Friday, July 3, 2020
Recycling Renewables and Sustainable Business 42
1 Second Life: Car Makers and Storage Startups Get Serious About Reusing Batteries
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/car-makers-and-startups-get-serious-about-reusing-batteries
Batteries aren’t dead when they come to the end of their useful life in an electric vehicle.
Reused or “second-life” lithium-ion batteries still have a lot of juice left in them, but so far using these batteries in stationary applications has yet to gain real market traction. New research, growing automotive industry interest and an expanding startup ecosystem suggests that could now finally be changing.
2 IEA report appears to acknowledge 2050 net zero may be beyond us
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/07/02/iea-report-appears-to-acknowledge-2050-net-zero-may-be-beyond-us/
Under the ‘sustainable development scenario’ outlined in today’s Special Report on Clean Energy Innovation, the IEA considers the technological advancement required to reach a net-zero-carbon world by 2070, rather than the 2050 s**t-or-bust deadline outlined in so many previous publications. Reaching net zero in 50 years’ time would give us a 66% chance of limiting the global average temperature rise to 1.8 degrees Celsius, is the chastening conclusion reached.
3 Invest in the green economy and we’ll recover from the Covid-19 crisis | Joseph Stiglitz
Although it seems like ancient history, it hasn’t been that long since economies around the world began to close down in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Early in the crisis, most people anticipated a quick V-shaped recovery, on the assumption that the economy merely needed a short timeout. After two months of tender loving care and heaps of money, it would pick up where it left off.
4 Eyes in the sky: Investors reach for new tools to gauge climate change risk
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-investments-risks-insi-idUSKBN24319Y
In the twilight years of past civilisations, astrologers would scour the heavens for signs of impending calamity. In an era where climate change is eroding age-old certainties, a new cast of characters is searching for answers in the sky.
A small but growing network of asset managers, academics, start-up entrepreneurs and campaigners are working to harness an armada of recently deployed satellites to better predict the economic impact of global warming.
5 Digitising the solar revolution
https://www.energy-storage.news/blogs/digitising-the-solar-revolution
Our ability to generate renewable energy is scaling up fast, and solutions to integrate that energy will rely on technologies like blockchain to help keep new solutions on track. Power Ledger’s executive chairman and co-founder, Dr Jemma Green, looks at the role blockchain plays within her company’s platform to integrate and automate solar energy trading and balancing.
6 From waste to fuel: the prospects for renewable natural gas in the US
https://blogs.platts.com/2020/06/30/renewable-natural-gas-us-waste-biogas/
While hydrogen initiatives have been grabbing headlines thanks to large-scale national plans and projects at corporate level, renewable natural gas (RNG) also deserves attention as an emerging tool for decarbonization.
RNG comes from capturing biogas from areas like landfills and farms and then cleaning and upgrading that gas to remove excess carbon dioxide to then turn it into biomethane, which is more commonly referred to as RNG. This process is needed to bring the methane portion of biogas to a level that can then be blended with conventional natural gas on existing pipeline infrastructure, to avoid diminishing the quality or heat content of the pipeline.
7 University Researchers Seek Ways to Recycle ‘Unrecyclable’ Polymers
https://www.plasticstoday.com/recycling/university-researchers-seek-ways-recycle-unrecyclable-polymers/60934984363276
George Huber, a professor of chemical and biological engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, noted in the university’s news publication that he hopes to “close the loop on plastics recycling through a new research venture that leverages his expertise in biofuels” via pyrolysis technology. Huber co-founded Anellotech (Pearl River, NY) in 2008, a company that recently announced a laboratory demonstration of its Plas-TCat technology, which transforms mixed plastic waste directly into chemicals.
8 11 industry majors pave way for accelerating energy transition
https://www.offshore-energy.biz/11-industry-majors-pave-way-for-accelerating-energy-transition/
Eleven industry majors including AWS, Carrefour Group, CMA CGM Group, Cluster Maritime Français, Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, Engie, Faurecia, Michelin, Schneider Electric, Total and Wärtsilä have formed a coalition for the energy of the future.
The coalition aims to accelerate the development of energy sources and technologies to address the challenges posed by sustainable mobility in the transport and logistics industry by reducing emissions, fighting global warming and protecting biodiversity.
9 Data Scientists Have Developed a Faster Way to Reduce Pollution, Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions
https://www.kdnuggets.com/2020/07/data-scientists-faster-way-reduce-pollution-cut-greenhouse-gas-emissions.html
Polymeric membranes assist with a wide variety of tasks, including water filtration and gas-vapor separation. Designing a membrane for the desired function is more time-consuming than people may expect.
However, researchers at Columbia Engineering, Germany’s Max Planck Society and the University of South Carolina applied data science to the task to streamline their efforts.
More specifically, they combined big data with machine learning to strategically design polymer membranes to act as gas filters. People frequently depend on plastic films and membranes to separate mixtures of simple cases, such as carbon dioxide and methane.
