“Grid Parity” is the term used in the energy sector to describe the cost of adding electricity into power distribution systems (high voltage wires – aka ‘The Grid’) as the same for different methods of producing electricity. It is important to note that the cost has to be the true, unsubsidized cost for Grid Parity to be a reality. Coal fired generation is often used as the baseline for Grid Parity calculations as it is the less expensive form of…
We just completed a story on the new 2022 Nissan Pathfinder EV which is really a Nio ES8 which has a fascinating technology called battery swap. The idea is that a semi-permanent kiosk can swap out your drained car battery for a fresh fully charged battery in the same time it would take to fill up as gas/diesel vehicle with old fashioned dino-juice: This isn’t some unproven demonstration either. Nio already has 143 battery swap stations in 58 different cities:…
Now that Mitsubishi is part of the Nissan Renault Alliance it is time to share parts, designs and advance into a brave new all electric world. In fact the new 2022 Nissan Pathfinder EV and Mitsubishi Outlander All EV have battery swap technology. This means their batteries can replaced in THREE MINUTES inside a kiosk smaller than a gas station convenience store. Click to Expand That would be great if it were true. Unfortunately the pictures above are not…
“A huge shock to the system: Our assessment is that global energy demand is set to drop by 5% in 2020, energy-related CO2 emissions by 7%, and energy investment by 18%. The impacts vary by fuel. The estimated falls of 8% in oil demand and 7% in coal use stand in sharp contrast to a slight rise in the contribution of renewables… “IEA World Energy Report So began the latest large scale report on the energy industry. When combing through the…
A new and little known agency of the United States federal government just invested USD$25 million into a Brazilian cobalt and nickel mine. Who is the US DFC? The United States Development Finance Corporation US DFC was formed in December 2019 as a replacement for several agencies including Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and Development Credit Authority (DCA) of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). As you might expect from the name of these groups, US DFC is…
The thread of China’s new National Security Law for Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) being vigorously enforced by the Chinese Communist Party Government in Beijing has had the desired chilling effect on political protests in Hong Kong that have been active for the last year. Here is the time line of that law: Date Description Oct 31 2019 Communist Party of China issues communique indicating the safe-guarding of national security needed improvement May 22 2020 First public draft of…
All countries need and have national security laws that put bounds on the conduct of its citizens and visitors so why if China’s so different? There is an excellent book titled “The Dictators Handbook” which explains in the decades and centuries past, dictators would simply round up and kill the people they did not like, but through the last half of the 20th century increased communication and public scrutiny made those techniques for control dangerous. One only has to think…
Headlines like Yes, oil is dead. Just read the writing on the wall. , The coronavirus pandemic may have one silver lining: the potential collapse of big oil. and Green Party declares that “oil is dead” are not only misleading and inaccurate, but also dangerous. Unfortunately, these types of headlines are always from those in the first world. Often with the best of intentions (though not always), they look around their regional environments and see decreased consumption. They then…
Few people can envision a world with a greater economic shutdown than what we have seen in the COVID-19 Pandemic. The bright side of this unprecedented collapse is the world has seen skies over industrialized cities cleaned up to a degree many thought impossible. It is an undeniable fact that COVID19 shutdown has shown us what is possible and that is the problem. COVID19 Pandemic Cleared the Air On the up side take a look at this excellent two minute…
In this short edited interview from BNN Bloomberg Technology show, Huawei’s US chief of security explains that blocking US companies from selling billions of dollars in hardware to China’s Huawei, will only force them buy parts elsewhere. This blockage will slow down Huawei but will not stop them. It will, however, have serious implications for US tech companies as their competitors just gained giant sales and support from one of China’s darling tech behemoths. If you found this interesting, these…
Those of us in the West have been using ecommerce sites lite Amazon and eBay since the dawn of the internet in the mid-1990’s, but as is often the case those who start second learn from others mistakes and are even more successful. Today every chain retailer has an ecommerce site but there are a few giant Chinese companies that are poised to take over the world. There are dozens of highly successful ecommerce players in the Chinese market but…
The Wuhan coronavirus, now officially named COVID-19, has near constant media coverage and it is now difficult to see the forest for the trees. There is so much information it is easy to loose the big picture. We are now at 50 days with the coronavirus and it is safe to say that more money and effort has been put into this public health emergency than any other in human history. To make these events comprehensible, we have a reviewed…
This site has a focus on China but has been avoiding the Wuhan coronavirus because we could not add useful information to the cause. Today we reviewed many press releases and articles to develop a useful timeline of events relating to the coronavirus: CLICK TO EXPAND GRAPHIC At this point some of the facts are becoming fuzzy so here is the timeline of the first 45 days with coronavirus: Date Wuhan Coronavirus Details Dec 28 2019 Pneumonia cases linked…
The worlds thinkers figured out long ago that China is more likely going to grow through economics and not through aggression. That fact does not stop world leaders, most notably Donald Trump, from vilifying the Chinese. After all, a common enemy draws people together and has long been a path to political success. One of the globes most respected nonpartisan organizations, RAND Corporation, recently put out paper titled Russia Is a Rogue, Not a Peer; China Is a Peer, Not…
If you know anything about China’s domestic social policies in recent years, it is likely related to the Uyghur minority. China has been widely criticized by governments and activists around the globe for their claimed mistreatment of the these people: “…China’s aggressive media campaign comes after exposés published by The New York Times and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists about the government’s drive to detain a million or more members of largely Muslim minority groups in indoctrination camps. The…
English
العربية
简体中文
Nederlands
Filipino
Français
Deutsch
עִבְרִית
हिन्दी
Magyar
Bahasa Indonesia
Italiano
日本語
한국어
Polski
Português
ਪੰਜਾਬੀ
Română
Русский
Español
Svenska
ไทย
Українська
Tiếng Việt