EVs, Solar, & Energy Storage: Ignoring The Science That Will Save Us
Ignoring the science that could save Planet Earth is rampant today. People can have empathy, function in society, and survive — even thrive — yet still reject basic premises of scientific climate reasoning. People want to be totally sure, for example, that the changes they make in removing themselves from reliance on fossil fuels, centralized electricity generation, and legacy autos are certain and solid decisions.
But ignoring the science disregards the facts about the climate crisis and the power of renewable technologies.
Cars, trucks, and other forms of transportation are a major producer of air pollution in the world. Climate scientists say vehicle electrification is one of the best ways to reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. A research team from MIT released data in an interactive online tool to help people quantify the true costs of their car-buying decisions — both for the planet and their budget. EVs are arriving much faster than anyone might have forecast.
The source of solar energy — the sun — is nearly limitless and can be accessed anywhere on earth at one time or another. Yes, it would take around 10 million acres of land, but that’s only about 0.4% of the area of the US to allow enough space for solar photovoltaics (PV) to supply all of the nation’s electricity.
Energy storage has been evolving and creating long-term benefits and reliability for consumers. It is critical for the entire grid as it augments energy resources and can act as a generation, transmission, or distribution asset – sometimes in a single asset. As an enabling technology, it can save consumers money, improve reliability and resilience, integrate generation sources, and help reduce environmental impacts.
If renewable energy technology is so great, then why do so many people deny its potential in our lives?
Ignoring the Science: Denial in Crisis
Public health expert Sara Gorman and psychiatrist/scientist Jack Gorman argue in a recent book that failure to adhere to scientific evidence can have dire outcomes. Their exposition can help us to unpack why well-meaning people hold to notions that sustainable energy methods like EVs, solar, and energy storage are bad.
Denying to the Grave: Why We Ignore the Science that Will Save Us updates a 2016 first edition book. The revision investigates the psychological factors that lead to self-defeating denial of facts; the authors conclude that normal, evolutionary, and adaptive tendencies act against us. If we extend their argument, the costs of wavering on renewable energy technologies are so enormous that we must make transparent theirs benefits — over and over — if we are to overcome denialism and create a citizenry who can sort out scientific climate facts from hype.
Here are some inroads to do just that offered by the authors of Denying to the Grave.
We want to think that charismatic leaders of anti-science movements are just people who hold incorrect ideas about health and well-being. The Gormans discount that notion and say, instead, that such individuals actually masquerade as selfless but gain considerable personal benefits from promulgating false ideas. Activist voices like Greta Thunberg and António Guterres have counterparts like Peter Duesberg, Andrew Wakefield, Jenny McCarthy, Gilles- Éric Séralini, and Wayne LaPierre. Such leaders have such an influence that audiences make decisions or hold beliefs that do not resemble decisions or beliefs they might otherwise hold on their own.
Confirmation bias refers to our tendency to attend only to information that agrees with what we already think is true. Just look at the world’s energy system, which definitely needs to be greened for sustainable development. However, green energy development is fundamentally established upon people’s knowledge about its comparative advantages over other types of energy development. Whether an energy candidate is truly ‘green’ depends on many factors that encompass costs and benefits in various dimensions and range from inputs to outputs along multiple lifecycles. Cognitive biases can lead to misleading language use and further result in entrenched decision-making that only leads to more ignoring the science of renewable technologies.
Ignoring the science of sustainable energy technology can often involve examining causality and filling in ignorance gaps, according to Gorman and Gorman. They say that it is highly adaptive to know how to attribute causality but that people are often too quick to do so. People have a difficult time sitting with uncertainty and accepting coincidence. Revealing ways to better comprehend true causality can be done by examining criteria for causal inference — strength, consistency, specificity, temporality, biological gradient, plausibility, coherence, experiment, and analogy. We might apply those criteria to early studies of demand response or smart grids demonstrated the effective matching of supply and demand in a region.Today, to fill in the knowledge gaps, such analyses can be expanded into linkages among carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption, and economic growth.
Because it’s impossible to keep up with the enormous amount of scientific articles that are published, we rely on a variety of sources (like CleanTechnica 😀 ) to sift through them. Gorman and Gorman argue that the public needs to overcome an avoidance of complexity of science to judge independently what publications are important. In the world of EVs, solar energy, and energy storage, this means drawing upon a complexity science perspective in which an appreciation of the complex, dynamic, and interconnected relationships occurring within a complex system or problem. Renewable energy fundamental understanding and scientific breakthroughs in new materials and chemical processes make possible new energy technologies and performance levels — staying current with these innovations is essential to gaining renewable energy scientific literacy.
