This section archives articles on topics that don't quite fit into the other categories. They include articles on high-mileage vehicles, chain-reaction accidents, our neighbors, Tule fog, and . . . well . . . other subjects.
On 8 September we drove our 2015 Nissan Leaf from Bakersfield to Grover Beach, California using only DC Fast Charging (DCFC) stations.[more]
“It looks like a contract that was written five years ago on a business case that was probably pulled together 10 years ago,” British journalist Ambrose Evans-Pritchard cites a spokesperson for...
Canada's Electrovaya Inc said on Tuesday it signed an agreement to supply lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles to an original equipment maker, its second such deal with a NYSE-listed Fortune...
The trip was in part to visit a friend and in part to test the performance of two new DC Fast Chargers (DCFC) in the Tejon Pass. [more]
A year on from the “Dieselgate” scandal that engulfed Volkswagen, damning new research reveals that all major diesel car brands, including Fiat, Vauxhall and Suzuki, are selling models that emit far...
In the 21st century, the UK will have to supply itself with power that is affordable, reliable and clean. But in almost every way, the proposed Hinkley Point C nuclear power station offers only...
Toyota's chief engineer says that electric powertrains have developed to the point where it is now cheaper to build low-range electric cars than it is to produced hybrids.
I finished the drive with 240.5 miles on the trip meter, just above the EPA number of 238. But the onboard computer said I could continue driving, perhaps for another 50 miles, bringing my total to...
Electric cars are very much on the city's radar according to Eric MacNaughton, transportation coordinator for the city's Climate Change Project
In the first quarter of 2016, sales were up 75 per cent over the same time period last year, according to statistics compiled by Fleetcarma, a Waterloo-based telematics company that specializes in EV...
Completion of the US Green Vehicle Council and Cleantech Institute’s network of CHAdeMO DC fast charging stations will make north-south travel in the Southern San Joaquin Valley easier for...[more]
The inside story of how a little known group and its level-headed activists led to the closure of two of the most infamous nuclear reactors in the United States. The forthcoming closure of the two...[more]
Oil imports are only one chapter of the story. The fact is, we spend or lose an insane amount of money, time, productivity, and quality of life from burning oil-based fuels. All of this strikes into...
Recently we took a train trip to San Francisco and on to Corte Madera by ferry. For lack of something better to do, we drove to a number of Electric Vehicle (EV) charge stations in the vicinity.[more]
Nordic power consumption is expected to grow due to the electrification of the transport sector and the phase-out of fossil-fuelled vehicles, but analysts are mixed over how disruptive the impact...
But what do electric car drivers miss about owning and driving gasoline cars? That’s an empty space, a void, a yawning chasm. This article tries to add some words to that side of the scale.
EDF leaders are now in such a state of panic over their Hinkley C proposals that desperate messages were being sent out to tell the British Government that they need to take a £6 billion equity share...
Senate Bill 32 will require the state to not only continue its programs to switch from petroleum to electricity for our cars, trucks, and buses, but to accelerate the transition.
The "voice of Europe's nuclear industry" has produced an embarassingly manipulative chart that hypes up nuclear and plays down renewables. This is how you don't do it, folks.
An item in the Indianapolis Star prodded me to pull out an article I started work on two years ago. It’s been in my inbox all that time. I’ve been busy with my day job and writing about the tragedy...[more]
Legislative committee hears from Quebec government about success of electric vehicle incentives.
Technological advances mean the cost of renewables is coming down, representing far better value for taxpayers’ money
Name of China General Nuclear Power, which holds stake in the planned new reactors, has appeared in US legal papers
UK government’s own projections expect onshore wind power and large-scale solar to cost less per megawatt hour than new nuclear by 2025
FBI says Chinese stakeholder in proposed plant has been engaged in two-decade conspiracy to steal US nuclear secrets
Electric vehicle charging companies are calling for independent oversight of the $2 billion Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) is required to invest in clean car infrastructure, saying VW should not have the...
When clean energy doesn’t mean what you think it does.[more]
The Democratic Party Platform calls for a global summit to solve the climate crisis within the first 100 days of the new administration and a WWII-level mobilization to combat climate change. If...[more]
Recargo has been awarded more than $1.6 million from the California Energy Commission (CEC) to help complete key routes of the West Coast Electric Highway (WCEH).
While automakers have agreed on uniform plug standards for slower types of charging used at home and work, they have not done so for what’s known as DC fast charging, which can fill a battery in less...
The first big action is to set aside $4.5 billion in loan guarantees, and invite applications to support the commercial-scale deployment of innovative electric vehicle charging facilities throughout...
The city of Red Lodge installed in late June two Tesla destination chargers and two Clipper Creek universal chargers at its public restroom site at 305 N. Oakes Ave., opening up the region to drivers...
But the strong upward trend is undeniable to most—although not to Richard Muller, a professor of physics at UC Berkeley, who argues that EVs are destined for failure. “I predict that the electric...
The Region of Durham has joined the call started by the City of Oshawa – General Motors should produce electric vehicles in Oshawa.
The recent settlement between the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Volkswagen (VW) for its diesel engine fraud could more than triple the number of electric vehicle (EV) fast chargers...[more]
The Electric Circuit is delighted to announce the installation of 11 fast-charge stations in the Gaspésie and Bas-Saint-Laurent regions. The stations will be commissioned this summer, allowing...
On July 10, Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), under PM Abe Shinzo, won a massive majority in the Upper House elections. A couple of years ago, that result would have been read as...[more]
The recent settlement between the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and Volkswagen (VW) for its diesel engine fraud could transform electric vehicle (EV) charging in the state. As a certain...[more]
EV advocates urge CARB to immediately convene an advisory group for maximizing public input into how the settlement money will be spent in the public interest. [more]
A lot of business elites have clearly thrown in the towel on nuclear and are instead openly lobbying to have Japan vault to global leadership in renewables, efficiency and smart infrastructure.[more]
California Electric Auto Association members call on CARB to stress EV charging infrastructure in the state's GHG Scoping Plan. EV charging must be front and center in the policy discussion.
This is the first in a series of six publications aimed at answering frequently asked questions that have emerged from the spread of misinformation following the implementation of Alberta's Climate...
The Dutch Government has awarded a contract to build two 350 MW Borssele offshore windfarms for 87 euros per MWh (£74 per MWh), some 25 per cent cheaper than the current value of the contract for...
Critics said it showed just how volatile and uncertain the project had become, given that the same energy department’s estimate 12 months earlier had been £14bn.
Yet, Brexit does offer a unique opportunity for the European community to put an end to the support of nuclear power. Therefore, the termination of the EURATOM Treaty needs to be put on the EU agenda...
Sweden has now opened what is says is the world’s first electric highway. The focus is on trucks, which connect to the overhead power lines much in the way trams – or, indeed, electric buses in...
Much of the nation’s vehicle fleet could be converted to run on electricity with hardly a ripple felt by the power grid, according to recent findings by the Rocky Mountain Institute.
The Consent Decree also requires Volkswagen to invest $800 million dollars in ZEV infrastructure and access over a 10-year period in California.
The money for California includes . . . $800 million in investments to advance California’s nation-leading zero-emissions vehicle programs.
According to the climate plan, “Ontario will work with Plug’n Drive, a non-profit electric vehicle advocacy organization, to establish and operate a facility to showcase electric vehicles and related...
The following is post-nuclear vision for Diablo Canyon.[more]
3-minute video montage of the seismic history at the troubled Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, put to the 1964 song parody recorded by "The Goodtime Washboard 3" (Bratton-Fagerstrom-Pope).
