the air by a million trees? Per year? In there livespan? Young/small trees are cheaper. CCS lasts aslong as the plant lasts, trees can last for centuries.
            To make it as cheap as possible: send people out camping (volunteers?) in remote places with few trees, give them each a bag of seeds and tell them to start putting seeds in the ground? What would it cost and what is the CO2 prevention (short term/longrun) of CCS, campers with seeds, 1 million seedlings, 1 million young/small trees and 1 million larger trees?

            Rebuilding the poles?
            Another idea I have, might comparable to a Dutch saying: “cleaning up spilling water with an open fosit”, but it might give us extra time with the 2 degrees climate change problem. Plus “if you clean up the water faster then is being spilled…”
            If read that part of the problem with global warming is the cumulative effect of melting ice. My sollution: build liquid nitrogen factories (running on nuclear) in Greenland and Antartica and other places that have/need a lot of ice and have people freeze the ice lakes forming in Greenland (and Antartica?). You could, using extra water, make ice dams (in a circle) and create new ice lakes (by pumping seawater) behind the ice dams and create new/refreezing old glaziers?
            You could even take a boat (the size of an oil tanker maybe even?) and build a liquid nitrogen factory in it, have it run on nuclear and spray behind the boat (under water) to form new icebergs? If it can be done, you could potentially even rebuild the northpole, which has shrunk 75%? That’s a lot of black ocean, instead of white ice to bounce back solar heat.
            Maybe 1 boat running for years is enough, maybe 5 or 10 boats are needed to reverse the pole melting problem.
            But if the UN asks the G20 to each build 1 boat/factory and creates an organisation to give out missions to stop/reverse (parts of) the most effected areas, the northpole could be recreated and maybe even the sealevel dropped back to normal?
            What would a factory with distribution cost?
            What would a boat with factory cost?

            Small remote towns and villages could they go off the grid?
            I also had an idea around transmission loss when reading articles about that subject.
            The US and other big countries suffer from larger then average transmission losses, mostly because of distance. Why isn’t the US doing more about getting remote buildings/towns/villages of the grid? I understand storage (even large scale) isn’t quite there yet, neither are EVs, when it comes to full scale decentralised cost effective replacement and implentation, but is that really true?
            How many remote towns/villages/counties, with less then 10.000 people and the average driver drives less then an average affordable EV, are out there? Would it be affordable for such a place?
            Such a place can easily go off grid and have zero oil, gas or coal emissions, even if such a place runs on industry or farming, but how much would that cost?
            How would such a place achieve that? How much would it cost per capita?
            First local government and the population need to be behind the idea, ideally everyone.
            Financing is an important factor too. Local government could help the population get loans and subsidies for individual costs by asking (local) banks, state and federal government for help, private loans (through products) could also help.
            Plans, goals and standards need to be made.
            Next step would be efficiency and conservation and replacing most if not all fossil fuel use with electricity use. Buildings/homes, appliances/electronics, (street)lighting cars and other machines that have engines, (water)heating.
            A local gasstation that will go out of service because of this, could buy some of the cars and become a rental service for any long distance drives.
            Machines, appliances, electronics and cars could be sold in bulk, auctioned or recycled.
            New electric machines and cars, efficient appliances, electronics and lighting, insulation and windows could be bought in bulk and with auctions to save money.
            When the new efficiency and conservation standards have been reached and all engines and heating are electrical, the town can start calculating it’s new electricity use.
            There needs to be calculated how much non-shaded roofspace there is for solar, how much is flat and south facing and how much is east and west facing. Are there windy areas for (vertical)windturbines.
            EVs need to be charged during the day, when you have sun, so EVs can act as storage at night. Where are the charging stations going to be? At home, at work, at mall/shoppingcentre or all of the above?
            Is there extra storage needed for low wind nights next to the EVS? (people need to be able to drive in the morning)
            Is it economical/neccesary/possible to build a small biowaste to electricity facility or small hydro or another renewable source for baseload use?
            After all these calculations have been done, renewables (and storage) are bought/build (in bulk when it comes to solar and wind) through an auction. Owned by the local government at worst, preferably bu the people, no PPA or leasing.
            No more electricity/gasbills, no more filling the gas tank, no more macro grid, no more utillities, maybe a loan for a few years or some extra local taxes for a few years, after that …free energy. And offcourse a cleaner (local) environment.

            I went a little overboard with the extra info for that last one,but I wanted to give a clearer picture.

            Hope your willing and have the time to write articles about these subjects, I’d atleast like to know your thoughts about my ideas?
            with regards Laurens

          • LookingForward

            Hi Zachary,
            Have you had time to read my commentpost/queations yet?
            It’s also a reply, like this one, to this commentpost of yours.
            If you can’t see it, is there a maximum amount of characters you can put in a commentpost?

          • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

            yeah, i’m still not seeing it. can you connect with me on Facebook & send there?

  • yuval Brandstetter

    Dear Zach
    Good article regarding the Blue car, and an answer concerning the issue of batt lease. Better Place incorporates the lease into the mileage charge so that you do not “feel” being taken for a ride during months in which you do not use the car as much. I pay about 15 cents a mile regardless of how many miles i actually travel. Having cut the price of transportation by about half i no longer get stingy about driving longer or taking an extra trip.

    • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

      Thanks. Interesting. Sounds like a nice approach!

  • ally leather

    this sucks

    • lewis townsend

      i know! i thought this was a porn site!

      • george trick

        try saveplanet.com

  • Mckenzie

    Hey Zach, as a fellow writer I enjoy your stories on a daily basis for some time now. Keep up the great work and write an article how your readers could support you. I’m sure many would listen. Also, have you ever written a small business solar or green startup article. I would be interested in passing such along as most of the news and press releases come from larger business models that you cover. Regards

    • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

      Thanks a lot. I appreciate it. I don’t think I’ve written on that subject, actually. Maybe soon… 😀

  • DanDevil
    • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

      Hey. Thanks. We’ve covered solar-powered laptops a few times.

  • Jon Hillis

    Zach, I’m trying to promote green roof integrated PV in Washington, DC. We are a large installer of both green roofing and solar. Would appreciate a re-post. Thanks, Jon Hillis, Prospect Solar/Prospect Waterproofing . http://www.prospectsolar.com/blog/author/jon-hillis

  • AdiK

    Hi Zachary, would like to send yo an invite for a free trip to Israel for Top sustainability bloggers offered by Kinetis (www.kinetis.org.il) to learn about sustainability achievements here – how can I e-mail you an invite?

