BlueDot Perovskite Solar Cells Inch Forward
Climate activists have been turning up the heat on two Democratic holdouts who are on the verge of smothering President Biden’s ambitious climate plans, the well known coal stakeholder Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and the somewhat lesser known but spotlight-grabbing Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Whether or not they continue to hold out is an open question as of this writing. However, one thing is certain: Coal is on the way out. Perhaps perovskite solar cells will help fully close the door one day.
The Disruptive Potential Of The Perovskite Solar Cell
Ever since the US fell out of the global silicon solar cell race in the 1980s, policymakers have been lusting after an alternative photovoltaic technology that could be manufactured in the US, at scale, and at a price point that could beat imported silicon solar cells.
Somewhere around 2009, the Department of Energy hit upon synthetic perovskite as a potential solution. Instead of a solid mass that needs to be tailored mechanically, the meat of a perovskite solar cell is a solution of relatively inexpensive, lab-grown nanoscale crystals that can be applied like ink to practically any surface.
If you’re thinking roll-to-roll, run right out and buy yourself a cigar. If all goes according to plan, a perovskite solar cell facility could be run like a print shop, churning out reams of solar cells at high volume with minimal waste.
Perovskites could be the next big thing after plastics, but it’s not that simple. Not just any old synthetic perovskite nanocrystals can get the job done. They need to be tailored with other substances for durability. That can jack up the cost, which kind of pulls the rug out from under the whole idea of the perovskite solar cell to begin with.
Perovskite Solar Cell Activity Heats Up
Energy is energy, and it seems that some oil and gas stakeholders have taken the model of plastics to heart in pursuit of the next big thing. The company Hunt Perovksite Technologies, for example, is an offshoot of Hunt Consolidated Group, which has a long history in the fossil energy field. In an interesting move, earlier this year HPT merged with the perovskite solar cell startup 1366 Technologies to form a new perovskite venture called CubicPV.
Shell is another fossil stakeholder with a hand in the perovskite solar cell pot. In 2018, the company kickstarted the GCxN clean technology accelerator at the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and GCxN has the perovskite solar cell startup BlueDot Photonics under its wing.
Last May, NREL also organized a consortium of perovskite solar cell stakeholders, consisting of BlueDot, Energy Materials Corporation, First Solar, Hunt Perovskites Technologies (now CubicPV), Swift Solar, and Tandem PV.
Perovskite Promise Gets Real
That brings us to the latest news in the perovskite solar cell area. Last year CleanTechnica caught up with GCxN program manager Adam Duran, and he had this to say about BlueDot:
“It’s promising technology, nascent technology that they are developing quickly. They are working on a creative manufacturing technology that will help reduce costs,” he said. “It’s a novel approach to how they go through the production. This is an opportunity to take their laboratory technology and start thinking about what it would look like to do production-sized panels.”
It seems that others have caught on, including the cleantech investor group Volo Earth, which is an affiliate of NREL and the influential green organization RMI.
Last spring BlueDot raised a $1 million round of Series Seed financing through VoLo Earth Ventures. Boston-based Clean Energy Venture Group and the Seattle firm E8 were also involved, to be joined later by the nonprofit firm VertueLab of Portland, Oregon.
In the latest development, last week, Japan’s Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. announced that it had jumped into the BlueDot pool through its US branch.
“We’ve been impressed with BlueDot Photonics, which is developing a unique optical technology to improve the efficiency of solar power generation, and through investment, we hope to contribute to climate change countermeasures,” said HP President and CEO Akira Hiruma.
The seal of approval from one of the top optoelectronics marketers in the world probably won’t do much to change the minds of perovskite skeptics. However, the Hamamatsu edge could finally jolt the entire perovskite field out of the lab and onto the shelves of your local hardware store.
“Having Hamamatsu as a strategic partner is a big win for us. They are photonics experts, and their engagement will help us avoid commercialization pitfalls and identify new opportunities for our products. This will also help BlueDot consider markets outside of North America as we grow in the future,” explained BlueDot CEO Jared Silvia.
They may not be alone. Our friends over at the journal Nature recently noted that at least one legacy optoelectronics company has dipped a toe in the perovskite solar cell waters, only to bail. However, Nature also lists Panasonic and Toshiba among those still in hot pursuit of perovskite PV, along with the leading wind turbine manufacturer Goldwind of China.
Perovskites, Solar Tariffs, & The Manchin-Sinema Dance
In an echo of Silvia’s comment about “new opportunities,” Nature also teased out some hints that early markets for perovksite solar cells will be niche ones. If you have any thoughts about that, drop us a note in the comment thread.
In the meantime, NREL has been dropping hints that its 30-year collaboration on thin-film solar technology with the US firm First Solar could help push perovskites into the big leagues.
