It appears a major, century long shift is in its infancy of reordering how power is supplied to homes, businesses and modes of transportation.

Increases in battery storage technology, lower battery weights, available higher capacity lithium, and faster super-chargers are about to change how energy is supplied to the masses in a major way.

Hence the 60% haircut in the global price of oil over the past six months.

Over the past couple of weeks major announcements are coming out as to the utilization of solar, wind and battery storage. Two of the three largest global mega-corporations, Apple Computer and Google, have just announced, within days of each other, that they were going to be powering their main HQ’s by solar and wind power exclusively.

Apple to build $2B solar-powered “command center”

Google Will Soon Use Wind Power to Run Its HQ

Across the pond, in the U.K., announcements are also being made as to the mass rollout of the mini-electric car as well. And even IKEA, the home furnishing store, is also a stepping up as major player in the electric car charger market.

 Speedy charging driving a global boom in electric cars

IKEA promises rapid rollout of electric car chargers

This week, Tesla, the leader in battery powered automobiles, announced that they would be making decentralized battery powered home energy systems. In the not so distant future home power will come from either mini power stations in your neighborhoods or self -contained systems at your home.

Wall Street Journal: Apple Is Working on an Electric Car

The rumors have been getting stronger all week, and now they’ve come to a head: WSJ is reporting that Apple is indeed working on a car. “Project Titan,” as it’s known internally, is an all-electric vehicle that apparently “resembles a minivan” in its current iteration and has a team of several hundred people working on it.

That’s not to say that there’ll ever be an Apple car on the road, necessarily. WSJ hedges its report, noting that it’d be several years at least before Titan could be ready for production, and that’s assuming Cook and company decide to go through with the project.

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BASF Doubles Nickel-Metal Hydride Energy Storage

Via: MIT Technology Review:

Almost every automaker interested in producing electric cars is betting on improvements to lithium-ion batteries to make the cars cheaper and extend their driving range.

But scientists at BASF are exploring the possibilities of an older type of battery, nickel-metal hydride, now used in hybrids. They recently doubled the amount of energy that these batteries can store, making them comparable to lithium-ion batteries. And they have a plan to improve them far more, potentially increasing energy storage by an additional eight times.

LG Chem to Build Battery Storage Systems Worth $272 Million for Japanese Solar Plants

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Tesla Plans Battery for Household Energy-Storage Market

Tesla Motors Inc., best known for making the all-electric Model S sedan, is using its lithium-ion battery technology to position itself as a frontrunner in the emerging energy-storage market that supplements and may ultimately threaten the traditional electric grid.

“We are going to unveil the Tesla home battery, the consumer battery that would be for use in people’s houses or businesses fairly soon,” Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said during an earnings conference call with analysts Wednesday.

California’s largest utility also has just announced that it is moving heavily into the community solar grid business.

Continue reading Major Shift in Global Energy Power Sources Begins →