September 14th, 2020 by Zachary Shahan
I’m changing the format for these weekly updates on the most popular CleanTechnica stories of the past week. From now on, I will highlight exclusive and highly original stories before listing the top 20 stories from the past week. I hope you enjoy the new format! ⚡️
Our most popular story of the past week was actually an exclusive. After diving into Tesla’s surprisingly cheap rooftop solar power offerings, I asked Tesla CEO Elon Musk for more information on how Tesla can offer such low prices. He provided some comments that fit our hunches but also added a little more context and some specific figures.
We also published a long piece based on an extensive interview with Lucid’s VP of Design, Derek Jenkins. It provides a holistic look at Lucid Motors’ culture, its goals, its design focus, and Jenkins’ thoughts on what “luxury” means in 2020. That followed a top-line overview of the Lucid Air, which Loren McDonald got to explore in person for CleanTechnica.
We concluded a 4-part series on driving a Porsche Taycan from Poland to Portugal and back. It’s a fascinating look at not only the Porsche Taycan but also charging infrastructure and networks across Europe.
I dove into the lithium supply challenge facing the electric vehicle revolution in a conversation with Rodney Hooper and Howard Klein of RK Equity. The most critical quote from that podcast discussion is that lithium production matches only ~15% of what automakers need for their combined 2023 EV sales targets. (Yikes!)
I also talked with Matt Moroney, cofounder and COO of Raise Green, about their new crowdfunding platform for community solar power plants and other cleantech projects, with a special focus on their brand new accelerator program for people who want to help their communities or regions go solar.
In a third interview for our CleanTech Talk podcast series, Mike Barnard interviewed Paul Werbos about technicalities regarding machine learning, cleantech, climate science, small/modular nuclear reactors, and US politics. Notably, Paul also wrote the foreward for Michael Barnard’s brand new machine learning report published by CleanTechnica in August.
Paul Fosse explored how and why Texas is expected the be the top state in the USA in 2020 for new solar power capacity additions, bumping California to #2 after many years on the throne (but just in terms of new solar power capacity, not total solar power capacity).
I published reports on new power capacity additions in the United States in the first half of 2020 (including charts!) and on the US electricity generation split by source in the first half of the year (even more charts). I also published an update this morning to the power capacity news because the first report (based on FERC data) excluded rooftop and other small-scale solar, but those numbers were just published by the US Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood Mackenzie.
With those exclusive stories out of the way, let’s see what the top 20 articles of the week were!
Note that this same update on the top weekly news of the week goes out to our earlier in the day. Sign up if you want the news sooner, or simply want it in your inbox.
20 Most Popular Stories on CleanTechnica This Past Week
- Elon Musk Explains Why Tesla Solar Power Is So Cheap — CleanTechnica Exclusive
- Tesla [TSLA] Is Stressing Me Out
- Plant-Based Eggs From JUST Egg Are Coming To A Supermarket Near You
- How Low Can A New Solar Cell Go? Ask The US Air Force!
- US Showers Tiny Wind Turbines With Big Love
- Is Trojan Energy The Future Of Electric Car Charging?
- Indian Solar Module Manufacturer Lands $105 Million US Order
- Could Exxon Be … Running Out Of Cash?!
- Everything You Need To Know About Version 3 Of The Tesla Solar Roof
- Induction Stoves — Say Bye Bye To Gas In The Kitchen
- Lease A 2020 Chevy Bolt From Costco For Just $154 A Month
- Anti-Tesla Talking Point Crushed By UK Survey — Tesla Model 3 Is Reliability King
- Solar PV Panels Were 12× More Expensive In 2010, 459× More Expensive In 1977 — CleanTechnica Exclusive
- Trickle Of Green Hydrogen Turns Into Flood Of Good News For Renewables
- The Best Electricity Plan: Overbuild Solar & Wind Power Plants
- A Red State Goes Green — Why Texas Is Adding So Much Solar
- 5 Things To Watch Out For In Studies Claiming Electric Cars Are “Not So Green”
- Huge Tesla Autopilot Update Coming In 6–10 Weeks (To Early Access Owners)
- With New Wireless EV Battery System, GM Is Determined To Kill Off Gasmobiles (Eventually)
- 16% of New Vehicle Sales = Fully Electric Vehicles in Netherlands
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About the Author
Zachary Shahan is tryin’ to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao.
Zach has long-term investments in NIO [NIO], Tesla [TSLA], and Xpeng [XPEV]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.