Recycling Renewables and Sustainable Business 29

Friday, April 3, 2020

Recycling Renewables and Sustainable Business 29

 

1          Coronavirus Spurs Nonprofit Startup to Develop World’s First Compostable N95 PLA Masks
https://www.ptonline.com/blog/post/coronavirus-spurs-nonprofit-startup-to-develop-worlds-first-compostable-n95-pla-masks

As we approached the end of March, the first month for most of us across the country practicing social distancing and essentially finding ourselves living in quite a different world, PT and its Gardner Business Media trade manufacturing news ‘siblings’ have been reporting on how our industries are faring with several notable examples of how companies are stepping up to help in the Coronavirus battle.

 

2          What the Solar and Wind Power Industries Want From the Next Coronavirus Stimulus Bill
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/what-the-solar-and-wind-industries-want-from-the-next-coronavirus-stimulus

The U.S. renewables industry were left out of the $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill passed last week, but the battle is far from over.

Congress is already considering further legislation to rescue the economy from the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic, and renewable energy groups are ready to bring their proposals back to the table.

 

3          Hybrid Solar and Energy Storage Plants Are Growing Rapidly, But Are They a Good Idea?
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/hybrid-power-plants-are-growing-rapidly-but-are-they-a-good-idea

As battery prices continue to fall and the penetration of variable wind and solar generation rises, power plant developers are increasingly combining wind and solar projects with on-site batteries, creating “hybrid” power plants.

 

4          Coronavirus threatens US plastics recycling as states cancel collections
https://blogs.platts.com/2020/04/01/coronavirus-us-plastics-recycling-collections/
The coronavirus pandemic has created a wave of complications for the recycled plastics industry and hampered short-term supply of plastic waste, with several US areas suspending recycling programs, and concerns about transmission creating problems for waste processors.

 

5          Coronavirus could stall a third of new U.S. utility solar this year: report
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-solar-idUSKBN21J4Q3
About 5 gigawatts (GW) of big U.S. solar energy projects, enough to power nearly 1 million homes, could suffer delays this year if construction is halted for months due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report published on Wednesday.

 

6          GCL Plans To Invest $2.5 Billion In World’s Largest Solar Panel Factory
https://cleantechnica.com/2020/03/30/gcl-plans-to-invest-2-5-billion-in-worlds-largest-solar-panel-factory/
A report by Power Technology claims China’s GCL Systems Integration Technology plans to invest more than $2.5 billion to construct the world’s largest solar panel factory. Citing a report by Bloomberg, it says the new facility will be built in eastern Hefei province. According to a regulatory filing with the Shanzen stock exchange, the company says the new factory will be able to produce 60 gigawatts (GW) of solar panels each year, enough to meet half of global demand.

 

7          The 5 Most Promising Long-Duration Storage Technologies Left Standing
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/most-promising-long-duration-storage-technologies-left-standing

Long-duration energy storage holds great potential for a world in which wind and solar power dominate new power plant additions and gradually overtake other sources of electricity. Wind and solar only produce at certain times, so they need a complementary technology to help fill the gaps. And the lithium-ion batteries that supply 99 percent of new storage capacity today get very expensive if you try to stretch them out over many hours.

 

8          How could geothermal energy be derived from oil wells?
https://www.thinkgeoenergy.com/how-could-geothermal-energy-be-derived-from-oil-wells/
The European Union is supporting a large number of different research projects that tackle different among them the Multi-sites EGS Demonstration project MEET, a project that aims to boost the market penetration of geothermal energy in Europe. Its main goal is to demonstrate the viability of EGS with electric and thermal power generation in all main kinds of geological settings (crystalline, sedimentary, metamorphic, volcanic).

