Turning the Tide for Renewables in Alaska
The ocean was calm when the Peregrine Falcon ship left the harbor in Homer, Alaska, last month with three moorings resting on its deck, all loaded with scientific instruments.
Eighteen hours later, these moorings were lowered into the silty waves where they collected data for two months. Two of the moorings were 12-foot submarine-shaped buoys that floated 60 feet below the inlet’s surface, and the third rested on the sea floor; all three gathered data on the velocity, turbulence, and sediments at the nation’s top-ranked tidal energy site.
A highly energetic corner of the Pacific Ocean, Cook Inlet holds one of the greatest tidal resources on Earth. All that energy has the potential to reduce Alaska residents’ dependence on declining oil and gas production and provide excess renewable energy that could stimulate the Alaskan economy. That is why researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) submerged their moorings in Cook Inlet; the data they collected will help identify important details of the opportunities and challenges that come with turning these surging waters into a reliable and renewable power source for Alaskans living on the nearby shore.
But that is no easy feat.
“Models and local knowledge tell us the currents here are extremely strong. There is silt and sea ice in the winter. We expect the turbulence to be intense,” said Levi Kilcher, an NREL senior scientist who leads ocean energy resource assessments like this one.
NREL researchers and crew prepared to deploy three moorings in Cook Inlet, Alaska, in July to collect data for a potential tidal energy site. From left to right: Chris Higgins (Peregrine Falcon), Patrick Verity (Peregrine Falcon), Brian Hunt (TerraSond Limited), Frank Spada (Integral Consulting), Levi Kilcher (NREL), Andrew Smith (TerraSond Limited), Gwen Sovitski, Olivia Cormier (TerraSond Limited), Jeff Johnson (Peregrine Falcon). Photo courtesy of Christopher Pike
Capturing Energy From the Ebb and Flow
Just as wind turbines extract energy from moving air, underwater turbines can create energy from the ebb and flow of the tides. Tidal energy has the potential to provide more than 220 terawatt-hours per year of clean, renewable energy in the United States, which is enough to power 21 million homes. Tidal technologies are promising, with new demonstration projects showing the world that they can operate reliably and efficiently. And yet, it is still an early-stage industry when compared to wind and solar. As of September 2020, only three tidal turbines were operating in the United States.
“So much of our work builds on NREL’s background in wind power,” Kilcher said. “It took time to understand the importance of accounting for turbulence in wind turbine designs. We’re learning from that and getting ahead of the turbulence questions now by making these measurements. But in the ocean, there are so many additional environmental challenges: We’ve also got to deal with sea ice, sediment, marine growth — not to mention the corrosive properties of the salt water itself. So, we’re trying to understand the details of these environmental challenges as well.”
For the Cook Inlet study, Kilcher led a multilaboratory team that included researchers from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories. The team also contracted help from TerraSond Limited, Ocean Renewable Power Company, and Integral Consulting. NREL has performed similar studies in Puget Sound, Washington, and off the coast of Maine, but the Alaskan environment poses unique challenges: currents that are stronger, sea ice in winter, and sediments that wash into the inlet from the glaciers dotting the nearby mountains. The turbulence stirs up sand and silt from the inlet floor, creating frothy, gray water at the surface and a slurry of sand and gravel at the bottom.
“The strong currents at the site create sand dunes on the sea floor that are 30 feet tall. Instruments have been lost at this site, most likely buried in sand,” Kilcher said. “We’ve used midwater moorings and inflatable chambers in the Tidal Bottom Lander to ensure we get this stuff back.”
Frank Spada (Integral Consulting, left) and Andrew Smith (TerraSond Limited) hold the buoy steady while Patrick Verity (Peregrine Falcon) unshackles it for a ballast test in the Homer harbor, Alaska. Photo courtesy of Christopher Pike
It is an environment Kilcher knows well. He grew up in Homer, a small fishing town on Cook Inlet where he played on the beach of these icy waters, practiced subsistence fishing, and later worked as a deckhand for his father’s freight business. He earned a Ph.D. in oceanography with a focus on ocean turbulence from Oregon State University. Ten years ago, he brought his expertise to NREL’s Water Power team to help design tidal power systems that could, one day, power his hometown.
“I’ve always been attracted to problems that seem unsolvable. Turbulence is one of those problems, and tidal energy has sometimes felt like one too, but the industry is starting to see real success,” Kilcher said.
Now, to help in the effort, Kilcher and his team are gathering some of the information needed to start designing projects in Cook Inlet. In addition to turbulence, researchers are measuring the water’s velocity, salinity, temperature, and the sediment composition and concentration. With that data, they will validate and refine models to paint a much more detailed picture of the site, including how much energy could be generated there and how to build tidal turbines that can withstand the elements.
