Jalopnik: Chinese-Backed Faraday Future Has Stopped Working on its Billion-Dollar Factory in Nevada

Things look increasingly grim for the mysterious Chinese-backed Faraday Future auto startup as it has stopped working on its billion-dollar megafactory in Nevada, its construction company told Jalopnik.

Jalopnik first heard that work had stopped from an anonymous tip from someone outside of Faraday Future but close to the actual construction work. We then reached out to AECOM, the construction company responsible for the factory, who gave us this affirming official statement: "At this time, Faraday Future is temporarily adjusting their construction schedule with plans to resume in early 2017. We remain fully committed to our client and our employees working on this project, and we look forward to the facility’s successful delivery."

Reuters: French Oil Major Total to Install Solar Panels at 5,000 Service Stations

French oil major Total (TOTF.PA) announced on Tuesday plans to equip 5,000 of its service stations across the world with solar panels, which it said would cut Total's electricity bill by $40 million a year.

Total added that the project represented an investment of around $300 million over five years and would cut its carbon emissions by 10,000 tons per year.

Total is not the first oil company to put solar panels on its service stations, and the investment is small by the standards of the company, which spends around $20 billion a year on oil and gas extraction.

Washington Post: Carbon Emissions Were Flat for the Third Straight Year

A world greatly concerned about how the election of Donald Trump as the next U.S. president could stall global climate policy received a major dose of welcome news Sunday, when scientists published a projection suggesting that for the third straight year, global carbon dioxide emissions did not increase much in 2016.

The news comes from the Global Carbon Project, a group of scientists who measure how much carbon dioxide humans emit each year, as well as how much is subsequently absorbed by plants, land surfaces and oceans. The difference between the two determines the amount of carbon dioxide that remains in the atmosphere and drives global warming.

Bloomberg: Tesla’s Future in Trump’s World

What will Donald Trump actually do? It’s a question many Americans are asking themselves now that the U.S. has wrapped up one of its least policy-specific elections ever. The president-elect has offered only the loosest of legislative prescriptions, including whatever plans he may have for the energy industry.

The mystery hangs over turbine manufacturers like Vestas Wind Systems, which fell 12 percent since the election, and coal companies such as Peabody Energy Corp., which soared 73 percent. In his only major energy speech, Trump, 70, said he would rescind “job-destroying” environmental regulations within 100 days of taking office and revive U.S. coal. It’s terrible news for efforts to slow the pace of climate change, but the impact on the renewable energy revolution may be limited. Here’s what it could mean for America’s clean-energy darling, Tesla Motors Inc.

Smart Energy Decisions: Microsoft Inks Its Largest Wind Energy Purchase

Microsoft Corp. has announced its largest purchase of wind energy to date with the signing of two separate, innovatively structured agreements that work toward its goal of increasing the level of renewable energy used to power its data centers.

Combined, the agreements represent 237 MW of wind energy, meaning Microsoft's total investment in wind energy projects in the U.S. is now more than 500 MW.

Under one agreement, Microsoft contracted with Allianz Risk Transfer to fix its long-term energy costs and purchase the environmental attributes connected with the new 178 MW Bloom Wind project in Kansas. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed, though Microsoft said it utilized a new structure developed by Allianz to offset high upfront costs associated with the creation of large-scale wind projects.