It seems the world can’t shift quickly enough to electric vehicles. Within the past few months there has been a steady drumbeat of stories about possible bans on combustion vehicles, prompting calls...
Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant will be shut down in 2025 after its operating licenses expire, owner Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has announced. Here's a look at what will become of the plant,...
Weeks after the first new US reactor in decades failed to ramp up for the first time, the Washington Post has run two articles on how important the reactor will be in combating climate change. There...
Translations of recent statements made by top German officials make it sound like the country is about to do the right thing. Reality is a bit messier.
It’s amusing to watch the blogosphere go wild with certain memes. (We used to call them themes.) The latest is that Germany is going to mandate all cars must be zero emission vehicles by 2030. [more]
"The present schedule for constructing the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant is predicated on beginning construction in October 1972. This schedule is extremely tight and failure to begin construction in...
Have I mentioned before that Germany does not have too much renewable power, it has too much baseload? The state of Schleswig-Holstein, which had just over 100% renewable power net last year, is a...
So there you have it: Norway is not going to prohibit its citizens from buying new diesel/gasoline cars, but it will implement progressive policies to encourage a transition towards electric...
In late May, strikes reduced nuclear power production in France. Yet even more plants were offline a few weeks earlier without any strikes at all. German and European renewable electricity may have...
The Quebec government has introduced a bill that would make it the first province in Canada to require automakers to sell or lease a minimum number of zero-emission vehicles.
The Wynne government in Ontario is considering spending more than $300 million to patch up Canada’s oldest nuclear generating station in hopes of keeping it running for another eight years or more.
An accelerated adoption of electric vehicles would hasten the end of the oil era, and could cause significant geopolitical turbulence as producer countries heavily reliant on oil revenues will...
Alberta’s ambitious plan has a variety of elements, including phasing out dirty coal-fired power plants, creating a provincial electricity efficiency strategy, and capping emissions from the...
I still think that global warming is easily solved once the fossil fuel owners understand how to profit from the phaseout.
Researchers say a flat fee on electric vehicles won’t help solve declining road funding revenues, like those faced here in the state.
Fifty-five percent of California drivers “are likely to consider an electric vehicle (EV) in their next vehicle purchase or lease,” according to a new survey conducted by the Union of Concerned...
Assesses the design and effectiveness of fiscal and other incentives for electric vehicles in Germany, the UK, France, the Netherlands, and Norway, at both national and, through a set of ten case...
This is the first of—we hope—a series of DC Fast Charging stations to be installed this month under US Green Vehicle Council’s contract with the California Energy Commission.[more]
Electric cars remain a noteworthy sight almost everywhere but Scandinavia, where Norwegians have bucked the trend by buying alternative-fuel vehicles.
If you follow nuclear news, it’s been an exciting week. First, Der Spiegel reported (in German) that the EU aimed to ramp up nuclear “massively,” including with the construction of “flexible...
The Ontario government is now aiming to grow the new-vehicle market share held by electric vehicles to 5% by the year 2020, and 12% by 2025, according to recent reports.
According to spokespersons for the proposed 'NuGen' nuclear development at Moorside in Cumbria either or both the Japanese and American Governments could end up part-paying for the proposed 3.8 GW...
Given all the squawking over the Ontario government’s climate change action plan, you might think Environment and Climate Change Minister Glen Murray has gone rogue in setting extreme targets for the...
The nuclear plant at Fort Calhoun is simply too expensive to run when compared to other, cheaper forms of power, the Omaha Public Power District’s chief executive said Thursday. So it needs to shut...
French nuclear therefore does not facilitate the integration of wind and solar in neighboring countries. Rather, it clogs up the grid and reduces flexibility.
Campaigning in Appalachia on Monday, Hillary Clinton claimed she "misspoke" when previously declaring her opposition to coal, telling voters that as president she would work to ensure that the...
This means 14 500-volt fast-charging stations will go up along Highways 401, 416, 417 and 17. The proposal also included the commissioning of eight 240-volt Level-2 charging stations to be built...
Overall, Chernobyl led to an educated German public, not a fearful one, as this book attests.
We are unsure of when this study was first commissioned, but you can be sure it was well before Volkswagen’s dieselgate scandal was in full bloom.
Mueller used the company's annual news conference to also sketch out a plan to focus more on electric vehicles and services like car-sharing as it seeks to get past its emissions scandal.
Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca says the government will work with 27 private and public sector partners to create a network of charging stations at over 250 different locations.
Chernobyl allowed the nuclear sector to claim that uninformed hippies blocked nuclear by spreading irrational fear. The claim not only overlooks Wall Street, but also supposes a level of influence...
So when we tell you that Samsung SDI has just sold its fuel cell division because it is simply unprofitable (and presumably has no long-term chance of making a profit), we think the facts speak for...
The previous version required reading the instructions, watching a video on line, and--if you were smart—a practice session or two before you needed it on a road trip with a line of Nissan Leafs...[more]
The U.S. Department of Energy cites electric cars as making up about a third of all vehicles on the road in 1900. In 1911, the New York Times even called existing electric vehicles “ideal.”
Don’t add Germany to the list of countries officially considering banning sales of cars running on gasoline or diesel just yet. But several prominent people are pushing the government to take steps...
The French Government has been faced with what seems to many to be the ludicrous prospect of heavily subsidising a power station to supply the British with electricity.
The parking structure, situated near the Santa Clara Convention Center, Levi’s Stadium and the California Great America theme park, features 48 Level 2 chargers and one DC Fast Charger.
The general observation of other Nissan Leaf owners is true that the more you use the Leaf the better the traction battery capacity appears. Whether this is actual improvement in the traction...[more]
The proud makers of the world's top-selling luxury brands such as Mercedes, BMW, Audi and Porsche could not fathom how a small-time, loss-making upstart from California could ever compete with the...
So let's get this right, the Torygraph is saying that nuclear power plant can't or won't turn down their power stations, so it's windfarms and solar farms that are the problem?
A political arrangement is being passed off as a technical issue. Stop protecting nuclear and coal; get rid of baseload.
Previously, Norway and the Netherlands have also begun discussing whether to limit sales of new gasoline and diesel cars to reduce air pollution.[more]
Leading global coal producer Peabody Energy Corp BTU.N filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection on Wednesday after a sharp drop in coal prices left it unable to service debt of $10.1 billion, much of it...
As the share of renewable grows, demand for fossil fuel goes down. All things equal, that would mean lower prices for fossil fuel.
ake a large number of scientists who have grown up with the firm belief that nuclear power is the future of energy, face them with the fact that nuclear power is proving to be undeliverable in...
"While the power station has served the nation for many years, the world is moving forward to cleaner, cheaper forms of renewable energy generation."
The point to consider is why would an industry body try to stop the inevitable? It hasn't worked out for the coal industry. It didn't work for Kodak.
The roll-out of electric vehicles must be “greatly accelerated” to the point where, within five years, electric cars must account for 20% of all new cars sold in Ireland.
Solar and wind would generate the equivalent power to Hinkley over the plant’s planned lifetime for £40bn less, says analysis comparing future costs
We have to electrify as much of that energy usage as we can, because most of our renewable sources of energy produce electricity. That's true of solar and wind, geothermal and hydro power. So we need...
Engineers at the French utility EDF have also called for delay, saying that the project is very complicated and unproven. “Right now, Hinkley is too risky for the company. We think it is better to...