If the name First Solar brings to mind that new super secret solar tariff petition filed before the US Department of Commerce by an anonymous group companies reportedly in the solar field, you are probably not alone. However, the attorney who filed the petition is partners in a law firm that has counted the fossil-friendly organization ALEC among its roster of clients, so it’s not particularly obvious that the companies behind the petition have any significant stake in the US solar industry, especially not on the level of First Solar. It’s virtually the only true soup-to-nuts solar manufacturer in the US with domestic roots.
If you have any other guesses, drop a note in the comment thread — but you may not have to guess much longer. Last week the Commerce Department was apparently not impressed by the content of the petition, and it asked for the names of the companies behind it.
Meanwhile, the transformative potential of the perovskite solar cell dovetails neatly with President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda, which he and others have characterized as a transformative step that will save the planet from catastrophic climate change, undo generations of structural inequality in the US, and establish American democracy as the unstoppable 21st century counterforce to authoritarianism, fascism, dictatorship, autocracy, oligarchy, and whatever else.
That’s a pretty full plate, and last week it looked like Senators Manchin and Sinema were on track to blow it all up — or not, as the case may be.
On Friday evening, President Biden apparently put his foot down, so let’s see what happens next.
Follow me on Twitter @TinaMCasey.
Photo (screenshot via YouTube): Perovskite solar cell courtesy of Shell Game Changer Accelerator at NREL.
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Honda’s first electric SUV, the Prologue, is already a top-selling EV in the US. With demand picking up, the Honda Prologue is shaping up to be a hit.
Honda Prologue EV sales are picking up in the US
The electric SUV was the fifth best-selling EV in the US, with sales topping 12,600 in the third quarter.
According to Cox Automotive, the Prologue trailed only Tesla’s Model Y, Model 3, Cybertruck, and the Ford Mustang Mach-E.
The performance is impressive, given that Honda didn’t sell a single EV in the US last year. With over 4,100 Prologue’s sold in October, Honda continued outpacing several rivals. The electric SUV outsold the Ford Mustang Mustang Mach-e, which sold 3,313 units in the US last month.
Through October 2024, Honda Prologue sales reached 18,309 in the US, compared to zero last year. Honda began delivering Prologue models in March.
Based on GM’s Ultium platform, the SUV offers up to 296 miles of driving range. Although it uses the same platform as new Chevy, Cadillac, and GMC models, Honda fine-tuned the EV to help it stand out.
Honda added a multi-link front and rear suspension to give it a more “sporty” feel. The Prologue also features built-in Google with AppleCarPlay and Android Auto support, something GM has abandoned.
| 2024 Honda Prologue trim | Starting Price (w/o $1,395 destination fee) |
Starting price after tax credit (w/o $1,395 destination fee) |
Starting price after tax credit (with $1,395 destination fee) |
EPA Range (miles) |
| EX (FWD) | $47,400 | $39,900 | $41,295 | 296 |
| EX (AWD) | $50,400 | $42,900 | $44,295 | 281 |
| Touring (FWD) | $51.700 | $44,200 | $45,595 | 296 |
| Touring (AWD) | $54,700 | $47,200 | $48,595 | 281 |
| Elite (AWD) | $57,900 | $50,400 | $51,795 | 273 |
The 2024 Honda Prologue EX FWD trim starts at $47,400. With the $7,500 federal tax credit, the electric SUV could be bought for under $40,000 (not including the destination fee).
Electrek’s Take
Although Honda took longer to introduce its first electric SUV in the US, the company is quickly looking to make up ground.
The Prologue, like GM’s new Chevy Equinox and Blazer EVs, is seeing sales surge in the US as new models roll out to dealerships.
Despite headlines claiming EV sales are “slowing” or “cooling,” many automakers, including Honda and GM, are posting record numbers. It isn’t a secret. With long-range models, tech-loaded EVs offered at an affordable price, GM and Honda are proving the demand is there.
Are you ready to see what all the hype is about? Check out Honda’s electric SUV for yourself. You can use our link to find deals on the 2024 Honda Prologue at a dealer near you.
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WASHINGTON — In the first few years after founding Coinbase, CEO Brian Armstrong shied away from Washington, D.C. But as his ambitions for his crypto exchange scaled, so too did his need to curry favor on Capitol Hill.
“About five or six years ago, we realized that crypto was getting big enough that we needed to go really engage actively in a policy effort, so I started coming out to D.C.,” Armstrong, who started Coinbase in 2012, told CNBC in September, following a day of meetings with political leaders.
