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Mike Muglia hates to miss a wave.

A self-described surf junkie, Muglia catches waves on his surfboard off the coast of the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Further into those waters—15 nautical miles to be exact—sits another surfer. Aptly named Waverider, this surfer is a 440-pound, half banana-yellow, half beet-purple buoy that Muglia uses to study the energy that flows in our oceans.

This banana-yellow Waverider buoy will spend 12 months off North Carolina’s coast, collecting data on ocean waves, currents, tides, and water temperatures to help marine energy developers find the best spots to source clean, renewable energy from the ocean. Photos courtesy of Mike Muglia

Marine energy—clean power generated from ocean currents, waves, tides, and water temperature changes—is still young, but it has the potential to deliver clean, renewable electricity to coastal communities where nearly 40% of Americans live. Before that can happen, scientists need to pinpoint which oceanic arteries host the most reliable energy. With 3.4 million square nautical miles of U.S. waters—a larger area than the combined landmass of all 50 states—there is a lot left to explore.

Now, Muglia and Miguel Canals just deployed two new Waverider buoys—one off the coast of North Carolina and the other off Puerto Rico. There, the surfers will collect detailed data on the surface waves in those areas of the Atlantic Ocean, adding to publicly available data sets on waves, currents, and water temperatures that will not only move marine energy closer to widescale use but also help scientists understand how climate change is affecting our oceans.

Muglia is a principal investigator at the Southeast Atlantic Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association and research professor at the Coastal Studies Institute of North Carolina, and Canals is a principal investigator at the Caribbean Coastal Ocean Observing System in Puerto Rico.

“We want to characterize the wave energy resources available,” said Canals, who, like Muglia, surfs the same waves he studies. “But we also want to collect long-term data on waves to understand the ocean and the changing climate for the benefit of future generations.”

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), which owns the two Waverider buoys, partnered with ocean experts Muglia and Canals to collect this critical new data. This NREL-led effort is part of a larger, nine-year project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office. The collaborative, multi-institution study generates the resource data that technology and project developers need to design the next generation of devices. No one institution (or buoy) can collect it all, which is why partners like Muglia and Canals are so valuable. The data these partners generate are used to verify and improve model accuracy, and are also valuable on their own as detailed records of the real ocean. The data from this project—both the measurements and the models that use them—is publicly available on the Marine Energy Atlas.

“The ocean,” said Levi Kilcher, a physical oceanographer at NREL who leads the Waverider and Marine Energy Atlas projects, “is an extremely challenging environment. But we’re starting to see success, which makes it a very exciting time to be in this industry.”

On Aug. 2, 2021, Muglia set off in the Miss Caroline with a deckhand and marine mammal observer, who watched for sea turtles, dolphins, and other wildlife that might swim too close to the boat. For the 40-nautical-mile, three-hour trip, the bulbous Waverider buoy sat secure in a rubber tire on the back of the small skiff. When the Miss Caroline cruised to the selected spot—indistinguishable from the surrounding waters except by GPS—the team scanned the area for underwater obstacles before anchoring the Waverider under an almost-cloudless, blue sky.

From their lonely ocean homes, the two buoys will send live data back to Muglia’s and Canals’ teams using satellite communications systems. Solar panels help power those systems, and flashing lights alert boats to keep a safe distance.

Now, Muglia, Canals, and their colleagues and students wait impatiently for the first batch of data to stream in. Wave energy researchers and engineers are also waiting impatiently. Using high-quality data on how the ocean moves, they can design wave energy converters that are better tailored to extract energy from the motion of the ocean surface.

The data can serve climate and environmental scientists, too.

