article thumbnail

Africa’s Electricity-Access Problem Is Worse Than You Think

Cars That Think

Knowing how many solar panels are on a roof informs us about the maximum possible rate of local generation but not about the annual capacity factor or about the final uses of generated electricity. This means that in 2019 about 770 million people had no electricity, three-quarters of them in Africa.

article thumbnail

In the Caribbean, EVs leave ICE vehicles behind

Electric Auto Association

Thirty years of solar White, a residential architect for 40 of the 50 years he has lived on St. White installed a solar system in his home by 1992, and when the next Category 5 hurricane struck in 1995, “We had back-up. In 2000, “I decided my next car would be an EV when there was really nothing on the market,” White continued. “I

article thumbnail

Arizona State University Professor’s Work to Stabilize the Grid Pays Off

Cars That Think

It has this natural ability to provide support in terms of the kinetic energy of the inertia, whereas wind turbines and photovoltaic solar systems do not inherently have that capability. In 2019 he was named a regents professor, the highest faculty position. “The synchronous machine has one big advantage,” Vittal says. “It

Arizona 89
article thumbnail

SpaceX bests Boeing to become NASA’s largest for-profit vendor

Teslarati

In 2014, NASA contracted with SpaceX and Boeing to independently develop spacecraft capable of safely transporting astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS), taking over the role the Space Shuttle and Russian Soyuz spacecraft filled from 2000 to 2020. Operational launches began in November 2020.

2020 99
article thumbnail

Who Really Invented the Rechargeable Lithium-Ion Battery?

Cars That Think

Stanley Whittingham [from left] shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Jonas Ekstromer/AFP/Getty Images In the early 1970s, Exxon scientists predicted that global oil production would peak in the year 2000 and then fall into a steady decline. All three, however, shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

article thumbnail

Study: California will hit climate targets >100 years too late at current pace of reductions; transportation, wildfires & landfills

Green Car Congress

Since 2000, electricity has been the only economic sector that has seen continuous and significant improvements in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This year’s Index finds that 2017 marked the first time that a greater portion of California’s power mix came from renewable sources such as wind and solar than it did from fossil fuels.

article thumbnail

SpaceX launches Japanese lander, NASA cubesat to the Moon

Teslarati

SpaceX’s first Moon lander launch happened in February 2019, when Falcon 9 launched Israeli company SpaceIL’s Beresheet Moon lander as a rideshare payload on Indonesia’s PSN-6 geostationary communications satellite. HAKUTO-R weighs closer to 1.1