The detailed understanding of the Cook Inlet tidal energy resource that stems from this project will allow the industry to design tidal turbines that perform reliably for decades in the harsh Cook Inlet environment. Ultimately, this work could also help design turbine arrays that maximize power production while minimizing impacts to marine life and the inlet’s ecosystems.
Transforming Alaska’s Economy With Clean, Affordable, Local Energy
Having access to clean, affordable energy would transform the Alaskan economy, which is currently facing a deep economic recession due to decreased oil and gas production and high energy prices. Alaskan residents depend on oil and gas not just for jobs and state revenue but also for heating and power. Because of their extreme climate, remote location, and lack of infrastructure, they spend twice as much on energy as the average American; many communities pay three times more, according to the Cold Climate Housing Research Center’s 2018 Alaska Housing Assessment.
The Cook Inlet site is estimated to hold as much as 18 gigawatts of tidal energy potential — more than 20 times the amount used by all the road-connected communities of Alaska.
“It’s a huge amount of power that we have access to at our doorstep,” said Chris Rose, executive director of the Renewable Energy Alaska Project, a nonprofit that advances clean energy solutions for Alaska. “The economic and environmental benefits would be immense.”
With affordable energy, local industries could process the raw materials harvested in Alaska, such as wood, minerals, and fish, rather than exporting them to places with cheaper energy prices. Communities could switch from diesel to electric power for transportation and heating. With surplus electricity, companies could even start making hydrogen as a fuel with which to export the state’s vast renewable energy resources.
Tidal power technologies are at a critical stage of development; U.S. and European companies have had increasing success in single-device demonstration projects and are now planning pilot-project arrays that demonstrate long-term reliability and scalability. Cook Inlet’s strong currents and harsh environment are ideal for demonstrating technology robustness. Given these successes, NREL engineers believe tidal technologies could make significant contributions to Alaska’s energy demand in the next decade. This would help transform and revitalize the Alaskan economy and would be a significant contribution to help meet the marine energy industry’s goal of 1 gigawatt of marine energy plants deployed by 2035.
“It’s kind of like saying to the people in Arizona 40 years ago that if solar power ever gets really cheap, we’ll have a bonanza here. Guess what? It happened.” In other words, Rose said, “the time to start investing in tidal energy is now.”
Out in Cook Inlet on the Peregrine Falcon, Kilcher deployed and successfully recovered three moorings to gather the data needed to engineer the next generation of tidal devices. When he returned to the harbor, the sun shone over the snow-covered mountains, and Kilcher looked for the humpback whales the team saw the day before. He thought about the precious data they had just collected and the device engineering it will facilitate. And he thought about the childhood dream that grew from these same waters.
I firmly believe we can find a cleaner future that’s carbon neutral — carbon negative even,” Kilcher said. “I’ve been working for 10 years to make marine energy a part of that solution.”
Find more information on NREL’s resource characterization work.
Article courtesy of National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
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Environment
The UK wants to unlock a ‘golden age of nuclear’ but faces key challenges in reviving historic lead
The Sizewell A and B nuclear power stations, operated by Electricite de France SA (EDF), in Sizewell, UK, on Friday, Jan. 26, 2024. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The U.K. was the birthplace of commercial nuclear energy, but now generates just a fraction of its power from it — big investments are underway to change that.
The country once had more nuclear power stations than the U.S., USSR and France — combined. It was a global producer until 1970 but hasn’t completed a new reactor since Sizewell B in 1995.
Today, the country takes the crown not for being a leader in atomic energy, but for being the most expensive place in the world to build nuclear projects.
Nuclear energy accounted for just 14% of the U.K.’s power supply in 2023, according to the most recent data from the International Energy Agency, trailing its European peers and well behind frontrunner France at 65%.
There is ambition to change that and have a quarter of the U.K.’s power come from nuclear by 2050. Nuclear is considered an attractive bet gas it’s a low-carbon, constant energy source that can act as a baseload to complement intermittent sources like renewables.
“There’s a very clear momentum that has been observed,” Doreen Abeysundra, founder of consultancy Fresco Cleantech, told CNBC. It’s in part due to geopolitical tensions, which pushed energy security and independence onto public agendas.
However, the U.K.’s Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce called for urgent reforms after identifying “systemic failures” in the country’s nuclear framework. It found that fragmented regulation, flawed legislation and weak incentives led the U.K. to fall behind as a nuclear powerhouse. The government committed to implementing the taskforce’s guidance and is expected to present a plan to do so within three months.
