We The Power: How Community Energy Can Free People & Help The Planet
Originally published on The Beam.
By Emanuela Barbiroglio
Born and raised in the German city of Schönau, Sebastian Sladek learned the meaning of the word “community” quite soon. Words like “energy,” “power,” and “rebellion” immediately followed.
“Our city was small and traditionally conservative, a rural area in the middle of the Black Forest. My parents too were conservative people, always believing in what politicians say and never engaging,” he recalls. “Then Chernobyl switched something in their brains.”
“When the tragedy happened, we were deeply impacted and yet the administration didn’t have a plan. This opened my parents’ eyes.”
At his dining room table at home, Sladek witnessed endless meetings between his parents and their comrades-in-arms. They were taking over the Schönau power grid and founding their own as a civil society. In 1994, Elektrizitätswerke Schönau (EWS) was founded: finally a green-electricity supplier.
That might be the reason why Sebastian grew up with the firm belief that his studies would have brought him as far as possible from all of this. So he chose archaeology and, after, started his first excavation experiences.
Despite his efforts to find another path, a passion for the “community” drew him more intensely back to Schönau. In 2011, Sladek returned to the place that made his childhood so peculiar and became a member of EWS’ executive board. “I switched from history to the future,” he laughs.
Now EWS is different from the past, but the Schönauer Gefühl (the spirit of Schönau) remains and the basic idea never changed: together we can make a radical difference. As a cooperative company, the board communicates with members, who in turn help shape the company as partners. In addition, they involve many other stakeholders, including local municipalities, environmental protection organizations and cooperatives to promote climate protection.
By opting for EWS’ green electricity, customers direct the cash flow towards achieving a higher target. The product becomes part of the solution to climate change and, at the same time, the customer becomes part of the community working for a better world.
The true story of Sladek’s parents, the original Schönau “power rebels,” still inspires EWS’ goal of preserving the planet as a place worth living.
“There are always times when people feel depressed and powerless, until they meet a group that helps them come back to power. Being a group has always been my family’s solution, my siblings and I knew how it feels to be representative of a minority’s opinion and how to win.”
Participation is key. “You need to know that you can make a difference and you have to do it, but facing challenges is only possible through solidarity.”
Of course, Sladek’s family and friends had the privilege of not being afraid of repression “but that’s why we have the responsibility to both fight for future generations and defend others’ rights together with ours.”
Movements such as Fridays for Future send a message of hope, by allowing people to be actors in the process. “Taking part in an anti-nuclear protest with 215,000 people gives you a real strong feeling.”
Pioneers from the ‘90s had a long way in front of them, and yet after almost 70 years since the first reactor started operations in 1955, Germany is going to phase out nuclear power. By the end of 2022, it will be a memory.
“It took us years, but we made it.” While years are precisely what we are missing and, Sladek admits, his greatest fear is that we are wasting time.
That’s why even more communities have to take action. The good news is that it is already happening.
A new project by Patagonia is significantly called “We the Power” and includes a feature-length documentary shining a light on the citizen-led renewable community energy movement across Europe. Directed by David Garrett Byars, from the multi-award winning Patagonia film Public Trust, it will be screened at virtual and in-person events across Europe in combination with live presentations featuring local pioneers, from April 2021.
EWS Schönau is part of the film, alongside three other stories from the UK, Spain, and the European federation of citizens energy cooperatives (REScoop.eu).
“All these initiatives are led by very brave visionaries and very persistent people,” says Birgit Grossmann, enviro and marketing manager for Patagonia Germany.
The film will demonstrate the benefits that energy communities bring, both to locals and to the health of our home planet. It will also show people how they can get involved with the movement – or start their own – in their local area.
Indeed, the campaign dreams big: inspiring a citizen-led movement towards energy democracy across Europe, while educating on the crucial role that we can play in the transition from an economy based on fossil fuels to one based on renewable energy sources.
Grossmann is absolutely sure about this: “Citizens have to watch carefully what renewables are according to corporations.”