9          Will the coronavirus kill the oil industry and help save the climate?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/01/the-fossil-fuel-industry-is-broken-will-a-cleaner-climate-be-the-result

The plunging demand for oil wrought by the coronavirus pandemic combined with a savage price war has left the fossil fuel industry broken and in survival mode, according to analysts. It faces the gravest challenge in its 100-year history, they say, one that will permanently alter the industry. With some calling the scene a “hellscape”, the least lurid description is “unprecedented”.

 

10        Oceans’ capacity to absorb CO2 overestimated, study suggests
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/03/oceans-capacity-to-absorb-co2-overestimated-study-suggests

The North Atlantic may be a weaker climate ally than previously believed, according to a new study that suggests the ocean’s capacity to absorb carbon dioxide has been overestimated.

 

11        Oceans can be restored to former glory within 30 years, say scientists
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/01/oceans-can-be-restored-to-former-glory-within-30-years-say-scientists

The glory of the world’s oceans could be restored within a generation, according to a major new scientific review. It reports rebounding sea life, from humpback whales off Australia to elephant seals in the US and green turtles in Japan.

 

12        Cooling down PV panels with water
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/03/31/cooling-down-pv-panels-with-water/
French PV system installer Sunbooster has developed a cooling technology for solar panels based on water. It claims its solution can ramp up the power generation of a PV installation by between 8% and 12% per year.

The solution consists of a set of pipes that can surround a rooftop PV system or ground-mounted plant. The pipes are used to spray a thin film of water onto the glass surface of the modules.

 

13        New York’s Coronavirus Threat Pushes Grid Operators to Work and Live in Isolation
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/coronavirus-pushes-new-yorks-grid-operators-to-work-and-live-in-isolation

As New York struggles with the country’s worst outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the state’s grid operator has taken an extreme step that other parts of the country may have to consider in the weeks ahead: asking critical employees to live and work at the control centers that keep the power grid operating, leaving them unsure when they’ll be able to come home.

 

14        Next generation solar panels boost efficiency but may carry toxic risks
https://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/manufacturing/next-generation-solar-panels-boost-efficiency-but-may-carry-toxic-risks-249826/

Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology has evolved steadily since it was first developed by Bell Labs in 1954. It is now scalable, easily integrated with other energy technologies including batteries, and the cost of modules (commonly known as panels) has decreased by 80% since 2009.

 

15        How Coronavirus Could Help Us Fight Climate Change: Lessons From The Pandemic
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidrvetter/2020/03/30/how-coronavirus-could-help-us-fight-climate-change-lessons-from-the-pandemic/

It is a truly global emergency. By March 30, 2020, the coronavirus pandemic had claimed more than 35,000 lives worldwide, with about 750,000 confirmed cases across more than 170 countries.

The speed with which the virus has spread has taken most governments apparently by surprise: in less than three months, the outbreak has all but shut down economies worldwide, putting millions of people into isolation, emptying the streets and the skies.

 

Business Intelligence and Analytics 58

Friday, April 3, 2020

Business Intelligence and Analytics 58

 

1          Coronavirus and technology supply chains: How to restart and rebuild
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/coronavirus-and-technology-supply-chains-how-to-restart-and-rebuild

For the technology industry, the effects of the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), which causes COVID-19 disease, started to take hold in January when China—a critical link in the global technology chain—began reporting more cases. And while the country’s early lockdowns and quarantines are slowly beginning to lift, the pandemic’s international expansion is leading to new restrictions across the globe that are weighing on business activity. Consequently, the technology supply chain now faces a new set of challenges.

 

2          Spies, hijacks and export bans: the global battle for coronavirus equipment
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/02/global-battle-coronavirus-equipment-masks-tests
US buyers waving wads of cash managed to wrest control of a consignment of masks as it was about to be dispatched from China to one of the worst-hit coronavirus areas of France, according to two French officials.

The masks were on a plane at Shanghai airport that was ready to take off when the US buyers turned up and offered three times what their French counterparts were paying.