    Thanks,
    Adi Kaplan
    adik@kinetis.org.il

  • jedsled

    Zach, I ran across your article on CleanTechnica about the GM LED retrofit. I was intrigued due to its billing as the “largest”. Very interesting. If the facts in the write-up are complete, then that retrofit was not the largest. We’ve done bigger ones… :)

  • Dill Weed

    Why no story about Siemens?

  • JonathanRCole

    Hi Zach, Still waiting for a reply to the inquiry I sent through CleanTechnica about helping to promote SunPax, the PV with integrated battery storage and IT control. I thought this would be right up your alley. Take a look at http://lightontheearth.blogspot.com/p/shedding-light-on-solar.html

  • Ken

    Hey Zach,

    I’ve been following your articles for a while and really appreciate your approach. We often link your content over at Revolution-Green.com would love to chat sometime and coordinate some efforts if you’re interested. You can find our contact details over at the website. Until then, keep up the good work.

    Ken

  • Emily

    I am looking for the source data behind the jobs graphic in this article: http://cleantechnica.com/2013/10/08/advantages-disadvantages-solar-power/. Can you help?

    • Emily Rochon

      Apparently not! In the future, it would be great if you could post links to source data so people working as renewable energy advocates can more readily translate graphics and review the numbers behind them.

  • tony parkinson

    Zach- is this site supported and funded by FPL? the gentlemen from NJ raises a good point . NJ has a solar radiation level of 4.69 with a target of 22% solar by 2020 while Florida’s radiation level is 18% higher at 5.5 ( in Key West) or 5.2 in Martin County with NO RPS at all.

    ..and folks in the administration who write and speak about solar but when challenged close their email accounts…. and then the 7/50 program which estimates that Florida Solar willstay at 1% of total energy delivery from now until 2021 ( which is when the 30 year PSC territorial agreements expire)…..

    Zach, I need some validation that you are on our side or on the FPL team. I know Buck, he is wonderfula nd I mean that – BUT he does NOT support what he says…. he is the most charming BS artist you will ever meet…
    tony
    PS we are offering 4 MW of solar power to a school district at $2.30 and FPL is trying to kill it !!! so, like I said what side are you on?

    • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

      Supported & funded by FPL? You have got to be kidding me! Take a look around the site. If you genuinely think this site is supported and funded by FPL, you must be lost.

      In other words: not in any way.

    • Rebecca Davis

      Tony, I work for a solar company, and book guests for a Green topics radio show….can you refer me to more information on this offer to the school district? Who are ‘we’? Are you working with a company, charitable organisation?

  • Alexis

    Hi, Zach.
    I’m developing an energy plan 2050 for Argentina and I need lots of help and feedback.
    Could you introduce me to the right people?
    All the best,
    Alexis.

    • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

      Hey, will try to do so.

  • seao2

    Hi Zach. I’d like to introduce you to ‘Intervene’ my new eco-sci-fi novel.

    Intervene tells the story of Zem, the trillionaire spaceman on a mission to save the environment.

    Zem never sleeps and every week he spends $100 billion to restructure the global economy and make it sustainable.

    Standing in his way is an American oil man and a foxy redhead called Megan.

    Perhaps I could write an article about it for one of your journals?

    more here: http://www.guylane.com

    cheers

    Guy Lane

  • Björn Ericsson

    Thank you for taking responsibilty for our planet with this website! The planet needs more People like you!

    • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

      Thank You! 😀

  • Chris Van Velden

    Zach- while I appreciate your promotion of the industry, how about taking on a more controversial topic: Lease vs. loan. In California, leasing companies are making a killing but if you look at the details of their offering, their customers aren’t even getting 1/2 of the wealth the panels generate in terms of avoided utility costs and, many of those leasing customers could use the tax credits themselves. Any decent installer can take the headache out of paperwork and with quality panels & inverters (or better yet Micro’s) maintenance is next to zero for 25 years. That and the fact that leasing locks the homeowner into a 20 year commitment and from what I’ve seen, leases actually encumber the home at resale, possibly bringing down the value of the home or forcing the homeowner to buy out the total remaining energy at sale of home. Take a chance, do the research. I’d be happy to help. chrisv@pwrlogix.com :)

    • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

      Hey, Chris. I’ve done so to a small extent: http://cleantechnica.com/2013/10/25/solar-loan-admirals-bank-vs-solar-lease/

      Getting into the nitty gritty of the finances is tricky since that’s going to vary from case to case unless you have broad data/research on the matter — I’ve ever seen anything on that.

      Will email you.

      • Matt

        Zac, I would like to take a shot at formatting some of the data charts to make thing a little clearer. I’m wondering if you could share your raw data for PV (installations/year, cost/year), wind(installations/year, cost/year). I’m really more interested in installations. World or country/region would work. Looking at your Solar/Wind fact pages I know you have the data extracted. Just trying to be a good engineer “do more work with less energy”. At one time there was contact link on this site, but it appears to have disappeared. could you mail at mattpeffly@gmail.com

  • Einar

    Hi Zach,

    I would like to contribute a piece to Cleantechnica, how do I do it? Do you have a mail address where I can send it?

    Regards, Einar

  • CaptD

    Suggestion: Please consider starting a searchable index listing of “Reply” comments for each of the Pro Nuclear talking points, that way others cannot only learn from the best in the renewable field, but also help populate ever more blogs with high quality Pro-Renewable comments that are not only current and factual but well written, which are sure to get noticed.

    There is a huge need for this as ever more bloggers are being paid by Big Nuclear, Big Coal and Big Oil to dump their messages online.

    • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

      Hey, something like what you request would be better, but I did update the top of this post to list a lot of key pieces: http://cleantechnica.com/2013/12/27/many-redditors-obsessed-uncompetitive-nuclear-energy/

      • CaptD

        Thanks, as you can see it got dumped on by trolls and had to have its comments closed, which stifled the conversation!

        Please consider adding this to your To-Do list for 2014, if not you specifically then perhaps you would consider enabling a team of people that you or someone like bob_wallace pick from those that want to help populate such a reference listing.

        This would even the tables for all those that seek to spread the news that Nuclear cannot be tolerated because when it goes BAD we can get additional Trillion Dollar Eco-Disasters like Fukushima or worse.

