Eng8 is bogus November 6, 2023
Posted by Maury Markowitz in Uncategorized.3 comments
The interwebs were all alight with yet another claim of fusion in a bottle, after a UK company called Eng8 claimed to have a system that produces five times as much energy as it takes to run it. If true, this would be the first system in over eight decades of effort that produced Q>1, a milestone measure. That would be big news! So why is it only being passed around the ‘net, and not the lead story on every major news source?
Well, that’s because it’s an obvious fraud. Even a few moments of googling turns up that the co-founder is a convicted fraudster, and the other co-founder is being accused of, and accusing others, of stealing the technology. A few more googles shows that the supposed inventor is a crank and everyone else involved in the company are just random marketing and investor relations people.
I haven’t posted to this blog in a while, but this one was too good to pass up. Enjoy!
(more…)Is nuclear energy actually cheap(er)? September 20, 2022
Posted by Maury Markowitz in Uncategorized.3 comments
Supporters of nuclear power often make the claim that nuclear is not being built out for some nefarious reason or another. “Nefarious” is being used loosely here, in the sense that the reasons are unfair or undeserved and even a little under-handed. I’m sure this comes into play at some level, but I don’t believe it is even remotely close to being anything like the primary reason, or even secondary.
I believe the reason is money.
The reason is always money.
(more…)Tesla Semi and the price of batteries November 26, 2017
Posted by Maury Markowitz in Uncategorized.Tags: batteries, electric cars
2 comments
Even their trucks are sexy.
It was surprising enough that Tesla announced they were making a semi, but I think what really surprised everyone was the cost; the 300-mile range version is expected to run $150,000, while the long range 500-mile version is $180,000. They compare this to a similar class Diesel at $120,000.
This is interesting enough on its own, but now that we have the numbers, we can play a little game with them…
Shocked! Shocked to hear the EIA underestimates renewables! October 22, 2017
Posted by Maury Markowitz in power grid.Tags: solar power, wind power, year in review
1 comment so far
When I was still on the front lines of the PV market, we would look forward to receiving the latest US Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) reports. Invariably they predicted a price for PV that was much higher than what we were shipping it out at retail, and every year we managed to ship a non-insignificant portion of what they said the entire US’s installations would be.
Error? What error?
Everyone knew their predictions were way off, but as the official mouthpiece of the industry it was hard to argue that they weren’t the “official numbers”. Well no longer; the Natural Resources Defense Council had Statista review the EIA’s numbers, and it makes me laugh all over again.
Tesla nails solar roofs October 29, 2016
Posted by Maury Markowitz in solar.Tags: solar power
4 comments
Yes, those are solar shingles.
On 28 October, Tesla held a press event announcing their long-rumored solar roofing product.
I have to say, I’m floored. This is leaps and bounds ahead of anything I’ve seen before. They’re not just acceptable looking, they’re downright beautiful.
And we’re down under $1… July 22, 2016
Posted by Maury Markowitz in Uncategorized.add a comment
It was bound to happen sooner or later, but there’s not a single person on the planet that would have seriously predicted I’d be posting this in 2016:
Utility scale solar in the US is currently installing for under $1/Wp. In Europe it’s expected to be 80 to 85 cents/Wp in the next 12 to 18 months.
Monosilicon panels, the expensive ones, are going for 53 cents/W today, and the expectation is that they’ll be 50 cents/W by the end of the year.
Power purchase agreements are going in at under 5 cents/kWh, and are signing at 4 cents for projects coming online in 2017.
So that’s basically that.
Energy Matters 