In the tropical Puerto Rican waters, violent winter storms and summer hurricanes can create energetic seas. Canals and his team chose their buoy site specifically for its high energy potential—those waves pack power—but the data can also help researchers understand how extreme wave events impact the coastal environment. So far, Canals has only lost one buoy in Puerto Rico—to Hurricane Maria. It was recovered two weeks later off the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Canals, who successfully deployed his Waverider on June 15, 2021, also chose his site because the seabed lacked a significant population of benthic organisms—seabed dwellers, like clams, oysters, sea stars, or sea cucumbers—or sensitive habitats. “There’s just sand and mud,” he said, “which makes it an ideal location for the anchor deployment.”

In Puerto Rico, the Waverider buoy can help climate scientists track how extreme waves—forged in violent winter storms and summer hurricanes—can impact the coastal environment. Photos courtesy of Miguel Canals

Neither Canals nor Muglia, who monitor multiple offshore buoys, have ever seen wildlife get tangled in buoy moorings. In fact, they have seen the opposite: The buoys attract shoals of slender, mud-colored Cobia and big-nosed, neon-yellow mahi-mahi, which like to swarm the bobbing devices.

And the Waveriders are not just for fish and scientists.

By streaming the buoys’ measurements to North Carolina’s Jennette’s Pier aquarium, which welcomes about 250,000 visitors a year, “the public can walk in and see what the wave heights are, see what the water temperature is, see what the ocean surface currents look like off the coast of North Carolina,” Muglia said.

You can find the same data from any computer anywhere in the world: With an online data feed available through the Coastal Data Information Program, surfers like Canals and Muglia can check for dangerous currents, frigid temperatures, or flat waves before heading out on their surfboards. It can also help law enforcement navigate volatile waters to catch up with offshore lawbreakers.

“Even though the main purpose is for resource characterization,” Canals said, “the buoy will have a lot of applications for surfers, fishermen, paddleboarders, divers, law enforcement, coastal managers, and boaters.”

Both buoys now float near the Gulf Stream, which swings through the Gulf of Mexico (near the Caribbean Coastal Ocean Observing System on Puerto Rico’s northern coast) and hooks around Florida before heading up the east coast to Canada. With its warm and nutrient-rich waters, the Gulf Stream is a major regulator of the world’s climate, feeds marine wildlife, and helps their populations thrive, so the U.S. fishing industry can thrive, too.

Still, Muglia said, “What happens down here is not well understood.” Those rich, energetic waters could help power coastal communities with clean energy. But, if their temperatures shift or their speedy currents slow, that could disrupt global weather and climate, potentially causing more violent storms in Europe or higher sea levels in major U.S. cities like Boston and New York.

The two Waverider buoys will help both marine energy developers and climate scientists better understand these mysterious waters.

For now, as he waits for the data, Muglia is guaranteed to never miss another wave—either on his surfboard or in his laboratory—with the Waverider surfing offshore.

Learn more about NREL’s water resource characterization research.

Article courtesy of NREL.

 

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Kia’s electric van spotted with an open bed and it actually looks like a real truck

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Kia's electric van spotted with an open bed and it actually looks like a real truck

Is it an electric van or a truck? The Kia PV5 might be in a class of its own. Kia’s electric van was recently spotted charging in public with an open bed, and it looks like a real truck.

Kia’s electric van morphs into a truck with an open bed

The PV5 is the first of a series of electric vans as part of Kia’s new Platform Beyond Vehicle business (PBV). Kia claims the PBVs are more than vans, they are “total mobility solutions,” equipped with Hyundai’s advanced software.

Based on the flexible new EV platform, E-GMP.S, Kia has several new variants in the pipeline, including camper vans, refrigerated trucks, luxury “Prime” models for passenger use, and an open bed model.

Kia launched the PV5 Passenger and Cargo in the UK earlier this year for business and personal use. We knew more were coming, but now we are getting a look at a new variant in public.

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Although we got a brief glimpse of it earlier this month driving by in Korea, Kia’s electric van was spotted charging in public with an open bed.

Kia PV5 electric van open bed variant (Source: HealerTV)

The folks at HealerTV found the PV5 variant with an open bed parked in Korea, offering us a good look from all angles.