        Consider this: http://www.turnerradionetwork.com/news/146-mjt

        I’m standing bye…

      • sergbloomkin

        I am inventor of h2 breakthrough technology.making crowdfund project to support h2 key inventions.will U help spread word ? sergbloomkin@gmail.com

      • Jenny Sommer

        Zachary,
        Are you going to publish something on the Kitegen crowdfunder? Would really be great on cleantechnica.com.
        https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/kitegen-the-ultimate-green-energy-solution#home

      • jimjfox

        Why was I banned???
        jimjfox- godzaconic@gmail.com

      • Roger Starkey

        I was banned from cleantechnica some months ago with no reason given, no reference to the article or comment in question and apparently no method to withdraw the comment or right of appeal.
        This is despite being an advocate of all things progressively “green”.

        Comments?

        • Robertv Keeling

          But yet you are still alive. You don’t fit their mold.

    • http://batman-news.com Andrew Dodson

      Big Oil and Big Coal LOVE wind and solar, as these unreliable resources
      require us to burn MORE fossil fuels to compensate.

      Consider the grid as a car, it is far more efficient to operate this car at a constant speed.

      By increasing the amount that our gas turbines must speed up and slow down to compensate for wind, we increase the amount of fuel we must spend doing so! This also reduces the life of the turbine!

      The only reason germany has reduced its CO2 emissions by 5% in the last decade is because they built far more natural gas to support the variable renewables. If we didnt have renewables, we could build VERY EFFICIENT combined cycle gas turbines instead of the single cycle turbines that have a better response rate to deal with wind/solar.

      I know its not the truth you have been sold, but it is true nonetheless! I have spoken a number of times in Chicago about this topic.

      • CaptD

        Andrew Dodson – N☢ Thanks

        Thorium is Borium

        When there is a commercial MSR and/or Thorium generating station then perhaps I will be interested, until then lets spend our precious dollars installing as much clean safe Solar as we can because it will be generation energy for the next 30 to 40+ years while all those chasing the Thorium dream are squandering all their R&D money…

      • CaptD

        Andrew Dodson –

        Big Oil and Big Coal and even Big Nuclear Utilities LOVE wind and solar AS LONG AS THEY OWN THEM, because they want to keep selling energy to their ratepayers and make big profits for their shareholders!

        What Big Oil and Big Coal and even Big Nuclear Utilities DON’T LOVE is ratepayers installing their own Solar (of all flavors) because then their ratepayers can break-free from their energy bondage, since they can not only generate their own electricity, but also then use it for charging their eVehicles, a concept that BIG Oil also hates.

        The ☀ future is ours to see… CaptD

    • http://batman-news.com Andrew Dodson

      Rod’s latest article provides another example of how Big Oil has crippled nuclear developments. http://atomicinsights.com/

      Fossil fuel industries have hated nuclear since the Seaborg commission presented the report Civilian Nuclear Power in 1962 to president JFK. In that report it said that by the year 2000 we would no longer need oil or coal for new generation, if a program of developing Gen IV reactor technology was followed. Ever since, the big energy companies have conspired to prevent us from ever having true freedom from limited and expensive fossil fuels. Wind and Solar power are just the latest sham along these lines. We NEED people like Zachary and other vocal members of the energy community to stand up and be honest.

      You are responsible for being complicit in this deception, Zach!! God is watching you to see if you will do the right thing. Whether you believe in Him or not, you have an obligation to make the ethical choice here. I know you aren’t stupid. Get with a history book, man!

      • CaptD

        Andrew Dodson – Wow, using Rod and God in the same REPLY…

        Thankfully many are not above opening their eyes to what is going on in many places, not just Germany; specifically the replacement of dirty and/or dangerous practice of generating energy by using Coal and/or Nuclear.

        Coal is bad for ones health even if used in state of the art generations and as Fukushima pointed out, ☢ pollution is something that mankind cannot even deal with much less control.

        Using Nuclear is now nothing but a 100 year money generating sham used by Big Utilities to insure that their market share is maintained because their ratepayers have no choice but to keep paying until the plant is fully decommissioned and the waste is stored many, many decades after the plant is shut down which is 40 plus years from when it is first licensed to operate.

        Want a great example of Utility GREED, look no farther than San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant Unit 2 and Unit 3 in California which will be remembered forever as the Nuclear Utility Near-Miss Debacle that almost made southern California another Fukushima!

  • Doug Pearson

    I just saw this article about electric buses, and though you’d be interested:
    http://phys.org/news/2014-01-electric-buses-wireless-uk-milton.html

    By the way, I was born is Sarasota, also.

    • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

      Ha! What a small world it is. 😀

      Yeah, I’ve had that story in the writer pool for a few days. No one picking it up… :(

  • bussdriver78

    Could you do some research into the battery storage market? I’ve seen info on the wholesale cost of battery tech going down; but for retail the costs are still high. If we want to buy enough batteries for a car or for a solar house we are stuck with high retail costs; somebody must be selling this stuff in bulk — but how much bulk makes you wholesale? I’m not talking just about lithium which seems to be below estimates; but cheap lead acid solar batteries or anything people interested in off grid solar. Perhaps somebody needs to make an online wholesaler business for this… A house needs so many batteries it’s got to be close to the minimum wholesale purchase quantity. I’ve not had too much luck looking around – lots of press releases but no way for normal people to buy – and the markup on these things is nuts (except as a replacement part for GM cars lithium is cheap for some reason.)

  • Michael Flaherty

    Zach, are you aware that the company ECycleBest.com is an absolute SCAM and they are not paying for the used phones, tablets, and laptops that consumers like me are sending them to “recycle”. They will not answer my e-mails and when calling their two customer service lines during normal business hours, they just ring and ring….. Did they actually interview you for their recently posted article/interview of you on 3/20/14 or is that just a scam as well??

    http://www.ecyclebest.com/blog/ecycling/meet-the-top-clean-tech-influencer-our-green-guardian-zachary-shahan
    I’d love to know as want to expose them for what they are for ripping me off. Thanks, Mike

    • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

      Hello,

      Hmm, i don’t really know anything about them, but they did interview me for that.

    • http://www.ecyclebest.com Alvier.M.

      Michael,

      I am so sorry for the unpleasant experience with our services and we would like to make it up to you.

      Please send me an email at alvier.marqueses@ecyclebest.com and I would personally coordinate your concerns with customer service and I will make sure they get in touch with you.

      We are a legitimate business and we certainly transact with our customers with the intent of giving them value for money and reliable customer service. Again, I sincerely apologize for this inconvenience.

      Please get in touch as soon as you can.

      P.S.

      Customer Service is different from our Consumer Education and Marketing Division. I am with the former and I will get in touch with our Customer Service Manager to address this matter.

