IRENA Electricity Storage Workshop This Week



IRENAIRENA, the International Renewable Energy Agency, has an electricity storage workshop scheduled in Dusseldorf (Germany) this Thursday, March 27. Here are some more details, via IRENA:

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) will hold a policy and regulation workshop on energy storage in Dusseldorf, Germany, on 27 March. This takes place alongside Energy Storage Europe 2014, the third annual International Conference and Exhibition for the Storage of Renewable Energies (25-27 March, Dusseldorf).

The workshop focuses on key energy storage technologies and applications to support the accelerated deployment of renewable energy, as well as to identify applications, best practices and lessons that should be highlighted in IRENA’s global technology roadmap for electricity storage. Participants will include policy makers, industry representatives, academics and other relevant stakeholders. The workshop will be limited to around 50 people.

The agenda of the workshop can be viewed here.

IRENA Electricity Storage Workshop This Week was originally published on CleanTechnica. To read more from CleanTechnica, join over 50,000 other subscribers: Google+ | Email | Facebook | RSS | Twitter.

Terrorists Could Put US Out Of Electricity For 1½ Years, Solar Power Could Help Grid Security Considerably

Risk is about both the probability of something bad happening and how bad that bad thing is. And the decision to take a risk or not involves weighing all of that with the benefits that come from the action you want to take. We’ve built our electric grids in quite a risky way. Some might

Terrorists Could Put US Out Of Electricity For 1½ Years, Solar Power Could Help Grid Security Considerably was originally published on CleanTechnica.

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By Zachary Shahan | March 23, 2014 | Energy Storage, Solar Energy |
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Chevy Volt Owner Disease May Also Be Affecting Other Electric Car Owners

Originally published on EV Obsession. Frankly, I’ve seen this over and over again — with the Chevy Volt, the Tesla Model S, the Nissan Leaf, and probably other electric cars. It’s a problem… well, a temporary problem, but actually a good thing in the long run! Here are the details from a post on the

Chevy Volt Owner Disease May Also Be Affecting Other Electric Car Owners was originally published on CleanTechnica.

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By Zachary Shahan | March 23, 2014 | Electric Cars |
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Tesla Models Current & Future — A to Z


Think you can predict Tesla’s next 23 models or so? One for each letter of the alphabet? Well, you couldn’t do much worse than this attempt from Jalopnik from 2012. Of course, you’re attempt probably wouldn’t be as funny either. :D

Check it out, via EV Obsession:

Chart of Potential Tesla Models (A to Z) (via EV Obsession)

This is actually sort of old, but I just ran across it and it is a lot of fun, so thought I’d share. As you can see on the chart, it’s from Jalopnik. Given that Tesla has now patented Tesla Model E and the next Tesla model is supposed to be an affordable…

Tesla Models Current & Future — A to Z was originally posted on: PlanetSave. To read more from Planetsave, join thousands of others and subscribe to our free RSS feed, follow us on Facebook (also free), follow us on Twitter, or just visit our homepage.

Bill Maher Nails The Difference Between Republican & Democratic Messaging (VIDEO)

There’s no denying it: Republicans kick Democrats’ asses when it comes to messaging. But things may be getting a bit better. Check out this Bill Maher clip for some tips and some history on political messaging: Now, let’s invade the sun and takes its oil! via Peter Sinclair

Bill Maher Nails The Difference Between Republican & Democratic Messaging (VIDEO) was originally posted on: PlanetSave. To read more from Planetsave, join thousands of others and subscribe to our free RSS feed, follow us on Facebook (also free), follow us on Twitter, or just visit our homepage.

By Zachary Shahan | March 22, 2014 | Climate Change, Renewable Energy, Solar Energy |
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Giraffe Kisses Maintenance Worker Dying From Cancer


Beautiful. I love giraffes.

giraffe kisses man with cancer

Apparently, a maintenance worker at Rotterdam’s Diergaarde Blijdorp zoo is dying from cancer. He requested that he be brought to the zoo to pay a last visit to some kind giraffes.