Now, it’s practically Armstrong’s full-time job, and Coinbase’s money is all over the nation’s capital. The company was one of the top corporate donors this election cycle, giving more than $75 million to a group called Fairshake and its affiliate PACs, including a fresh pledge of $25 million to support the pro-crypto super PAC in the 2026 midterms. Armstrong personally contributed over $1.3 million to a mix of candidates up and down the ballot.
The tech industry’s biggest names have dotted Washington for years to try and push their agendas as their market caps have expanded, but for Coinbase, the matter is potentially existential.
SEC Chair Gary Gensler sued the firm last year over claims that it sells unregistered securities. A judge has since ruled that the case should be heard by a jury. Coinbase has fought back vociferously, and has also said that it wants to work with regulators to come up with a proper set of laws governing the nascent industry.
Meanwhile, Coinbase faces a growing list of competitors.
In the company’s latest quarterly earnings report last week, Coinbase missed on the top and bottom lines due to lower transaction revenues and a drop in subscription and services revenues. The shares plummeted 15%.
Data from CCData shows the exchange is losing spot market share to industry rivals like Crypto.com. And investors have many new options for accessing bitcoin and ethereum since the SEC greenlit spot funds this year. BlackRock’s ETF chief Samara Cohen told CNBC that 75% of its bitcoin buyers are crypto investors who are new to Wall Street.
Washington can’t save Coinbase from the competition, but the company is betting that, with favorable lawmakers in place, it can be the leader in a thriving industry rather than under the constant threat of lawsuits and Wells notices.
Armstrong said his D.C. visits normally took place once or twice a year. Then it got to be at least a quarterly occasion. And the pace has only increased.
“In the beginning, a lot of people didn’t know what crypto was,” Armstrong said of his earlier trips. Now, “the discussion has advanced, really, to, how do we pass clear rules, create legislation in the United States?”
An SEC sans Chair Gensler
Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief legal officer, attended a fundraiser in San Francisco in June that raised $12 million for former President Donald Trump. It was hosted by venture capitalist David Sacks, a former Trump critic who became an outspoken supporter when he became the Republican nominee.
Grewal later joined a fundraiser in Nashville in July for the former president.
Trump has never shown much of an aptitude for the nuances of crypto, but he’s welcomed the industry’s financial support. He was applauded in the summer, when he vowed to fire Gensler as head of the SEC if he wins.
Grewal told CNBC that he’s had “many conversations” behind closed doors with both the Trump camp as well as Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign. Heading into Election Day on Tuesday, the candidates were in a virtual dead-heat.
“What I think we’re hearing from both campaigns is they get it,” Grewal said. “They understand that in swing state after swing state, there are enough voters who care about crypto that the candidate and their campaigns need to give voice to the concerns of those voters in supporting sensible rules for crypto, sensible legislation coming out of Congress, and that’s very encouraging.”
Grewal said that Trump “came earlier to this pro-crypto view,” but said that Harris recognizes the need for “an agenda focused on promoting sensible rules for crypto as much as any other technology.”
But Coinbase has stayed out of the presidential contest and focused its finances exclusively on Congressional races, as the company looks to help assemble a group of lawmakers with favorable views of the industry.
The Stand With Crypto Alliance, launched by Coinbase last year, has developed a grading system for House and Senate candidates across the country.
In the Ohio Senate race, for example, the organization gives Democratic incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown, who chairs the banking committee, an “F” grade, versus an “A” grade for his Republican rival Bernie Moreno, a blockchain entrepreneur. Some $40 million of crypto money has been directed at defeating Brown, and one PAC has paid for five ads designed to boost awareness of Moreno. The race is very close and is crucial in determining which party will control the Senate.
Stand with Crypto, which has enrolled 1.4 million advocates across the country, is also working to mobilize digital asset owners living in swing states. This effort involved a cross-country bus tour through battlegrounds focused on getting these residents registered to vote.
“It’s really extraordinary, given how razor-thin the margin of victory was in the 2020 election, to see crypto not only be an issue, but potentially a determinative issue in terms of the presidential cycle,” Faryar Shirzad, Coinbase’s chief policy officer, said in an interview.
Shirzad said that last year, he and his team concluded that the only way to get politics out of crypto was “to build our own political operation.” He said the goal is to “neutralization the politicization of the crypto issue and talk about it on the merits.”
Coinbase is far from alone. Nearly half of all corporate money raised this election comes from crypto firms.
Fairshake, one of the top spending PACs this cycle, told CNBC it’s raised around $170 million this election and disbursed approximately $135 million.
Ripple Labs is another one of Fairshake’s top political donors.
The company, which has spent more than $100 million battling Gensler, has given around $50 million to Fairshake. Several executives have also contributed to a mix of Democratic and Republican candidates in races across the country.
