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Musk, DiCaprio and Rive Talk the Future of Solar at Tesla Gigafactory
As the battle over Nevada's solar-killing fees wages on, state lawmakers, government officials and prominent renewable energy advocates descended upon Tesla's Gigafactory near Reno this week to discuss the future of clean energy in the Silver State.
At Wednesday's event, attendees were given a tour of the still-in-construction Gigafactory. Once complete, the massive $5 billion battery plant will be 100 percent powered by renewable energy sources, with the goal of achieving net zero energy.
The Associated Press reported that actor and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio was also at Gigafactory the same day to film a documentary he is directing on green energy. He was not part of the program but reportedly interviewed Tesla CEO Elon Musk for the film and met with some organizers and attendees, including Nevada Senate Minority Leader Aaron Ford (D-Las Vegas).
The event was organized by Musk and SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive to advance the development of solar energy in Nevada and to discuss how Tesla’s suite of in-home batteries works in tandem with a residential array. As Vegas Inc reported:
[Rive's presentation focused] on how energy storage batteries and rooftop solar can work to reduce strain on the grid and help utilities operate more efficiently. The batteries, which are already being produced at the Tesla Gigafactory, can store solar-generated power so that it can be used at night or during times of peak power usage.
According to a copy of his presentation, Rive will encourage the lawmakers to look differently at the grid and embrace disruptive technologies, such as rooftop solar and home energy storage.
“Nevada is at the forefront of the future of energy,” the text of Rive's presentation said. “But the future of energy will need leadership to enable change.”
Though it wasn't explicitly said, Rive's comment takes aim at Nevada's Public Utilities Commission (PUC), which voted in December to increase a fixed monthly fee for solar customers by about 40 percent while simultaneously reducing the amount customers get paid for excess power they sell to the grid.
A fierce net metering battle has since ensued and is framed by media as a showdown between Warren Buffett—whose Berkshire Hathaway Energy owns NV Energy, the state’s largest utility—versus Musk, the chairman and largest shareholder in SolarCity.
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The rate hikes, which took effect Jan. 1, was decried by Rive as a move that would “destroy the rooftop solar industry in one of the states with the most sunshine.” The order caused SolarCity to fire 550 field and support staff in Nevada as the company ceased installing and selling panels in the state.
Solar supplier Sunrun Inc. also ceased all operations in Nevada, saying: "The retroactive decision is also expected broadly to undermine future investment in the state, as retroactive changes impair the business community’s trust in Nevada government."
Actor and environmental activist Mark Ruffalo protested the fees and demanded the PUC change course and for Gov. Brian Sandoval to take a stand against the new rates.
Buffett explained his company's position on net metering in Nevada to CNBC earlier this month:
We do not want our million-plus customers that do not have solar to be buying solar at 10 and a half cents when we can turn it out for them at 4 and a half cents or buy it at 4 and a half cents. So, we do not want the non-solar customers, of whom there are over a million, to be subsidizing the 17,000 solar customers. Now, solar customers are subsidized through the Federal Government—as we are, with our wind and solar operations ourselves.
In Nevada, [SolarCity] had an arrangement for a very limited number of people—and the public utility commission decides this—they had an arrangement where the utility had to pay way above market for solar produced by these 17,000 homes.
The public utility commission decided that was unfair to the million-plus people who didn’t have solar, and they said ‘It’s fine to sell it back, but sell it back at market price.’
The solar industry as well as many of its customers in Nevada are fighting the PUC's decision. Solar customers initiated a class action lawsuit against NV Energy in January. Plaintiffs John Bamforth and Stanley Schone seek restitution from the utility, citing its decision to raise fees for solar customers from its prior rate of $12.75 to $38.51 by January 2028.
The solar industry coalition, No Solar Tax PAC, has filed a referendum petition to reverse the rule and will be put in front of voters in November.
