Cleantech Talk

Nicolas Zart and I have been thinking for months about an idea of doing a daily chat about cleantech news. We finally kicked this off. In this chat, we talked about Tesla Model 3 safety a bit. We highlighted the odd Canadian news about the government buying a Kinder Morgan pipeline, a topic we've had a couple more op-eds discussing since my chat with Nicolas. A couple of other quick notes were about Zipcar adding 325 Volkswagen e-Golfs to its London fleet and a 96-year-old auto mechanic and racing legend falling in love with his new Tesla Model 3. We spent the most time, though, discussing innovation at Tesla, Tesla Model 3 motors, Tesla batteries, and Tesla's unique over-the-air updates (unique for the auto world, that is).

In this podcast, we discuss the roles cities can play in supporting, stimulating, advancing, and benefiting from e-mobility. The discussion relates to our new report, "Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure: Guidelines For Cities." To learn more, go to: https://future-trends.cleantechnica.com/ev-charging-infrastracture/

Electric mobility is critical for cities to promote and stimulate because it solves insane public health crises, is great for business, and can be a key part of a transition into a smart city future. Listen and learn more here: https://future-trends.cleantechnica.com/ev-charging-infrastracture/

Today a new contribution to the electrification of European transport was launched at the TEN-T Days conference. The paper, "Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure: Guidelines for Cities," draws on the experience and expertise from a wide range of professionals in electric vehicle charging infrastructure development to provide specific and actionable information for European city officials trying to plan and procure electric vehicle charging infrastructure. This podcast explains why cities should pay attention to this topic now and get planning. It also tells about the initial stimulus for this project. Listen and learn more here: https://future-trends.cleantechnica.com/ev-charging-infrastracture/

Episode #49 of Cleantech Talk is here! In this episode, we talk about reinventing the wheel, a Faraday Future maybe-resurrection, and Japan’s logical hots for hydrogen.

Episode #48 of Cleantech Talk is here! This episode covers solar + storage nuking natural gas (peaker plants, that is), fantastic floating wind farm news, and the latest in fat-tire electric cycling!

Episode #47 of Cleantech Talk is here! This episode covers Cobalt, EV batteries, BMW batteries, Tesla batteries, and Car2Go.

Episode #46 of Cleantech Talk is here! This episode covers Tesla’s Q4 call and the question “what would you YIMBY?”

Episode 45 of Cleantech Talk is here! This episode covers Ferrari’s electric envy, California’s climate leadership, a “Dear Elon” letter, and Norway’s oil & gas expansion.

Episode #44 of Cleantech Talk is here! This episode covers Shenzhen’s taxi plans, the launch of China x Cleantech, premature triumphalism, and a Roger Bannister moment for EV charging access.

Episode #43 of Cleantech Talk is here! This episode covers accident liability for self-driving cars, the EV tax credit, and fuel cells’ exponential ramp.

Episode #42 of Cleantech Talk is here! This episode covers my LA Auto Show-inspired VW-Scooby Doo fantasy crossover and “Fair Trade” Copper.

This week is Cleantech Talk’s Tesla Truck take. Anyone can offer a “hot take” on current events, and darn near every media outlet did! But it takes a brave team (or just a very busy-with-other-work one!) to offer a “cold take” weeks later. In our defense, we were trying to add something to CleanTechnica’s already-substantive coverage and reflections (e.g., this and this).

Episode #40 of Cleantech Talk is here! This episode covers a massive electric bus order in Shenzhen, new bioplastics, and a huge new solar power plant in Oman.

Episode #39 of Cleantech Talk is here! A giant passive house project in Vancouver, a trackless train, and an unsatisfactory Tesla conference call stole the show in our opinion, so that's what we discussed.

Episode 38 of Cleantech Talk kicks off with a discussion of how, while China may be overperforming with its solar panel buildout, those panels are underperforming due to the low air quality there. Which is a polite way of saying that coal-combustion aerosols are reducing solar panels’ electricity harvest -- by up to a third! (Dark aerosols, like soot, tend to absorb light; other aerosols such as sulfates and nitrates, reflect light. In both cases, the aerosols prevent light from reaching solar panels below.) There’s a Laffer Curve at play here, Laffer Curve being a wonkish way of describing the Goldilocks principle that the ideal porridge is between the two extremes of hot and cold. A fellow named Arthur Laffer once pointed out that if a government wanted to maximize revenue, it shouldn’t set the tax rates too high or too low. To his everlasting credit, he pointed out that others had the idea before him, but the name “Laffer Curve” has stuck.

We started this episode talking about the LMX-161 e-motorcycle, then got into Shell EV charging stations, Big Oil, natural gas, ad-supported EV charging stations, and the benefits of low-energy-density renewables.

Cleantech Talk starts off this week with a clip from professional wrestler Daniel “The Progressive Liberal” Richards. (The clip played on the show starts at the 0:27 mark from this YouTube video.) Nicolas Zart and Matthew Klippenstein also chat about electric bikes, plug-in hybrids, Tesla (of course), and Crossing the Chasm.

Though cars get most of the attention, batteries will participate in our cleantech energy transition on land, in the air and by sea. And in today’s Cleantech Talk, we cover them all. It’s something of a “double-cheeseburger” episode, in that we stretched ourselves around four topics instead of the usual two.

Hyperloops, high-speed trains, battery-electric cars, and hydrogen-fuel-cell cars — how do they relate?