For a full list of articles they are all listed below. From renewable energy, to climate change, hydrogen, minerals used in the renewable energy transformation.
Category Electric Vehicles
Everything about electric vehicles.
Every new techology and disruption will have myths and falsehoods about how it will never happen. Here are 10 myths about electric cars – and many more to come.
Over 30 robotaxi companies in 2022 developing either vehicles, autonomous systems, its clear this technology is now in the deployment phase.,
Autonomous vehicles saves lives is without question with current data showing 6 times less accidents per million miles driven. Widespread adoption will save Australia alone $30 billion per year with 1400 less deaths and 46,000 less hospitalization.
Electric buses have been widely adopted in China but the rest of the world has been slower in uptake. Over the past 12 months cities and governments have increased their support for wider adoptions.
Electric motorcycles are coming of age and matured to a point whre they have moved from the scooter replacement to higher end motorcycles. Missing is the noise, but not power, torque and enjoyment.
Disruption areas of energy, transportation, and food are driven by 8 technolologies that combine to change the planet. Solar, wind, batteries, automonous driving, precision fermentation and cellular agriculture.
Is Tesla market capitalization too high. Here are just relevant data to suggest that the vale is based on future earnings, 50% YOY growth plans and free cash. Tesla has margins higher than the industry.
The advent of vehicle to grid technologies will disrupt the electric car and the electricity supply in Australia. This will be within 5 years is best prediction for the disruption occurring under our eyes.
There are more charging stations than gas stations in some countries. What is increasing though is the number of high power / fast charging power facilities. Every country is deploying hundreds or thousands.
Electric trucks have been slowly entering the market from all the major manufacturers, and businesses are catching onto the savings and applications. Transition will be steady as the capital to change from conventional to electric will be intensive.
Tesla has established an insurance business, and the value of insurance could be 5 times more than just selling the car by itself. The margin from the insurance business could be bigger than the revenue from full self driving software,…
Electric pickup trucks are coming. In China they are here already, but the love affair of the Pickup in USA or Australia, from big to small is coming over then next 4 years.
Who are the major car manufacturers globally, and what disruption will be coming with electric vehicles. Who will be the winners and loser?
The value to Australia for coal exports is less than the cost to import petrol and diesel. Australia should transition to EVs as fast as possible to improve the balance of payment and reduce carbon emissions and save consumers money.
Category Batteries & Gigafactories
All details about batteries, battery Gigafactories
Over 37 companies have announced or are building European battery gigafactories. The largest is Tesla at Berlin due for production in early 2021, but others are focused on supplying the European manufacturers.
Numerous battery gigafactories in the USA have been announced. With capacity over 1TWh they could build 15million electric vehicles per year.
Over 200 Gigafactories have been constructed or in construction or announced. There are in many countries around the world and are needed to produce the 80 million cars each year and the GW of energy Grid Storage.
Category Minerals
Do we have enough minerals for batteries and vehicle production
With established miners extracting lithium, who will be some of the up and coming miners. Here are 8 of them. There are another 150 miners globally.
Copper is widely used whereever electricity needs transportation. From electronics to motors. The change from ICE cars to EVs increases the demand in that sector by 4 times.
Platium, palladium and other PGM are used in catalytic converters and others are in renewable energy systems. With most of the supply from South Africa and Russian, Australian miners are keen to supply.
When you dig into the supposed shortfall of lithium for EV and grid energy industry, it is clear that there is enough lithium to meet the demand although it will take time to come on stream.
What is FMG ulitimate goal? To change his low cost iron ore exports to China and turn it into green steel manufactured in Australia and exported globally? The company has been busy setting up deals and purchasing technology.
Direct Lithium extraction (DLE) provides faster extraction of lithium from brines, reduction of costs, increased recovery and opportunity for reduction in energy and carbon inputs.
Lithium from Chile, Argentina and Bolivia makes up 20% of the current supply, with China and Australia the majority of the rest. Intense exploration and extraction is in full swing.
EV production in China is booming with multiple “Gigafactories”, and the battery market is racing to keep up with demand and supply. China will get to 20% of EV new car sales by the end of 2021 4 years ahead…
It takes 2 years to build a battery gigafactory. But it takes 7 or more years to develop a mine. While there is plenty of lithium on the planet, it isn’t being extracted and refined quickly enough to keep up…
Rare earth elements are a critical part of the renewable energy industry as well as in the past for catalysts and industrial products. We explore what they are, and where they can be found.
Cobalt is used in Lithium ion nickel batteries as the cathode. Globally, 98% of cobalt is a byproduct of copper or nickel . In copper it’s 60% of that market. And in nickel’s case, it’s around 38%. Cobalt is essentially…
Nickel is a widely mined mineral, often in conjunction with copper around that world. Primary use is in stainless steel, but EV batteries require substantial amounts of nickel over the next decades.