 

3          Triage in a Pandemic: Can AI Help Ration Access to Care?
https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/triage-in-a-pandemic-can-ai-help-ration-access-to-care/
As media reports about shortages of ventilators and hospital beds show, the COVID-19 pandemic will most probably lead to rationing of care. In this opinion piece, Gregory P. Shea, Krzysztof “Kris” Laudanski and Cassie A. Solomon explore the likely impact of care rationing in the absence of the best possible information on decision quality, patients and care providers. They also consider the potential benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) in guiding decisions about how care can be rationed. Shea and Solomon are co-authors of Leading Successful Change, published by Wharton School Press. Laudanski is a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania, focusing on anesthesiology and critical care.

 

4          The CFO’s role in helping through the coronavirus crisis
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/the-cfos-role-in-helping-companies-navigate-the-coronavirus-crisis

The spread of the novel coronavirus has created a worldwide humanitarian and economic crisis. The events we are living through are in many ways unprecedented, with large-scale quarantines, border closings, school closings, and physical distancing. Governments and communities have been jolted into action to “flatten the curve.”

 

5          Projecting Leadership and Humanity in Crisis
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/projecting-leadership-and-humanity-in-crisis/
Effective leadership can make crises manageable instead of overwhelming. Leading through crisis typically involves adopting a systematic approach to problem-solving: Stages of crisis include issue detection, response, recovery, and learning. Key considerations that can reduce the panic people feel when the world seems to be spiraling often include enacting a more directive style of leadership to clarify priorities, instituting a frequent cadence of communication, and formulating team decision-making structures to help people digest uncertainty and focus their attention on pressing tasks.

 

6          When will U.S. economy bottom? Economists hunt for the right view
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-data-idUSKBN21L0I8
The economic crisis spawned by the coronavirus pandemic has produced a wave of grim U.S. data, with likely more to come as millions lose jobs, businesses shutter and spending stops.

But at some point, the bottom will be reached.

Given how fast the situation has developed, judging when that happens in real time will prove challenging for economists who usually depend on monthly, quarterly or yearly trends in data to judge the state of the business cycle.

 

7          Royal Dutch Shell reskills workers in AI, part of energy transition
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/03/royal-dutch-shell-reskills-workers-in-ai-part-of-energy-transition.html
Working at Royal Dutch Shell’s Deepwater division in New Orleans gives Barbara Waelde a front-row seat to how the right data can unlock crucial information for the oil giant. So when her supervisor asked her last year if she was interested in a program that could sharpen her digital and data science capabilities, Waelde, 55, jumped at the chance.

 

8          4 Tips From a Manager of Remote Workers
https://www.business2community.com/human-resources/4-tips-from-a-manager-of-remote-workers-02298354

Between 2005 and 2017, there was a 159% growth in remote work across the United States. Today, about 4.7 million US workers spend at least some of their workweek working remotely — a number that’s rising daily in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak (novel coronavirus 2019).

 

9          Best Free Epidemiology Courses for Data Scientists
https://www.kdnuggets.com/2020/04/epidemiology-data-scientists.html
The emergence of COVID-19 has made for a tempting pool of data for data scientists to dip their toes into. While much of the amateur analysis being done on existing COVID-19 data is benign, and makes for good practice and can actually do a good deal of help in painting a picture of reality for those who consume this analysis — visualizations of the numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths, for example, has been a particular source of quality conveyance — there are tools that data scientists generally don’t possess when it comes to expertly forecastor explain the spread, distribution, and impact of infectious diseases. This is what the field of epidemiology is in part about.

 

10        Canada facing ‘major’ medical gear shortage as 68 countries restrict exports
https://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/exporting-and-importing/canada-facing-major-medical-gear-shortage-as-68-countries-restrict-exports-250359/

Scores of countries have moved to restrict the export of face masks, gloves and other medical supplies critical for front-line workers in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving Canada and others scrambling to source products that now have higher price tags.