Going big – or small
The U.K. is spreading its bets across tried-and-tested large nuclear projects and smaller, next-generation reactors known as small module reactors (SMRs).
British company Rolls-Royce has been selected as the country’s preferred partner for SMRs, which are effectively containerized nuclear reactors designed to be manufactured in a factory. Many include passive cooling techniques, which supporters argue makes them safer and cheaper.
Nuclear has long come under fire by environmentalists due to radioactive waste and disasters like Chernobyl. Indeed, the U.K.’s first commercial plant Windscale became its worst nuclear accident in history when it melted down in 1957.
On October 10, 1957, Windscale became the site of the worst nuclear accident in British history, and the worst in the world until Three Mile Island 22 years later. A facility had been built there to produce plutonium, but when the US successfully designed a nuclear bomb that used tritium, the facility was used to produce it for the UK. However, this required running the reactor at a higher temperature than its design could sustain, and it eventually caught fire. Operators at first worried that e
Photo: George Freston | Hulton Archive | Getty Images
Most SMRs use light water reactor technology – think of the planned large-scale nuclear plant Sizewell C, just “shrunk down,” said Abeysundra – which is tried and tested.
Other designs, known as “advanced” reactors, are more experimental. For example, those that change the cooling solution or solvent, which is typically used in the process of separating and purifying nuclear materials.
The U.K.’s first SMR will be at Wylfa, in Wales, though no timeline has been given for its completion. The site will house three SMRs and grow over time.
In September, the country signed a deal with the U.S. to enable stronger commercial ties on nuclear power and streamline licensing for firms that want to build on the opposite side of the Atlantic.
However, “the first thing is, there is not, at the moment, a single SMR actively producing electricity under four revenues. They will all come at best in the 30s,” Ludovico Cappelli, portfolio manager of Listed Infrastructure at Van Lanschot Kempen, told CNBC.
While SMRs are a “game changer” thanks to their ability to power individual factories or small towns, their days of commercial operation are too far away, he said. From an investment standpoint, “that is still a bit scary,” he added.
To secure the large baseloads needed to offset the intermittency of renewables, “we’re still looking at big power stations,” added Paul Jackson, Invesco’s EMEA global market strategist.
Nuclear share of total electricity (2023)
IEA
SMRs “probably” do have a role — “they can clearly be more nimble” — but it will take time to roll them out, Jackson said, casting doubt on the U.K.’s ability to be a leader in nuclear, as France and China are already miles ahead.
The U.K. government body Great British Energy-Nuclear is set to identify sites for an additional large-scale plant, having already acquired one in Gloucestershire, in the west of England, as well as the site in Wales.
“We are reversing a legacy of no new nuclear power being delivered to unlock a golden age of nuclear, securing thousands of good, skilled jobs and billions in investment,” a spokesperson for the U.K. government’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero told CNBC.
“Sizewell C will deliver clean electricity for the equivalent of six million of today’s households for at least six decades, and the UK’s first small modular reactors at Wylfa will power the equivalent of three million homes, bringing energy security,” they added.
Innovation in funding
The U.K. has a strong legacy to build on. It pioneered fresh funding mechanisms to make large-scale nuclear projects investible so that they are less reliant on direct government funding, such as a Contract for Differences, which was used for Hinkley Point C.
The mechanism guarantees a fixed price for the electricity generated over a long period of time in order to de-risk investments in an industry that’s known for running over time and budget. Hinkley Point C was initially expected to cost £18 billion (over $24 billion) but the bill has slowly crept up.
“That fixes one part of the equation, the price risk,” Cappelli said of nuclear investments, but the second risk is construction delays.
The Regulated Asset Base (RAB), first used for nuclear at Sizewell C, attempts to reconcile this. Investors get paid from the day they cut a check for a nuclear project, rather than the day it starts operating. Sizewell C is expected to cost £38 billion to build.
Private market investors are increasingly interested in next-generation nuclear as a way to offset soaring energy demands from AI, resulting in a host of young companies trying to build out facilities. Perhaps the most famous is Oklo, a U.S. firm that was taken public by a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) founded by OpenAI’s Sam Altman.
Rendering of a proposed Oklo commercial advanced fission power plant in the U.S.
Courtesy: Oklo Inc.
The U.K.’s advanced modular reactor hopeful Newcleo, which uses lead for cooling, moved its headquarters from London to Paris in 2024 — a strategic move to deepen its European footprint. At the time, it told World Nuclear News that it still plans to have a commercial reactor up and running in the U.K. by 2033, but the firm has since scaled back its British efforts.
