As Subsidies Wane, Market Forces Drive the Growth of Renewables

Solar panels cover the sloping roofs of the police headquarters in Mainz, a picturesque city on the Rhine whose most famous inhabitant was Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press. The station’s rooftop photovoltaic system was installed more than 10 years ago and is run by UrStrom eG, one of the hundreds of citizens’ cooperatives that have driven Germany’s renewable energy revolution. “It was our first project,” says UrStrom’s Klaus Grieger, a retired software developer.

Germany's renewable energy market is shifting from
 small-scale facilities to larger operations, such as this
70.8-megawatt photovoltaic park in Brandenburg.

The introduction of government incentives such as feed-in tariffs in the 1990s allowed citizen cooperatives like UrStrom to invest in the wind turbines and small-scale solar installations that now dot the wine-growing region around Mainz. Under the tariff policy, renewable energy producers could sell their electricity at above-market prices guaranteed for 20 years —a subsidy scheme that jump-started renewable power in the country and was copied across Europe. The share of renewables in Germany’s electricity consumption rose from less than 5 percent in 1990 to almost 37 percent in 2017, and much of that energy was citizen-owned or operated.

Read the Yale Environment 360 story by Vaishnavi Chandrashekhar - “As Subsidies Wane, Market Forces Drive the Growth of Renewables.”

Nikola Tesla and the Conspiracy Against Water-Powered Cars

When water-powered car inventor Stanley Meyer sat down to lunch, he never expected the unwelcome surprise of death. But just like pregnancy or the IRS tax man, death doesn’t care about your life plans. It was the third Friday in March, the year was 1998. John Travolta was on the cover of Time magazine, made-up to look like Bill Clinton. The Big Lebowski and Wild Things were playing at the multiplex. Will Smith’s track Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It was the #1 song in America. Which makes it very possible that Will Smith’s radio-friendly voice was in the air, perhaps leaking out of the open car windows of a passing sedan, when water-powered car inventor Stanley Meyer exploded from the restaurant.

In 1899, Nikola Tesla takes notes in his laboratory,
as high voltage electricity arcs from his “magnifying transmitter”.

Meyer was dining with his two Belgian investors and his brother. Just after enjoying a swallow of cranberry juice, he was seized by the grip of panic. He stood up and fled the table. His brother chased him into the parking lot, where he found him on the ground. Stanley Meyer’s life was reduced to dying words. With his last breath, Meyer accused the Belgian investors of assassinating him: “They poisoned me…” And then, the water-powered car inventor died.

Read the story by Zaron Burnett III from Medium - “Nikola Tesla and the Conspiracy Against Water-Powered Cars.”

UK inventor James Dyson to launch electric car by 2020

James Dyson, the billionaire inventor of the bagless vacuum cleaner and bladeless fan, is building an electric car that will launch by 2020, the latest firm to challenge traditional carmakers in a burgeoning market.

Billionaire inventor James Dyson said he finally
had the opportunity to bring all his company's
 technologies together into a single product.  

Tesla has already shaken up the sector around the world and Dyson said it would now spend $3.4 billion on solid-state battery technology and vehicle design.

The announcement could stoke debate in Australia over the subsidisation and slow adoption of electric cars. Australian drivers lag behind developed markets in their transition to green vehicles.

On a rare visit to Australia in June, Renault Nissan Alliance chairman Carlos Ghson told Fairfax Media that electric cars will not be a success in Australia until governments are willing to subsidise their use.

Read the story in today’s Melbourne Age by Paul Sandle - “UK inventor James Dyson to launch electric car by 2020.”