Recycling, Renewables and Sustainable Business 21

Friday, February 7, 2020

Recycling, Renewables and Sustainable Business 21

 

1          European battery providers mindful of possible coronavirus shortages
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/02/07/european-battery-providers-mindful-of-possible-coronavirus-shortages-as-lg-chem-halts-production/

While Korean battery manufacturer LG Chem has announced orders will be affected by the coronavirus outbreak in China, European storage system companieshave thus far remained unaffected by supply shortages. That situation could swiftly change, however, as various companies have told pv magazine.

 

2          Shell Transforming Petrol Station To EV Charging Station In UK
https://cleantechnica.com/2020/02/07/shell-transforms-petrol-station-to-ev-charging-station-in-uk/
We somehow missed this one in October, but it’s an interesting and inspiring milestone that recently crossed our desk and seemed like it needed to be covered. Shell announced in October that it wouldn’t just be adding EV charging stations to more gas/petrol stations, but that it would actually be fully converting a gas/petrol station to an EV charging station.

 

3          How Retired Coal Assets Could Help Power A Low-Carbon Future
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianmurray1/2020/02/07/just-add-water-how-retired-coal-assets-could-help-power-a-low-carbon-future/

How can states meet aggressive low-carbon electricity targets over the next two to three decades? Energy leaders from across western North America chewed on this question a few weeks ago at the Western Energy & Water Forum in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

 

4          Shell to build its first solar farm in Australia
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-shell-australia-solar-idUSKBN20104W
Oil and gas major Royal Dutch Shell said on Friday it plans to build its first utility-scale solar farm in Australia, part of a global push into the power business and cleaner energy.

 

5          A new solar desalination system to address water scarcity
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/02/06/a-new-solar-desalination-system-to-address-water-scarcity/
GivePower is launching containerized, solar-powered water desalination and purification plants in Mombasa, Kenya and La Gonave, Haiti this quarter. Like GivePower’s debut solar-powered microgrid desalination plant, which went live in Kiunga, Kenya in 2018, these new projects will operate with Tesla’s powerwall battery storage technology.

 

6          Battery Technologies for Grid-Level Large-Scale Electrical Energy Storage
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12209-019-00231-w?shared-article-renderer
Grid-level large-scale electrical energy storage (GLEES) is an essential approach for balancing the supply–demand of electricity generation, distribution, and usage. Compared with conventional energy storage methods, battery technologies are desirable energy storage devices for GLEES due to their easy modularization, rapid response, flexible installation, and short construction cycles.

 

7          The best battery for grid level energy storage
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/02/06/the-best-battery-for-grid-level-energy-storage/
The continued growth of renewables in the global energy mix is inextricably linked to grid level energy storage, which can smooth out the inherent intermittency of solar and wind generation, ensure that generated power is in the right place to meet demand and provide a range of other services to the grid.

 

8          Perrier launches ‘sustainable innovation programme
https://www.packagingnews.co.uk/news/environment/perrier-launches-sustainable-innovation-program-06-02-2020

The Next Packaging Movement aims to broaden thinking and deliver actions on the topic of sustainability; it aims to support innovators and develop solutions that reimagine packaging from sources to end-of-life, with the potential for delivering positive environmental and social impact.

 

9          Hellmann’s Canada commits to using 100% recycled plastic
https://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/manufacturing/hellmanns-canada-commits-to-using-100-recycled-plastic-246487/

Hellmann’s Canada announced Feb. 5 that all of its mayonnaise jars and bottles will be made with 100% recycled plastic by March 2020, projected to save one million kilograms of virgin plastic this year.

 

10        How Renewable Energy Will Make All The Cheap Hydrogen We Need
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kensilverstein/2020/02/06/the-cost-to-produce-and-distribute-hydrogen-from-clean-energy-will-plummet/

If the hydrogen economy is to advance, it must receive investment support of $70 billion by 2030. That’s according to the Hydrogen Council, which says that the cost to produce and distribute hydrogen from clean energy sources will fall by as much as 50% over the next decade.

 

11        Ten U.S. refineries emitted excessive cancer-causing benzene in 2019: report
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-refineries-benzene-idUSKBN2000EE
Ten U.S. oil refineries, including six in Texas, released the cancer-causing chemical benzene in concentrations that exceeded federal limits last year, according to government data published by the green group Environmental Integrity Project on Thursday.

 

12        Why sushi could be the solution to a sea urchin invasion
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/02/why-sushi-could-be-the-solution-to-a-sea-urchin-invasion-aoe

Eating as much sushi as humanly possible seems an unlikely way to help save the planet. But one company is hoping fine diners from London to LA to Tokyo will devour enough uni sushi – sea urchin roe – to help restore the planet’s kelp forests.