Graphite is a key component in batteries and is the anode in most commercial batteries today. Sourced from fossil fuels, companies are seeking new carbon zero supply and looking to improve performance and reduce costs.
Lithium for batteries is in short supply and getting worse as batteries demand will increase by 30 times over the next decade. Mining supply is costly and slow. What other elements are in short supply.
Renewable green hydrogen is a myth when auto makers and fossil fuel companies say will transform the transportation network. Here are 5 simple reasons you need to dispel myths about hydrogen
Category Renewable Energy
Renewable energy is cheaper than fossil fuel energy. There are many questions about the technology and the economics.
New hydrogen technologies are all about getting the cost of hydrogen to under $1 per kg to be cost competitive with other battery and energy storage.
Evidence of increasing renewable energy comes from most countries. Australia is one of the fastest changing but the USA is also rapidly changing, as is China
Germany made a decision to build a new gasline from Russia – the Nordstream 2 for 11 billion. They could have invested the same in wind power and now save themselves $200 million per day of cost.
High Voltage DC transmission systems are driving underwater power cable for renewable energy transmitted over thousands of km from Africa to UK or Australia to Singapore. Cheap solar is driving the change.
The Carbon Footprint to build a wind turbine is paid back on average in 7 months, and costs about 10gCO2-equivalent compared to gas at 600, and coal at 1,000 g-CO2/kWh.
Hydrogen is touted as a good storage mechanism and can be added to existing gas heating systems, for aircraft and for transportation. But there are serious issues and unreal optimism.
Recycling solar panels and wind turbines is a common arguement against renewable energy yet the industry has been steadily getting to 100% renewable components at end of life.
Wind powered electricity has been developed onshore, but the drive to offshore wind has picked up for 3 reasons. Decreased costs, no land impact and better wind profile
Geothermal energy is used in many countries. Quaise is intending to use gyrotron powered drilling to drill deeper to harness higher temperatures and pressure and convert fossil fuel stations to geothermal.
Green energy saves $5000 per year and Australia can do the Big Switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy with rooftop solar and batteries. Change is an increase wealth to households, not a cost.
Recycling effectiveness is poor because companies have passed the responsibility and cost of recycle / reuse onto consumers. Less than 7% of all plastic is recycled. Almost as much is dumped at sea. Time to change.
Green hydrogen has 3 challenges to be part of the energy mix. a) cheap manufacture. b) cheap transport and c) applicable uses. That journey has started..
Coal mines continue to be constructed but face becoming stranded assets with the change to RW. But coal mines are half of the worlds mines and less than 17% of the revenue. Will other EV minerals replace them?
Freeing energy explores the energy in the world and shows how local free energy using PV panels and batteries will provide energy to 3 billion in energy poverty and disrupt 135 years of Big Grid.
The Angry Clean Energy Guy talks about corporate evil: comapanies knowingly doing harm. Exxon, BP moved responsibility from their fossil fuel CO2 emissions and pushed “personal carbon footprint”. He outlines Adarni as a worst case example.
Australia can and should get to 400 % renewable energy by 2030 to be a leader in carbon planning globally.
Category Robotaxis
Robotaxis are coming. Over 40 companies. But what are the technologies and economics.
Over 30 robotaxi companies in 2022 developing either vehicles, autonomous systems, its clear this technology is now in the deployment phase.,
Autonomous vehicles saves lives is without question with current data showing 6 times less accidents per million miles driven. Widespread adoption will save Australia alone $30 billion per year with 1400 less deaths and 46,000 less hospitalization.
Disruption areas of energy, transportation, and food are driven by 8 technolologies that combine to change the planet. Solar, wind, batteries, automonous driving, precision fermentation and cellular agriculture.
Simple napkin maths says that Tesla makes robotaxis economic. In fact the numbers are so high they are just not believable? So what is stopping this? Politics? Technology. The only thing seems to be timing. Will it be this year?…
Ten issues say why autonomous cars will be here by 2023. Rapid rise of EV sales, the money invested in research and development and will lead to biggest consumer boom ever.
Batteries and Gigafactories
Batteries are key to the use of renewable energy and electric vehicle
Over 37 companies have announced or are building European battery gigafactories. The largest is Tesla at Berlin due for production in early 2021, but others are focused on supplying the European manufacturers.
Numerous battery gigafactories in the USA have been announced. With capacity over 1TWh they could build 15million electric vehicles per year.
Over 200 Gigafactories have been constructed or in construction or announced. There are in many countries around the world and are needed to produce the 80 million cars each year and the GW of energy Grid Storage.