  • Robert Fahey

    New blog. You’ll find it very interesting ….

    http://www.teslamondo.com

    • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

      Awesome, thanks! Will add to my feed reader 😀

  • TEG2

    Regarding this story:
    http://cleantechnica.com/2014/04/01/elon-musk-says-might-someday-run-president/
    I don’t think he is eligible since he wasn’t born in the USA…

    • LookingForward

      He can atleast run for governor, maybe after his contract for Tesla is over in 2020(?) he can replace Jerry Brown (if he goes for another term and wins) in California, would be an awesome state for him to be governor in. He could probably get 50-55% renewable electricity by 2030 and have EVs dominate new car sales in California.

  • http://www.thejohndevice.com DavidWJohn

    Ready for the new World, Zach? Since you blog, you might as well get ready. WIPO early publication on May 15, 2014. The John Device is here – know how to spell Paradigm?
    http://www.TheJohnDevice.com

  • LookingForward

    Hey Zachary,

    For a couple of weeks now, I have been commenting on cleantechnica, among other sites.

    I have some ideas for articles (if they are good ideas), but I have absolutely no idea where to start to create a proffesionally made/written article and I have no education in any field remotely in the area of the environment (my education is in sports, mostly, I was going for personal trainer).

    Maybe you could write the articles? If they be worthy of the power of cleantech? 😛
    This would just be to get the ideas outthere, maybe it will spark a (better) idea in someone, give food for thought?
    Also, you probably have more sources and experience for extra information if my ideas are possible, for numbers and costs?

    3 of my ideas/questions are the following:

    CCS or trees
    How much would it cost for a coal/gasplant to have CCS? Wouldn’t it be cheaper (in the US) to just plant a million trees in desolate (but not to dry) (remote) areas? Relatively affordable (in the future) CCS will only capture half the CO2. How much CO2 is taken out of the air by a million trees? Per year? In there livespan? Young/small trees are cheaper. CCS lasts aslong as the plant lasts, trees can last for centuries.
    To make it as cheap as possible: send people out camping (volunteers?) in remote places with few trees, give them each a bag of seeds and tell them to start putting seeds in the ground? What would it cost and what is the CO2 prevention (short term/longrun) of CCS, campers with seeds, 1 million seedlings, 1 million young/small trees and 1 million larger trees?

    Rebuilding the poles
    Another idea I have, might comparable to a Dutch saying: “cleaning up spilling water with an open fosit”, but it might give us extra time with the 2 degrees climate change problem. Plus “if you clean up the water faster then is being spilled…”
    If read that part of the problem with global warming is the cumulative effect of melting ice. My sollution: build liquid nitrogen factories (running on nuclear) in Greenland and Antartica and other places that have/need a lot of ice and have people freeze the ice lakes forming in Greenland (and Antartica?). You could, using extra water, make ice dams (in a circle) and create new ice lakes (by pumping seawater) behind the ice dams and create new/refreezing old glaziers?
    You could even take a boat (the size of an oil tanker maybe even?) and build a liquid nitrogen factory in it, have it run on nuclear and spray behind the boat (under water) to form new icebergs? If it can be done, you could potentially even rebuild the northpole, which has shrunk 75%? That’s a lot of black ocean, instead of white ice to bounce back solar heat.
    Maybe 1 boat running for years is enough, maybe 5 or 10 boats are needed to reverse the pole melting problem.
    But if the UN asks the G20 to each build 1 boat/factory and creates an organisation to give out missions to stop/reverse (parts of) the most effected areas, the northpole could be recreated and maybe even the sealevel dropped back to normal?
    What would a factory with distribution cost?
    What would a boat with factory cost?

    Small remote towns and villages could go off the grid
    I also had an idea around transmission loss when reading articles about that subject.
    The US and other big countries suffer from larger then average transmission losses, mostly because of distance. Why isn’t the US doing more about getting remote buildings/towns/villages of the grid? I understand storage (even large scale) isn’t quite there yet, neither are EVs, when it comes to full scale decentralised cost effective replacement and implentation, but is that really true?
    How many remote towns/villages/counties, with less then 10.000 people and the average driver drives less then an average affordable EV, are out there? Would it be affordable for such a place?
    Such a place can easily go off grid and have zero oil, gas or coal emissions, even if such a place runs on industry or farming, but how much would that cost?
    How would such a place achieve that? How much would it cost per capita?
    First local government and the population need to be behind the idea, ideally everyone.
    Financing is an important factor too. Local government could help the population get loans and subsidies for individual costs by asking (local) banks, state and federal government for help, private loans (through products) could also help.
    Plans, goals and standards need to be made.
    Next step would be efficiency and conservation and replacing most if not all fossil fuel use with electricity use. Buildings/homes, appliances/electronics, (street)lighting cars and other machines that have engines, (water)heating.
    A local gasstation that will go out of service because of this, could buy some of the cars and become a rental service for any long distance drives.
    Machines, appliances, electronics and cars could be sold in bulk, auctioned or recycled.
    New electric machines and cars, efficient appliances, electronics and lighting, insulation and windows could be bought in bulk and with auctions to save money.
    When the new efficiency and conservation standards have been reached and all engines and heating are electrical, the town can start calculating it’s new electricity use.
    There needs to be calculated how much non-shaded roofspace there is for solar, how much is flat and south facing and how much is east and west facing. Are there windy areas for (vertical)windturbines.
    EVs need to be charged during the day, when you have sun, so EVs can act as storage at night. Where are the charging stations going to be? At home, at work, at mall/shoppingcentre or all of the above?
    Is there extra storage needed for low wind nights next to the EVS? (people need to be able to drive in the morning)
    Is it economical/neccesary/possible to build a small biowaste to electricity facility or small hydro or another renewable source for baseload use?
    After all these calculations have been done, renewables (and storage) are bought/build (in bulk when it comes to solar and wind) through an auction. Owned by the local government at worst, preferably bu the people, no PPA or leasing.
    No more electricity/gasbills, no more filling the gas tank, no more macro grid, no more utillities, maybe a loan for a few years or some extra local taxes for a few years, after that …free energy. And offcourse a cleaner (local) environment.

    I went a little overboard with the extra info for that last one,but I wanted to give a clearer picture.

    Hope your willing and have the time to write articles about these subjects, I’d atleast like to know your thoughts about my ideas?
    with regarts Laurens

  • Joel Peters

    How were the statistics comparing bird death rates from wind, coal, and nuclear electrical energy production methods compiled?

  • shola

    Zach, I am seeking a joint venture partners to manufacture solar power modules and systems in Africa. Are there existing manufacturers open to JV in Africa? Please assist.

    • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

      Hmm, sorry, I have no idea.

  • Andrew Yan

    Hire me Zach. I’m really in to Clean energy and renewables and have experience in sustainability reporting editing and writing.

  • Cameron Postelwait

    Zach, recently noticed how big a voice you are in clean tech (sorry, I’m just a slow reader :)). We recently released several LED bulbs that got some good press, I was wondering if you’d be interested in tinkering with them a bit.

    One bulb you might like in particular was inspired by local neighborhood watches and has a built-in sensor that knows the difference between sunlight and moonlight and is the most energy efficient way to keep your porch lit all night (at .24 per month of constant use and the user doesn’t have to remember to turn it on or off). This one is brand new and no one has talked about it yet online.

    Our site is seesaffron.com and my email is cameron@seesaffron.com. Please contact me if you want to try some samples out!

    Cameron

  • http://batman-news.com Andrew Dodson

    You need to include nuclear power in clean energy. As it is now, you are just a shill for the fossil fuel industry, who are the main ones promoting wind and solar.

    • Alec Sevins

      I don’t know why you’d be against solar PV if it’s put on existing man-made structures. Open spaces being developed and blighted are my main concern. Nuclear operates in a different realm with unique hazards but we do need more of it. All nuclear power except hypothetical fusion is still dependent on a finite resource, though. We will need to downsize society to really be sustainable.

      The sheer visual blight of wind power (and excuses for it) makes a lot more sense when you realize it’s pushed by the same mentality. Workers in various extraction industries are interchangeable, except for certain specialties. Wind, oil, gas and coal all need road builders, loggers, truck drivers and riggers. It’s a stretch to think that any of them are ideologically bound to wind only.

      I’ll never understand “environmentalists” who look the other way as landscapes and seascapes become industrial parks, and flying creatures die in greater numbers. Some may be blinded by the largess of wind projects and look right through them somehow. The rest have got to be apathetic about the continual loss of nature. I’m not buying the “green” line in most cases.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2491ada302d76fed79d5f042dac0d1ec5a9ad1c93236b8c98445066ca45f8b8f.jpg

      • http://batman-news.com Andrew Dodson

        Solar is totally ineffective at reducing the need for fossil fuels. The “dangers” of nuclear power are propaganda. It is ludicrous to compare the less than 1000 deaths total over the past 5 decades from nuclear to the millions that fossil fuels kill each year from mining and pollution.

        It is helpful to realize where solar energy comes from. Go back to 1970s Shoreham and realize that entities such as Peabody coal and the new York fuel oil company were pushing solar power in attack ads against nuclear.

        I highly recommend you educate yourself by reading Rod Adam’s “smoking gun” series of articles over at his website atomic insights.

        Cheers and happy new year!

      • http://batman-news.com Andrew Dodson

        Also “downsizing” society is not an option. The main growth in coal consumption is developing nations, who are building around 1 GWe of coal capacity PER WEEK! we have to get these people off of harmful and destructive fuel sources such as locally sourced biofuels. Burning wood and dung cause severe problems to local health and ecology.

        With plentiful, low impact electricity we can treat water sources, desalinated recyclez and perform all sorts of other environmental remediation and stewardship activities that are simply too energetically expensive at this present stage. Nuclear power is a MUST to save this world and humanity!

  • http://batman-news.com Andrew Dodson

    You have to watch this video about wind and solar power

  • Lori

    Hi Zach, I’m thinking about Solar Panels on my house. I’ve got wicked allergies and have tried looking on the internet to see if Solar Panels will aggravate them even more. But I cannot find any conclusive information. Can you possibly answer this question, or send me somewhere to read about it? Thanks, Lori

  • taesoo Shin

    Hi Zach !
    Here are revolutionary solutions to energy production !
    I think here are 2 energy miracles you and all of us on the Earth have been looking for .

    Experts such as professors or researchers of mechanical engineering can review whether the inventions are possible or not.
    Why don’t you go read my blog at ” http://www.123qweasduii.blogspot.kr “?
    You can read explanation of my invention there.
    Feel free to ask me about anything difficult to understand about the invention.

  • Taiyo Power

    hi
    I am looking for information about floating wind turbine installed in Portugal. may I know which company can supply this technology ? please email me at indra_kasogi@yahoo.com

  • Somone

    I have a question. Now I understand the cost of solar panels are going up due to heavy duties on Chinese imports. But I would like to know if the cost of manufacturing these products in china is going down or up? Any websites or links regarding this? Thanks

    • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

      There’s going down a little bit, slowly. They dropped a lot for years.

  • Mike Gilli

    Hello Zach and congrats on your amazing efforts. I don’t see anything on NH3 vehicles which I’ve been plugging as CO2-free transport energy and seems to be finally taking off.. check here: http://wp.me/p2lxj2-5k………..all the best….. mike

  • noneyo_getit_0011232

    Beg your pardon sir but how does “a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies and sociology (from New College of Florida, the Honors College of Florida), and a master’s degree in city and regional planning (from UNC-Chapel Hill).” make you “a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert”? Get a bachelor’s of science in Physics or Math, or else an engineering degree… but right now you are a non-scientist talking science and dear god it is painfully obvious…

    I am a physics researcher and I am sick of having the cause of environmentalism represented by people who are not scientists in any sense of the word. The material on your website cleantechnica and the backgrounds of the people who write for it drives home how little you know.

  • Charlotte Omoto

    Thought you might be interested in the defeat in the House of Montana senate bill 402 which would have penalized companies that shuts down a coal fired power plant. The bill would have require such companies to pay an annual “impact” fee for 10 year after closing. This bill was proposed to try to keep the Colstrip surface mining complex from being retired.

  • George Harvey

    I have a suggestion for you.
    Watching the activities of Green Mountain Power, here in Vermont, and listening to the things people there say, it is clear that they can save a lot of money by balancing out their load, so they don’t pay so much for power at peak demand times.
    GMP was the first utility to sign on with Tesla for their batteries. They will provide the batteries at a reasonable cost to home owners and small businesses, along with assistance on financing, solar PVs, heat pumps, insulation, and so on. A customer can switch to solar and efficiency, pay the costs on the electric bill, and have the bill go down immediately.
    While may sound too good to be true, almost as though GMP was crazily turning into a non-profit, CEO Mary Powell is a pretty smart character. She is getting her customers to finance load balancing, thus lowering the company’s costs.
    There is an old joke about Yankee ingenuity, to the effect that you can sell a product at a loss, but make it up on the volume. What GMP is doing may be selling at a reduced volume, in kWh, but more than making it up in reduced costs.