It’s common today to hear people problem-solve through a risk-cost-reward equation. Sometimes, we work through those equations based on skewed risk perception and probability. Risk perception is prone to change based on type of risk, and many people still consider renewables a risky venture. Yet over the last decade a surge in lithium-ion battery production has led to an 85% decline in prices, making electric vehicles and energy storage commercially viable for the first time in history. Comparing energy storage needs and priorities in 2010 vs 2021, important applications continue to emerge including decarbonization of heavy-duty vehicles, rail, maritime shipping, and aviation and the growth of renewable electricity and storage on the grid.
Ignoring the Crisis OR Zeroing in on Clean Technologies
The scientific process is slow and methodical. Analyzing claims can lead to peer-reviewed consensus so that, eventually, the scientific community converges on a shared reality that becomes scientific fact. Spread of misinformation is common in any time of social change and has produced much science denial in crisis over the last decade. Especially during times of political polarization, audiences tend to reject an entire body of beliefs, rather than examining each belief separately.
Surveys show that people in the US have a very high regard for science and its potential to accomplish much that will benefit individuals. When agencies like the EPA have their necessary funding, scientific expertise can be restored to full strength. Gorman and Gorman argue that “the science that is used to help guide policy must be unencumbered by political intrusion and represent solid, data-driven research. We need an end to censorship, banished words, and firing of scientists whose findings are inconvenient for politicians.”
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Environment
EcoFlow members can save up to 65% on power stations while supporting disaster relief during the 2025 Member’s Festival
Portable power station specialist EcoFlow is kicking off its third annual Member’s Festival this month and is offering a unique new rewards program to those who become EcoFlow members. The 2025 EcoFlow Member’s Festival will offer savings of up to 65% for its participating customers, and a portion of those funds will be allocated toward rescue power solutions for communities around the globe through the company’s “Power for All” fund.
EcoFlow remains one of the industry leaders in portable power solutions and continues to trek forward in its vision to power a new tech-driven, eco-conscious future. Per its website:
Our mission from day one is to provide smart and eco-friendly energy solutions for individuals, families, and society at large. We are, were, and will continue to be a reliable and trusted energy companion for users around the world.
To achieve such goals, EcoFlow has continued to expand its portfolio of sustainable energy solutions to its community members, including portable power stations, solar generators, and mountable solar panels. While EcoFlow is doing plenty to support its growing customer base, it has expanded its reach by giving back to disaster-affected communities by helping bolster global disaster response efforts the best way it knows how– with portable power solutions.
EcoFlow and its members look to provide “Power for All”
Since 2023, EcoFlow has collaborated with organizations worldwide as part of its “Power for All” mission. This initiative aims to ensure access to reliable and timely power to disaster-affected communities across the globe, including rescue agencies, affected hospitals, and shelters, to support rescue and recovery efforts.
This fund most recently provided aid for communities affected by the recent Los Angeles wildfires, assistance to the Special Forces Charitable Trust (SFCT) in North Carolina following severe hurricanes, and support for non-profits engaged in hurricane preparedness in Florida and the Gulf Coast. Per Jodi Burns, CEO of the Special Forces Charitable Trust:
In the wake of devastating storms in Western North Carolina, reliable power was a critical need for the families we serve. Thanks to EcoFlow’s generous donation of generators, we were able to provide immediate relief, ensuring these families and their communities had access to power when they needed it most. We are so impressed with EcoFlow’s commitment to disaster response through their ‘Power for All’ program. It has made a tangible impact, and we are deeply grateful for their support and partnership in helping these families recover and rebuild.
In 2024, the US experienced 27 weather and climate events, each causing losses exceeding $1 billion, marking the second-highest annual total on record, according to National Centers for Environmental Information. The increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters underscore the critical need for reliable and timely power solutions during emergencies, much like EcoFlow and its members are helping provide through the “Power For All” initiative.
To support new and existing EcoFlow members, the company is celebrating its third annual Member’s Festival throughout April to offer a do-not-miss discount on its products and donate a portion of all sales to the “Power for All” fund to provide rescue power to those in need in the future. Learn how it all works below.
Save big and give back during the 2025 Member’s Festival
As of April 1st, you can now sign up to become an EcoFlow member to participate in the company’s exclusive 2025 Member Festival.
As a member, you can earn “EcoFlow Power Points” by completing tasks like registration, referrals, and product purchases and tracking your individual efforts toward disaster preparedness and recovery.
Beginning April 4, EcoFlow members will also be able to take advantage of exclusive discounts of up to 65% off select portable power stations, including the DELTA Pro Ultra, DELTA Pro 3, DELTA 2 Max, DELTA 3 Plus, RIVER 3 Plus, and more. However, these sale prices only last through April 25, so you’ll want to move quickly!
Click here to learn more about EcoFlow’s “Power for All” campaign. To register for EcoFlow’s 2025 Member Festival in the US, visit the EcoFlow website. To register as a member in Canada, visit here.
