November 16 Green Energy News

Headline News:

• “Wind And Solar Are Cheaper Than Everything, Lazard Reports” • The recent Lazard report on the LCOE showed that wind and solar offer the cheapest electricity in the US, even significantly undercutting natural gas combined cycle power plants now. But that’s only half of it. Solar and wind are much cheaper nearly everywhere. [CleanTechnica]

  In the graph below, the four bars on the left are the market costs for unsubsidized windpower, subsidized windpower, unsubsidized solar power, and subsidized solar power; the three on the right are manufacturing costs for power from coal, nuclear, and windpower, which will be marked up when it is sold. It can cost less to buy renewable energy than to make energy from fossil fuels or nuclear.

Please click on the image to enlarge it – (Courtesy of Lazard)

• “Tesla’s Automotive Gross Margin Improves from 18.7% to 23.7%” • Tesla’s automotive gross margin improved from 18.7% to 23.7% in Q3. That’s an astounding improvement in automotive gross margin. Even 18.7% is great in the automotive industry. It’s a figure that still leaves Tesla a lot of room to bring down prices or fuel faster growth. [CleanTechnica]
• “Utility AGL Plans 250-MW / 1,000-MWh Battery Project In South Australia” • In another large-scale battery announcement, AGL said it plans to build a battery system in South Australia, with up to 1,000 MWh of capacity. The utility has said it wants 34% of its capacity to be renewable and energy storage by the 2024 financial year. [Energy Storage News]
• “Oil & Gas Drilling Technology Could Make District Heating Feasible” • The deeper one goes beneath the surface of the Earth, the hotter things get – as much as 370°C in some cases. That heat can be used to heat buildings, including district heating. And the technology to tap into it is very similar to the technology used to open up oil and gas wells. [CleanTechnica]
• “Trump’s Coal Rescue Was Doomed From The Beginning” • Trump promised to bring back coal mining jobs. But coal simply can’t compete, much to the dismay of the Appalachian coal communities. If anything, the collapse of coal accelerated during the Trump era, wiping out even more jobs and dashing the hopes of unemployed coal miners. [CNN]

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