  • Jack Murray

    Is this the only method to contact Zachary?
    the-indy-one.com

  • Bubba Nicholson

    I got my 15 month old 2013 Leaf for 9500 plus tax in Cape Coral. Similar deals are available in Orlando and Miami. http://www.Offleaseonly.com I may have to give you a ride over there as I live in Tampa. I’ve enjoyed your writing immensely and will be glad to have you home. Congratulations on your return.

  • Chris Cooper

    Update – Goulburn SuperCharger in Australia has finally been opened unofficially.
    It’s also now on the Tesla website, but the word is there is an ‘official’ unveiling first week of October. Would be lovely if they shipped in a Model X for the SuperCharger media event… Who knows!

    I’ve got a pic of this new SuperCharger being used FYI

  • Steve Valk

    Zachary,

    At some point I’ll need to replace my 2002 Corolla, and the hydrogen fuel cell Mirai looks very interesting to me. Big drawback at the moment, though, is finding places to refuel, particularly in a state like Georgia.

    It seems to me that if Toyota (and now Honda) want to sell fuel cell vehicles, they ought to offer hydrogen fueling stations at their dealerships. Do you know if these car company’s are considering such a move?

    If you build it, they will buy.

  • Willem Post

    Zachary,

    Here is an article which shows higher storage costs/kWh delivered than your calculations.

    You may have underestimated capital costs and total storage system losses.

    http://www.theenergycollective.com/willem-post/2308156/economics-of-batteries-for-stabilizing-and-storage-on-distribution-grids

    Wilpost37@gmail.com

  • http://www.edcostello.com Ed Costello

    Loved your interview with the two Dutch guys, but why was the video so bad?? If it is worth doing, it is worth doing well.

  • Pete-In-Oz

    Hey Zac, what’s up with the CleanTechnica blog where I can no longer comment/post as a guest?

  • Kedar Soman

    Hello Zachary,

    I am big green energy enthusiast. I often post articles on my blog like this
    https://kedarsoman.wordpress.com/2016/07/01/of-tesla-and-tax-breaks/

    Is it possible to post these on CleanTechnica, so I can reach wider audience?

  • Wayne Illes

    There is a Canadian ebike company which seems to be the first starting to incorporate solar into their ebikes and scooters. http://www.daymak.com They made quite a splash with their offroad scooter The Beast, have now created a turbo solar scooter The Chameleon, and a kid’s kick scooter The Photon, all with solar. I have heard they are also now starting to also use higher capacity batteries to get up to 90 km range as well. Quite an interesting company. One of Canada’s best kept secrets but they seem to be expanding overseas as well. Worth checking them out I think

  • Epicurus

    What’s life like in Poland for an American? Is there anything to miss about the U.S.?

    Congrats on the new family.

  • Alec Sevins

    Ostensibly concerned about all things environmental, this guy seems to be a wind industry apologist who’s decided that scenery doesn’t matter anymore. The wind industry needs that to be true because there’s no way to disguise its products. CleanTechnica deletes posts with dissenting views and unpleasant photos of those kludgey, landscape-hogging machines. The typical ruse is that vast new arrays of rural skyscrapers are “mitigating” older damage many miles away on the thin claim that they actually reduce carbon, plus the lie that they aren’t visually obnoxious. You can get anyone to call something “beautiful” through psychological trickery. Man is destroying nature in many realms and wind power is intruding on places fossil fuels wouldn’t reach, due to geological boundaries. Wind power is the most glaring form of industrial infrastructure ever placed outside of urban areas. It’s usually installed in places very susceptible to visual blight. These are the same areas where people protest much smaller billboards, cellular towers or office buildings that affect tree-lines. Why does something far more intrusive get a moral pass?

    A new standard has been set by the green-tech crowd whereby the only thing bad for the environment is fossil-fuel related. They’re happy to ruin millions of acres of viewsheds (already) with wind factories while claiming to despise mining and drilling scars. Everything’s peachy if it’s not overt carbon pollution, even though wind power is heavily dependent on fossil fuels during its life-cycle and shows little sign of effectively reducing CO2. Even if wild schemes for 3.8 million turbines (e.g. Jacobson & Delucchi) came to pass, we’d have no assurance of adequate carbon reduction and the visual impact would be a deal-breaker for people who still think scenery matters. The resistance around the world goes far beyond NIMBYism. The claim that one must be a climate-change-denier to hate ugly landscapes is extremely puerile. Wind turbines are now seen by far more people than coal mines because of their spread and vertical prominence. Over 250,000 have been installed globally and the blight is unavoidable.

    On the topic of bird and bat deaths, industry defenders counter with weak diversions like “house cats kill more of them” which is has no real bearing on the species affected by rural wind towers, like eagles. House cats aren’t lurking on those remote blades, snatching birds from the air, so stop lying. On the topic of bat deaths (unique to wind turbines) they squirm out of it by claiming they can be mitigated by unknown technologies while bats keep dying in droves, unaffected by cats or car windshields. Wind puppets can’t admit that putting arrays of huge towers in rural areas is obviously BAD for the environment, along with the new roads and clear-cuts they bring. It’s as disingenuous as global warming denial.

    If the environmental damage of wind factories was defensible, such deceptive tactics wouldn’t be needed and CleanTechnica would allow anti-wind posts on its forums, as long as the language was OK. We who oppose wind power are just trying to save what’s left of the natural world. Allies of wind power show almost complete disregard for landscape ethics and the common decency of leaving nice places alone, including ocean views that have strong psychological effects. Many wind site laborers are the same people you’ll find in oil fields or coal mines. The venue is merely different and they always want green paychecks. Why pretend it’s a clean business?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/99e166ce9014be447ed69fc119a97a3ae40d11784918d8a7d0c0037f6dda821b.jpg

    • Geo T

      Definitely an annoying wind energy shill. Can’t be ugly, can’t be noisy, other stuff kills more birds. See no evil, hear no evil, harmful to nothing. Only NIMBYs like scenery anymore, blah, blah, blah. Turncoat environmentalists are all too common now.

  • Bill slater

    So here is some Bad news. Solar Energy is being killed in KY via legislation. Senate Bill 214 was filed this week which will certainly render solar PV financially inaccessible to the would-be solar adopter. As of July 2017 net-metering will go away as we know it. Small solar generators will have to negotiate their rates on a case by case basis and again every two years thereafter. This obviously casts extreme doubt on the financial side of things for the would-be adopter. All solar jobs will be lost in Ky. The situation is dire. Selling solar in KY has been no easy task owing to the artificially ‘cheap’ rates. Of course the health costs, mercury in the water and other ‘externalities’ are not factored. Tabled for the moment, SB214 is slated to move forward this week.