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Tesla is losing another top talent: its long-time head of software, David Lau, has reportedly told co-workers that he is exiting the automaker.
Tesla changed how the entire auto industry looks at software.
Before Tesla, it was an afterthought; user interfaces were rudimentary, and you had to go to a dealership to get a software update on your systems.
When Tesla launched the Model S in 2012, it all changed. Your car would get better through software updates like your phone, the large center display was responsive with a UI that actually made sense and was closer to an iPad experience than a car.
Tesla also integrated its software into its retail experience, service, and manufacturing.
David Lau deserves a lot of the credit for that.
He joined Tesla in 2012 as a senior manager of firmware engineering and quickly rose through the ranks. By 2014, he was promoted to director of firmware engineering and system integration, and in 2017, he became Vice President of software.
Lau listed the responsibilities of his team on his LinkedIn:
- Vehicle Software:
- Firmware for the powertrain, traction/stability control, HV electronics, battery management, and body control systems
- UI software and underlying Embedded Linux platforms
- Navigation and routing
- iOS and Android Mobile apps
- Distributed Systems:
- Server-side software and infrastructure that provides telemetry, diagnostics, over-the-air updates, and configuration/lifecycle management
- Data engineering and analytics platforms that power technical and business insights for an increasingly diverse set of customers across the company
- Diagnostic tools and fleet management, Manufacturing and Automation:
- Automation controls (PLC, robot)
- Server-side manufacturing execution systems that power all of Tesla’s production operations
- Product Security and Red Team for software, services, and systems across Tesla
Bloomberg reported today that Lau told his team he is leaving Tesla. The report didn’t include reasons for his stepping down.
Electrek’s Take
Twelve years at any company is a great run. At Tesla, it’s heroic. Congrats, David, on a great run. You undoubtedly had a significant impact on Tesla and software advancements in the broader auto industry.
He is another significant loss for Tesla, which has been losing a lot of top talent following a big wave of layoffs around this time last year.
I wonder who will take over. Michael Rizkalla, senior director of software engineering and vehicle firmware, is one of the most senior software engineers after Lau. He has been at Tesla for 7 years, and Tesla likes to promote within rather than hire outsiders.
There are also a lot of senior software execs working on AI at Tesla. Musk has been favoring them lately and he could fold Lau’s responsibilities under them.
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Kia’s electric SUVs are taking over. The EV3 is the best-selling retail EV in the UK this year, giving Kia its strongest sales start since it arrived 34 years ago. And it’s not just in the UK. Kia just had its best first quarter globally since it started selling cars in 1962.
Kia EV3 is the best-selling EV in the UK through March
In March, Kia sold a record nearly 20,000 vehicles in the UK, making it the fourth best-selling brand. It was also the second top-seller of electrified vehicles (EVs, PHEVs, and HEVs), accounting for over 55% of sales.
The EV3 remained the best-selling retail EV in the UK last month. Including the EV6, three-row EV9, and Niro EV, electric vehicles represented 21% of Kia’s UK sales in March.
Kia said the EV3 “started with a bang” in January, darting out as the UK’s most popular EV in retail sales. Through March, Kia’s electric SUV has held on to the crown. With the EV3 rolling out, Kia sold over 7,000 electric cars through March, nearly 50% more than in Q1 2024.
The EV3 was the best-selling retail EV in the UK in the first quarter and the fourth best-selling EV overall, including commercial vehicles.
Starting at £33,005 ($42,500), Kia said it’s the “brand’s most affordable EV yet.” It’s available with two battery packs, 58.3 kWh or 81.48 kWh, good for 430 km (270 miles) and 599 km (375 miles) of WLTP range, respectively.
With new EVs on the way, this could be just the start. Kia is launching several new EVs in the UK this year, including the EV4 sedan (and hatchback) and EV5 SUV. It also confirmed that the first PV5 electric vans will be delivered to customers by the end of the year.
Electrek’s Take
Globally, Kia sold a record 772,351 vehicles in the first quarter, its best since it started selling cars in 1962. With the new EV4, the brand’s first electric sedan and hatchback, launching this year, Kia looks to build on its momentum in 2025.
Kia has also made it very clear that it wants to be a global leader in the electric van market with its new Platform Beyond Vehicle (PBV) business, starting with the PV5 later this year.
Earlier today, we learned Kia’s midsize electric SUV, the EV5, is the fourth best-selling EV in Australia through March, outselling every BYD vehicle (at least for now). The EV5 is rolling out to new markets this year, including Canada, the UK, South Korea, and Mexico. However, it will not arrive in the US.
For those in the US, there are still a few Kia EVs to look forward to. Kia is launching the EV4 globally, including in the US, later this year. Although no date has been set, Kia confirmed the EV3 is also coming. It’s expected to arrive in mid-2026.
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