The PAC claims on its website:
The rules eliminated Nevadans’ choice to go solar, imposed massive new fees on existing customers, and has already cost the state hundreds of jobs, with thousands more Nevadans facing layoffs in the coming months. Moreover, they undermine state policies and incentives that encouraged customers to go solar, created thousands of jobs, and made Nevada a national leader in clean energy. The PUC’s rules are unfair, they have damaged Nevada’s business-friendly reputation, and they only benefit the State’s monopoly utility, NV Energy.
The PUC’s new rules allow NV Energy to take clean electricity from solar customers and sell it to their neighbors at a 300 percent markup. They also force solar customers to pay monthly fees 200 percent higher than other customers. That’s just wrong. NV Energy should not be allowed to take our electricity without fair compensation.
According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, the referendum petition is currently being contested in Carson City District Court. NV Energy is fighting the referendum.
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By Brett Walton
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In a big victory for animals, Prada has announced that it's ending its use of fur! It joins Coach, Jean Paul Gaultier, Giorgio Armani, Versace, Ralph Lauren, Vivienne Westwood, Michael Kors, Donna Karan and many others PETA has pushed toward a ban.
This is a victory more than a decade in the making. PETA and our international affiliates have crashed Prada's catwalks with anti-fur signs, held eye-catching demonstrations all around the world, and sent the company loads of information about the fur industry. In 2018, actor and animal rights advocate Pamela Anderson sent a letter on PETA's behalf urging Miuccia Prada to commit to leaving fur out of all future collections, and the iconic designer has finally listened.
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If people in three European countries want to fight the climate crisis, they need to chill out more.
That's the conclusion of a new study from think tank Autonomy, which found that Germany, the UK and Sweden all needed to drastically reduce their workweeks to fight climate change.
"The rapid pace of labour-saving technology brings into focus the possibility of a shorter working week for all, if deployed properly," Autonomy Director Will Stronge said, The Guardian reported. "However, while automation shows that less work is technically possible, the urgent pressures on the environment and on our available carbon budget show that reducing the working week is in fact necessary."
The report found that if the economies of Germany, Sweden and the UK maintain their current levels of carbon intensity and productivity, they would need to switch to a six, 12 and nine hour work week respectively if they wanted keep the rise in global temperatures to the below two degrees Celsius promised by the Paris agreement, The Independent reported.
The study based its conclusions on data from the UN and the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) on greenhouse gas emissions per industry in all three countries.
The report comes as the group Momentum called on the UK's Labour Party to endorse a four-day work week.
"We welcome this attempt by Autonomy to grapple with the very real changes society will need to make in order to live within the limits of the planet," Emma Williams of the Four Day Week campaign said in a statement reported by The Independent. "In addition to improved well-being, enhanced gender equality and increased productivity, addressing climate change is another compelling reason we should all be working less."
Supporters of the idea linked it to calls in the U.S. and Europe for a Green New Deal that would decarbonize the economy while promoting equality and well-being.
"This new paper from Autonomy is a thought experiment that should give policymakers, activists and campaigners more ballast to make the case that a Green New Deal is absolutely necessary," Common Wealth think tank Director Mat Lawrence told The Independent. "The link between working time and GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions has been proved by a number of studies. Using OECD data and relating it to our carbon budget, Autonomy have taken the step to show what that link means in terms of our working weeks."
Stronge also linked his report to calls for a Green New Deal.
"Becoming a green, sustainable society will require a number of strategies – a shorter working week being just one of them," he said, according to The Guardian. "This paper and the other nascent research in the field should give us plenty of food for thought when we consider how urgent a Green New Deal is and what it should look like."
- Reduced Work Hours as a Means of Slowing Climate Change ›
- How working less could solve all our problems. Really. | ›
- Needed: A shorter work week – People's World ›
Amazon shareholders voted down an employee-backed resolution calling for more aggressive action on climate change at their annual meeting Wednesday, The Los Angeles Times reported.
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Washington became the first U.S. state to legalize human composting Tuesday, offering residents a more environmentally friendly way to dispose of their remains, AFP reported.