Energy Efficiency, Solar, Sourcing Renewables  -  June 9, 2018

Weekend reads: Meet Tesla, the energy company; Big oil's play for RE & more

Kick back and relax with these must-read energy stories from around the web: 

Tesla is starting to actually become an energy company (Business Green)  The voice of Tesla CEO Elon Musk wavered on Tuesday afternoon onstage during the company's shareholder's meeting as he described "the most excruciating, hellish few months I think I've ever had." He was referring to Tesla's struggles to scale up production of the Model 3, a lower-cost, more mainstream electric car that will be make-or-break for Tesla. Yet amidst the consternation over Model 3 manufacturing, Musk pointed to a bright spot for the 15-year-old company that makes and sells electric cars, batteries and solar panels: stationary energy storage installations.

Big Oil Is Investing Billions in Renewable Energy. Here's Where and How. (The Motley Fool) If the future of energy were a storybook, then renewable energy would play the part of the hero. That would leave oil and gas producers as the villains -- and it's not difficult to see why. The transportation, electricity generation, and industrial sectors account for 78% of America's total carbon emissions. A couple of famous oil spills don't really help from the PR perspective, either. That has led many public and private institutions to expel any holdings in the oil and gas industry from their endowments, but that might not be a wise strategy in the long run. Displacing and replacing fossil fuels won't be easy. Nor cheap.  

The energy sector is driving job growth, but not where you think (Utility Dive)  Wind, gas and storage jobs are all increasing in the energy sector, but the fastest employment growth isn't coming from the supply side, according to the 2018 U.S. Energy and Employment Report. It's energy efficiency that's creating the most opportunities, the new analysis concludes in an examination of four energy-focused sectors of the U.S. economy. The traditional energy and energy efficiency sectors, which employ about 6.5 million Americans, saw a 2% increase in jobs in 2017, or about 133,000 new positions. 

How solar power could become a victim of its own success (Wired)  Solar is the world’s fastest-growing source of new energy, outpacing growth in all other forms of renewable energy, according to research by the International Energy Agency (IEA) published in November. Renewables overall accounted for two-thirds of new power added to the world’s grids in 2016, and solar even overtook coal in terms of net growth. This enormous boost has come about thanks in part to the plummeting costs of getting rigged up to wind and solar, as well as massive growth in China and India.

Missouri man’s electric car thwarts would-be carjackers (Fox 4KC)  A St. Louis man believes he may be one of the first victims of an attempted carjacking involving an electric vehicle. Fortunately, it seems that type of car may have prevented thieves from getting what they were after. The victim, who goes by the name "Dan Dan The Driving Man," said he thought his life was over on the weekend of May 19 as he was recharging his electric vehicle at a station on South Grand. Dan told KTVI he uses that station because it can charge his vehicle in 30 minutes as opposed to 4 to 6 hours at his home.  

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