“Heart-breaking pictures have emerged of the moment a giraffe said goodbye to a terminally ill zoo worker, who had spent most of his adult life cleaning the animal’s enclosures,” Independent.ie writes. Apparently, the giraffes came over to nuzzle and kiss Mario rather quickly. Here’s a bit more:

“These animals recognised him, and felt that (things aren’t) going well with him,’ Kees Veldboer, the founder of the AWF told Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad.

“(It was) a very special moment. You saw him beaming.”

Mario, who has a mental disability, was also given the chance to say goodbye to his colleagues at the zoo, where he has worked for almost 25 years.

Giraffe Kisses Maintenance Worker Dying From Cancer was originally posted on: PlanetSave. To read more from Planetsave, join thousands of others and subscribe to our free RSS feed, follow us on Facebook (also free), follow us on Twitter, or just visit our homepage.

Rooftop Solar Owners Like Dolphin Babies, But…

Originally published on Solar Love. This isn’t a new commercial, but I ran across it recently and had to share again. It’s so funny and so well done. And it does nail the #1 reason why people go solar. Check it out

Rooftop Solar Owners Like Dolphin Babies, But… was originally posted on: PlanetSave. To read more from Planetsave, join thousands of others and subscribe to our free RSS feed, follow us on Facebook (also free), follow us on Twitter, or just visit our homepage.

By Zachary Shahan | March 22, 2014 | Renewable Energy, Solar Energy |
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Tesla Sales In China & Europe Expected To Be Double North American Sales


tesla model s

This was reported by Elon Musk on Tesla’s last financial call, but it seems to have slipped under the radar. Reuters recently ran a short article on the news, which made me think I should as well.

As Tesla moves into the European and Chinese markets more, the company is expecting to see about twice as many sales there as in the United States and Canada by the end of the year.

Tesla sold 22,477 cars in 2013, most of which went to the US market. European sales started in the Fall.

In China, Tesla is going against the tide. It isn’t jacking up its prices there to “rip off” customers and make a bigger profit. The price will be higher due to shipping costs, duties, taxes, etc, but Tesla doesn’t intend to make any more off of it there than in the US. (The same goes for Europe, by the way.) In a market so fond of exclusive, expensive, luxury vehicles, it’s unclear how that will turn out — but one would think it will turn out very well.

It’s all about doing what’s right, Elon said. However, he thinks it also makes good business sense.

While it’s going to take a few months to get vehicles over to China, sales should be big there once they are available. “Towards the end of the year, we expect sales in those regions combined to be almost twice that of North America,” Elon said.

European sales have been decent so far, but not sky high. They’ve been great in Norway, but not so hot in Germany, France, and the Netherlands. However, word on the street this weekend is that Tesla Model S prices in Europe are getting a big cut:

Tesla PR in America hasn’t responded to our request for confirmation, but online sources show the drops are fairly substantial. In Germany, for example, Tesla has dropped almost 7,000 euros ($9,700 US at today’s exchange rate) off the price, down to 65,300 euros ($90,600), while in Holland, the new price is down 4,000 ($5,500) euros to 66,200 ($91,900). No reason was given for these drops, but we can’t help but suspect that demand isn’t too strong at the moment.

Maybe this has been in the plans all along, as logistics got worked out and streamlined. Who knows?

Image Credit: Tesla

Tesla Sales In China & Europe Expected To Be Double North American Sales was originally posted on: PlanetSave. To read more from Planetsave, join thousands of others and subscribe to our free RSS feed, follow us on Facebook (also free), follow us on Twitter, or just visit our homepage.

Hatin’ On The Tesla Model S Seems To Be An Edmunds Pastime

Update: Based on some comments, I figured it was worth adding some extra notes: 1) Not every Tesla article on Edmunds is negative. I didn’t say that, of course. I was simply shocked (as were others) at how many articles are negative. The article below is my representation of the things that stood out to

Hatin’ On The Tesla Model S Seems To Be An Edmunds Pastime was originally published on CleanTechnica.

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By Zachary Shahan | March 22, 2014 | Electric Cars, Media |
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