When Scott Negri’s restaurant project at The Dunes was approved by the Marina Planning Commission Feb. 11, it meant the addition of an amenity to the area that was barely discussed in several public...
The Dutch parliament has taken the first step in banning petrol and diesel cars from sale in the Netherlands from 2025.
Those early adopters are paving the way for the mainstream buyer, and the automakers are lining up to greet them. Currently there are 12 battery electric vehicles and 14 plug-in hybrids (which use a...
Confirmed multiple times in different interviews with BMW executives, the longer-range BMW i3 was promised to arrive by the end of summer, pushing the BMW i3 over the 100-mile range barrier for the...
But there is another reason for resistance to careful thinking; it can be difficult and distressing, especially if it leads to conclusions that are uncomfortable or contrary to our current beliefs....
In Los Angeles, coal supplies 33 to 40 percent of the electricity provided by the L.A. Department of Water and Power, our city-owned public utility.
As part of its punishment for the emissions scandal, the EPA could also require VW to make electric or hybrid vehicles in Tennessee, according to several recent reports in the German press.
In a symbolic gesture, the federal government also plans to replace their limousines with electric vehicles. Are we going to see Justin Trudeau in a Tesla?
But negotiations between the two groups resulted in a legislative compromise--dubbed the Clean Electricity and Coal Transition Plan--that will wean the state off coal-fired electricity no later than...
There is no intention to outright ban non-electric vehicles, however they will become very unfavorably taxed, making them a much less interesting alternative than electric cars.
Rumors are swirling in Germany that Volkswagen (VW), under pressure to reach a settlement with US and California regulators by March 24th, is considering the creation of two mitigation funds and...[more]
I asked if he had noticed less interest in plug-in cars due to lower gas prices. He immediately said no, adding that those who were on the fence no longer showed strong interest—but that gas prices...
Vattenfall has failed to find a buyer for its coal assets in Germany. The focus is now on alternative models, such as a fund to protect workers.
We took a chance when we bought our Tesla, and it’s paying off because our power comes from the wind. Our residential sized turbine captures wind from Lake Superior in Upper Michigan and fuels our...
Peabody Energy Corp (BTU.N), the largest U.S. coal producer, may have to seek bankruptcy protection, the company said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday, citing poor economies in countries that...
Bernard Chabot is back today with a comparison of wind and nuclear in the "BICS" countries (BRICS without Russia). He points out that wind has boomed in China since the country got rid of auctions...
Onshore wind schemes now being installed are being paid over 30 per cent less than what Hinkley C would be paid under the UK Government's current agreement with EDF if it was generating now.
EDF’s £18bn project to build nuclear reactors in Britain is potentially risky for the state-owned utility, whose foreign investments in recent years have proved disappointing, France’s top public...
But not only can renewables supply baseload power, they can do something far more valuable: supply power flexibly according to demand. Now nuclear power really is redundant.
Canadian electric-vehicle policy seems to be enjoying its own annus mirabilis, or "wonderful year," during 2016.
Although opposed by homebuilders, the electric vehicle readiness requirement says new single-family homes and duplexes built in the city will need to have the right electrical wiring to support...
Strange as it may seem, there is now a plausible argument for anti-nuclear campaigners to call for Hinkley C to be built. Why? Because the financial catastrophe that would, as a result, envelope, and...
The French press should start asking tough questions and stop making this a “he said, she said” issue between allegedly anti-nuclear Germans and the French. Don’t do it for the Germans; the French...
However, the resignation of EDF’s finance director, Thomas Piquemal, shows nervousness at the top of the group about the dangers of a project of this magnitude, even though chief executive...
We arrived with 55% charge remaining as opposed to last year’s 51%. We returned home with 34% State of Charge, slightly more than the 32% SOC during last year’s trip.[more]
Proterra, the high-tech startup, demonstrated its all-electric bus for Golden Empire Transit (GET) staff today. The company hopes to sell GET, the transit company serving Bakersfield, two electric...[more]
There was no signage and parking was at a premium. If nothing is done, these stations will be next to useless. They will be constantly ICEd and no one will be able to get in and charge.[more]
Because of the pace of incremental change, and because product cycles of cars are slower than they are for cellphones, an innovation revolution in electric cars has always felt distant. And yet we’re...
A new market forecast from Bloomberg New Energy Finance paints a rosy picture for the future of electric vehicles, rising from about 1 percent of global annual vehicle sales today to 35 percent by...
Nearly five years after the nation’s worst nuclear accident, Tokyo Electric Power Co. has admitted that its staff failed to follow damage assessment guidelines, according to which they should have...
Call it the revenge of the electric car. Electric vehicles that seemed doomed just a few years ago to languish outside the mainstream are poised to reshape the auto industry in the coming decade,...
Die Welt am Sonntag is reporting that federal officials ask automaker to make electric vehicles in in Tennessee following emissions scandal.
A new group that's being cobbled together with fossil fuel backing hopes to spend about $10 million dollars per year to boost petroleum-based transportation fuels and attack government subsidies for...
This grant solicitation was an offer to fund projects that will install Direct Current (DC) fast charging stations on Interstate 5 (I-5), State Route 99 (SR 99), and along United States Highway 101...
The boss of one of the three supposed consortia claimed to be building Britain's nuclear power stations has all but admitted that his project is a fantasy one.
How much has the car's battery capacity declined since we leased it and will it recover when warm weather returns?[more]
Ontario has announced extra incentives for people who buy or lease electric vehicles that could boost available help to as much as $14,000.
I started a list of how life has changed since driving an all-electric car — the list grows longer by the day.
We drive 2015 Nissan Leaf, an Electric Vehicle or EV. Both before and after we leased the car, I carefully researched the kinds of EVs available and what would be best for us. I learned a lot from...[more]
The announcement by the Treasury that their offer of loan guarantees for the EPR at Hinkley C is linked to successful functioning of the Flamanville EPR means that short of absolute lunacy reigning...
Wherein we again learn the importance of avoiding dependence on a GPS, on the value of paper maps, and on driving conservatively.[more]
he spectacle of the disastrous attempts to build a new generation of nuclear reactor - the European Pressurised Reactors (EPRs) - and EDF's apparent desire to carry on despite the increasing...
Despite the majority of Japanese opposing a restart of the nation's nuclear reactors, the government continues to press for a full resumption of nuclear power. Energy expert Tetsunari Iida tells DW...
Although the PUC has already said it will reduce the number of charging stations in the original proposals by SCG&E and PG&E, the plans are still troubling in their scale and their financing.
As if anything extra was needed to demonstrate the financial lunacy of the Hinkley C project to all parties concerned, EDF, according to French press reports, now wants the French Government to pay...
The creating of a new unit dedicated to “battery-powered vehicles” is a milestone as well — indicating that the auto giant has confidence that battery-powered vehicles are not just a passing fad, a...
The electric car market has been growing exponentially in the past few years. But it is still a small percentage of the new car market in most places, typically representing less than 1% of new car...
Mercedes is still the best-selling manufacturer when you combine their two vehicles in this class. But it’s clear that Tesla is eating into the traditional automakers with its single offering, and...
Britain is to get its first “electric service stations” as part of a £40m government fund to encourage drivers to switch to plug-in cars.
This post addresses the following questions: How does my EV handle winter outings in the mountains? How well does it drive in the snow? This post also relates another example for how rapid DC...
So we are backing up the cheap renewables with fossil fuels that are not so cheap, and the solution to that is to use the fossil fuels that are not so cheap all the time? That sum does not quite add...