    • vorlic

      Oil IS solar power, Bill. Get used to it. PV is DOA. Ask Elon Messiah Musk. Actually, no, don’t bother, he’ll tell you that Solar City is saving the world, one solar tile at a time.

  • Scottie

    Latest article sounds like he works for Telsa or Musk. What about profitability and investment value to investors? Need realistic financial information to substantiate reasons to invest in Telsa. Where’s the meat?

  • Scottie Fraser

    Zachary: How about evaluating the numbers for Telsa? It makes good products, but can it ever do so profitably? Us Telsa shareholders are concern that ultimately, after all the Telsa flattering, investors will question the value of the company at a $300+ share price, and that the
    stock soon will be dumped by the “Big Players” and us little players will be paying the price.
    Your thoughts, please. And do you or your company own or control any of the shares of Telsa? I hope not and that all your bullish comments aren’t leading us little investors astray.

    • vorlic

      Simple answer, Scottie. Invest your money more wisely. You’re right to talk about profit – net income is an opinion, while cash flow is a fact.

      Owning TSLA stock cannot be called investing – it is speculation. It is a story stock, kept afloat only by two things:
      1. A persistent, religious fervour for the Messiah Musk and his claims of saving the planet, and
      2. Constant injections of other people’s money, given either: voluntarily by people like Zachary Shahan; or involuntarily, by force of law, in the form of Norwegian and Californian tax.

      The big institutional players have already started their slow walk away from TSLA, and even the most bullish analysts have toned down their positivity recently. There will not be a mad rush – the orderly, quiet exit has already begun. Mark my words. The retail “investors”, like you, will get burned.

      I hope you haven’t bought any Tesla products.

      Why do I waste my time warning strangers about TSLA? Don’t know, to be honest! Maybe I’m just a nice guy.

      P.S. It’s TeSLa – not TeLSa.

  • vorlic

    I find that Zachary Shahan is the kind of person who loves the idea of “Anthropogenic Global Warming” because it gives him endless opportunities to tell people what he thinks they should be doing, while knowing that no-one could ever hold him to account for his own actions in this respect. You see, AGW is the subject which just keeps on giving!

    P.S. I am not a “big oil troll”. I am not in the pay of the Koch brothers. I love driving my family long distances to foreign countries (in our 15 year old Volvo), but ride my bicycle to work and back every weekday throughout the year because it’s cheaper, more fun, easier and quicker than the car – and it keeps me fit! I am also in favour of better and cheaper ways of producing the energy I need to heat my home, feed my family and enjoy life.

  • Jason

    I read your comments about hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. A few questions…does doe hydrogen offer a better solution to store variable solar and wind power than current battery technology? Also EV don’t provide a solution for diesel highway or farm tractors, again because of the limited capacity of lithium ion batteries to store electricity, but HFCVs do? Please comment and thank you. I work with farmers and we want to produce our own fuel through on farm solar power.

  • John Edison

    You Smoke Crack

  • John Edison

    This Guy Smokes A Ton Of Crack

  • john

    Zach
    I just checked Tsla Nasdaq and there is a post about the SEC asking for information from 2017 about TSLA hitting production target of 5000 by the end of 2017.
    Also they question the 3rd quarter figures.
    With the shares at $345 no doubt this will have a dampening effect come Monday.

    The Nasdaq article.
    https://www.nasdaq.com/article/sec-subpoenas-tesla-on-model-3-production-estimates-20181102-00643

  • Stephen Foster

    Real Goods Solar got approval and began production of their solar shingle in November.

  • Publius Valerius Publicola

    Zach wrote this article on GM pick up trucks with Tesla drive trains.
    Because I have spent a lifetime working on cars and trucks already, I ambivilant to the efficacy of electric vehicles as the end all and be all to transportation.
    In this example of a ton of batteries and drive train to haul a ton of payload a limited range is redundant and intellectual maturbation. To say nothing of depleted amperes due to extreme cold weather further decreasing range and payload capabilities only to added down time to recharge for the return leg of a trip, God forbid a return load.
    But you cant engage the likes of zach by email anyway, and he is so brilliant that he knows it.
    So I conclude he wouldnt want to be bothered with what others already know., that battery powered trucks is an iffy proposition in terms of attendant costs per mile.

  • Jeremy Dueck

    Hi Zach, I noticed in your market disrupter article “Electric Cars Are About To Absolutely Demolish Gasmobiles” that you dont mention the Volt, Bolt, or the Spark EV. The Volt is arguably the best plug-in design and the GM liquid battery cooling system is one of the best. Either way it doesn’t change much but I think these cars are lost in the mix sometimes. Another point often missed is the fact that battery chargers like the DC Combo Fast charge spots are often out of order or lacking completely. I sell electric cars and my customers are usually only charging at home and work unless they have a Tesla. I also have trouble trying to drive an EV on a long delivery because 9 out of 10 DC chargers are out of commission. Another fact is that with EVs a long electric outage or grid terror attack, people lose their ability to drive unless they are on gas or hybrid. These things need to be addressed along with battery density, range, charge times, vehicle cost, subsidies etc. Just my .02

  • Gary

    Stick with EV issues! That’s something you know about and I respect that. You alienate a large portion of your audience, including me, when you use your EV platform(CleanTechnica) to talk politics. There happens to be a lot of EV enthusiasts that are conservative who find your political writing distracting which undermines your credibility as an advocate for EV technology. Truth is both sides of the political isle have myopic views on how this country should be run. Keep doing what you do best in the EV world. Thanks for hearing me out.

  • Chris Cooper

    I sent you a bunch of photos of the new Supercharger at Bathurst, which just opened.
    Please check Facebook messages. I’m not a FB friend, so check the non-friend messages. Or advise where else I can send you these images :-)

  • Radovan Skriba

    Your education level is very low for calling yourself an expert in EV’s

  • Timothy Fecteau

    Why does no one ever state the fact that the carbon released during the manufacture of the lithium ion batteries for a tesla is equal to seven years of carbon emitted from a conventional gas engine car. Only the carbon is emitted in manufacture and not over 7 years. Also the battery is really not recyclable
    at the current time.