Meanwhile, Patagonia wants to help groups like EWS promote, legislate, or organize around renewable energy community solutions and their transcription into country-level law.
Patagonia believes that the predominant model of big energy companies and fossil fuel production must be changed, if Europe is to have any chance of getting to the net zero CO2 emissions level required by 2050 and stabilise global warming at 1.5°C.
“If we want to be serious about the Paris agreement, this is definitely necessary,” Grossmann adds. “But energy democracy has other advantages, like the possibility for local communities to make their own choices and see where their electricity is coming from, rather than blindly accepting what companies give to them. It also prepares the way for spreading renewables because acceptance is key. Finally, from an economic point of view it stimulates local employment and boosts it with money that would normally go to big external investors.
Today, one million European citizens are part of the movement. By 2050, more than 260 million people could be involved, generating 45% of the EU’s electricity demand.
So how does it work? It’s easy. All citizens have the right to join an energy community through becoming a member or co-owner. Every person who joins gets a share of the profits and is usually given the opportunity to buy energy at a fair price. As active participants in this growing movement, they are included in decisions such as where to invest and how to set prices.
In Sladek’s words, “the power of citizens is the power of mass.”
Can an EV really help power your home when the power goes out? It’s one of the biggest FAQs people have about electric cars — but the answer can be a bit confusing. It’s either a yes, with a but – or a no, with an unless. To find out which EVs can offer vehicle-to-home (V2H) tech to keep the lights on or even lower your energy bills, keep on reading.
Modern EVs have big, efficient batteries capable of storing enough energy to power home for days. That can mean backup power during a storm or the ability to use stored energy during expensive peak hours and recharge again when kilowatts are cheap.
That’s all true – but only in theory. Because, while your EV might have a big battery, that doesn’t mean it has the special hardware and software that allow electricity to safely flow back out of the car baked in. Car companies call this vehicle-to-home (V2H) or bi-directional charging, and only a handful of models currently support it. That’s that, “yes, with a but” asterisk.
Yes, an EV can power your home, but it has to be one of these.
Ford F-150 Lightning
Ford made early headlines using its F-150 Lightning as a life-saving generator during winter ice storms and hurricanes, so it should come as no surprise that it’s included in this list. The best-selling electric truck in America can send up to 9.6 kW of power from its onboard batteries back to the house. More than enough to keep the lights on and the refrigerator running during an outage.
To make it work, you’ll need to install the Charge Station Pro (formerly called Intelligent Backup Power) home charger, the Home Integration System (HIS), which includes an inverter, a transfer switch, and a small battery to switch the system on, as well Ford’s Charge Station Pro 80A bi-directional charger (which comes free with the Extended Range F-150 Lightning, but costs about $1,300 otherwise).
All-in, you’re looking at about $5,000 in hardware, plus installation, to make it work.
Kia EV9
With up to 300 miles of range and ultra-fast charging, the seven-passenger electric SUV from Kia has been a hot seller. And back in March, the Kia EV9 unlocked yet another new feature: vehicle-to-home charging.
When paired with the Quasar 2 bidirectional charger from Wallbox (and the associated Power Recovery Unit, or PRU), a fully-charged Kia EV9 can power a standard suburban home for three days. Longer, still, if you’re keeping the energy use low. The Wallbox Quasar 2 isn’t cheap, though – pricing starts at $6,440 (again, plus installation). For that price, you the PRU plus a wall-mounted 12 kW L2 charger with 12.8 kW of with discharge power on a split-phase system.
Pretty much all the GM EVs
With the exception of the Chevy Brightdrop, GMC Hummer EV, and the hand-built, ultra-luxe Cadillac CELESTIQ, every Ultium-based GM EV can send battery power back to your home through GM Energy’s Ultium Home System – arguably the most fully integrated EV + battery backup + solar option out there outside of Tesla.
GM Energy says its new 19.2 kW Powershift Charger delivers around 6-7% more juice than a typical 11.5 kW L2 charger, delivering up to 51 miles of range per charge hour. Bi-directional charging requires the Powershift Charger to be paired up with a compatible GM EV and the GM Energy V2H Enablement Kit. The full system retails for $12,699, plus installation, and can be financed through GM Financial.