Meanwhile, Tokamak Energy and First Light Fusion call the U.K. home. They both focus on nuclear fusion, the process of generating power by combining atoms, though this technology is yet to get out of the lab. All of today’s nuclear power comes from fission, where atoms are spit. The U.K. announced £2.5 billion for a world-first fusion prototype in June.
The next generation of engineers
The U.K. faces challenges in access to relevant talent, which is crucial for scaling projects effectively. The country is heralded for its world-class universities and technical know-how, “but that is very much book knowledge,” said Van Lanschot Kempen’s Cappelli.
“What we need is real on-the-ground expertise, and that we are probably lacking for the simple reason that we haven’t been doing it for a very long time,” he said.
For Abeysundra, there’s one area where the U.K. stands out: its mindset. “There is so much knowledge, innovation, and that can-do attitude, which I don’t see as much in other nations,” she said, pointing to the U.K.’s trailblazing role in the Industrial Revolution and establishment of offshore wind energy.
The U.K. government positioned nuclear energy as a key element of the future clean energy workforce in its Clean Energy Jobs Plan released in October, while its national roadmap for nuclear skills, set out in 2024, focuses on apprenticeships, PhDs and upskilling mid-career workers. Industry-led initiatives such as the Energy Skills Passport also support the likes of oil and gas workers to gain green skills.
Securing the supply chain
Perhaps the toughest issue, however, is the supply chain.
Uranium, the fuel used to make a nuclear reaction, is dominated by just four countries, including Russia. Global demand for uranium could rise by nearly a third by 2030 and more than double by 2040, according to the World Nuclear Association, adding further reliance on a select few countries and pressure on developers.
The U.K. government has allocated funding to build up the supply chain and has committed to preventing the import of nuclear fuel from Russia by 2028. Fuel for Sizewell C will come from European or “Western suppliers,” Cappelli noted.
However, for him, it poses the question: How secure is nuclear energy really? “We have to build nuclear power plants, but we need to build the value chain,” Cappelli added.
Workers, expertise and funding are required for nuclear energy, but the supply chain is also key, he said. Otherwise, there will be “the same issues that we had with gas,” a nod to the U.K.’s reliance on just one supplier. Instead of gas, it will be with uranium.
Tesla has officially announced its 2025 Holiday Update, and this year, the automaker is not using the usually bigger update for any groundbreaking stuff, but there are a few interesting new smaller features.
You will find the release notes in this article.
It’s that time of year again. Every December, Tesla bundles a bunch of features it has been working on into a “Holiday Update” to give owners something to play with over the break.
While previous years have focused on adding major apps like Apple Podcasts or Steam integration, the holiday updates have become gradually weaker over the last few years, and they now concentrate mainly on playful features with smaller tweaks and add-ons.
Tesla announced the rollout in a post on X today:
Here is a breakdown of the main features in the 2025 Holiday Update. They are in order that Tesla announced them, which is generally from most to least important new feature.
Grok with Navigation Commands (Beta)
Many automakers are intergrating LLMs into their vehicles and unsuprisingly, Tesla went with Grok, which is developed by xAI, a company owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Tesla started the integration with an update last summer, but it only consisted of running the chat bot on Tesla’s in-car computer. It was the equivalent of using Grok on your phone as it couldn’t interact with the car.
Now, the automaker is starting to give Grok access to some vehicle functions, starting with navigation. Tesla announced:
Grok can now add & edit navigation destinations, becoming your personal guide.
Tesla says that to use Grok for navigation command, you have to set Grok’s personality to ‘Assistant’.
Tesla Photobooth
The second feature Tesla announced in the holiday update is the “photobooth”:
Turn your car into a photobooth! Take selfies from inside your Tesla & give yourself a makeover with fun filters, stickers, and emojis. Share with others right from the Tesla app
It sounds like a Temu Snapchat. To activate it: Go to Toybox > Photobooth
Dog Mode Live Activity
Now, to a more useful feature, Tesla has updated Dog Mode with a live activity feed:
When Dog Mode is active, you’ll see a Live Activity on your iPhone featuring periodic snapshots of your vehicle’s cabin along with live updates on temperature, battery & climate conditions
Dashcam Viewer Update
Tesla also added a bunch of information to the Dashcam viewer:
Dashcam clips now include additional details such as speed, steering wheel angle & self-driving state
Santa Mode
You can update the car visualization to this image. Tesla writes in the notes:
Santa Mode now adds festive snowmen, trees, a lock chime & snow effects for a 3D visual treat
You have select ‘Santa’ in the Toybox to activate it.
