Tesla Motors Inc. is recruiting clients, Wal-Mart and Cargill, accelerating efforts to become a leader in energy storage — a new market that’s poised to boost sales and profit at the electric vehicle pioneer.”This week, Tesla will make a deeper push beyond the car business when it unveils batteries for homes and utilities.
A review of California’s Self Generation Incentive Program, or SGIP, shows Tesla has ambitions to sell batteries for a range of commercial uses, from powering its factories to reducing electric bills at schools and wineries. Tesla is on track to reap as much as $65 million in SGIP rebates, which are designed to encourage investment in alternative energy.” [The Detroit News]
An industrial chemicals known as hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) that is commonly found in air conditioners has been found to be contributing to global warming and may be banned by national governments. “Now, after years of wrangling, the world’s nations may finally be moving toward setting global limits on the chemicals because of their potential role as a cause of global warming.
A round of technical discussions in Bangkok ended Friday with the approval of a work plan that could lead to a global agreement on HFCs, currently among the most commonly used chemical coolants used in air conditioners and refrigerators, before the year’s end.” [The Washington Post]
Japan has began closing its giant oil-fired power plants that propelled it to the ranks of the world’s top industrialized nations. “With nuclear power in the doldrums after the Fukushima disaster, it’s solar energy that is becoming the alternative.
Solar power is set to become profitable in Japan as early as this quarter, according to the Japan Renewable Energy Foundation (JREF), freeing it from the need for government subsidies and making it the last of the G7 economies where the technology has become economically viable.
Japan is now one of the world’s four largest markets for solar panels and a large number of power plants are coming onstream, including two giant arrays over water in Kato City and a $1.1 billion solar farm being built on a salt field in Okayama, both west of Osaka.” [Yahoo News]
