What’s old is new again

While fossil fuels are burned and sent into the sky, never to be seen again (except on the ol' thermometer), batteries are an asset. As Redwood Materials JB Straubel says, we’re not consuming them like hydrocarbons, we’re building a strategic stockpile of them.

And they are getting cheaper and cheaper, as this graph via Katherine Dixon shows. This is why there is so much investment in grid-scale batteries at the moment and a big reason for the falling price of EVs. 

And, as we wrote in our Closing the Loop explainer, renewable energy and the circular economy should be a match made in heaven because the materials can be re-used and recycled.

‍Hydrogen hype

While it’s hard to agree with all of Elon Musk’s assertions these days, there's no denying he's a few steps ahead on the technology front and he had strong views on the future of transport back in 2008.

We were disappointed to read an explainer from Lloyd Burr in Stuff recently that failed to talk to anyone who wasn’t in the hydrogen game. As the intro asked: Is hydrogen the next frontier for our green transport solutions? It’s been touted as a solution for years, but is it really?

Not for light transport. The main issue is that it's far too expensive and basically not available. We get asked about hydrogen a lot as a potential solution and we always like to get people to think of hydrogen as another type of battery, rather than an energy source. The issue is that it's not a very good battery, as this chart shows. 

You start with electricity, you make hydrogen, you then use that hydrogen to make electricity again. Around one third of the energy you put in comes back out. This is not efficient and it also means hydrogen will be considerably more expensive than electricity for the customer. It’s better to just use the electricity in an electric machine or store it in a battery, if you can. 

There is potentially a role for hydrogen in heavy transport, steel and cement making etc where the advantages outweigh the inefficiencies, but even large mining operations are investing heavily in electric machines and many hydrogen trials have proven to be expensive and problematic.

Just as gas doesn’t need to play a role in our homes, hydrogen should not play a role in light vehicle transport. We don’t have a network of hydrogen stations, whereas we already have an electricity grid that spans most of the country and a growing number of solar installations where you can fill up your EV at home.

Cutting carbon 

Electric gardening gear is a great way to take your first steps towards a fully electric home. According to a US survey, “participants who have electric lawn equipment were 84% more likely to want to electrify their cooking, 33% more likely to want to electrify their home heating, and 32% more likely to want to electrify their water heating than someone without electric outdoor power tools.”

These electric machines show that there’s no sacrifice involved when you go electric as they are cleaner, cheaper, quieter and generally just better. 

Just as those who drive most get the biggest savings from upgrading to an EV (check out our new household calculator to see your savings), those with a bit more grass to mow are likely to get bigger savings by going electric and Bruce Scott recently launched a new site called Electric Mower Market where you can check out the options.

At Forest Lodge, they do their mowing with the electric Monarch Tractor - and it's driver optional. Labour leader Chris Hipkins recently did some mulching on the orchard (but he missed a few spots).

‍A wall of energy

Aussie company ClearVue has recently launched solar windows, and perovskite looks promising. But researchers are also trialling electric wallpaper in 12 buildings in Glasgow. 

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“Scotland homes are some of Europe’s oldest and worst insulated. On average, they lose heat three times faster than their European counterparts.

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This means their heating systems have to work overtime to keep them warm - losing lots of energy in the process. Fossil fuel-powered central heating is used in 84 per cent of Scottish homes, meaning they also release huge amounts of CO2.

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Heating buildings is responsible for more than 36 per cent of the UK’s total carbon emissions - something Scotland is trying to combat with the Scottish New Build Heat Standard (NBHS).”

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Now that's using your head

We've covered a few mobile solar set-ups in this rundown, like the EV that drove across Africa, but this electric hat from Ecoflow takes it up a notch. Why waste all that solar energy while you're out mowing lawns or exploring the great outdoors this summer. For the solar enthusiast who has everything (and is very worried about running out of battery), this could be a good option to put under the tree this Christmas.

We also spotted a couple of sweet set-ups in the wild recently: a solar powered candy floss stand (supported by Powershop) and Serene Power Solutions' solar-powered rig at the Grey Lynn Festival. Let's ditch those noisy, dirty diesel generators and for anyone in the film and TV business, check out Rewiring America's Electric Creatives.

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