Light Show Update
Tesla has a dded a new light to the song “Jingle Rush”:
Play instantly or schedule it up to 10 minutes in advance, either on a single vehicle or synced with friends. You can also control interior lighting, add display color effects & create longer custom shows
Custom Wraps and License Plates
Back to slightly more useful features, Tesla has added custom wraps visualizations:
Personalize your Tesla avatar with window tints, custom wraps & license plates. Use one of many preloaded designs or create and upload your own using a USB flash drive to make your vehicle unique
You can select ‘Paint Shot’ in the Toybox to access it.
Navigation Improvements
A slight change to the nav UI:
Reorder your navigation favorites & set Home or Work by dropping a pin anywhere on the map
You can also view suggested destinations based on your recent trips and habits while parked
Supercharger Site Map
In line with the navigation update, you get a cool 3D view at some Supercharger stations straight in the navigation:
You can now see a 3D view of select Tesla Superchargers by tapping “View Site Map”. When navigating to a pilot location, the site layout and live occupancy (Available / Occupied / Down) will be displayed upon arrival
This could be useful to plan exactly where you’ll park and could open the door to a reservation system, which could be specifically useful for pull-in stalls.
Automatic HOV Lanes Routing
Navigation now includes an option to use high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) carpool lanes. Your route will automatically select the carpool lane when eligible, based on time, location, passenger count & road restrictions
Controls > Navigation > Use HOV Lanes
Phone Left Behind Chime
Your vehicle will chime a few seconds after the doors close if a phone key is inside the cabin or a phone is left on the wireless charger and no occupants are detected. Phone key detection requires UWB-supported devices.
Controls > Locks > Phone Left Behind Chime
Charge Limit per Location
You can now save a charge limit for your current location while parked & it will be applied automatically next time you charge there
Controls > Charging
SpaceX ISS Docking Simulator
Become an astronaut and prove your skills by docking with the International Space Station. Control & guide the rocket in this 3D docking simulator game using a set of controls based on actual interfaces used by NASA astronauts.
Arcade > SpaceX ISS Docking Simulator
Other improvements
- Enable or disable wireless phone charging pads in Controls > Charging (S3XY) or Controls > Outlets & Mods (Cybertruck)
- Add Spotify tracks to your queue right from the search screen & scroll through large Spotify playlists, albums, podcasts, audiobooks & your library seamlessly, without paging
- Take the vibes up another level with rainbow colors during Rave Cave. Accent lights color will change along with the beats of your music. App Launcher > Toybox > Light Sync
- Lock Sound now includes Light Cycle from Tron Mode. Toybox > Boombox > Lock Sound
Feature availability subject to vehicle hardware & region
Electrek’s Take
This is a bit of a mixed bag, which is typical for Tesla’s Holiday Updates.
On one hand, many useless features that will be probably be used once or twice and never again, like the photobooth.
But on the other hand, you have some decent new features, specifically to the navigation system, which put together make for a more than decent upgrade.
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Kia is extending one of its biggest promotions yet, knocking over $10,000 off every EV in its lineup.
Kia knocks $10,000 off EV models
Who said electric vehicles would get more expensive after the $7,500 federal tax credit ended? Kia must not have gotten the memo.
Last month, Kia launched a new promotion, offering a $10,000 customer cash discount for all EVs, including the EV6, EV9, and Niro EV. The discount knocks nearly 25% off MSRP on Kia’s cheapest model, the Niro EV. On the entry-level EV6, it’s 23% off MSRP, while $10,000 off the EV9 is about an 18% discount.
The discounts ended on December 1, but Kia has extended them for at least another month. During its Season of New Tradition sales event, Kia is now offering even more savings.
The 2025 Kia EV6 and Niro EV are now eligible for up to $11,000 in customer cash, including a $10,000 cash back offer and a $1,000 retail bonus cash discount.
If you’re looking for something a little bigger, the 2026 EV9, Kia’s three-row electric SUV, is available with up to $10,500 in bonus cash.
If you choose to finance, Kia is offering 0% APR for up to 72 months, plus $3,500 APR Bonus Cash on the EV6 and Niro EV. The larger EV9 is available with 0% APR for up to 60 months with a $3,000 APR Bonus Cash offer.
The 2025 Kia Niro EV and EV6 are available to lease, starting at $209 and $309 per month for 24 months. The 2026 EV9 is listed with monthly leases starting at $419.
The new sales event comes after Hyundai extended its EV promotions, keeping the IONIQ 5 as one of the most affordable EV leases in the US, starting at just $189 per month.
Kia’s Seasons of New Traditions sales event runs until January 2, 2026. Some deals may vary by region. You can see offers near you by using the links at the bottom.
Interested in test-driving one for yourself? We can help see what’s available in your area. Check out our links below to find Kia and Hyundai EVs near you.
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