Energy Efficiency, Sourcing Renewables, Wind  -  January 18, 2020

Weekend reads: 2020 Energy Forecast; Hyundai and Kia's secret EV project

It's the weekend! Kick back and catch up with these must-read articles from around the web.

A Forecast For The Next Decade Of Alternative Energy (Forbes) The 2020s will be a defining decade for alternative energy. Over the last decade, renewable energy costs dropped due to advancements in technology due to innovation and design, materials and manufacturing of wind turbines and solar panels. What will the next 10 years bring for alternative energy? Here are three trends that will define the 2020s.

A $100 Million Investment Pulls an EV Startup Out of Stealth Mode (WIRED) Hyundai and Kia announced Thursday that they are investing $111.5 million in Arrival, a startup British automaker building electric delivery vans. The three companies will jointly develop vehicles and share know-how as Arrival scales up its operations and moves to put a vehicle on the market in the next few years.

Green Hydrogen Could Price Gas Out of Power Markets by 2050 (Bloomberg) Power plants that run on hydrogen could be cost-competitive with those using fossil fuels by the middle of the century if governments double the cost of carbon pollution. The findings in a report by BloombergNEF show the main challenge blocking hydrogen from the grid remains an economic one. Policy makers and companies are studying how to use the lightest element as a way to slash emissions from industrial processes, since hydrogen creates no greenhouse gases when it’s burned.

The Guilt Report: 2019 Edition (Vivint.Solar) Are you feeling a little (or a lot) guilty about taking long showers in the morning, throwing away a water bottle instead of recycling it, or blasting your heat when you get home from work? If so, then you have a lot in common with many people across the country. As climate change news and headlines become more prevalent, so does eco guilt. What’s eco guilt? It’s that feeling you get when you know that you could adjust your habits to be more green usually resulting from learning more about climate change, pollution, or listening to climate change activists, like Greta Thunberg. 

New Kansas license plate features wind turbines (Daily Globe) Kansas will begin issuing new personalized license plates Wednesday that celebrate the state’s status as a power player for renewable energy. The new design features wind turbines profiled against a sunrise. “Kansas is a leader in alternative energy, and this plate helps feature the fact the state has a long history of adopting technology that shapes the future,” said Mark Burghart, secretary for the Kansas Department of Revenue.

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