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Solar and batteries are exhibiting Moore’s Law level improvements in efficiency and cost reduction and many of the advances are coming out of China. There’s something of an arms race developing with batteries between two big players, BYD and CATL - and that’s good news for fans of electrification. 

BYD just announced a big development in terms of charging speed and, as CNN reported, CATL has upped the ante with a new battery that can be charged to travel over 500km in just five minutes. On the road, this would reduce the charging gridlock that sometimes has to be endured and it's a gamechanger for larger machines that need to keep running for long periods.

CATL also announced a sodium-ion battery, which would go into production at the end of the year and would provide over 500km of range from a material that's widely available. 

At the end of last year, CATL’s batteries were used in one out of every three EVs worldwide, powering about 17 million vehicles. But they’re not just for cars. There is an increasing amount of investment in large batteries, and the ABC says that hundreds of millions of dollars are being committed to dozens of battery projects in Australia aimed at capturing renewable energy that can be used when wind and solar power is not being generated.

Fortunately, battery prices are also dropping rapidly, making EVs and static storage much more affordable.

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Line charge

You can’t make petrol at work. But you can make electricity and Electra, which owns and operates the electricity lines and assets in the Kāpiti and Horowhenua districts. has just installed four new Evnex 22kW EV chargers at its Paraparaumu location.

Because plenty of vehicles are at one place for a long time and they're cheaper to run and maintain, slower chargers at workplaces make sense and as they're generally used outside of peak times, the grid can handle plenty more workplace charging.

“This part of our plan to integrate more EVs into our fleet and commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As the size of our fleet is increasing, the distance travelled grows as does the need for more and faster charging facilities, so we have doubled the number of chargers and gone from 7kW units to 22kW to support our plans to transition and further decarbonise our fleet.”

You gotta know when to fold ‘em 

One of the big benefits of fossil fuels is transportability. Solar is great if you’re not going anywhere, but what if you could take your solar with you? An Austrian start-up called SolarContainer has developed a system where 240 solar panels unfold from a container. 

The panels can be easily unfolded using a rail system, are up to 120m long "and can be used for both on- and off-grid purposes, including rescue missions and gatherings.” 

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“Once the user pulls out the foldable photovoltaic panels from the mobile solar container, powering up equipment and properties with green energy follows suit, and this can be done almost anywhere as long as the land is big enough to accommodate the series of panels.”

Siren call

We covered the arrival of Christchurch’s new electric firetruck a while back, and Gavin Shoebridge has headed south to find out more about it

As well as the reduced running costs, it’s actually a lot more usable than the diesel versions, he says.

Solar for the soul

While marketers call electricity a ‘low-interest category’ because so many people take it for granted, those who get solar installed often become very interested in their energy consumption.

Like any passion, the enthusiasts can be a bit overzealous and try to convince all who will listen that they should follow suit, but we applaud his commitment to sharing the love. 

And we applaud the solar industry’s commitment over the years in the face of aggressive competition from the fossil fuel industry, as the below documentary shows.