Westward Group Alternative Energy: Tesla Unveils Renewable Energy Batteries for Homes and Businesses

Once you've heard the name of Tesla Motors Inc., you'll immediately think that it is just a car company. However, it is also an energy innovation company according to the report from Westward Group Alternative Energy.

Recently, it introduces Tesla Energy, a collection of batteries for homes, business, and utilities providing a clean energy ecosystem. Tesla batteries store sustainable and renewable energy to manage power demand, provide backup power and increase grid resilience.

Tesla grew its business beyond electric vehicles and engaged into the fast-growing area of energy industry, and Tesla Energy is a critical step in the mission of enabling zero emission power generation.

Tesla Motors Inc. CEO Elon Musk revealed the products to a group of business partners and journalists at a Tesla facility near Los Angeles.

Tesla grew its business beyond electric vehicles and engaged into the fast-growing area of energy industry, and Tesla Energy is a critical step in the mission of providing zero emission power generation and changing the entire energy infrastructure of the world.

Tesla Energy consists of two separate products, which are the Powerwall and the Powerpack. Musk described these products as helping to wean the world off fossil fuels.

Powerwall is a home battery that charges using electricity produced from solar panels, or when energy rates are low, and powers your home in the evening. It also supports your home against power outages by providing a backup electricity supply. It is available in 10kWh, optimized for backup applications or 7 kWh optimized for daily use applications. It is easy to install, compact, automated, and offers independence from the utility grid and the security of an emergency backup.

The 10kWh Powerwall is designed to provide backup when the grid goes down, providing power for your home when you need it most. When combined with solar power, the 7kWh Powerwall can be used in daily cycling to extend the environmental and cost benefits of solar into the night when sunlight is not available.

On the other hand, Tesla defined the Powerpack as an infinitely scalable system that can work for businesses, in industrial applications, and even public utility companies, that comes in 100 kWh battery blocks that can range from 500 kWh all the way up to 10MWh and higher. Musk states that the company's mission was to basically change the way the world utilizes energy on an extreme scale.

Musk opened the press event by mentioning climate change, and saying that it's within the power of humanity to change the way we produce and use power. He views the $5 billion gigafactory which is under construction in Reno, Nevada as a product, the first of many. He also added that with 160 million Powerpacks, they could power the United States, and with 2 billion, the world. The event was powered by stored solar energy.

Westward Group Alternative Energy Tokyo, Asia, Paris Summit: Wind energy companies Gamesa, Suzlon & Mytrah infusing huge funds into solar energy

Big wind energy cos such as Gamesa, Mytrah and Suzlon are all diversifying into solar space this year with plans to invest several hundred million dollars in the next 5 years.

NEW DELHI: Big wind energy companies in India such as Gamesa, Mytrah and Suzlon are all diversifying into solar space this year with plans to invest several hundred million dollars in the next five years in installing thousands of solar megawatts, given the government's impetus to the sector.

While London's Alternative Investment Market (AIM) -listed Mytrah Energy (India) Ltd, which is an independent power producer, plans to invest a total of $400 million, of which $100 million would be in equity over the next one year solely in setting up its solar business, Gamesa India will invest euros 200 million over the next two years for its overall operations, as it diversifies into solar space this year.

"We don't want to depend on only one kind of fuel. Last year, the prices in solar were high and we didn't want to do subsidy-driven business as it is not sustainable. We're waiting for tenders related to National Solar Mission now and hope to be in the 1,500-2,000 MW range over the next 5-7 years," Vikram Kailas, MD at Mytrah Energy, told ET.

The company intends to install nearly 100 MW of solar energy projects over the next one year, he added. Similarly, the Indian subsidiary of Spanish wind turbine maker Gamesa, which has the largest wind energy market-share in the country, is also diversifying into solar power this year with plans to install 100 MW going up to 500 MW in the next two years.

"I have a target of 100 MW of solar EPC, rooftop installation and village electrification this year but we might exceed this as we're talking to both domestic and foreign developers who are talking to us for large solar power plants and we're giving them turnkey solutions. We'll also venture into off grid with net metering," said Gamesa India CMD Ramesh Kymal.

Solar energy, said Kymal, is the way forward for India in the long term as the country has more sunshine than wind. Wind turbine maker Suzlon, meanwhile, plans a hybrid model of wind and solar energy, whereby solar plants will be set up on the same land as wind turbines.

This is intended to save the company from land issues and overcome power evacuation hurdles as grid is available near wind farms. Its target is to install 500 mw over the next years.

According to strategy consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, it is a natural extension for independent power producers (IPPs) in the wind space to branch out to solar.

"In India, while wind sector is more mature, solar has just picked up. The fact that solar energy in India is inching closer to grid parity and government is increasing its focus on solar energy, installations through regulations and revised solar energy capacity addition targets has resulted in IPPs building up solar plants as well. But both wind and solar are equally appealing business opportunities for companies from the point of view of attractiveness," says Amol Kotwal, Director, Energy & Environment Practice, Frost & Sullivan.

The country has 22,000 MW, or 22 gigawatts (GW), of wind energy installation and a little over 3,000 MW of solar power plants in the country. The government seeks to scale up solar to 100 GW and wind to 60 GW by 2022, which will require investments of nearly $200 billion. 

Westward Group Alternative Energy Tokyo: No excuse for inaction on emissions

The latest report by the United Nations panel on climate change may not offer any new surprises concerning the threats posed by global warming, but it does remind us that doing too little, or waiting too long, to cut the emissions of heat-trapping gases could be disastrous.

The onus is now on governments, including Japan, to expedite talks for a new framework to reduce the emissions in time to avert “irreversible” damage to the global environment.

In an assessment issued Nov. 2, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide need to be cut to “near zero or below” by the end of this century for the world to escape the “irreversible detrimental impacts” of climate change on people’s lives and the environment. To meet the internationally agreed goal of keeping the average rise in global temperature since the start of the Industrial Revolution to within 2 degrees Celsius, the world needs to reduce emissions between 40 and 70 percent from 2010 levels by 2050, the report said.

Time is indeed running short to take action. According to the assessment, countries around the world have already emitted two-thirds of the maximum allowable amount of carbon dioxide that can keep the temperature rise below 2 degrees. They have only a 1-trillion-ton margin left — an amount that could be exhausted in about 30 years if emissions continue at the current pace.

Many of the stern warnings in the latest report have been around for years. But progress in negotiations among governments on a new framework for cutting the gas emissions that cause global warming has been slow even after the commitment phase of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol expired in 2012. The Protocol set binding targets on industrialized economies.

The report was compiled to serve as a scientific guide for policy actions by governments. But in negotiations by the parties to the U.N. convention on climate change, agreements on which countries should do what to reduce global emissions have been elusive as interests have clashed between industrialized nations and developing nations.

While the former call on emerging economies to set substantial goals to reduce their growing emissions, the latter charge that the advanced economies have a historical responsibility to lead the efforts in minimizing climate change.

Participants in the U.N. negotiations, who will gather in Lima next month for the COP 20 conference, have set a goal of agreeing on a new framework for climate action — beyond 2020 — at the COP 21 meeting to be held in Paris in late 2015.

Before the Paris conference, countries that have readied their own targets are set to submit their plans by the end of March for review by the other negotiating parties. Last month the European Union announced a new target of reducing its emissions 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2030.

Japan does not appear ready to set a target beyond 2020. Last year it replaced an earlier plan with a new “tentative” target of reducing emissions 3.8 percent from 2005 levels by 2020. It came under international fire because the new target represented a net increase in emissions from the Kyoto Protocol base year of 1990. The government said the goal was the best it could offer given the uncertainties created by the idling of the nation’s nuclear power plants following the March 2011 meltdowns at the Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 plant — a situation that remains little changed a year later.

To blame the uncertain future of nuclear energy for inaction on plans to fight climate change now is inexcusable. Nuclear power generation does not emit carbon dioxide, but the government needs to explore various avenues, including an accelerated shift to renewable energy sources and the introduction of tougher energy-efficiency standards, to set an ambitious target. Even the restart of idled reactors after screening by the Nuclear Regulation Authority would not reduce emissions to levels that would be in step with the international efforts called for in the IPCC report.

Japan cannot keep relying on nuclear power to do its share in the fight against climate change.

Westward Group Alternative Energy Tokyo: Climate Change On Japan Agenda

TOKYO, Japan - Climate change and disaster risk reduction will take centre stage during the ministerial-level talks between Japan and CARICOM member states this week.

The country is hosting delegations representing the 14 Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states this week in a bid to strengthen partnership on international issues ahead of critical United Nations’ meetings next year.

Maki Kobayashi, director of the Caribbean Division within Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, explained the Caribbean bloc had substantial influence as active members in the international arena, and increased solidarity on foreign policy issues that impacted Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

Officials will also seek to establish cooperation on international issues of disarmament and non-proliferation, development, United Nations reform – particularly Security Council reform – and the post-2015 Development Agenda.

“We would like to advance rapidly and profoundly the relationship that we have with Caribbean countries, to cooperation in terms of economic development in order to ensure sustainable development of CARICOM, because Caribbean countries are vulnerable particularly as Small Island Developing States and as Japan also has small islands within our territory we have experiences and challenges that we share with the Caribbean community,” Ms Kobayashi said.

“We put a lot of importance to work together to overcome vulnerabilities and increase resistance to natural disasters. We both are energy importing countries so we would like to find ways to overcome issues of how to mix with renewable energy and fossil fuel energy, what we can do to work together in order to cope with climate change but at the same time mitigate the effects of climate change which are natural disaster and energy issues.”

Both Japan and CARICOM member states share common perspectives on a number of issues as democratic nations with similar geographical characteristics, Ms Kobayashi added.

The first consultation meeting to establish the Japan-CARICOM relationship was held in Jamaica in 1993, and this year was commemorated as “Japan-CARICOM Friendship Year.”

The fourth ministerial-level conference will take place on Saturday, and will follow up on policy outlined at the Japan-CARICOM Summit held in Trinidad and Tobago in July. The country also hopes to deepen mutual trust through bilateral meetings with individual member states.

Seven foreign ministers, and one trade minister, will attend the meetings, with the remaining seven member states to be represented by designated officials.

Picewell Forbes, High Commissioner to CARICOM, will lead the Bahamas delegation.