A few times a year, a news story appears about electric vehicles having high carbon emissions, throwing doubt onto electric vehicles' ability to play a major part in any low-carbon transportation...
Electric vehicles (EVs) probably don’t cause cancer, but that doesn’t stop some people from saying that they do. I came across a bizarre version of this meme a few months ago at a social gathering...[more]
They also see a larger mission in pressing the German automaker to make a shift toward more electric vehicles.
Germany is considering providing 2 billion euros to subsidize the purchasing of more electric cars. German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel is behind the idea, which also includes adding more EV...
By the end of 2016, the goal is to have 800 charging stations, including 60 rapid chargers, all of which will be placed along Quebec’s major highways.
Electric cars are taking centre stage at the Montreal International Auto Show, thanks in part to the Quebec government's efforts to get them in the hands of consumers.
The drawbacks are many and severe and worse of all; unadvertised!! I will expose the secrets the electric car manufacturers do not want you to know!
Following closely on the first place position held by the Tesla offering are two of the other top-selling electric vehicles out there — the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and the Nissan LEAF...
Further delays at the Daishan EPR project being built in China are hammering another nail in a coffin. The only debate now is whether the coffin will house the Hinkley C project or the whole of EDF.
Note also that neither of these models requires that the car manufacturer is a party to the deal. If Tesla does not want to sell their cars without batteries, that does not keep a Tesla owner from...
Niels Buus Kristensen, Head of Department at DTU Transport and a member of the Danish government’s climate advisory committee, finds that electric vehicles hold the key to a transport sector...
Electric vehicles appear to be the cars of the future, but in the present they are not very popular in Tulare County.
Is it a sin that electric car owners don’t pay gas taxes? No, not at all, but you’d never know it listening to some people squawk. There are anti-electric car types who think this is a huge deal,...
If we finally are to cleanse our Valley air and make this a more healthy place, we must get belching old cars off the streets and start adding electric cars and plug-in hybrids to our garages.
BMW and Nissan Motors have recently joined forces to develop faster DC charging for electric cars, supplying new stations to 19 states. The hope is to make it easier to charge vehicles like the...
The “Exit now” article assumes that the phase-out caused this financial misery. In fact, the phase-out gave power firms a brief respite. If the nine (of 17) reactors switched off immediately after...
With improved technology and the prices of solar (and wind) energy falling exponentially, along with lithium battery prices falling about 14%-16%, there will be massive disruptions to the...
They pledged, specifically, to create a West Coast electric vehicle highway, keyed to transforming city-owned vehicle fleets to electric vehicles and making electric vehicle chargers available to the...
The 1-cubic-meter bags are found at some 114,700 interim storage or decontamination sites across the prefecture. In the town of Tomioka -- covered by a nuclear disaster evacuation order -- mounds of...
Who doesn’t want a metaphorical peak under the hood of their Electric Vehicle (EV)? Leaf Spy, a smart phone app, talks to the computer in Nissan’s Leaf and displays the data it finds there—data...[more]
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said Tuesday that her government is investing $20 million toward hundreds of electric-vehicle charging stations to be installed within and between urban centres.
When you drive an Electric Vehicle (EV), most of the time you charge at home. For those times when you don’t, you need to know where you can charge. The pre-eminent choice among drivers is Plugshare,...[more]
It’s unfortunately not uncommon to see skewed and misleading articles about electric vehicles in the popular press. The most recent example, a Washington Post article “Electric cars and the coal...
Every day brings another headline about a bad study making false claims about electric cars, another well-known-enough person sneering at them, or another video of someone rolling coal all over an...
Presentation to the Sierra Club's Buena Vista Group, Bakersfield, California 5 December 2015.
During his recent tour of the Maritimes, Cuellar described how both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have unwittingly become complicit in environmental devastation, forced displacement, disappearances...
If you plan to take your Electric Vehicle (EV) on a road trip in North America today, you must take along a portable charge cable. Like a spare tire, a portable charge cable is an essential piece of...[more]
The Carbon Tax Center released a letter signed by 32 notable individuals calling for a carbon tax--from right to left--from Robert Reich to Jerry Taylor (Cato, ALEC) to George Schultz of the Hoover...
Line up energy sources by unpopularity, and you have the British government's priorities listed; in other words, the government is doing exactly what the British public don't want
In a move that will astonish many the Treasury have decided to count payments to existing fossil and nuclear power stations for providing capacity as 'environmental' levies'.
Essentially, Austria is simply shutting down plants that are not making money. Two out of three of them happen to be coal-fired.
The chancellor, George Osborne, revealed on Wednesday that at least £250m will be spent by 2020 on an “ambitious” programme to “position the UK as a global leader in innovative nuclear technologies”.
It’s strange yet on the eve of COP21 in Paris, starting on November 30th, where humanity will try to save itself, that reasoned, careful analysis of previous such attempts have been heedlessly left...
Canada’s leader on climate change is now Alberta. Just like that, the province has gone from pariah to paragon. On Sunday, Premier Rachel Notley’s New Democratic government unveiled a program to...
Alberta’s Climate Leadership Plan accelerates the transition from coal to renewable electricity sources, puts a price on carbon pollution for everyone, and sets emissions limits for the oil sands.
In October of 2014 we leased a 2015 Nissan Leaf, a battery-powered Electric Vehicle or EV. After one year of operation we can tally what it has cost us.[more]
Toward the end of October we passed the one-year mark with our 2015 Nissan Leaf, a battery-powered Electric Vehicle (EV). It was time to tally it’s operating cost.[more]
Amber Rudd today compounded the fantasy that surrounds UK energy policy by declaring that the future would depend on new gas fired and nuclear power stations without any realistic policies of...
By 2030, half of Saskatchewan’s power will come from renewable sources, with wind, solar and geothermal energy all thrown into the mix.
Kent's cross-country trip is now at 17,310.5 miles, and his next stop will be Albuquerque, then the Grand Canyon. In between cities, he charges at KOA campgrounds, using an adaptor that allows him...
Dailykanban received information that in one or two weeks, a number of other automakers will be exposed as diesel cheaters. A Volkswagen problem will turn into an industry-wide systemic problem, and...
A study released earlier this year suggested that the first link in the causal chain that led to the current conflict in Syria was a severe drought lasting from 2006 through 2009, a drought that...
This life cycle assessment aims to compare four types of similar-sized passenger vehicles in the New Zealand context, namely conventional petrol and diesel engine vehicles, and two types of PEVs...
Electric Vehicles (EVs) are simply cleaner than driving cars powered by fossil fuels, regardless of whether they use gasoline or diesel fuel.[more]
Electric Vehicles (EVs) use electricity stored in traction batteries to drive the wheels. There is no Internal Combustion Engine that burns gasoline or diesel. There is no tail pipe in an EV and,...[more]
EVs are more efficient in their use of fuel than cars powered by what insiders know as an Internal Combustion Engine or ICE. Because they are more efficient, EVs use fewer natural resources over...[more]
But we still need to keep in mind that the French dump nuclear on neighboring countries on the cheap when demand is low. When demand is high, French reactors cannot even cover domestic demand. In...
A shift in cultural attitudes and technology is giving political leaders more license to act on climate.
Electric cars tend to produce less carbon pollution than gas-powered ones—but just how much less? Enter your ZIP code below to see how different types of vehicles stack up in your area. Entering a...
We found that battery electric cars generate half the emissions of the average comparable gasoline car, even when pollution from battery manufacturing is accounted for.
While we need international institutions like the UN to facilitate a global energy and land-use transition, the UN cannot function, as it has in the past, as a tar-pit or morass to entrap the good...