From the front, it resembles the Passenger and Cargo variants, featuring slim vertical LED headlights. However, from the side, it’s an entirely different vehicle. The truck sits low to the ground, similar to the one captured driving earlier this month.

Kia-electric-van-open-bed
Kia PV5 open bed teaser (Source: Kia)

When you look at it from the back, you can’t even tell it’s the PV5. It looks like any other cargo truck with an open bed.

The PV5 open bed measures 5,000 mm in length, 1,900 mm in width, and 2,000 mm in height, with a wheelbase of 3,000 mm. Although Kia has yet to say how big the bed will be, the reporter mentions it doesn’t look that deep, but it’s wide enough to carry a good load.

Kia-PV5-open-bed
Kia PV5 Cargo electric van (Source: Kia)

The open bed will be one of several PV5 variants that Kia plans to launch in Europe and Korea later this year, alongside the Passenger, Cargo, and Chassis Cab configurations.

In Europe, the PV5 Passenger is available with two battery pack options: 51.5 kWh or 71.2 kWh, providing WLTP ranges of 179 miles and 249 miles, respectively. The Cargo variant is rated with a WLTP range of 181 miles or 247 miles.

Kia-PV5-open-bed-pickup
Kia PBV models (Source: Kia)

Kia will reveal battery specs closer to launch for the open bed variant, but claims it “has the longest driving range among compact commercial EVs in its class.”

In 2027, Kia will launch the larger PV7, followed by an even bigger PV9 in 2029. There’s also a smaller PV1 in the works, which is expected to arrive sometime next year or in 2027.

What do you think of Kia’s electric van? Will it be a game changer? With plenty of variants on the way, it has a good chance. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Source: HealerTV

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Solar and wind industry faces up to $7 billion tax hike under Trump’s big bill, trade group says

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Solar and wind industry faces up to  billion tax hike under Trump's big bill, trade group says

Witthaya Prasongsin | Moment | Getty Images

Senate Republicans are threatening to hike taxes on clean energy projects and abruptly phase out credits that have supported the industry’s expansion in the latest version of President Donald Trump‘s big spending bill.

The measures, if enacted, would jeopardize hundreds of thousands of construction jobs, hurt the electric grid, and potentially raise electricity prices for consumers, trade groups warn.

The Senate GOP released a draft of the massive domestic spending bill over the weekend that imposes a new tax on renewable energy projects if they source components from foreign entities of concern, which basically means China. The bill also phases out the two most important tax credits for wind and solar power projects that enter service after 2027.

Republicans are racing to pass Trump’s domestic spending legislation by a self-imposed Friday deadline. The Senate is voting Monday on amendments to the latest version of the bill.

The tax on wind and solar projects surprised the renewable energy industry and feels punitive, said John Hensley, senior vice president for market analysis at the American Clean Power Association. It would increase the industry’s burden by an estimated $4 billion to $7 billion, he said.

“At the end of the day, it’s a new tax in a package that is designed to reduce the tax burden of companies across the American economy,” Hensley said. The tax hits any wind and solar project that enters service after 2027 and exceeds certain thresholds for how many components are sourced from China.

This combined with the abrupt elimination of the investment tax credit and electricity production tax credit after 2027 threatens to eliminate 300 gigawatts of wind and solar projects over the next 10 years, which is equivalent to about $450 billion worth of infrastructure investment, Hensley said.

“It is going to take a huge chunk of the development pipeline and either eliminate it completely or certainly push it down the road,” Hensley said. This will increase electricity prices for consumers and potentially strain the electric grid, he said.

The construction industry has warned that nearly 2 million jobs in the building trades are at risk if the energy tax credits are terminated and other measures in budget bill are implemented. Those credits have supported a boom in clean power installations and clean technology manufacturing.

“If enacted, this stands to be the biggest job-killing bill in the history of this country,” said Sean McGarvey, president of North America’s Building Trades Unions, in a statement. “Simply put, it is the equivalent of terminating more than 1,000 Keystone XL pipeline projects.”

