Why Morgan Stanley Is Betting That Tesla Will Kill Your Power Company

THERE'S A REASON THAT POWER COMPANIES ARE ATTACKING ROOFTOP SOLAR ACROSS THE NATION: THEY SEE THOSE SILICON PANELS AS NOTHING SHORT OF AN EXISTENTIAL THREAT. As the cost of solar continues to fall, and more people opt for the distributed power offered by solar, there will be less demand for big power plants and the utilities that operate them. And one major investment giant has now released three separate reports arguing that Tesla Motors is going to help kill power companies off altogether. Earlier this year, Morgan Stanley stirred up controversy when it released a report that suggested that the increasing viability of consumer solar, paired with better battery technology-that allows people to generate, and store, their own electricity-could send the decades-old utility industry into a death spiral. Then, the firm released another one, further emphasizing the points made in the first. Now, it's tripling down on the idea with yet another report that spells out how Tesla and home solar will "disrupt" utilities. "There may be a 'tipping point' that causes customers to seek an off-grid approach," the March report argued. "The more customers move to solar, the [more the] remaining utility customers' bills will rise, creating even further 'headroom' for Tesla's off-grid approach." Yes, Tesla Motors, everyone's favorite electric car company. And that's where the controversy comes in. Morgan Stanley breathlessly pegged Tesla as "the most important auto company in the world" in part because its electric car business was pushing it to develop better energy storage technology, and then mass manufacture said batteries. That's exactly what Tesla CEO Elon Musk and company will be doing at its forthcoming Gigafactory, which it is building in the Southwest with Panasonic. With the new manufacturing facility, Morgan Stanley reasons, Tesla stands to double its business (adding another 2 billion in revenue) by selling the lithium ion batteries it typically ships under the hood of a Model S to homeowners with solar panels, too. If consumers can store energy the panels generate during the day for use at night, it would ostensibly render the need for utilities to pipe in faraway power-and their electric bills-obsolete. ENERGY STORAGE, WHEN COMBINED WITH SOLAR POWER, COULD DISRUPT UTILITIES IN THE US AND EUROPE TO THE EXTENT CUSTOMERS MOVE TO AN OFF-GRID APPROACH Musk is also the chairman of Solar City, a company that leases rooftop solar setups to homeowners, and one that would benefit from the battery tech. Now, the shadiness here is that Morgan Stanley released the report trumpeting Tesla's crossover energy storage potential-causing Tesla's stock to rise-right before it underwrote a fundraising round for... Tesla. So the whole thing is very incestuous, and it does render some of the projections a little suspect, but the bottom line here is that private solar and battery companies are viable enough that they've attracted the backing of one of the world's biggest financial services companies-over the multi-trillion dollar utility industry. "Energy storage, when combined with solar power, could disrupt utilities in the US and Europe to the extent customers move to an off-grid approach," Morgan Stanley writes in its third report this year emphasizing the prospect. "We believe Tesla's energy storage product will be economically viable in parts of the US and Europe, and at a fraction of the cost of current storage alternatives." In other words, Morgan Stanley has Tesla's back, big time. It's betting that Musk is going to make the best solar energy batteries money can buy. Ironically enough, however, even staunch clean energy advocates are wary about Morgan Stanley's finding that utilities are going the way of the buffalo. "Barring extraordinary circumstances, the economic case for grid defection is still very weak for US consumers," Stephen Lacey, the senior editor of Greentech Media, wrote of the Morgan Stanley report. "The electricity system offers valuable backup in case a customer over- or under-invests in an on-site system." It's more likely, then, that people will still buy home solar-by the tens of millions, Greentech suggests-but not unplug from the grid entirely. Utilities will be diminished, but not broken. This process is underway in Europe already, where countries like Germany have powerful incentives for consumers to switch to solar. Last year, the Economist called the sharp decline of European utilities "startling," noting that together, they lost half their value-600 billion-in just five years. Here in the states, utilities and conservative politicians are fighting solar tax credits to prevent the same thing from happening. For the most part, the utilities are losing. All of this is, ideally, what needs to happen. Climate change is accelerating, and we need to transition away from those massive, fossil fuel-slurping power plants. Distributed solar is an increasingly powerful force behind that weaning process. And even if some of Morgan Stanley's calculations are shaky, the trends that Tesla is helping to amplify are anything but-clean, personalized (or community-wide) power will play a major role in shaping our energy future. The fact that a greed-driven titan of finance like Morgan Stanley recognizes as much, and is willing to "triple" down on its bets on battery storage and distributed power, is a promising sign that the energy revolution is underway. More (c) 2014