In late October we tried a new route from Bakersfield to Grover Beach where we visit a family friend. . . The new route pushed the boundaries of what our 2015 Nissan Leaf is capable of—and our...[more]
The Abe government’s repositioning on energy is evident in an accelerating shift away from support for the nuclear village, in spite of a few restarts, and towards an increasingly impressive...
The miners want you to know that if you own a Tesla, you are driving a vehicle that is likely powered by Wyoming coal.” Small problem: If you live in California, that’s flat wrong.
We’ve driven the car 7,300 miles without any service whatsoever and when we took it to the dealer there was no charge for it’s annual inspection.[more]
Yep, only in Bakersfield, the oil capitol of California. Sunday morning I went down the drive to pick up the newspaper after gazing up at Venus, Jupiter, and Mars. What do I see? A special tag stuck...[more]
My own guess is that the British Government is only keeping the PR for the project positive because it hopes to provide a smooth passage for other financial deals it is doing with China, and to...
“It’s against the law for a company to misrepresent material information to a safety regulator,” said Aguirre, who is challenging a settlement agreement that forces customers to pay for most of San...
The causal framework that blames only fossil fuel companies also excuses us consumers who were and are only too happy to continue the fossil-fueled party, especially with no visible impingements on...
Further drastic losses on Hinkley C similar to the mounting losses accrued by AREVA and EDF on the EPRs being built in Finland (Olikuoto) and France (Flamanville) might lead to what hitherto has...
With the Government of Ontario looking to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 37% below 1990 levels by 2030, and with transportation being the largest emitting sector in Ontario, it is clear...
The government confirms that it is not continuing the ‘no public subsidy policy’ [for nuclear power] of the previous administration.
The German automaker not only installed the illegal emissions control software in its EA189 engines but then modified it for use in a total of four different engine types, indicating that the ...
The VW emissions scandal isn’t an outlier, but a symptom of the reality that internal combustion cars, whether gas or diesel, have reached the limits of effective compromises that will satisfy...
Volkswagen will cut investment plans at its biggest division by 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) a year and step up development of electric vehicles, it said on Tuesday, as it battles to cope with the...
Volkswagen, confronting a daunting threat to its size and prestige, is making a dramatic pivot to electric vehicles. The move has seemed a likely one since mid-September, when the German company was...
Volkswagen AG says it would cut investment by €1 billion ($1.5 billion Cdn) within the year and step up development of hybrid and electric vehicles.
French Minister of Ecology and Energy Segolene Royal says there are plans to extend the bonus to 10-year-old diesel cars, according to Life in France.
In what amounts to one of the auto industry’s greatest displays of Chutzpah, VW demanded the same subsidies for its diesel engines as was being offered to Electric Vehicles (EVs).[more]
Electric-vehicle owners are unplugging one another’s cars, trading insults, and creating black markets and side deals to trade spots in corporate parking lots.
Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Mazda and Mitsubishi have joined the growing list of manufacturers whose diesel cars are known to emit significantly more pollution on the road than in regulatory tests,...
But as it turns out, Volkswagen had pushed aggressively from 2009 to 2011 for its so-called "clean diesel" vehicles to receive the same tax credits as those granted to plug-in electric cars.
I've posted two charts of two charging sessions. Both report similar findings. The car charges at its maximum capacity--6 kW to the traction battery--for 2.5 hours before it begins tapering the...[more]
But Volkswagen lobbied hard before the announcement, demanding that its diesel engines receive special fuel economy credits for their environmental friendliness, just as zero-emission electric cars...
Environmentalists should insist that regulators force VW--willingly or unwillingly--to abandon the internal-combustion engine and switch to EVs now for our sake as well as for the future of VW. It’s...[more]
Could communities soon be generating their own renewable energy, charging their cars and controlling home appliances remotely?
EVs are making rapid progress if you don't have to search out charge stations in major cities around the world and instead just come across them in the urban fabric.[more]
While Nancy and I were guided around Nice, France by our colleague and good friend Bernard Chabot last week, we stumbled across this Peugeot Electric Vehicle (EV) charging.[more]
More than 70 percent of the nuclear fuel in one of the reactors at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is highly likely to have melted in the wake of the massive 2011...
What goes around comes around. Are you dreaming of purchasing a Tesla or some other all-electric automobile? Your great-great-grandfather might approve of your following in his footsteps.
As one analyst wrote: “For Volkswagen (and the auto industry), the dream of inexpensive clean diesel might be dead. Even if carmakers could deliver on VW’s false technological claims, the standard by...
The trashcan of history is filled with machines that once seemed as if they would last forever. Remember the typewriter? The rotary-dial telephone? Cameras that used film?
But, if it is true that we cannot win against thermodynamics, it is also true that we don't need to fight against it. A battle against the combustion engine was lost in the 1970s, but the war can...
“Time will certainly come when the nuclear power issue will emerge as a key campaign issue in elections,” Koizumi said. “Candidates will be judged by their positions on nuclear power."
A tipping point has been reached in the last two years for electric cars. Almost half of all fully or partially electric vehicles sold in the past decade were sold in 2014. In addition to the...
The belief that somehow nuclear power will be cheaper if somehow it is done differently here has been stoked by a recent IEA Report which says that British nuclear power, in the shape of the proposed...
This document describes and analyses the main characteristics of electricity production, imports and demand in California since 2001. Comparisons are made for Nuclear and renewables, with the clear...
Finally, a sophisticated, sober, and revealing explanation of why successive British governments have been hell bent on building two new--and very expensive--reactors by the French & Chinese. It just...
In short, Switzerland thus briefly lost 3,300 megawatts of baseload generation capacity. Power demand in the country ranges from around 5,000 (baseload) to over 10,000 megawatts (peak) in the summer.
The California Energy Commission (CEC) issued a document July 27, 2015 that called for proposals to complete California's portion of the West Coast Electric Highway.[more]
Wherein I learn some important lessons: Don’t get overconfident with an EV; Don’t believe LA valets about their knowledge of EVs; The value of quick charging; Plan carefully; and—as always—allow...[more]
I've pulled the statistics out of the article Star-Crossed Trip: Bakersfield to LAX & Return and put them here.[more]
Japan's Kyushu Electric Power has halted the ramp-up of power output from its Sendai No. 1 nuclear reactor due to a problem with a pump in the plant's secondary cooling system, a spokesman said on...
BlueIndy officials announced Thursday that the stalled electric car-share service will open to the public early next month.
The authors have a hierarchy of steps to take. First, “sufficiency” and efficiency reduces energy demand. Second, renewable energy cover
Environmental groups are urging the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to release a study on nuclear disaster scenarios that they say was suppressed. The commission released a study last year looking...
As widespread incredulity spreads about the UK Government's insistence that the plan to build Hinkley C nuclear power station is still on track, we must wonder which country and which companies will...
Fourteen years before General Motors (GM) introduced its EV1 and a quarter-century before it recalled and eventually destroyed nearly all of them, a GM division built an electric car only to see it...[more]
Fifty-seven percent of respondents to the weekend survey opposed Kyushu Electric Power Co's restart of a reactor at its Sendai plant in southwest Japan, set for Tuesday. Thirty percent supported the...
Regional power companies were cranking out the juice during the recent heat wave, proving that Japan can do without nuclear reactors even during the hottest days of summer.
