News

The super long Southern heat wave and heat dome along with a Texas drought has now turned into Fire Alerts.  This seems a bit new for northeast, TX. There are currently 8 fires outside of Houston. The area is super dry, so take precautions and do your favorite rain dance.

Peeps, if the heat wave has you sweating inside your home and car, get ceramic tint for your car so that it rejects the heat before it enters your vehicle and keeps you cooler. Your car A/C works more efficiently when you cover it with tint. Also, homeowners, reduce your electricity bills by installing heat rejecting window film on your home. Your A/C unit will work more efficiently when home tint is installed because the film rejects solar heat before it can enter your home; thus saving you money on your air conditioning electricity bills. Stay cooler with tint this summer and all year round during heat waves & heat domes.

Energy Storage, Solar PV & EV News Update

Tesla

Tesla has officially announced the PowerWall 3. While it has an MSRP price advertised around $7,500; the actual installed price is around $12,500. Some of the specs include:

• • • 13.5 kWh Energy Capacity
    • 287 lbs.
    • 10 year warranty
    • Available in 2024
      • In the meantime, Tesla offers the PowerWall 2

Tesla Electric applied to be a retailer of electricity in Australia which will utilize Tesla PowerWalls to create a virtual power plant, VPP and to become an energy retailer. Australia has had supply issues over the years for electricity in some parts. Local Australians took matters into their own hands and started buying rooftop solar and home batteries to store their energy. Australians have one of the highest ownership of rooftop solar (per capita) at 1.1kW (1,166W) of solar per person at the end of 2022.

Tesla has announced that is has produced 5 million EV’s combined from the factories in Fremont, CA, Shanghai, Austin, & Berlin.

Future Tesla EV factory has been announced for Mexico (around Monterrey area), but things to be slowing down in MX? Not sure what the problems & delays are. Now new rumors are stating possible factories in: Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and India? Hopefully, Tesla will put the future smaller 25k EV on the fast track. There are many consumers that desire a more affordable EV.

Other EV Makers, Solar & Energy Storage Mfgs.

In the meantime, BYD also offers energy storage batteries.

Ark just launched an EV microcar for $7,500 in the UK called the Ark Zero.

Trina is opening up a 5 GW solar panel factory in Texas, outside Dallas.

Harley Davidson is finally shipping the LiveWire Del Mar electric motorcycles in the US, only $23,000.

Ayro EV maker in Round Rock, Texas is starting production of their electric delivery vans called the Ayro Vanish, let’s hope that they don’t vanish. The starting MSRP price is $33,900.

VinFast, EV manufacturer out of Vietnam ($VSF), claims to have produced over 9,500 EV’s in Q2 in 2023; however most of those EV’s were being sold to their sister companies in Vietnam. VinFast is now traded in the US under $VFS. This stock is very volatile; so it’s a gamble if you buy it. Stock ranges from $12 US to $91 and back to $17 -ish all in one month. It drops 10%-30% in a day and 91% of stock ownership is with the founder; so if he/she decides to sell (cash in), the stock could collapse.

GM’s electric van unit, BrightDrop has released a few electric vans, Zevo 600, to Ryder in a few cities in the US. Electric vans will help reduce city pollution & smog. BrightDrop E-vans has not released the total number, so we’ll just say a few until more details are forthcoming from this GM unit.

GeoThermal energy seems to be an upcoming energy market, it will be interesting to watch if Houston Energy Corridor will invest in this technology. TX has engineering knowledge with fracking, so the skill set could easily transition to new energy tech. The US Energy Department is investing in this industry too. “GeoThermal” translates into Geo = Earth & Thermal=Heat; GeoThermal = Earth-Heat