A highlight from the International Energy Agency November 2020 Fuel Report projects that "Renewables are set to lead the global electricity sector." Cost reductions and sustained policy support are expected to drive strong renewables growth beyond 2022. Despite the challenges emerging from the Covid crisis, the fundamentals of renewable energy expansion have not changed. Solar PV and onshore wind are already the cheapest ways of adding new electricity-generating plants in most countries today. In countries where good resources and cheap financing are available, wind and solar PV plants will challenge existing fossil fuel plants. Solar projects now offer some of the lowest-cost electricity in history. Overall, renewables are set to account for 95% of the net increase in global power capacity through 2025. BloombergNEF Presentation: New Energy Outlook 2020
Seb Hebnest, Chief Economist at BloombergNEF gives a presentation about the outlook for renewable energies in 2020 at the Bloomberg Sustainable Business Summit Global virtual event. NOV 30, 2020
Driven by the Power of the Sun
At Aptera, we’re driving into the future with a 1,000-mile range that gives you the freedom to do more with less impact on the planet. Aptera is the first electric/ solar vehicle that requires no charging for most daily use. Thanks to the power of the sun, the dream of driving for more miles with less carbon, materials, and energy from the grid is now a reality. (Aptera website)
QuantumScape is building a better electric car battery that it says charges to 80% in 15 minutes (CNBC) DEC 8, 2020
QuantumScape isn’t alone in its quest to build a better battery. Ultimately, the company will compete with stalwart battery manufacturers like CATL and BYD in China, Panasonic, LG, Samsung and others that manufacture lithium ion battery cells. It will also compete against Tesla, which has designed and started producing some of its own cells, and other companies building solid-state batteries, like Solid Power and Toyota. (CNBC) DEC 8, 2020
Thanks to Andrew McAfee for his chart mapping the distribution of "Unicorns" (privately held tech companies valued at 1 Billion $USD or more). Canada is on the map just barely with Shopify.
Charles Plant et al, have released their Narwhal list for 2020 of Canadian companies categorized by the amount of funding a firm has raised, divided by the number of years the company has existed and by the rate at which a company raises and consumes capital to support its growth. 60 made the list.
Three years ago, we at the Impact Centre initiated the Narwhal Project to conduct research to discover the root causes of Canada’s challenges in creating a world-leading innovation economy. We thought it would be useful at this juncture to summarize our findings. This Report highlights some of the issues we have identified.
This page Household Debt, updated monthly, tracks Canadian Household Debt, GDP, Foreign Direct Investment and Balance of Trade and shows that:
If you want to labour at the lower end of the pay scale, you can always move boxes of consumer items in and out of warehouses. But if higher earnings are required, your job security is dependent on your non-routine skills.
Top 3 Technology Trends for 2020 | YBF VenturesTop 3 Technology Trends for 2020 by Startupbootcamp co-founder Ruud Hendriks. Ruud was speaking on the People Building Businesses podcast. JAN 22, 2020
Now that Trump is plummeting into a straight jacket of impeachment we can look for fallout that may affect Canadian Real Estate over the next year. Trade war, cyber war, military war and the ideological war of words and memes will no doubt affect the animal spirits of investors.
From Wikileaks comes the 1217 page PDF 2017 U.S. Global Change Research Program 'Climate Science Special Report' (CSSR). Below is a screen shot of the key findings page:
Here follows, a text version of the screenshot of the key findings page of the 2017 U.S. Global Change Research Program 'Climate Science Special Report' (CSSR): 1. Our Globally Changing Climate Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg chastised world leaders Monday, Sep. 23, for failing younger generations by not taking sufficient steps to stop climate change. "You have stolen my childhood and my dreams with your empty words," Thunberg said at the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York. "You're failing us, but young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say we will never forgive you," she added. Thunberg traveled to the U.S. by sailboat last month so she could appear at the summit. She and other youth activists led international climate strikes on Friday in an attempt to garner awareness ahead of the UN's meeting of political and business leaders. |
History, Charts & Curated Readings"History, real solemn history, I cannot be interested in.... I read it a little as a duty; but it tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars and pestilences in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all - it is very tiresome." Jane Austen spoken by Catherine Morland in 'Northanger Abbey'
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"Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement; and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana Vol. I, Reason in Common Sense
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