 

11        9 Tips for Running a Great Virtual Business Meeting
https://www.business2community.com/strategy/9-tips-for-running-a-great-virtual-business-meeting-02298051

Virtual meetings have become a staple in the professional workplace, allowing for a simulated face-to-face experience that serves as a viable substitute for the real thing.

With recent events surrounding COVID-19, many businesses find themselves utterly dependent on virtual meetings to conduct business, keep projects moving forward and communicate with remote staff and clients. And while nothing can fully replace an in-person meeting, taking the right approach can ensure a successful outcome. Here are 9 tips for running a great virtual business meeting.

 

12        Introduction to the K-nearest Neighbour Algorithm Using Examples
https://www.kdnuggets.com/2020/04/introduction-k-nearest-neighbour-algorithm-using-examples.html
KNN also known as K-nearest neighbour is a supervised and pattern classification learning algorithm which helps us find which class the new input(test value) belongs to when k nearest neighbours are chosen and distance is calculated between them.

It attempts to estimate the conditional distribution of Y given X, and classify a given observation(test value) to the class with highest estimated probability.

It first identifies the k points in the training data that are closest to the test value and calculates the distance between all those categories. The test value will belong to the category whose distance is the least.

 

13        U.S. factory activity contracts in March; orders tumble to 11-year low: ISM
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-manufacturing-idUSKBN21J5S5
U.S. manufacturing activity contracted less than expected in March, but disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic pushed new orders received by factories to an 11-year low, reinforcing economists’ views that the economy was in recession.

 

14        Traders Scramble To Be First In Line To Ditch Crude Oil
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Traders-Scramble-To-Be-First-In-Line-To-Ditch-Crude-Oil.html

While oil futures hit an 18-year-low on Monday, the prices of physical barrels from Europe to North America slumped to record discounts to benchmarks and trade in the teens and single digits, with traders scrambling to place physical crude barrels amid an unprecedented demand loss and growing global glut.

 

15        Long-range Correlations in Time Series: Modeling, Testing, Case Study
https://www.datasciencecentral.com/profiles/blogs/long-range-correlation-in-time-series-tutorial-and-case-study

We investigate a large class of auto-correlated, stationary time series, proposing a new statistical test to measure departure from the base model, known as Brownian motion. We also discuss a methodology to deconstruct these time series, in order to identify the root mechanism that generates the observations. The time series studied here can be discrete or continuous in time, they  can have various degrees of smoothness (typically measured using the Hurst exponent) as well as long-range or short-range correlations between successive values

 

16        Fascinating New Results in the Theory of Randomness
https://www.datasciencecentral.com/profiles/blogs/fascinating-new-results-in-the-theory-of-randomness
I present here some innovative results from my most recent research on stochastic processes. chaos modeling, and dynamical systems, with applications to Fintech, cryptography, number theory, and random number generators. While covering advanced topics, this article is accessible to professionals with limited knowledge in statistical or mathematical theory. It introduces new material not covered in my recent book (available here) on applied stochastic processes. You don’t need to read my book to understand this article, but the book is a nice complement and introduction to the concepts discussed here.

 

17        Enterprise AI Goes Mainstream, but Maturity Must Wait
https://www.informationweek.com/big-data/ai-machine-learning/enterprise-ai-goes-mainstream-but-maturity-must-wait/a/d-id/1337428

An O’Reilly survey illustrates how enterprise groups are moving more applications into production, but also how companies face cultural and talent focused barriers.

Artificial intelligence’s emergence into the mainstream of enterprise computing raises significant issues — strategic, cultural, and operational — for businesses everywhere.

 

18        6 Measures to Instill a Positive Work Ethic in an Office
https://www.business2community.com/workplace-culture/6-measures-to-instill-a-positive-work-ethic-in-an-office-02297009

When establishing a new company, it’s vital that the employees you recruit are both comfortable and productive in their working environment.

Sadly, for some business owners, the task of building a workplace that’s ripe for productivity is easier said than done, and some workers can struggle to hit their stride for a range of reasons in a new job.