Climate Change
Climate change science has been around since the late 1960s, and defined in the 1970s and still ignored by fossil fuel companies in the 2020’s
47 of Luxury cruise liners owned by Carnival emitt more sulfur dioxide than all of Europes 260 million cars. Globally, the 70,000 ships emit 2.5% of CO2 emissions
Geoengineering for climate change proposes a number of strategies to remediate the emissions in the atmosphere. Mitigation is the cheapest and fastest, but remediation can provide a fire extinguisher if we do not make enough progress.
Climate change myths are everywhere, given that $200 million a year is spent on climate denial by fossil fuel companies. Recognise the arguments and understand the tactics of fossil fuel companies to protect their stranded assets.
Over $1.8 trillion is spent each year on environmental harmful subsidies or about 2% of GDP. Changing that 2% to protecting the environment and achiving net zero is a political imperative.
Disruption areas of energy, transportation, and food are driven by 8 technolologies that combine to change the planet. Solar, wind, batteries, automonous driving, precision fermentation and cellular agriculture.
The IPPC paint a gloomy forecast and say sea level rises are inevitable and global warming will have sea levels rise extend for the next 2000 years.
It looks like we need to spend 2 percent GDP for net zero or (1.5 degrees) of climate change. Climate Change challenge is a chronic worsening of the climate and 187 countries through Cop26 and the Paris Accord have targeted…
Greenwashing is rife. Here are 15 different ways fossil fuel industry enables greenwashing rather than reducing their own emissions. The Angry Clean Energy Guy has a great podcast and I summarise the podcast.
We pay over $11 billion a year for fossi fuel subsidies for direct support. That does not include the indirect subsidies. As well there are billions of dollars needed to remediate fossil fuel coal and gas mines. Who pays? Consumers
Nuclear
Nuclear power as a solution to replacement of fossil fuel plants is a common refrain. Reality it is too late, too expensive and too much waste.
France is the poster child of nuclear, but that is a myth. Dig the numbers out and it is a huge financial burden on Frence taxpayers with hundreds of billions of liability.
There are over 15 myths of nuclear power touted by deniers as fossil fuels are displaced by the renewable energy techologies of wind solar and battery
Some argue for nuclear as the basis of the Australian electricity energy but the data says nuclear would be more than 2.2 times the cost of renewable energy with sufficient battery storage of 20GW.
Small power from rooftop solar and batteries and not nuclear is the best. Nuclear was suggested would be too cheap to meter but is too costly to remember.
Nuclear SMR Reactors are small and modular and it is proposed they overcome 2 of the conventional nuclear issues, cost and refuelling. In reality, they are still a decade or more away from commericalisation and the value is yet to…
The conclusion is clear: Nuclear power not a sensible option. It fails on multiple front – technology, economic and political, yet the industry continues to push for nuclear as a viable option for decarbonisation in the next 20 years.
Business Topics
Explore a range of articles
The investment fund ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood explains the 5 disruptions happeing now and the 14 underlying technologies which form the basis of their investment strategy.
Airlines generally lose money. So electric, low carbon airplanes are being developed to reduce fuel costs – the largest cost after capital costs. What’s the latest development?
Food disruption is happening now, and some fail to see that by 2025 that the dairy industry will shrink by 1/3 and the beef and dairy industry facing 90% reduction by 2030.
There are 5 orders of innovation from individual components at order 1, to systems at 2, services at 3 to disruption of industry at order 5. Knowing this provides expectation of capital and time to market with new innovations.
Venture capital success in growing innnovation has been transformational. Along with internet speeds, the amouint and scale of vc funding of innovative companies.
5G is misunderstood and the conspiracy believers are out in full force. Here I try to make this simple so it can be understood. In undertanding some principles you can then decide which part you don’t like or things that…
Setting goals is a valuable exercise to allow focus and direction. These goal setting questions help not avoidance. The right approach, 10 minutes, and tools, goals can be valuable to life.
How productive are you? Hre are 10 simple things to make you more productive.
The mobile internet has taken over from the desktop. The number of mobile devices is expected to reach 18.22 billion by 2025, an increase of 4.2 billion devices compared to 2020 levels.
How do you get the right website for your business? Start planning. Start with who is going to visit your site, and what you want or how do you want your visitors to respond. This simple 8 point process helps…
10 things to make your life more productive. Avoid meetings without an agenda Never take a call from someone you don’t know. Permanently turn off your voice mail Sort your email with an app. Disable email and texting when you…
CAC (customer acquistion) and LTV (life time value) are key metrics in all businesses, and most importantly in startup businesses. Learn more about CAC and LTV
Goal planning is easy to do, but few every do it as it is too complicated, does not seem important enough. Yet having some plan helps most people in their day to day life.
Do you want some direction in your business; or do you have some pressing concerns. Contact me, for focused business coaching and mentoring.