Month: December 2017

(credit: Comcast)

Comcast is defending its changed net neutrality pledges in the face of criticism from Internet users.

The deletion of a net neutrality promise immediately after the Federal Communications Commission started repealing its net neutrality rules is just a "language" change, the company says. Comcast is telling customers that it still has no plans to institute paid prioritization—while avoiding a promise that it won't do so in the future.

We wrote a story Monday about recent changes to Comcast's net neutrality promises and followed up on Wednesday with further details.

Enlarge / Tesla Powerpacks in South Australia. These batteries are only half of what will soon be the largest lithium-ion installation in the world at 129MWh. (credit: Tesla)

On Friday, Tesla switched on the massive 100MW, 129MWh battery installation it built in South Australia, just as the state is about to head into the grid-taxing summer season. The installation was completed last week, ending a bet between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Australian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes. The bet was made in March, when Musk tweeted to an incredulous Cannon-Brookes that Tesla could build and install a massive lithium-ion battery installation in "100 days or it is free."

Last year in South Australia was a bad one for blackouts caused by weather and grid failure. Some blamed the intermittency of renewables for the issues—wind has become a big player in the region's energy mix. Storage is a way to smooth out that intermittency. Tesla's installation is situated next to the new Hornsdale Wind Farm, a swath of land that can provide up to 100MW of power at full capacity.

Although the bet was made in March, it wasn't a given that South Australia would allow Tesla to build its battery installation. The electric vehicle and battery company went through a competitive bidding process to have access to an A$150 million ($115 million) renewable energy fund for a 100MW storage contract. Tesla meant to be competitive, though. In March, Musk tweeted to Cannon-Brookes that an installation would cost “$250/kWh at the pack level for 100MWh+ systems,” bringing a 129MWh system to about $32.35 million before taxes and labor. Still, South Australia has not revealed what it's paying to Tesla in total.

Enlarge / Oklahoma Congressman Jim Bridenstine speaks during his Senate confirmation hearing on Nov. 1, 2017. (credit: NASA)

Four-time astronaut Charles Bolden resigned as NASA administrator on Jan. 20, 2017, leaving the space agency after more than seven years on the job. Since then, a former director of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, Robert Lightfoot, has served as interim director. He has held this post now for 315 days, or nearly 11 months.

According to an analysis of the gaps between administrators at the space agency, NASA has never gone this long without a formal administrator. Beginning with T. Keith Glennan, in 1958 and running through the term of Charles Bolden six decades later, there have been ten transitions between NASA administrators. The average gap between administrators has been 3.7 months.

There are two past analogs for the current situation, when an administrator for the president of one political party resigned on the day a new president from the other party took office. This occurred in 1981, when Robert Frosch resigned upon President Carter’s departure, and again in 2009, when Michael Griffin resigned upon George W. Bush’s departure. In each case, the gap between resignation and Senate approval of a new administrator was less than six months, 170 and 176 days, respectively.