 

13        8minute Solar Energy: ‘Every Project’ Could Have Built-In Storage
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/inside-8minute-solar-energy-the-developer-nabbing-numerous-records

A year out from a leadership change that saw company co-founder Tom Buttgenbach buying out founder and CEO Martin Hermann, 8minute Solar Energy has a new name, an expanding footprint in new markets and a record-breaking solar-plus-storage project under contract with Los Angeles’ municipal utility.

 

14        Electrify America Invests In Sacramento-Area Energy Storage Program
https://cleantechnica.com/2020/02/05/electrify-america-invests-in-sacramento-area-energy-storage-program/

Electrify America, created as a result of Volkswagen’s years of diesel emissions cheating in the United States, is best known for quickly rolling out a nationwide network of fast and ultra-fast chargers for electric vehicle drivers (mostly at Walmarts).

 

15        Electric dream: Britain to ban new petrol and hybrid cars from 2035
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-accord-idUSKBN1ZX2RY
Britain will ban the sale of new petrol, diesel and hybrid cars from 2035, five years earlier than planned, in an attempt to reduce air pollution that could herald the end of over a century of reliance on the internal combustion engine.

 

16        Panasonic and Toyota launch EV battery business as solar lifts Kyocera and LG
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/02/04/panasonic-and-toyota-launch-ev-battery-business-as-solar-lifts-kyocera-and-lg/

Electronics giant Panasonic and compatriot carmaker Toyota have launched the Prime Planet Energy & Solutions Inc joint venture (JV) announced 13 months ago. The JV will manufacture electric vehicle (EV) batteries based on a smaller prismatic format than cylindrical alternatives.

 

17        Renault batteries find ‘megawatt-scale’ 2nd life use in Belgium
https://www.energy-storage.news/news/renault-batteries-find-megawatt-scale-2nd-life-use-in-belgium
An energy storage system made up of ‘second life’ batteries previously used in Renault’s electric vehicle (EV) has been deployed for Umicore, a multinational materials technology company headquartered in Belgium.

 

18        Varying capital costs favor wind over solar in Europe
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/02/04/varying-capital-costs-favor-wind-over-solar-in-europe/
Differing finance costs across the continent are likely to see wind-rich, high electricity demand nations such as Germany, France, Austria and Belgium forge ahead with renewables at the expense of countries with plenty of sun but where borrowing is expensive, according to a German study.

 

19        LG Chem’s operating profit dips 60% in 2019 on battery woes
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/LG-Chem-s-operating-profit-dips-60-in-2019-on-battery-woes
LG Chem‘s operating profit fell 60% in 2019 to 895.6 billion won ($750 million), the company said Monday, as it spent around 320 billion won to prop up its ailing battery business. The South Korean chemical and battery maker was hit hard last year by problems with its energy storage systems, a number of which caught fire in South Korea. The batteries are designed to store electricity generated by solar and wind power systems.

 

Business Intelligence and Analytics 50

Friday, February 7, 2020

Business Intelligence and Analytics 50

 

1          10 Steps to Creating a Data-Driven Culture
https://hbr.org/2020/02/10-steps-to-creating-a-data-driven-culture?utm_campaign=hbr&utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social

Exploding quantities of data have the potential to fuel a new era of fact-based innovation in corporations, backing up new ideas with solid evidence. Buoyed by hopes of better satisfying customers, streamlining operations, and clarifying strategy, firms have for the past decade amassed data, invested in technologies, and paid handsomely for analytical talent. Yet for many companies a strong, data-driven culture remains elusive, and data are rarely the universal basis for decision making.

 

2          How Market Intelligence Will Make Your Marketing Team More Agile
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/market-intelligence
As a marketer, market intelligence is important because it can help you understand your position in the market, evaluate your product, know your target audience, and conduct a competitor analysis.

 

3          The future of smart manufacturing
https://www.plasticstoday.com/injection-molding/future-smart-manufacturing/157510007962362
Industry 4.0 began to enter the manufacturing lexicon around 10 years ago. Dubbed the fourth manufacturing revolution by its German architects—the industrial revolution, the invention of mass production and the development of information technology are the first three—Industry 4.0 can be defined in its simplest terms as the use of “information and communication technologies to digitize processes, resulting in better quality, lower costs and more efficiency,” wrote Karen Laird in a special report published by PlasticsToday.

 

4          Using IoT to Find New Efficiencies for Your Business
https://bigdataanalyticsnews.com/iot-find-new-efficiencies-for-your-business/
Everyone likes gadgets. In your personal life, it’s fun to try out the latest tech craze, even if it eventually turns out to be a fad. However, in business, you have to take a more practical approach. When considering IoT upgrades, you need to ensure that the new equipment will drive efficiencies for your business.

 

5          The Data Science Puzzle — 2020 Edition
https://www.kdnuggets.com/2020/02/data-science-puzzle-2020-edition.html
With a new year upon us, let’s take a fresh look at the current state of the data science puzzle. What are the most important constituent concepts of the data science landscape? How do they fit together? Which of these have been elevated in importance since the previous installment, and which are less important?