French energy activists, Association négaWatt, have released their plan for France to reach nearly 100% renewable energy by 2050 in English. The move is a dramatic step by the French NGO to draw the...[more]
The flaws at the EPR reactor still under construction in Flamanville were apparently known way back in 2006. Now, the Swiss are finding similar fissures as those detected in Belgium – because they...
This situation once again disproves the common notion that Germany can “rely” on French nuclear when it needs power. In reality, trading takes place based on price, not dire need to prevent...
Catherine Mitchell launches a series of articles on designing a “no-regrets” energy policy that is as much a plea for sanity in Great Britain as it is an explanation why no resource is 100%...[more]
Bakersfield's first urban public charge stations are nearing completion. The four stations at Bakersfield Community College's Weill Institute are located in downtown. [more]
So far, as said elsewhere, we are witnessing a Government which is dismantling sustainable energy policies. The energy world is broadly going in one direction – and as said before that’s not the same...
In this episode: the electric car gets a 'major service', I drive to Vienna in Austria, I learn that most charging system providers really suck, I almost run out of electricity, and I put on a suit...
We’ve been contacted by EV drivers a few times about charging at our home here in Bakersfield, but none have showed up. That is, until John Rowell from Exeter called.[more]
PlugShare is a powerful mobile application and online tool that allows electric car owners to locate and optimize the use of EV charging stations.
France is not ramping up renewables fast enough, so it will not reach that target anyway. Furthermore, it will not reach its target for the reduction in nuclear power, which is completely unrealistic...
In a brief study, the French operator of the country’s nuclear plants unsurprisingly finds that backup generation capacity for fluctuating wind and solar will need to be as flexible as possible. The...
Overall, electricity from lignite dropped by 3.6 percent, mainly because so much wind power was produced during the winter that it actually cut into this baseload electricity. In contrast, power from...
In a nutshell, France relies on Germany to cover its peak demand, not vice versa. There is, however, a risk of Germany decommissioning so much coal and nuclear capacity over the next seven years as...
As we’ve become more experienced, we’ve become bolder. On this trip we used our new Jesla EVSE—a portable charge cable—to charge quicker, and we took some shortcuts we avoided on the first trip. We...[more]
We planned another excursion in our 2015 Nisssan Leaf, an Electric Vehicle (EV). This time we planned to join friends for dinner in Visalia to the north of Bakersfield in the heart to the San Joaquin...[more]
We've now made four trips from Bakersfield over the Tejon Pass via the Grapevine and back. This is enough trips to account for variations in the weather and some variations in driving style. As noted...[more]
We've now made several trips from Bakersfield over Tejon Pass and two trips to the coast and back. There's now enough data to summarize how many kWh are needed to drive a Nissan Leaf on these various...[more]
We had a good time and it was great to talk shop with such an experienced crew. Gary, Tom, Jason and his wife, Dori drove up in Gary's new Tesla. They joined Mike Bornstein, his son, Stefanie, and...[more]
Our friends had organized a morning visit to the Ardis Walker house and museum of western history in Kernville. Walker was a prominent and colorful local figure in Kern County from the 1960s until...[more]
The IPPR favour developing nuclear power as a publicly owned development, on the same basis as projects like HS2. There would be a 'cost plus' contract given to the nuclear power developers, who...
We wanted to drive our 2015 Nissan Leaf to Ridgecrest and have dinner with our niece before her assignment at the Naval base was completed.[more]
This tabular estimator is based on Tony Williams Nissan Leaf Range Chart. This simple spreadsheet uses Williams' estimates of how much electricity a Nissan Leaf consumes in level, steady-state...[more]
The French government announced plans to inject cash into Areva, the firm that constructs nuclear plants in the country. It is a desperate attempt to ward off the inevitable: bankruptcy.
In order to understand Electric Car Charging and the infrastructure needed, we first have to understand the terminology. [more]
My meeting to discuss Electric Vehicle (EV) infrastructure in Kern County was canceled, leaving my day free. So I turned to Nancy and suggested we drive our 2015 Nissan Leaf to Tehachapi for lunch....[more]
The City of Tehachapi has completed installation of its Electric Vehicle (EV) charging station. The two, Level 2 EVSEs are located in the parking lot adjacent to City Hall. The station, part of the...[more]
The European nuclear industry, led by France, seems to be in terminal decline as a result of the cancellation of a new Finnish reactor, technical faults in stations already under construction, and...
SJVAPCD is now accepting applications for the Charge UP! Electric Vehicle Charger program.
Gary Giddings, creator of an early State of Charge meter for the Nissan Leaf will join the Electric Vehicle Owners of Bakersfield and the Southern San Joaquin Valley at the Golden Corral for brunch...[more]
Second, there has been no surge in coal power during the nuclear phase-out. In fact, total coal power production (both lignite and hard coal) fell by six percent last year alone.
On Friday 22 May we embarked on our Electric Vehicle (EV) adventure to Los Angeles via the “Grapevine” to take in a concert of the LA Philharmonic and visit friends.[more]
Using the Government's own contract prices for nuclear power and wind power we can demonstrate how nuclear power is more expensive than both onshore wind AND offshore wind.
But more rapidly than could have been imagined even five years ago, pointing a finger at France doesn’t evoke nuclear success. Rather, France, whose nuclear industry is in speedy and accelerating...
As part of our continuing exploration of the Nissan Leaf’s range, we took a one-day get-a-way and drove up to scenic Kernville deep in the heart of the southern Sierra Nevada.[more]
We had about a dozen cars, so there's a dozen drivers there. Leafs, MiEV, two BMWi3s, a Ford, Rav 4, and a Tesla. There was quite a line up of vehicles--the Tesla attracting the most attention...[more]
Former parliamentarian Alan Simpson bemoans the paucity of serious debates of public paucity in the recent British election concluded today. Beginning in Churchillian tones, he laments "What...[more]
The California Energy Commission has updated the locations of DC Fast Chargers in the Southern San Joaquin Valley. [more]
How the traction battery of a plug-in hybrid may have saved a life.[more]
Ollie Danner has organized quite an event at the Beale Library. See the event flyer for details on the raffle prizes. All proceeds go to the Beale Library.[more]
What are the findings? The leaked PDF has two blank pages where the executive summary should be. So I wrote my own.
Having heard so much good about petrol cars, we decided to test drive one. They are said to combine cheap price with long range and fast charging. A winning formula on paper – but how are they in...
Given GB’s disastrous auction policy in the 1990’s, one can understand the scepticism of this from the German renewable energy industry. Again, this may have unforeseen impacts.
Japan stands at a point now, where it can no longer hide behind the Fukushima nuclear disaster for its passive stance toward anti-climate change measures.
If the Act is not replaced, the UK will be treading energy water until four or so years time when we will be forced to rethink a new Act anyway. Yes, this means putting EMR on hold until new...
Meanwhile, there are no DC Fast Chargers in Mojave, or anywhere on the east side of the Sierra for drivers of consumer-oriented EVs, such as the Nissan Leaf. The nearest fast charger to Mojave is in...[more]
A court in Japan has dealt a blow to plans by the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, to relaunch nuclear power generation four years after the Fukushima meltdown by halting the restart of two reactors over...
Nuclear power output stood at zero throughout fiscal 2014 for the first time since the country began commercial operation of its first nuclear plant in fiscal 1966, the Federation of Electric Power...
As if things were not bad enough for the prospect of completing constructions of the ailing European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) design, things have now gotten worse with the discovery of a serious...
Our findings show that defining battery retirement at 70–80% remaining capacity is inaccurate. Battery retirement should instead be governed by when batteries no longer satisfy daily travel needs of...