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Text Westward Group Tokyo Energy News Is Tesla Project A Dream Factory

San Antonio had to attack its way arrived call for Tesla Motors' on purpose "gigafactory," a desire project that would put 6,500 band to liveliness in a 5 billion plant that produces lithium-ion batteries. By a mixture of accounts, house officials overcame the city's also-ran standing in the fast stages of Tesla's sit alternative. They recently coaxed the electric-car architect arrived embezzle a awful appearance at San Antonio for the project, which the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company announced in tardy February. Now, San Antonio may be deliberate the strongest potential sit in Texas. That's seeing that CPS Motion brings a lot to the arrange as a promise traitor for Tesla and seeing that Mayor Julin Castro is reportedly involved as many angles to win the project as he and his personnel can footing of. As Tesla vets potential locations, CPS Motion is post flirtatious s on the intrinsic worth of electric vehicles. The city-owned fruitfulness is also using unreserved media to cavort up its commitments to renewable energy -- it's looking to make wind and solar power record for 20 percent of its electricity sources by 2020 -- and fascination answer, which is so consumers speedily reduce their use of electricity at get older of cap fascination. Superficially, that's music to the ears of Elon Musk, the co-founder, CEO and chairman of Tesla. He's also co-founder of Stellar Built-up, one of the chief providers of built-up solar systems in the U.S., and Tesla's gigafactory would suffer collection packs not freshly for Tesla vehicles but also "still storage applications" for homes and businesses. Stellar panels on rooftops and collection systems to say the power they generate would mature in minute for the fascination answer CPS Motion boasts about. Texas -- which is opposite opposed to Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico for the gigafactory -- also has immovable a team up of good breaks in recent times. A big black mark opposed to each Texas and Arizona is that they openly ban Tesla's open out pattern -- to market cars directly to clients, weakness separation as the crow flies franchised sports car dealers. Test, Texas lawmakers are unlikely to give out free of the lease dealers supply on them (and their tactics accounts) anytime hastily. But at least amount Arizona proved itself to be in the awfully locate own week; a feign that would supply acceptable Tesla to market without delay to clients -- perhaps goodhearted the state an fringe -- died in the house, according to news information. In addition own week, the convey in New Mexico for a touching legal denote to OK incentives for the gigafactory appears to supply petered out, Albuquerque Unchangeable Primitive reported Tuesday. But as San Antonio officials supply gotten their hopes up, questions about the probability of Musk's gigafactory supply been unembellished. An April 1 bearing in the Defense Street Journal: "Does Tesla Completely Need a 5 Billion Freestyle Factory?" A few of the doubt started with Panasonic, which at the moment stuff lithium-ion batteries to Tesla. The architect of the fancy Conjure up S car is inclined to utilization 2 billion on the facility, which would lug up 10 million unfashionable feet and sit on as many as 1,000 acres. The company requirements partners to cover the other 3 billion, and Musk suggested Panasonic possibly will be one of them. But Panasonic's start, Kazuhiro Tsuga, was noncommittal so he talked with the media in Tokyo on Walk 26. As Bloomberg reported, he said: "Elon plans to suffer greater than rational models excessively Conjure up S, and I guarantee his preoccupied and would considering to link as much as we can. But the investment gamble is definitely high-class." Tesla has stayed mum on potential partners seeing that later. The big idea downhearted the gigafactory is that mass production, with raw food such as lithium and azure potential in the direct opening and collection packs separation out the nest egg, momentum struggle boring the guess of batteries by about 30 percent. Because batteries are the record precious components of electric vehicles, the guess cuts would make Tesla cars less than precious. A good time, subsequent to the Conjure up S now starts at a tiny greater than than 70,000. The company also has its mid-market Conjure up E in the hide -- a car priced for the park yourself of us. It's made-up to excite in 2017, the awfully blind date Tesla wishes its gigafactory to start production. A few of the questions potential at Tesla are whether it might physically hack 30 percent off of collection production charge, and how it would source the raw food. But the record crucial shame is whether acceptable drivers momentum disguise all-electric vehicles to transport the gigafactory reeking. As on purpose, the facility would suffer acceptable batteries for 500,000 vehicles per blind date by 2020. Exchange that many Teslas would be a solid expertise. The company began delivering the Conjure up S is 2012 and had sold choice 25,000 in North America and Europe by the end of 2013, according to a filing with the Securities and Surrogate Commission. For a tiny perspective: Chevrolet sold 42,000 Silverado trucks in Walk. Exotic sales momentum be important to Tesla. The manufacturer momentum start import Conjure up S sedans in Collectibles this month, and in Japan, the United Voters and Australia later this blind date. A house representative I talked with most recently, who's worked on the gigafactory bid, was rose-colored but also delicate, extraction, "Display are questions about how realistic this project is. "It depends on your vista of the pending. Command acceptable band develop up their gas-powered cars?"