The Senate legislation is moving toward a “worst case outcome for solar and wind,” Morgan Stanley analyst Andrew Percoco told clients in a Sunday note.

Shares of NextEra Energy, the largest renewable developer in the U.S., fell 2%. Solar stocks Array Technologies fell 8%, Enphase lost nearly 2% and Nextracker tumbled 5%.

Trump’s former advisor Elon Musk slammed the Senate legislation over the weekend.

“The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country,” The Tesla CEO posted on X. “Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.”

Catch up on the latest energy news from CNBC Pro:

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Nissan is in crisis mode as job cuts begin and suppliers are caught in the crosshairs

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Nissan is in crisis mode as job cuts begin and suppliers are caught in the crosshairs

Is Nissan raising the red flag? Nissan is cutting about 15% of its workforce and is now asking suppliers for more time to make payments.

Nissan starts job cuts, asks supplier to delay payments

As part of its recovery plan, Nissan announced in May that it plans to cut 20,000 jobs, or around 15% of its global workforce. It’s also closing several factories to free up cash and reduce costs.

Nissan said it will begin talks with employees at its Sunderland plant in the UK this week about voluntary retirement opportunities. The company is aiming to lay off around 250 workers.

The Sunderland plant is the largest employer in the city with around 6,000 workers and is critical piece to Nissan’s comeback. Nissan will build its next-gen electric vehicles at the facility, including the new LEAF, Juke, and Qashqai.

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According to several emails and company documents (via Reuters), Nissan is also working with its suppliers to for more time to make payments.

Nissan-delays-supplier-payments
The new Nissan LEAF (Source: Nissan)

“They could choose to be paid immediately or opt for a later payment,” Nissan said. The company explained in a statement to Reuters that it had incentivized some of its suppliers in Europe and the UK to accept more flexible payment terms, at no extra cost.

The emails show that the move would free up cash for the first quarter (April to June), similar to its request before the end of the financial year.

Nissan-delays-supplier-payments
Nissan N7 electric sedan (Source: Dongfeng Nissan)

One employee said in an email to co-workers that Nissan was asking suppliers “again” to delay payments. The emails, viewed by Reuters, were exchanged between Nissan workers in Europe and the United Kingdom.

Nissan is taking immediate action as part of its recovery plan, aiming to turn things around, the company said in a statement.

Nissan-Micra-EV
The new Nissan Micra EV (Source: Nissan)

“While we are taking these actions, we aim for sufficient liquidity to weather the costs of the turnaround actions and redeem bond maturities,” the company said.

Nissan didn’t comment on the internal discussions, but the emails did reveal it gave suppliers two options. They could either delay payments at a higher interest rate, or HSBC would make the payment, and Nissan would repay the bank with interest.

Nissan-delays-supplier-payments
Nissan’s upcoming lineup for the US, including the new LEAF EV and “Adventure Focused” SUV (Source: Nissan)

The company had 2.2 trillion yen ($15.2 billion) in cash and equivalents at the end of March, but it has around 700 billion yen ($4.9 billion) in debt that’s due later this year.

As part of Re:Nissan, the Japanese automaker’s recovery plan, Nissan looks to cut costs by 250 billion yen. By fiscal year 2026, it plans to return to profitability.

Electrek’s Take

With an aging vehicle lineup and a wave of new low-cost rivals from China, like BYD, Nissan is quickly falling behind.

Nissan is launching several new electric and hybrid vehicles over the next few years, including the next-gen LEAF, which is expected to help boost sales.

In China, the world’s largest EV market, Nissan’s first dedicated electric sedan, the N7, is off to a hot start with over 20,000 orders in 50 days.

The N7 will play a role in Nissan’s recovery efforts as it plans to export it to overseas markets. It will be one of nine new energy vehicles, including EVs and PHEVs, that Nissan plans to launch in China.

Can Nissan turn things around? Or will it continue falling behind the pack? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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