Areva has found weak spots in the steel of the EPR nuclear reactor it is building for utility EDF in Flamanville, France, French nuclear regulator ASN said on Tuesday.
The Chinese nuclear interests, who are needed to provide a large part of the equity investment in the project, are demanding that the French Government agrees to carry the can and pay for cost...
But while more electric car charging stations is a great thing for encouraging more people behind the wheel of a plug-in car, there’s a global endemic threatening the operation of charging stations...
The nuclear renaissance has failed to materialize, but it looks like the renewable era is getting started.
When Craig installed solar panels on his home, he had no idea how it could benefit his commute. See how he powers his Fusion Energi Plug-In Hybrid.
The first stations started going in early in 2012 and there was a lot of excitement that many more would be coming soon. But the hype has not lived up to even the most modest of expectations. Fast...
Three of Japan’s oldest nuclear reactors will be decommissioned, the start of what is expected to be a series of shutdowns because of costs to meet tougher safety standards introduced after the...
On 5 March Nancy and I undertook our first true road trip in our 2015 Nissan Leaf. Our destination was Grover Beach and ultimately San Luis Obispo.[more]
The Electric Auto Association (EAA) submitted comments 16 March 2015 to the California Energy Commission on DC Fast Charger installations for the build out of the West Coast Electric Highway. [more]
EV owners who’ve tackled the Grapevine on I-5 with today’s consumer-oriented EVs know how difficult the route is, necessitating long layovers in Lebec and again in Valencia. That is about to change. [more]
We recently completed a 550-mile trip to Grover Beach and San Luis Obispo from Bakersfield in our Nissan Leaf, an electric vehicle (EV). It’s not as far as many have driven, but it’s far more than...[more]
Normally, Chabot's presentations are quite long and exhaustive. Today, this one is short and sweet – four charts, one for each country, and a single comparison of kilowatt-hours of electricity from...
There’s an urgent need by owners of consumer-oriented EVs for a DCFC station either at the base of the Grapevine or at Lebec. Similarly, there’s an urgent need for a companion station in Valencia. [more]
The following are Tom P. Green’s comments to the California Energy Commission Advisory Committee 12 February 2015 on the need for the rapid deployment of DC Fast Chargers (DCFC) in California.[more]
French Environmental Minister Ségolène Royal . . . defended (article in French) the policy of “getting out of all-nuclear” (sortir du tout nucléaire). Here, something easily gets lost in translation:...
When we got our recent bill from Pacific Gas & Electric Co., I thought I’d take a look at hour our Electric Vehicle (EV) was affecting our consumption.[more]
For those of us who live in the San Joaquin Valley, getting to and from Los Angeles in an Electric Vehicle (EV) is a challenge. Southbound, the last charging stations are in Bakersfield. Then it’s a...[more]
The CEC document CEC-600-2014-002 reveals some locations of the planned DCFCs along I-5 and Highway 99. The US Green Vehicle Council and Cleantech Institute have proposed the build-out of a complete...
Deploying a network of DC fast charging (DCFC) stations along long-distance transportation corridors will enable long-distance EV travel in California. . . This network is also needed to make EVs...
The City of Tehachapi plans to install a Level 2 commercial charge station near City Hall sometime this summer, says Chris Kirk, assistant city manager. When installed, the station will double the...[more]
It was a beautiful day and there was a report of abundant wildflowers on the road to Woody. Glenville is beyond Woody and we thought we’d test our Leaf’s range once again in the foothills east of...[more]
On Sunday Nancy & I drove our car to Tehachapi from Bakersfield, California. That in itself isn’t significant. Thousands of cars and trucks climb the 4,000 feet from the San Joaquin Valley to the...[more]
This view once again highlights the gap between government policy and reality. EDF are certainly not going to go ahead without at least a guarantee of compensation from the UK Government in the event...
Recreational Vehicle (RV) parks with NEMA 14-50 receptacles are popular with drivers of Electric Vehicles (EVs) where no EV-specific chargers exist—as is the case between Bakersfield and Mojave,...[more]
In their search warrant affidavit, state investigators said that among the items they were looking for was evidence related to the Kern County alternative energy plant known as Hydrogen Energy...
Peevey’s 2005 decision to let Edison upgrade San Onofre absent a cost-justification may be more questionable in light of the release of emails he traded with utility officials.
The UK is now ‘issuing threats’ to Austria that a series of retaliatory measures will be undertaken if Austria goes ahead with its legal challenge to the EU State Aid decision approving GB Government...
We’d have to agree with JP White in Nashville after his first quick charge: Awesome.[more]
The first ever Electric Vehicle Charging Etiquette Hang Tags. Great for busy charging locations. Reusable. Clear coating allows for multiple uses with dry erase marker.
Weatherill is right about one thing: Nuclear energy, he says, is “not something that would be economically viable in South Australia, or indeed the nation.”
Ok, it wasn’t quite mail order. Most of the transaction was done over the phone and via email, but we bought a car, an Electric Vehicle (EV), in a very untraditional manner.[more]
Big energy firms such as Total, Iberdrola, E.On and Enel have together adopted a dominant position in trade bodies such as the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) and European Photovoltaic...
We’ve been driving our 2015 Nissan Leaf for two months now and it was time to take it on a road trip—a short one, mind you, but one long enough to test our range anxiety. We set out Monday morning to...[more]
The utility says 2016 forecasts show it will require $71 per MWh to earn an 11% return from the 581 MW plant in upstate New York, and $56 to $64 per MWh to break even.
While the government says it will approve restarting idled nuclear reactors after the NRA's clearance, NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka says he is not saying it is safe and would not commit to endorsing...
But critics say the move by an agency under the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry does little to solve the basic electricity transmission issues, and hint that the real purpose of the changes...
Electric Vehicles (EVs) are different from the cars we’re accustomed to. They use electricity stored in the traction batteries to power the vehicle. They don’t use gasoline or diesel fuel. As a...[more]
Bob’s a techy and a serious car guy. He knows cars and likes to drive them fast--very fast.[more]
“Today, thanks to investments in renewable energy such as solar, Vermont’s energy future is on a different, more sustainable path that is creating jobs, reducing energy costs for Vermonters and...
The members of the PlugShare community are an amazing group of people. Since the future charging infrastructure is not coming soon enough, (especially in oil-junkie, fossil-fuel hooked Utah),...
What next? The financial woes of French developers Areva and EDF may mean that their £24 billion 3.4 GW Hinkley nuclear project, despite being heavily subsidised by British taxpayers and consumers,...
We’d been planning to buy a plug-in hybrid for some time. Just seemed to make so much sense on so many levels. They emit less air pollutants by being so much more efficient than conventional...[more]
It was fairly simple really. Tesla was out. Too much money. At more than 100,000 the Tesla is well out of reach for most middle-class families--certainly for us. That narrowed the choices down...[more]
Our 2015 Nissan Leaf S (the base model) with the Quick Charge option was delivered to Bakersfield by tractor trailer on October 20, 2014. The Leaf is an all electric, four-door hatchback. It's an...
We installed two types of "charge station" or more correctly two types of EVSE (Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment) at our home. The first is ClipperCreek's 40-amp EVSE with J1772 EV charge connector...
Internal emails show that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Pacific Gas & Electric Co. may have worked together to counteract widespread news coverage. Numerous outlets reported that the...
It was recently revealed that the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) and Bruce Power have been in secret negotiations since December 2013 regarding a long-term supply contract to finance the re-building...
