WCA March 2015

From the Americas The new results are considered especially significant for photovoltaic power towers being developed by the Australian company RayGen Resources, which provided design and technical support for the high-efficiency prototype. Another partner in the research was Spectrolab (Sylmar, California), a subsidiary of Chicago-based planemaker Boeing Co that provided some of the cells used in the project. Electric utilities in the USA take Tesla the car maker in stride – but Tesla the battery maker is another story An article in the 7 th December edition of FierceEnergy is titled “Should Electric Utilities Worry About Tesla’s Batteries?” Having considered the $5 billion battery “Gigafactory” under construction by Tesla Motors in Nevada, the author, Doug Peeples, is inclined to think that worry is entirely appropriate. Some USA utilities accept the necessity for integrating distributed renewable energy and energy storage into their electric grids. Wrote Mr Peeples: “It makes strategic sense for them to do so if they want to keep up with today’s changing energy environment.” He said several utilities see renewables combined with storage as opportunities. But Tesla (Pala Alto, California) sells both electric cars and electric vehicle powertrain components, including lithium-ion battery packs. This makes it a kind of hybrid of the automotive and energy industries; and, according to Mr Peeples, its battery project makes the utilities “a bit edgy.” The attitude of the utilities toward all-electric electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrids is evolving. Originally dubious about them, the industry has become more supportive of EVs. Several large investor-owned utilities have asked regulators to allow them to enter the charging station business. But Mr Peeples cited a recent Bloomberg News  report to the effect that Tesla and SolarCity (San Mateo, California), which builds charging stations for electric vehicles, are moving more quickly than the utilities to meet growing consumer demand. The two companies, which share a CEO, provide solar systems and batteries in combination, although on a limited scale at this point. That will probably change when the Gigafactory is completed and more batteries can be produced both for cars and for solar-storage installations. Tesla is ahead of the game in serving its own needs, having already installed 135 fast-charging stations for Tesla EVs. In another plus for Tesla, some analysts interviewed by Bloomberg also said the battery cost reductions achieved by the company have not been adequately acknowledged. In their view Tesla may be able to offer substantially lower prices once the Gigafactory is commissioned.

 FierceEnergy noted that financial services firms such as Morgan Stanley say Tesla’s storage offerings for homes and businesses could be ‘disruptive’ for the utility industry both in the USA and Europe. As the cost of storage systems falls, more utility customers all the time will likely elect to take charge of satisfying all or most of their electricity needs. Automotive  With the approach of the 31 st January deadline for filing claims under the General Motors victim compen- sation programme, administrator Kenneth Feinberg on 8 th December issued an update. Mr Feinberg said that, of 239 death claims and 2,023 injury claims received since August 2014, 89 were deemed eligible for compensation. At least 38 people have died and 51 have been injured in crashes involving GM cars with defective ignition switches. The switches can slip out of the On position, which causes the cars to stall, knocks out power steering, and turns off the air bags. GM, which established the fund and engaged Mr Feinberg, has acknowledged that it knew about faulty ignition switches in Chevrolet Cobalts and other small cars for more than a decade. It issued a recall in February 2014.  Takata, the Japanese auto parts supplier at the centre of an expanding air bag recall, in December hired three former secretaries of the US Department of Transportation to advise the company on management of the crisis. The former cabinet officials served under Presidents George HW Bush, Bill Clinton and George W Bush. The Transportation Department oversees the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which at last report was seeking to widen the Takata recall for driver-side bags from Florida, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands to the nation at large. Greg Gardner of the Detroit Free Press reported (4 th December) that at least four people died and many others have been injured as a result of the rupture of Takata air bag inflators, which caused the bags to deploy with excessive force. One of the former government secretaries is to head a quality assurance panel that will consider how Takata can rupture-proof the apparatus.  Ford has a long way to go to overtake General Motors and Volkswagen in China, but the Detroit automaker did exceed one million sales in that market with a 20 per cent increase through the first 11 months of last year. The come-from-behind effort has been boosted by heavy investment to expand the company’s line-up and build more of its fuel-efficient and smart vehicles locally.

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Wire & Cable ASIA – March/April 2015

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