The Good
Hold on. Don’t despair.
The rhetoric coming from the White House is so hostile toward renewables, electrification of transportation and the Inflation Reduction Act’s tax credits and incentives it would be easy to fear that we will be going backwards in meeting our climate goals.
These are just some of the tidbits I picked up today that give me some reason to believe that the renewable energy transition and electrification train have left the station and will continue moving forward.
Good News on EVs
US drivers bought nearly 366,000 electric vehicles in the final quarter of 2024, a 15.2% increase over sales in the year-earlier period. And there’s evidence that the market will keep much of its momentum even without the federal incentives.
By Kyle Stock, Bloomberg Green
“We are staying the course” to roll out more EVs and drive down the cost, said Kurt Kelty, vice president of battery, propulsion and sustainability of General Motors. Kelty said GM is the largest producer of battery cells in North America and it’s continuing to drive down costs and invest in more efficient form factors and chemistries.
“GM’s strategic investments and partnerships are expected to bolster the domestic supply chain, create jobs, and enhance North America’s competitiveness in the global EV market. We will continue development of our next-generation battery platform, while moving with urgency to progress key construction activities and ensuring our battery materials supply base does the same. GM is leading the way in American EV infrastructure investments and we continue to secure agreements to localize our supply chain down to the raw materials.”
Kurt Kelty, VP, Battery Propulsion and Sustainability, General Motors. “What a battery geek learned in his first year at GM”
Climate United is launching a $250 million program to make electric trucks more affordable for independent and small fleet operators. 🚛💨
This initiative will initially focus on the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, providing funding for 500 electric Class 8 drayage trucks. By electrifying this crucial link in the supply chain, the programme aims to reduce emissions and improve air quality in port communities. And the best part? This is just the beginning, there are plans to expand the programme nationwide!
Good News on Solar Energy
“The U.S. solar energy industry has succeeded in doing something that would have been hard to imagine a few years ago: It has officially built more than enough factories to meet the country’s demand for solar panels”. Julian Spector
6 February 2025 Canary Media
Good News For Battery Storage
“An Imperial County judge cleared the way for the Hell’s Kitchen project, one of the world’s largest lithium mines, when he recently dismissed a lawsuit filed by civic and environmental groups.”
“Energy companies are already producing geothermal energy at the site, extracting hot, high-pressure brine to generate electricity. The brine is rich with minerals, including more than 3,400 kilotons of lithium: enough to make over 375 million electric vehicle batteries, according to the Department of Energy. Hell’s Kitchen will remove minerals from the brine and then reinject it into aquifers around the Salton Sea.”
“The development in Imperial Valley is a gamechanger for not just Southern California but the entire nation in shifting lithium dependence on foreign countries to a domestic supply,” Controlled Thermal Resources stated in a press release.
CalMatters, Massive Salton Sea lithium project gets judge’s go-ahead, ending advocates’ lawsuit