Ripple’s head of U.S. public policy, Lauren Belive, told CNBC at a fintech conference in Las Vegas that the company was motivated by the SEC’s overreach.
“We really wanted to put people into office that could learn about this technology and understand this technology, because we need Congress to act and to create federal statutes and not have this enforcement regime,” said Belive. She added the regulator has issued over 100 enforcement actions against crypto-aligned companies.
The crypto voter
Stand with Crypto’s bus tour culminated in a rally held at The Black Cat in Washington on a Wednesday night in September.
The popular music venue has no windows and gives off an “Alice in Wonderland” vibe, with its mix of purple-painted walls and exposed brick, along with its black-and-white checkered floor.
As music blared and drinks flowed, free “Stand with Crypto” merch was being handed out to attendees. Surplus goodie bags were generously doled out to those looking to take extras back home.
Armstrong slipped out of his black SUV to speak to CNBC just outside the venue. He donned a suit and tie, a stark contrast to his fellow attendees. Armstrong said he was confident about the upcoming election.
“The crypto voter has become a major part of this election now,” Armstrong said. “I think the crypto voter is really real, and we’ll see what happens in November.”
In addition to Armstrong, Consensys CEO Joe Lubin, and Rep. Wiley Nickel (D-N.C.) spoke at the rally. Most remarks were inaudible over the roaring buzz of the crowd.
A hush fell over the audience when the headline act, The Chainsmokers, took the stage. The band started with its 2017 classic “Paris,” and the crowd chimed in at the chorus: “If we go down, then we go down together.”
WATCH: Bitcoin slumps to $67,000 level on eve of U.S. election: CNBC Crypto World
The next European commissioner for sustainable transport drew a hard line in a hearing this week: Apostolos Tzitzikostas backs e-mobility and has no intention of watering down the EU’s plan to ban new registrations for ICE cars in 2035. Problem is, it’s not clear how he aims to make this happen.
At an hours-long hearing Monday before the Transport Committee, live-reported by Politico, the man designated the take the top seat in transport as EU commissioner, Greek politician Apostolos Tzitzikostas, clearly talked the talk. He held firm that he won’t delay next year’s emission targets, regardless of relentless pressures from the automobile industry.
“We have specific rules and goals that we want … and we have to stick to the plan. Otherwise the message the European Union will convey … is not a message of stability and trust,” he was quoted as saying via Politico. “We know very well that the technology is going forward.”
What about Europe’s automobile industry, which employs 14 million people across the bloc and is deep in crisis mode and facing a potential 15 billion euros a year in fines by failing to meet the CO2 targets? Profits are tanking, factories are closing, and European automakers are losing dominance to Chinese competition. Don’t worry, Tzitzikostas said. He will offer a full-scale plan early in his tenure, so we’ll just have to wait and see what this means: more restrictions on Chinese-made vehicles, more government subsidies on electric vehicles?
“We have to make everything in our power to make [the car sector] survive,” Tzitzikostas said. “The automotive industrial plan will give answers to all these skepticisms you might have.”
“There is no reason to be worried.” Hmm, vagueness isn’t very comforting, I’m sure.
However, one solution put on the table was the EU’s support of all-electric company fleets, which account for half of all new registrations across the EU. Doing so would also create a second-hand market in EVs in that most company fleets are purchased by lease, so cars are replaced a few years later. “I can’t say if it would be done by incentives or taxation, but I can’t exclude legislative action.”
From 2035, cars emitting CO2 may not be registered in the EU, which was put in place by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s “Green Deal” during her first term in office. To secure a majority vote for her second term, she called for an exemption for combustion engines that are operated with e-fuels. One thing that was clear from the hearing is that Tzitzikostas too supports that position, and wants e-fuels to be included in legislation up for review in 2026.
The future commissioner also wants to drive investment and solutions into sustainable transport, looking into greener air travel by scaling greener fuels, and making rail travel more attractive by allowing rail travelers to use a single ticket and booking system for cross-border train journeys. Lest the automobile industry panic even further, Tzitzikostas added that he does not want to lose sight of road transport and helping European carmakers make the shift to electric vehicles. But again, no details here.
“Commissioner-designate Tzitzikostas talked a good game about cleaning up Europe’s top polluter, transport,” said William Todts, executive director of T&E in a statement. “He showed commitment to e-mobility, scaling clean fuels for aviation and shipping, and solving rail ticketing. But he said very little about what exactly he would do when appointed Commissioner. His repeated refusal to commit to a much anticipated EU law to electrify corporate car fleets was bewildering.”
Still, it’s early days for Tzitzikostas, whose closing remarks, after more than three hours of grilling by MEPs, got a hearty round of applause. His confirmation vote quickly followed, so the tough job of handling Europe’s green transition will soon be all his.
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