10 City of Sydney flicks the switch to 100% green power
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/07/02/city-of-sydney-flicks-the-switch-to-100-green-power/
All of Sydney’s operations – including street lights, pools, sports fields, depots, buildings and the historic Sydney Town Hall – will now be run on 100% renewable electricity sourced from local solar and wind projects. The switch is part of a AU$60 million (US$41.5 million) deal with electricity retailer Flow Power, the biggest standalone green energy deal of its kind by a council in Australia.
11 Mexican president orders fraud complaints against green power firms
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-corruption-idUSKBN2413BV
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday ordered formal complaints to be drawn up alleging fraud by mostly renewable power companies, but he gave no evidence backing up the complaints.
Ramping up his repeated allegations of corruption in power generation contracts won by mostly wind and solar power companies, Lopez Obrador said that while he remains open to dialogue with the companies, he also wants his aides to prepare the legal complaints against them.
12 Equinor reveals plans for hydrogen plant with carbon capture in UK
https://www.offshore-energy.biz/equinor-reveals-plans-for-hydrogen-plant-with-carbon-capture-in-uk/
Norwegian energy giant Equinor is leading a project to develop one of the UK’s – and the world’s – first at-scale facilities to produce hydrogen from natural gas in combination with carbon capture and storage (CCS).
The project, called Hydrogen to Humber Saltend (H2H Saltend), provides the beginnings of a decarbonised industrial cluster in the Humber region, the UK’s largest by emissions, Equinor explained in a statement on Wednesday.
13 EU’s renewable hydrogen production
https://www.argusmedia.com/pages/NewsBody.aspx?id=2119703&menu=yes
Europe is ramping up its development and deployment of hydrogen technologies for power generation, with the European Commission expected to formally present its hydrogen strategy on 8 July, providing a positive medium-term demand signal for several metals, including platinum, chromium and nickel.
The commission calls for the EU’s renewable hydrogen production to reach 0.5mn-1mn t/yr by 2024, with 4GW of renewable hydrogen electrolysers installed by then. This figure should increase to 5mn-10mn t/yr by 2040, with 40GW of renewable hydrogen electrolysers installed. But in the short and medium term, low-carbon, fossil-based hydrogen will also play a role, the commission said.
14 Biogas – Nature Energy Enters Into Biogas Deal with Shell
https://www.renewableenergymagazine.com/biogas/nature-energy-enters-into-biogas-deal-with-20200702
One of the world’s largest energy companies Shell invests in biogas from one of the world’s largest producers of biogas Nature Energy.
The parties have not disclosed the exact size of the agreement, but state that the agreement is the largest biogas agreement in the world to date.
“The agreement is a blue stamp of biogas as an important part of the green transition that is taking place all over the world. We are proud that an energy mastodon like Shell is investing in biogas from us,”says Ole Hvelplund, CEO of Nature Energy.
15 $10bn of precious metals dumped each year in electronic waste, says UN
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/02/10bn-precious-metals-dumped-each-year-electronic-waste-un-toxic-e-waste-polluting
At least $10bn (£7.9bn) worth of gold, platinum and other precious metals are dumped every year in the growing mountain of electronic waste that is polluting the planet, according to a new UN report.
A record 54m tonnes of “e-waste” was generated worldwide in 2019, up 21% in five years, the UN’s Global E-waste Monitor report found. The 2019 figure is equivalent to 7.3kg for every man, woman and child on Earth, though use is concentrated in richer nations. The amount of e-waste is rising three times faster than the world’s population, and only 17% of it was recycled in 2019.
16 Nonfossil sources accounted for 20% of U.S. energy consumption in 2019
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=44277
Overall energy consumption in the United States totaled 100 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) in 2019, only slightly less than the record set in 2018 and the third-highest level of annual U.S. energy consumption ever. About 20% of U.S. energy consumption in 2019 came from sources other than fossil fuels. Several energy sources hit record consumption values in 2019, based on data in the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Monthly Energy Review: natural gas, nuclear, wind, and solar.
17 US Solar Plants Now Expected to Run for More than 30 Years: Berkeley Lab
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/solar-plants-expected-to-operate-30-years
Big solar plants are getting cheaper to run and expectations for their useful operational lives keep getting longer, according to a new survey of U.S. solar industry professionals.
By the end of 2019, a cumulative total of 76 gigawatts of solar had been installed in the United States, according to Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables. The learning-by-doing involved with growing the sector is reflected in steadily improving performance benchmarks.
18 EU opens bidding for 1 billion euros from clean technology fund
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-energy-funding-idUSKBN2441EH
Clean technology projects are in line for a billion-euro slice of support from the European Union, which on Friday launched its flagship scheme for funding breakthrough low-carbon technologies.
The EU Innovation Fund will back emissions-cutting technologies such as floating wind farms, carbon capture technology and energy storage, which the EU is betting on to clean up tough-to-decarbonise sectors such as cement and steelmaking.
19 South Pole warmed 3 times the global rate over the past 30 years, new study suggests
https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/south-pole-warming-1.5631435
Temperature data shows that the desolate region has warmed at three times the global warming rate over the last three decades up through 2018, the South Pole’s hottest year on record, the researchers report in a study published Monday in Nature Climate Change. Looking at data from 20 weather stations across Antarctica, the South Pole warming rate was seven times higher than the overall average for the continent.