  • Chris Cooper

    Article suggestion. Peak petrol stations. As EV’s grow quickly, the value in petrol stations will drop rapidly. Who would want to own one knowing they are going out like video stores. A run on the bank. This is added pressure on petrol, as the distribution network will shrink rapidly, given the real estate is more valuable than the pumps, and more so when we know the pumps are declining in value due to EV’s.

    https://www.realestate.com.au/news/petrol-stations-are-being-resold-as-development-sites-to-meet-rising-demand-for-land/?rsf=syn:news:nca:news:spa:fin

  • john

    OMG 6 years ago was the last contact.
    The person today this is 2019 10 and there over there it is the 2 day.
    I think the person who speculates on the stock market is possibly able to make money
    However I totally disagree at his attitude period about Tesla.
    Fundamentally because Tesla is a Tech Stock as I see it.
    It’s underlying value is in its intelectical value, this is hard to understand for people who only value a company on how much minerals it has the fact is yes perhaps Tesla may fail mind i do not think it will but looking at it from a simple return on investment yes it is not paying any dividends
    Just waid soon down the line Tesla will become profitable but knowing the mission of the company I expect that to be put into expansion and the next 4 times better battery .

  • wu wao

    Hi Zach

    Very glad to know you and reading your articles about solar energy.
    We are the factory about solar street lights.
    We now released some article:
    https://www.adnsolarstreetlight.com/ultimated-guide-of-solar-outdoor-led-street-post-lights-design/
    https://www.adnsolarstreetlight.com/blog/review-of-all-types-solar-street-lights/

    Really would like to wright some Guests posts special for your blogs, more than 1000 words with good quality pictures.

    BR

    ADNLITE

  • Ken Becker

    Zachary,
    Just read your post on Cleantechnica regarding the short guy and the petition said short sent to the NHTSA. I agree with most of your article but, no offense, you missed one on Toyota.
    I’m a practicing EE who has some experience in building and coding microcontrollers on hardware. So, when all this runaway Toyota stuff kicked in I took an informed interest.
    Turns out that Toyota was guilty of some bad behavior. And, when I say guilty, I mean, “In a court of law.” Toyota’s behavior is actually now textbook material on how Not To Build An Engine Controller: http://faculty.cs.tamu.edu/ioerger/ethics/Toyota-s-killer-firmware–Bad-design-and-its-consequences-1.pdf
    Further, a Mr. Barr, of the Barr group, provided testimony at trial about his findings about the unexpected acceleration: See https://www.safetyresearch.net/Library/Bookout_v_Toyota_Barr_REDACTED.pdf.
    No kidding: Toyota’s bad engine controller code killed people. They blamed everything from floor mats to claiming that the drivers were idiots. It still makes me furious to think of it.
    All the other stuff in your article: Fine, but not that bit about Toyota.

  • Brad Mosch

    What is the best way to give feedback about this article you wrote (the comments are closed, but I see several problems with it)? I like EVs, so I don’t want EV-haters to be able to point at a few of your somewhat-unrealistic, overly-extreme statements you’ve made in there. And there are a few misspellings in it. https://cleantechnica.com/2019/06/16/30-reasons-to-buy-an-electric-car-today/

  • Peter Nias

    Please see al país (English version) re closing ALL of Spain coal fired generators

  • Cameron Fraser

    It would be interesting if you responded to the forbes article questioning tesla autopilot safety stats. For instance are tesla accidents only airbag deployment events?

  • Ken Bolinsky

    In your piece about your M3’s FSD and white upholstery you wrote, “In theory, each time the cost of FSD goes up, the value of my car goes up. As new features are added, it will continue rising. So, while it wasn’t cheap, FSD quite likely appreciates in value on my car, rather than depreciating as the rest of an automobile always does.”

    As I understand it, FSD does not transfer with the car to any subsequent owners – you have the right to transfer it to any other Tesla you might purchase, but it does not “stay with the car” in a resale situation. This said, I don’t understand how the rising cost of FSD affects the value of your car.

  • DonDeeHippy

    Hi Zach, I wasn’t sure where to contact you best so I thought I’d try here.
    evobsessioncom/hydrogen-fuel-cell-cars-fail-in-depth
    my favorite debunking page and one of the first articles I read of yours has gone to the great ether….Is there any way we can get this back :)
    ps. Love your work

  • Scroopy Noopers

    I saw this and thought of you, in case you want to moonlight as an official Autopilot tester.
    https://www.tesla.com/careers/search/job/adas-test-operator-miami-75560

  • http://stateoftheartnovelinflowtech.blogspot.mx novelinflow

    Hey Zach, Here is my Stuff, Check it out / Featured Project Development – State of the Art Novel InFlow Technology: ·1-Gearturbine, Rotary-Turbo, ·2-Imploturbocompressor, One Compression Step:

    ·1-Gearturbine: Reaction Turbine, ·Rotary-Turbo, Similar System of the Aeolipilie ·Heron Steam Device from 10-70 AD, ·With Retrodynamic = DextroGiro/RPM VS LevoGiro/InFlow, + ·Ying Yang Circular Power Type, ·Non Waste Parasitic Power Looses Type, ·8-X,Y Thermodynamic Cycle Way Steps, Patent: #197187 / IMPI – MX.

    ·2-Imploturbocompressor: Impulse Turbine, ·Implo-Ducted, One Moving Part System Excellence Design, · InFlow Goes from Macro-Flow to Micro-Flow by Implosion/And Inverse, ·One Compression Step, ·Circular Dynamic Motion. Implosion Way Type, ·Same Nature of a Hurricane Satellite View.

    http://stateoftheartnovelinflowtech.blogspot.com

    https://padlet.com/gearturbine/un2slbar3s94

    https://www.behance.net/gearturbina61a

  • Paul

    Roof top solar 17% of electricity in South Australia 2021/22, utility solar 5%, wind 48%, see opennem.org.au/energy/sa1/?range=all&interval=fin-year

  • Paul

    Australian Energy Market Operator’s 2022 Integrated System Plan sees no need for nuclear in zero emission grid.

  • Paul

    “Researchers agree: The world can reach a 100% renewable energy system by or before 2050”; Tuesday 9 August 2022;
    http://www.brookes.ac.uk/About-Brookes/News/2022/08/Researchers-agree-The-world-can-reach-a-100-renewa

  • Neil Munro

    Hi, can you put an official bot to relay CleanTechnica posts to Mastodon? I am moving away from Twitter. You can create a verified account at no cost!

  • John Harding

    Hello Zach.

    Do you have an email address to send sensitive information?

    Kind regards.

    John Harding

    England. UK

  • Ahmad Imran Wasim

    I need a appointment for a unique businesses to manufacturer cars in Germany.