NOTE: some 2024 models might require a software update to enable V2H functionality, which can be done either at the dealer or through an OTA update.
Tesla Cybertruck
Tesla Cybertruck owners may have zero taste, but they have two options when it comes to powering their homes with their trucks. If they already have a Tesla Powerwall, they don’t need anything else. If they don’t, they’ll need to install a Universal Wall Connector charger, a Powershare Gateway, and a Tesla Backup Switch.
That second option will run about $3,500, plus installation.
That rounds off the list of vehicles that ship with V2H software baked in, so if you’re wondering whether or not your EV can be used to power your home, now you know the answer is yes, as long as it’s one of the ones listed above.
But you might remember that I answered the initial question by saying it was either a yes, with a but – or a no, with an unless. So if you want to use your car’s battery as a backup, but don’t have one of the EVs liksted above, that doesn’t mean you’re completely out of luck.
No, with an unless
As some of the earliest and most enthusiastic EV adopters, Tesla fans have also been among the loudest advocates for using the energy stored their cars’ batteries to back up their homes — or even the grid itself. Unfortunately for them, the slow-selling Cybertruck is the only Tesla vehicle that officially supports bi-directional charging. If you’re one of the many Model 3 and Y owners frustrated by those delays, there’s good news: those vehicles are now capable of V2H charging thanks to an “impressive” Powerwall competitor, Sigenergy.
The good news doesn’t stop there, however. The Sigenergy V2X also works with both the popular Kia EV6 and Electrek‘s 2024 EV of the Year, the Volvo EX30 over the DIN70121 protocol, and several VW/Audi/Porsche and Mercedes-Benz EVs over the ISO15118-2 protocol.
Our own Editor-in-Chief, Fred Lambert, recently went on a Sigenergy deep dive with Sylvain Juteau, President of Roulez Electrique, and came away deeply impressed with the system. I’ve included the video, above, and you can read more about the system itself at this link.
And, of course, I look forward to learning about any V2H models or more universal battery backup systems from you, the smartest readers in the blogosphere, in the comments.
Original content from Electrek.
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Tesla has changed the meaning of “Full Self-Driving”, also known as “FSD”, to give up on its original promise of delivering unsupervised autonomy.
Since 2016, Tesla has claimed that all its vehicles in production would be capable of achieving unsupervised self-driving capability.
CEO Elon Musk has claimed that it would happen by the end of every year since 2018.
Tesla has even sold a software package, known as “Full Self-Driving Capability” (FSD), for up to $15,000 to customers, promising that the advanced driver-assist system would become fully autonomous through over-the-air software updates.
Almost a decade later, the promise has yet to be fulfilled, and Tesla has already confirmed that all vehicles produced between 2016 and 2023 don’t have the proper hardware to deliver unsupervised self-driving as promised.
Musk has been discussing the upgrade of the computers in these vehicles to appease owners, but there’s no concrete plan to implement it.
While there’s no doubt that Tesla has promised unsupervised self-driving capabilities to FSD buyers between 2016 and 2023, the automaker has since updated its language and now only sells “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” to customers:
The fine print mentions that it doesn’t make the vehicle “autonomous” and doesn’t promise it as a feature.
In other words, people buying FSD today are not really buying the capability of unsupervised self-driving as prior buyers did.
Furthermore, Tesla’s board has just submitted a new, unprecedented CEO compensation package for shareholders’ approval, which could give Musk up to $1 trillion in stock options pending the achievement of certain milestones.
One of these milestones is Tesla having “10 Million Active FSD Subscriptions.”
At first glance, this would be hopeful for FSD buyers since part of Musk’s compensation would be dependent on delivering on the FSD promises.
However, Tesla has changed the definition of FSD in the compensation package with an extremely vague one”
“FSD” means an advanced driving system, regardless of the marketing name used, that is capable of performing transportation tasks that provide autonomous or similar functionality under specified driving conditions.