 

6          How to help your employees own your strategy
https://www.strategy-business.com/blog/How-to-help-your-employees-own-your-strategy?gko=a2649
If there’s one thing many of the leaders I’ve spoken with lately have in common, it’s that they feel pressured to roll out new strategies more quickly, with more impact. These leaders recognize the importance of communication — of getting the message out to employees about where the organization is headed and why.

 

7          To Achieve Your Goals, Lump and Slice
https://behavioralscientist.org/to-achieve-your-goals-lump-and-slice/
If you’re having trouble keeping your New Year’s resolutions, you might chalk it up to what MIT Professor Drazen Prelec calls “scale mismatch”—the challenge of achieving a large goal that turns on many small decisions distributed over time. No one trains for a marathon, saves up to buy a home, or completes a dissertation without piecing together contributions from many temporal selves. That includes the today-self who reasons that tomorrow would be a better day for running, saving, or writing—or who doesn’t trust her future selves to see through any project that she begins.

 

8          How generative design could reshape the future of product development
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/how-generative-design-could-reshape-the-future-of-product-development

Today’s technology offers an alternative. Digital simulation and analysis are now so fast that designs can be evaluated in seconds—or even less. Algorithms can automatically adjust the geometry of a part between simulations, with no manual refinement required. Using artificial-intelligence techniques, these new generative design systems can explore a much larger universe of possible solutions, comparing the results of thousands of simulations to close in on a design that delivers the most favorable combination of attributes.

 

9          How to Market A Product to Wow Customers
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-market-a-product
Product launches are an exciting time for marketers. Unveiling to the world the new campaign you’ve created just for that specific launch can be a relief.

Let’s say you’ve developed a great product, know your target audience, and could tell anyone you know about it because you know it so well. The only thing left to do is to figure out how to market it.

 

10        Why AI is the most Important HR Tech tool?
https://datafloq.com/read/why-ai-is-the-most-important-hr-tech-tool/7654
The world of HR has undergone significant changes in this decade. The primary driver has, of course, been technology. From sorting and scanning job applications, scheduling interviews, and printing appointment letters, HR is slowly taking on the role of a strategic partner for senior management, looking to align the people’s practices of the organization with its business goals.

 

11        Google Maps seeks business, transit reviews in new look as it turns 15
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-maps-idUSKBN2001E3
Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google Maps on Thursday launched a redesign that prominently solicits users’ reviews and photos of places they visit, seeking to grow its data in a field led by local search apps such as Zomato, TripAdvisor and Yelp.

 

12        China’s mobile giants to take on Google’s Play store
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-mobile-exclusive-idUSKBN20018H
China’s Xiaomi, Huawei Technologies, Oppo and Vivo are joining forces to create a platform for developers outside China to upload apps onto all of their app stores simultaneously, in a move analysts say is meant to challenge the dominance of Google’s Play store.

 

13        5 Ways to Use Business Intelligence Tools to Stay Competitive in 2020
https://www.business2community.com/business-intelligence/5-ways-to-use-business-intelligence-tools-to-stay-competitive-in-2020-02276549

Businesses can unearth “new year, new me” profit opportunities by harnessing the power of advanced analytics. The start of any new year often promises heavy shopping of fitness gear, hobby accessory and other goal related activities.

 

14        Why Innovation Management is Important for Your Company – 3 Strategic Reasons
https://www.business2community.com/brandviews/qmarkets/why-innovation-management-is-important-for-your-company-3-strategic-reasons-02280605

“Innovate or stagnate.” It’s a stark choice that businesses across all sectors must confront daily. Although many decision makers at large companies recognize the importance of innovation, most fail to implement it in a strategic, consistent, and effective way. A recent study by McKinsey & Company found that 84% of executives agreed innovation was important for their growth strategy, but only 6% said they were satisfied with innovation performance.

 

15        An Interview With Clayton M. Christensen
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/an-interview-with-clayton-m-christensen/
With technology and capital rapidly increasing the pace of innovation, Christensen’s thinking is more relevant today than ever. What do we know now about the power of disruption and where it’s taking us?

 

16        3 ‘C’s’ to Set Your Foundation for Success
https://www.mytotalretail.com/article/3-cs-to-set-your-foundation-for-success/
A recent Salesforce.com report, “Customer Expectations Hit All-Time Highs,” uncovers how “Modern customers have much higher expectations, such as proactive services, personalized interactions, and connected experiences across channels.”

 

17        Digital Commerce and the Customer Experience: Top Trends for 2020
https://www.mytotalretail.com/article/digital-commerce-and-the-customer-experience-top-trends-for-2020/

For all of the prognosticators out there trying to predict which digital commerce brands and retailers will be the winners and losers in 2020, there’s a simple litmus test: the customer experience.