In this week’s Energy Trends we look at the future of the Hoover Dam, and how this iconic 20th century American engineering marvel could be used as a giant battery in a new $3 billion project.
We also look at how Tesla is helping Samoa transition to 100% renewable energy, in spite of Elon Musk’s social media transgressions.
Finally, we feature a leading oil price analyst’s prediction of an oil price plummet in 2019.

L.A. Mayor Garcetti is planning to convert the Hoover Dam into a giant battery

 

Problem 1 – California is the biggest state producer of solar energy in the U.S. but has issues with storage and oversupply during peak times. This means they often have to give away the electricity to other states.
Problem 2 – The Hoover Dam runs at only about 20% of its potential energy producing capacity due to fears of releasing too much water downstream.
Add these two problems together and solve them with one giant $3 billion project…
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power who runs the Hoover Dam, propose to use excess solar and wind energy to power a pipeline of water back to the Hoover Dam in order to regulate and optimize water flow and energy creation, essentially making the Hoover Dam system into a giant battery.
Only a few things stand in the project’s way: community support, environmental considerations, and Washington D.C.
Let’s rubber stamp it then?!
Read more and check out the really cool video infographic at the New York Times

Tesla’s Powerpack Helping Samoa Transition to 100% Renewable Energy by 2025

 

Countries like the US and Canada may still be pushing fossil fuels as a means to solve our energy needs but other smaller countries like Samoa continue the fight towards a more sustainable future.
From July 2017 to June 2018, Samoa’s energy production consisted of an impressive 48% renewable electricity.
Tesla may be hampered by bad PR from Elon’s idiotic tweets and whistleblower court cases but here you can see their true impact in helping create a better future through Tesla Energy initiatives. Their Powerpacks are enabling Samoa to store the renewable energy they create.
Two Tesla Powerpack installations on the island currently provide 13.6 MWh of energy storage.
Samoa’s Prime Minister is predicting their current renewable energy projects will expand to encompass 100% of their energy production by 2025.
If only the G7 countries could show such leadership.
Read more at Teslarati
 

Oil Price Plummet in 2019 Predicted by CitiGroup’s Leading Forecaster

 
According to one world-leading oil price analyst, Ed Morse, of CitiGroup Inc. the price of Brent crude oil is going to fall back towards US$45 per barrel in 2019. This is in spite of many other bullish predictions of prices in the range of US$70-100 from other investment banks.
The reason for the bullish predictions is based on demand outstripping supply.
Morse believes the supply issues are overstated due to improvements in energy production efficiency, reserves not declining as rapidly against the current 100 mbpd oil production benchmark, and Saudi Arabia’s ability to take up any supply slack with its large stored oil reserves.
He says the bullish prices “are based on faulty analysis”.
Read more at the Financial Post
Watch this video that explains the price of oil in about 4 minutes from CNBC: