Huge Solar Power Boom, Tariffs on Chinese Electric Cars — Top Cleantech Stories

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I’ve been traveling for summer vacation with the family and skipped a week or two, but here’s another roundup of some top CleanTechnica articles from the past two weeks. Enjoy! And let us know if there are any favorites I missed here.

The European Union (EU) announced tariffs on Chinese electric cars. This is not the end of the story, but it’s a big marker and sets a price, for the time being, on importing different electric cars into the EU that were produced in China. (I also ranted about a few things often overlooked or assumed in this discussion, discussed BYD sponsoring Euro 2024, and my favorite of all, jumped off of a reader comment to highlight potentially big benefits of the tariffs.)

Incidentally, speaking of Chinese EVs, we also have a review of the BYD SEALION 06 from Australia and a review of the BYD Tang EV from Russia!

Jumping over to the US, the Tesla Model Y was named the “most American car” for the third year in a row by the Cars.com American-Made Index, and Tesla had three other vehicles in the top 10! However, the biggest shocker for me was the Volkswagen ID.4 getting 3rd place!

Jennifer Sensiba also had some interesting articles on her journey towing 4,000 miles with a Chevy Bolt EUV, including hitting her stride for a while when EV charging stations were spread out perfectly for her and spending one night as a climate crisis refugee.

Jumping to the topic of solar, there was the California Public Utility Commission’s decision to throw a wrench in community solar power in the state, something quite controversial in multiple ways, as you can see from the comments under the article in addition to the article itself.

Demonstrating that solar power and wind power are without a doubt now winning more broadly in the United States, 99% of new power capacity in the United States is coming from renewables year-to-date (almost all of it from solar, a big chunk from wind, and then also a little bit from hydropower and biomass). Also, solar power passed 100% of California electricity demand for a period of time earlier this month.

Meanwhile, the US energy storage market grew a whopping 84% in the 1st quarter.

And on the windy side of things, two giant offshore wind power hubs are planned for NYC.

More broadly, looking across the globe, Bernreuter Research forecasts that 600–660 gigawatts (GW) of solar PV power capacity will be installed worldwide in 2024. As one reader pointed out, this is like adding 120 new 1-gigawatt nuclear power plants — or actually even better.

On the flip side of the clean electricity transition, the US EIA reported that coal’s capacity factor has dropped from 55% to less than 35% in the PJM region in the past decade.

Regarding EVs again, the US Treasury announced that consumers have saved more than $1 billion in upfront costs from US EV subsidies.

In terms of EV sales, there’s the usual stream of great EV sales reports from Maximilian Holland and Jose Pontes. On top of those reports, David Waterworth highlights that electric cars have reached 20% of car sales in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). I also published my huge report on trends in the US auto industry in Q1 of the past 5 years, and shared a fun chart showing that several major automakers are actually seeing their EV sales boom despite downturns in the overall auto industry and Tesla sales shrinking.

Want a brand new electric vehicle of your own? Join the 6th annual EV raffle to support the Chesapeake Climate Action Network Action Fund (CCAN Action Fund).

Sure to boost EV sales in the US, or at least Tesla sales, the Tesla Model 3 Long Range is now eligible for the full $7,500 US EV tax credit.

EVs are great. Teslas are great. But the boys at Xcelerate Auto have identified 5 lies EV enthusiasts tell their friends. It’s a good read.

Tesla held its annual shareholder meeting. Carolyn Fortuna and I noted some highlights.

And when we talk Tesla now, we have to talk robotaxis. We had three articles just yesterday diving into different elements of Tesla’s targeted robotaxi revolution, and one last week regarding something Elon Musk said during the annual Tesla shareholder meeting. See:

• Financial Analysts Question The Merit Of Tesla’s Robotaxis
• Critique of ARK Analysts’ Tesla Robotaxi Projections Misses Some Key Points, But ARK Might Too
• Real (But Boring) Reasons Robotaxis May Be Overhyped
• Elon Musk Says Tesla FSD AI Having Exactly The Problem I Thought 2 Years Ago It Was Having

One home builder is blowing up the heat pump water heater market in the USA. “Clayton, a leading single-family home builder, recently made big environmental news by deciding to convert nearly all of the 42,000 modern manufactured homes it builds annually to be certified ENERGY STAR and Zero Energy Ready Homes (ZEHR). […] Clayton’s switch to ZERH also means nearly all of its homes now come with a heat pump water heater (HPWH), which likely represents the single largest procurement of HPWHs in the history of the technology.”

Tina Casey highlighted Kernza and solar PV teaming up for an agrivoltaics boost to some rural areas in the US. In a similar vein, Carolyn noted the beneficial combination of sheep and solar.

Tina also highlighted a push for more floating solar PV at hydropower plants. Another match made in heaven?

Michael Barnard, meanwhile, is delving deeper into everything concrete and cement than most of us ever dreamed of learning. Dive in as well, but don’t get stuck.

VinFast has expanded into the Philippines, further demonstrating its aim to become a global electric vehicle leader.

As predicted, SolarAPP+ has dramatically cut rooftop solar permitting costs and timing in the places where it’s being used.

Getting back to EVs, a report out of Norway shows that petrol sales have dropped 8% in the country year over year! That’s what about 90% EV market share of new vehicle sales does for you.

And now for the not-so-fun news: a new analysis finds that global heating is looking to have a 6-times-greater economic impact than previously estimated.

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