Denmark's steady fall in emissions and adoption of policies to expand renewable energy gave it a score of 77.76, putting it in the highest spot in fourth place for the third year running, followed by...
Japan's electric utilities are spending significantly more than what they calculated about two years ago on enhancing the safety of their nuclear power stations under tighter security regulations.
The Government has refused to confirm that it it will sign a contract with EDF allowing Hinkley C to be built before April 2015, which is only a few weeks before the General Election.
It worked. Ollie Danner’s Electric Car Pledge and his organizational skills are the reason we’re now driving an EV or Electric Vehicle. It wasn’t a direct route of course. And just signing his...[more]
With £37bn of financial promises and loan guarantees still pledged to Hinkley Point C, the Coalition is still betting heavily on Milk Rounds. And with unlimited endorsements of 'Fracking' and further...
Hot on the heels of news of further escalations of delays (and thus) costs for EPRs being built in Finland and France there is news that the Treasury is conducting a 'secret' review of the EPR...
The future of the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant in Somerset is under a cloud amid a financial crisis at Areva, a shareholder in the project and the designer of the proposed reactors. Shares in the...
The Los Angeles Air Force Base in California (LAAFB) has acquired 42 plug-in electric vehicles (PHEVs), the most the military has ever assembled in one place. The cars, trucks, vans and a bus will be...
Nearly half of all heads of prefectures and municipalities near nuclear power plants say plant operators should be required to obtain their consent before restarting reactors, according to an Asahi...
Chris Goodall, one of those pro-nuclear greens who saw the radioactive light a few years ago but who didn't notice the sheer uneconomic nature of nuclear power has now realised that the Hinkley C...
A comparison of the payments schedule for Hinkley C and government projections of renewable energy spending plans suggests that from 2023 spending on first Hinkley C, and later other nuclear power...
Naturally, the technologies themselves will also have to become cheaper, but all signs indicate that the future looks bright for wind and solar power. The International Renewable Energy Agency...
The big waste comes with the nuclear investment. The problem with the ability of the electricity system to absorb more variable wind power supplies lies with the inability, and unwillingness, of...
Observers might be forgiven for imagining that the 35 year contract for Hinkley C, underpinned by £10 billion of state loan guarantees paying higher premium prices (£92.50) than privately built...
Not only do Electric Vehicles provide many environmental, health, energy, and cost saving advantages... EVs also have the potential to provide many economic, technological, and labour market gains in...
The group says that the average battery-powered E.V. sold over the past year used 0.33 kilowatt-hours per mile, a 5 percent improvement over the 2011 data that was basis for the original report. Some...
No matter where you live in the U.S., an EV has lower global warming emissions than the average new compact car, which gets approximately 28 miles per gallon. Emission from EVs are poised for even...
Green groups in the UK are now being subjected to a withering assault on their anti-nuclear position, which is amounting at worst to a campaign of disinformation or at best wishful thinking by the...
I watched the used car ads for about a year and followed the Canadian Leaf Facebook group and eventually this past spring found a slightly used Leaf for just over $20k. The car was in almost new...[more]
My wife and I recently rented a standard (manual) shift car to drive around Ireland for a week. For decades I drove and was a fan of standard shift cars. I was saddened to leave these when nearly 11...[more]
All we can do is work to improve the quality of living for people, not only here but everywhere, and be willing to help future generations. We're not going to change the world, but if everybody just...
The Fukushima District Court ordered Tokyo Electric Power Co. to pay 49 million yen ($471,600) in compensation to the family of a woman who committed suicide by setting herself ablaze after being...
The Owens Valley is a desert. A beautiful desert at the base of the rugged Sierra Nevada, but a desert nonetheless. There are few towns, few people, and even fewer services. So it was more than a...[more]
A document released by the panel on Thursday showed it voted in favor of indicting Tsunehisa Katsumata, chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Co. at the time of the crisis, along with vice presidents...
There’s an enduring myth related to wind energy and nuclear energy that needs to be put to bed. That myth is that only nuclear can be scaled to sufficient capacity to reduce the impacts of global...
In Britain nuclear's recent record for availability is not outstanding - 65 per cent according to the Digest of UK Energy Statistics for the year 2008-2012. Remember this is for a technology that is...
The EV Show and Meet-Up was organized so Bakersfield residents were able to see and touch electric cars which are available right now. Electric cars sold per capita in the US are lowest within the...
Former lawmaker Taizo Mikazuki who supports phasing out nuclear power won a three-way race to succeed Shiga Gov. Yukiko Kada on Sunday, beating a candidate backed by the ruling parties by a narrow...
An anti-nuclear citizens’ network has translated a Japanese court’s ruling blocking the restarts of two reactors into English, Korean and Chinese to spread the “universal values” of the judgment.
Japan is indeed poor in fossil fuels—but among all major industrial countries, it’s the richest in renewable energy like sun, wind, and geothermal. For example, Japan has nine times Germany’s...
Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi again blasted the Abe administration’s pro-nuclear energy strategy, saying the plan to restart reactors across the nation is “too optimistic” and goes against...
A heavily edited assessment of the project to overhaul the Darlington nuclear station has identified up to $300 million in cost increases, two years before physical work is scheduled to start.
I argue that nuclear energy ceased to be a viable option in the world's energy mix as the result of the disappearance of the subsidies it received in the form of plutonium purchases by the military....
There is broad consensus for the Swiss nuclear phaseout, even across party lines. In the latest representative survey of 1,264 households in Switzerland, a large majority of the Swiss expressed their...
An in-depth look reveals that coal is not making a comeback in Germany. The current addition of new coal projects in Germany is a one-off phenomenon. Recent projects started in 2005-2007 as part of...
But first we need to get data for the nuclear decline, so as to find a suitable time frame for measuring the renewable growth.
It took the Fukushima disaster to put the future of nuclear power in doubt – but could renewable energy mean the end for nuclear power?
Wednesday’s court ruling blocking restarts of the No. 3 and 4 reactors at Kansai Electric Power Co.’s Oi plant may embolden opponents of nuclear power nationwide.
he Fukui District Court ruled Wednesday that it will not allow the restart of two reactors at Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Oi nuclear plant, now under safety examination by Japan's top nuclear...
The Danish Energy Agency has published an energy-scenario report and five sub-analyses on the energy system of the future and the challenges that need managing up to 2050 as fossil fuels are phased...
A Canadian has discovered that radioactive trees aren’t decomposing, suggesting that fallout may be even more dangerous than we realize.
Environmentalists are applauding a landmark Federal Court ruling that puts the brakes on building expensive and risky new nuclear reactors in Ontario.
Compared to the IPCC, the US military is both more forthright in its assessments of climate change risk and realistic in its appraisal of the cost-cutting merits of renewable energy and efficiency....
Former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa, co-founder of the Japan Assembly for Nuclear Free Renewable Energy, which was officially inaugurated on May 7, said he fully agrees with Saigo, and stressed...
Former prime ministers Junichiro Koizumi and Morihiro Hosokawa on Wednesday established a new entity to promote renewable energy as part of a joint antinuclear campaign that previously led Hosokawa...
And OPG has paid $793 million to prepare to do the Darlington refurbishment, which we haven’t even contracted to do yet. This included the construction of a mock reactor, so workers could practice...
If nuclear power is to provide a carbon-free future for all of our energy, how many plants would need to be built? One per day for the next 22 years. In reality, the world faces a reduction in...
Charles Keating died recently. His death marked a milestone in American political history. His crimes and those of my nephew illustrates one of the truisms in America often attributed to Al Capone....[more]
