With a new sheriff coming to town (yep, Donald Trump), many investors, corporations, and developers are worried about a reversal of clean energy progress. However, it appears that drastic acts like killing the federal tax credits is not being considered. This is partly due to U.S. employment statistics like these: As of last year, 1 of every 83 jobs created since 2010 are in the solar sector. That makes about 800,000 direct or supply chain jobs. And over 8% of all solar workers are veterans.
Choice words for Democrats:
"Wake the F*** up!"
The editor-in-chief of CleanTechnica, one of the most read sites on clean energy news, had a rather direct message for Democrats after the Presidential upset (yep, two meanings for that word). "Democrats, This Is A Wakeup Call — You Better Fuckin’ Wake Up!"One takeaway? Change messaging about clean energy to appeal to all stakeholders, not just educated liberals.
ENERGY STORAGE | ELECTRIC VEHICLES
EV finance opportunities:
How investors (could) think about it
Recently we completed some market research for Paul Allen's Vulcan about how investors think about financing in EV sector. Short answer: Most don't think about. We proposed 16 ways that public or foundation dollars could be used to leverage private capital. Here's our blog with afew ideas for how investors should think about the EV sector.
Who's winning the storage race?
By battery chemistry and region
Based on Q3 2016 announcements, North America dominates other regions, with about 50% more planned storage installations than the second highest region, Asia Pacific. As for technology, lithium-ion makes up more than 95% of battery projects planned in North America, while flow batteries and sodium-sulfur batteries get more love in Asia Pacific. Thanks to Navigant (source) and Energy Matters (Aussie solar leader) for this graph.
PRODUCTIVITY | TIPS | TRIVIA
Night owls, my apologies:
Early morning holds secrets
One of the most highly rated books on Amazon (1,200 five-star ratings) is called The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed To Transform Your Life… (Before 8AM). If you're into productivity, this may be worth a read. Their website provides two free chapters, plus free audio and video. I'm reading it now. (Yes, it sounds like stereotypical self-help fluff. Get over it. See what you can learn.)
Brain size is NOT everything:
Consider alligators
After camping out at the North Carolina aquarium this weekend with my kids (cub scouting trip), I learned another lesson in humility: Alligators' brains are about the size of three olives, despite their full body size of 12 feet and 400 pounds. Yet, they have survived virtually unchanged as a species for 150 million years. Perhaps this is another mysterious truism from the Small is Beautiful theme.
