QUICK NEWS, January 26: OIL PRICE DIVE DRIVES EV INNOVATION; MILITARY LIKES GEOTHERMAL; A SOLAR INVERTER INVESTMENT

OIL PRICE DIVE DRIVES EV INNOVATION Tesla boss sees bumpy road ahead for electric cars

January 26, 2016 (PhysOrg)

“Electric car manufacturers will have to design futuristic vehicles to entice buyers in order to ride out the challenge of plunging oil prices, Tesla co-founder Elon Musk said…The luxury all-electric US car maker, founded in 2003, rose to prominence as oil prices soared and made alternative energy vehicles more tempting…Now the fledgling industry is under pressure…[and Tesla] saw shares dive…Tesla is looking to recruit 1,600 software engineers to help develop ‘Autopilot,’ its autonomous car IT system…aims to have a fully self-driving car by 2018…[and] is taking orders for its new Model X…[which has]…some self-driving facilities…[Musk] predicted all cars would be autonomous within the next 15 years—with steering wheels eventually just a distant memory…Such promises have kept investors firmly behind the California company, even though it has continued to lose money while the big carmakers in Detroit rack up profits in the booming US auto market.” click here for more

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MILITARY LIKES GEOTHERMAL Camp Ripley: Geothermal project brings Minnesota National Guard closer to 'net zero'

Staff Sgt. Anthony Housey, January 21, 2016 (Brainerd Dispatch)

“…[R]enovations on the Garrison Headquarter building at Camp Ripley began] in early 2015…[They replace] the less efficient, traditional boiler and rooftop cooling units with a geothermal system designed to reduce usage costs and improve the environmental footprint of the installation…Geothermal heating systems installed in troop billeting structures in late 2011, reduced energy consumption by 45 percent. Through 2014 and 2015, three additional buildings, were converted to geothermal energy with similar results…The upgrade to the garrison headquarters building involved the replacement of traditional 20-year-old systems that were becoming out-of-date within the next few years. The renovations covered nearly 60,000 square feet of space in all major departments of the building…The field built to sustain heating and cooling, in addition to the upgraded boiler, is spread out over an area the size of four football fields.” click here for more

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A SOLAR INVERTER INVESTMENT Enphase Energy - An Overlooked And Undervalued Solar Energy Company

Stephen Buchwalter, January 21, 2016 (Seeking Alpha)

“…Enphase stock has been pummeled, down 73% in 2015…[Its] technology and business model are different from that of SolarCity and its partners…[but, in] many ways, the Enphase approach is superior to its competitors…[T]here will be multiple winners in the renewable energy space…Enphase should be considered as a great opportunity…Its principal products have been microinverter modules that are used to convert direct current (DC) from each solar panel to alternating current…[I]t is often compared to [power optimizer maker] SolarEdge Technologies…These components are not equivalent…[Distributed storage will be a future adjunct to distributed power generation and] Enphase's approach, their announced AC Battery, is different from that of the main competition, the Tesla PowerWall, to be used by SolarCity…It is important for investors to understand the advantages and disadvantages of these two offerings…[T]he precipitous drop in Enphase stock is largely attributable to its lack of glamour and media attention when compared to SolarCity and the related company Tesla…[This] has falsely skewed the stock market's relative valuation [and opportunity in] Enphase…” click here for more

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