COP28, transmission win, and Tesla recall — This Week in Cleantech

Members of Greenpeace gather for a photo around a sign that reads “we will end fossil fuels” at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

This Week in Cleantech is a new, weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in cleantech and climate in 15 minutes or less. Produced by Renewable Energy World and Tigercomm, This Week in Cleantech will air every Friday in the Factor This! podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts.

This week’s episode features science journalist Maddie Stone who reported in Grist about the challenges facing electric vehicle battery repair.

This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Robin Laine, visionary co-founder and CEO of renewable SaaS company Transect. Through Transect, she has revolutionized clean energy workflows, providing developers with quick, informed site assessments. Under her leadership, Transect has made environmental due diligence accessible. Congratulations to Robin Laine!

This Week in Cleantech — Dec. 15, 2023

The Supreme Court declined to hear Texas’ defense of its ‘right of first refusal’ law, which grants existing utilities priority in building transmission lines. This law would lead to utility dominance in constructing transmission projects, limiting competition and decreasing incentives for innovation and cost reduction. The Biden administration wants to see new transmission lines to increase clean energy access, but these ‘right of first refusal’ laws may restrict entry for other innovative players.

Over 2 million vehicles were recalled after federal officials found that Tesla’s Autopilot increases the risk of crashing because it doesn’t adequately ensure drivers are paying attention. The only good news: This problem can be addressed with a software update. The investigation found 322 Autopilot-related crashes out of a total of 956 reviewed.

This follows a Washington Post story this week that found eight fatal or serious Tesla crashes happened when Autopilot was activated on roads it is not suited for. The company disagrees with this claim, but it plans a software update anyway, and it will make it more obvious to drivers they need to take over.

Watch the full episode on YouTube

We’re on track to see coal produce about 600 billion kilowatt-hours in 2024, according to government data released Tuesday. Meanwhile, wind and solar will supply a combined 688 billion kilowatt hours. This is the culmination of a decade-long trend: Wind and solar have been steadily growing as a share of our electricity mix, at the same time coal has seen a precipitous decline, largely driven by competition from cheap gas. In 2024, coal will be down 10% from this year, and solar and wind power will be up 15%.

Well, it only took 28 years, but world officialdom has now decided we need to transition away from fossil fuels – not phase them out – but transition away from them. We now have a goal to meet the Paris accord’s climate goals – to achieve net-zero carbon pollution by 2050 and keep 1.5°C within reach. This is at least a step in the right direction, but some argue the agreement allows for flexibility for oil and gas producers. There is no strict timeline for phasing out fossil fuels and it supports carbon capture and storage, where fossil fuels are burned, but the resulting carbon pollution is captured and stored. This gives oil and gas producers more leeway to continue their current practices.

We’ve talked on the show before about the challenges with scaling up battery recycling and with acquiring the rare minerals used in lithium-ion batteries. So it’s surprising how wasteful we can be with them; often when a battery dies, it can be fixed by just replacing a few of the many battery cells. But we’ve also talked about how lithium-ion batteries can start extremely dangerous fires, with all that stored energy quickly bursting out. There are serious safety concerns, which is why they’ve essentially been designed to discourage people from tampering with them. Battery repair requires specialized training and equipment. Safety issues, coupled with a lack of clear regulations, pose challenges to the repair industry, especially for EV’s.