Tesla now considers FSD only an “advanced driving system” that should be “capable of performing transportation tasks that prove autonomous or similar functionality”.
The current version of FSD, which requires constant supervising by the driver, could easily fit that description.
Therefore, FSD now doesn’t come with the inital promise of Tesla owners being able to go to sleep in their vehicles and wake up at their destination – a promise that Musk has used to sell Tesla vehicles for years.
Electrek’s Take
The way Tesla discusses autonomy with customers and investors versus how it presents it in its court filings and legally binding documents is strikingly different.
It should be worrying to anyone with an interest in this.
With this very vague description in the new CEO compensation package, Tesla could literally lower the price of FSD and even remove base Autopilot to push customers toward FSD and give Musk hundreds of billions of dollars in shares in the process.
There’s precedent for Tesla decreasing pricing on FSD. Initially, Musk said that Tesla would gradually increase the price of the FSD package as the features improved and approached unsupervised autonomy.
That was true for a while, but then Tesla started slashing FSD prices, which are now down $7,000 from their high in 2023:
The trend is quite apparent and coincidentally began when Tesla’s sales started to decline.
FSD is now a simple ADAS system without any promise of unsupervised self-driving. This might quite honestly be one of the biggest cases of false advertising or bait-and-switch ever.
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The new Chevy Bolt EV is set to enter production later this year, with one fewer shift, following GM’s reduction in production plans at several US plants. Apart from the Bolt, GM promised a new family of affordable EVs. Are those, too, now at risk?
GM says more affordable EVs are coming, but when?
GM remained the number two EV maker in the US after back-to-back record sales months in July and August. However, with the $7,500 federal tax credit set to expire at the end of the month, the company expects a slowdown.
On Thursday, GM sent a note to employees at its Spring Hill plant in Tennessee, outlining plans to reduce output of two Cadillac electric SUVs, the Lyriq and Vistiq.
A source close to the matter confirmed the news to Reuters, saying the production halt will begin in December. GM will significantly reduce output during the first five months of 2026, according to the source.
GM is also delaying the second shift at its Fairfax Assembly Plant in Kansas City, where the new Chevy Bolt is slated to enter production later this year. The Bolt will be the first of a new series of affordable EVs that GM intends to build in Kansas.
However, those too, may now be in jeopardy. According to local news outlets, GM Korea Technical Research Center (GMTCK), a spin-off of GM’s Korean subsidiary, was recently cut out of a secret small EV project it was developing.
GMTCK president Brian McMurray reportedly announced internally last month during a trip to the US that the project was cancelled and only 30% to 40% complete.
A GM Korea spokesperson clarified that “the EV project being led by GMTCK was a global undertaking, not undertaken solely by GM Korea. The spokesperson added, “The project itself has not been canceled; the role of the Korean team has simply changed.”
The new electric car, dubbed “Fun Family,” was scheduled to launch under the Chevy and Buick brands, using a single platform. Production was expected to begin in 2027 with deliveries starting in 2028.
GM Korea exports over 90% of the vehicles it makes to the US, but with the new auto tariffs, the subsidiary is expected to play a drastically smaller role, if any at all. The news is fueling the ongoing rumors that GM could withdraw from Korea altogether.
In addition to the tariffs, South Korea’s recently passed “Yellow Envelope Law” could make it even more difficult for GM with new labor laws.
Will this impact the affordable EVs GM is promising to launch in the US? They are scheduled to be built in Kansas, but with the R&D Center, GM’s second largest globally, following the US, claiming to be excluded from a major global EV project, it can’t be a good sign.
In the meantime, GM already has one of the most affordable electric vehicles in the US, the Chevy Equinox EV. Starting at under $35,000, the company calls it “America’s most affordable” EV with over 315 miles of range.
With the $7,500 federal tax credit still available, GM is promoting Chevy Equinox EV leases for under $250 a month. Nowadays, it’s hard to find any vehicle for under that.
Source: Newsworks Korea
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