As promised earlier in the year, Tesla is expanding access to its Supercharger charger network. Starting today, the company is opening 10 locations in the Netherlands to non-Tesla EVs as part of a pilot program. Provided you live in the country and you’ve installed the Tesla app on your phone (version 4.2.3 or later), you can use them to charge your car. The stations are located in Sassenheim, Apeldoorn Oost, Meerkerk, Hengelo, Tilburg, Duiven, Breukelen, Naarden, Eemnes and Zwolle.

The one thing to note about the pilot is it's only open to EV drivers who live in the Netherlands. However, if you drive a Tesla vehicle and you’re visiting the country, you can charge your car as normal at the stations. Additionally, how the program expands beyond this initial pilot will depend on congestion at the stations. “Future sites will only be opened to Non-Tesla vehicles if there is available capacity,” the company said.

On Monday, the company also put a non-Tesla port home charger on sale. Both the pilot and charger are a sign Tesla is looking outside of its ecosystem for revenue. That said, it may take a while before we see the automaker open its charging stations in the US to EVs from other companies since those use a proprietary connector.

Google's latest effort to help you make more environmentally friendly decisions is all about your power grid. The new Nest Renew program is a suite of features that look at the times of day when the electricity feeding into your home is cleaner and turning your compatible Nest thermostats on or off accordingly. Renew arrives in a by-invitation preview in the coming weeks, and will be available for free in the continental US when it launches publicly. 

At the heart of Nest Renew is the understanding that at any given time, the power grid in your neighborhood contains a mix of clean and traditional energy. In the early afternoon, perhaps, there could be a higher concentration of electricity from solar sources, while a windier day could mean more power from turbines is coming through. Depending on the region, power grids could be getting their electricity from a diverse mix of sources. According to Nest product manager Jeff Gleeson, "a smart dynamic electric grid really needs smart homes." 

Nest Renew will not only automate some of this decision-making for you, but it can also give you insights on the type of power coming into your home. First, a new feature called Energy Shift will let those with a Google account and compatible Nest Thermostat automatically activate heating or cooling during times when your grid is cleaner. 

Google

Because Google can now see how carbon-intense a grid is, it can start cooling, say, earlier in the day when solar energy is more available (and your home is approaching your temperature limit). Gleeson told Engadget that the company doesn't think people will notice a difference with this change, and stresses that "customers are always in control." 

If your thermostat kicks in before you want it to, you can always dial it back down, and you'll know the device is making a Renew-related decision thanks to a green leaf that will appear onscreen. For those whose energy provider charges based on time-of-use, this can also help you save money.

Nest has had the leaf symbol on its product for years as an indicator of more power-efficient temperature control. Now, you can earn leafs by doing things like using Energy Shift, joining monthly challenges to do things like running your laundry on cold. When you accumulate enough leafs to hit milestones, you can vote where Google sends its funds (from a list of its Energy Impact partners starting with non-profits GRID Alternatives and Elevate). 

Google

In addition to automatic adjustments via your thermostat, Nest Renew will provide monthly "impact reports" that not only tell you the difference you're making, but also display when the electricity coming into your home is greener. With this data, you can choose to run the laundry, dishwasher or charge your devices earlier or later when your grid is cleaner.

Renew is a free opt-in program and works with the third-generation Nest Learning Thermostat, the Nest Thermostat E or the most recent Nest Thermostat. Google is also offering a Premium tier for $10 a month in select parts of the US. It will unlock a Clean Energy Match feature that will exchange renewable energy credits (RECs) for what it estimates to be the same amount of fossil fuel-based electricity you use at home each month. This way, even if clean energy isn't available when you need to use it, you can at least assuage your guilt over using non-renewable power. Premium members will also get a unified bill that shows their monthly subscription to the program as well as their usual utility charges. 

Gleeson said Nest has been working on this program for years, and in that time it has teamed up with utilities and energy providers to encourage enrollment in residential programs, among other things. For Nest Renew, it's teamed up with eight Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems (DERMS) providers to help shape the program to meet their respective zero-carbon goals. 

Through the Nest Thermostats, increased visibility and marketing and relevant rewards programs, Google hopes to get more people enrolled in green energy utilities offers and programs. The company also wants to help utilities "bring more renewables online" and accelerate the process either by supporting them in building or buying renewable infrastructure, according to head of energy partnerships Hannah Bascomb.

Google's slew of sustainability-minded announcements today demonstrate a continued commitment towards the "carbon-free future" that CEO Sundar Pichai wrote about a year ago. In what Pichai called "our third decade of climate action," Google plans to operate on carbon-free energy 24/7, help more than 500 cities reduce 1 gigaton of carbon emissions and enable its partners to reduce carbon emissions all by 2030. Nest Renew is a part of a wide-ranging set of updates today across Search, Maps and more to help Google's users make more-informed, environmentally friendly decisions.

EV automaker Nikola has signed a memorandum of understanding with Opal Fuels to build and operate hydrogen fueling stations across North America. Under the preliminary agreement, the two companies will work to co-develop the technology necessary to accelerate the adoption of fuel-cell electric vehicles. They also plan to explore the use of renewable natural gas.

Initially, they say they plan to focus on infrastructure for private shipping companies before looking at whether it makes sense to make something similar available to the public. To date, Opal has built more than 350 renewable natural gas stations.

“Today marks another important step forward in Nikola’s stated energy infrastructure plans and its focus on providing hydrogen fueling services to customers,” said Pablo Koziner, the president of Nikola’s energy and commercial operations.

The announcement comes just months after federal prosecutors indicted Nikola founder and former executive chairman Trevor Milton of fraud. Among other allegations, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Milton of falsely claiming the company was producing hydrogen at four times less than the market rate.

With the US back in the Paris climate accord, President Joe Biden has the lofty goal of decarbonizing the US power grid by 2035. As part of that plan, the Department of Energy (DoE) has announced that it's rolling out a new tool that will make it much easier and faster to get a permit for a rooftop solar installation. 

The cost of solar has plunged 90 percent over past decade, but permit-related costs can take up to a third of the price of a rooftop installation. On top of that, with solar permitting varying widely around the US, some customers must wait months to get approval, the DoE wrote. 

The Solar Automated Permit Processing (SolarAPP+) platform will supposedly solve those issues, becoming the standard portal for local governments to process permit applications. It automatically checks codes to ensure safety while generating a standardized inspection checklist that installers and inspectors can use to verify compliance in the field. 

We have 3 million households today that have solar on their roofs, but the potential is so much greater.

The government piloted the SolarAPP+ program in four communities around Arizona and California: Tucson and Pima County in Arizona, and Menifee and Pleasant Valley in the California. "In Tucson, for example, SolarAPP+ reduced permitting reviews from approximately 20 business days to zero," according to the DoE. 

"We have 3 million households today that have solar on their roofs, but the potential is so much greater," DoE's solar energy director told Reuters. "Having streamlined processes and an automated permitting platform that can make it faster, easier and cheaper for homeowners to go solar promises to really help expand the residential solar sector."

Local governments and installers can now sign up to get started with the app, or attend webinars listed on the DoE's blog. All of that is part of the DoE's Summer of Solar campaign which includes research by the agency aimed at lowering soft costs (design, siting, permitting, installation, etc.) associated with rooftop solar power.