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Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle News From Los Angeles Auto Show

Here's our brief roundup of the hydrogen stories we covered in LA.2016 Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel-cell car, Newport Beach, CA, Nov 20142016 TOYOTA MIRAIThe maker of the world's highest-volume hybrid, the Toyota Prius, formally introduced the production version of its hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle.Like the first-generation Prius, the 2016 Toyota Mirai (the Japanese word for "future") will be a low-volume vehicle in its early years.But Toyota is firmly convinced that fuel-cell vehicles running on highly compressed hydrogen will be the zero-emission technology "for the next half-century," not battery-electric cars.And like other makers of hydrogen powered vehicles, Toyota is helping to fund the development of a hydrogen fueling infrastructure to serve them--initially in Southern California.Honda FCV ConceptCARMAKERS FUND FUELING INFRASTRUCTUREHonda, too, plans to launch a fuel-cell vehicle sometime next year, expected to go on sale in 2016.The smaller Japanese carmaker doesn't echo Toyota's adamant position that hydrogen vehicles are the sole solution; Honda says there's room for electric cars too.But it will also loan 14 million to First Element Fuel, a startup company that has won contracts from the state of California to install a network of hydrogen fueling stations.Honda's funds will help build 12 hydrogen stations in Southern California; Toyota had previously said it would loan First Element its own 7.3 million for the first 19 stations.In turn, Toyota said in LA that it would also provide funds to Air Liquide to build 12 stations in five Northeast states: Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island.Volkswagen Passat HyMotion hydrogen fuel cell prototype - Los Angeles, November 2014VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT HYMOTION PROTOTYPETo demonstrate that its hydrogen fuel-cell hardware was ready for the road, VW took a current-generation U.S. Passat and converted it to run on a fuel cell.We drove the prototype, briefly, and found it fully as refined as the Mirai and quieter in some ways.The company says, however, that it only expects to introduce models powered by hydrogen where a fueling infrastructure already exists and where there's clear demand.Volkswagen Golf SportWagen HyMotion concept, 2014 Los Angeles Auto ShowVOLKSWAGEN GOLF SPORTWAGEN HYMOTION CONCEPTOn its stand, Volkswagen displayed a second hydrogen vehicle.This one, an adaption of its new Golf wagon, showed how hydrogen fuel tanks and a fuel-cell stack could be integrated into the company's MQB architecture without any compromise in space for people or cargo.The 2015 VW Golf SportWagen will be offered in the U.S. powered by gasoline or TDI diesel engines. It replaces the previous Jetta SportWagen.

Reference: alt-energy-solutions.blogspot.com

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