Friday, March 13, 2020
Recycling, Renewables and Sustainable Business 26
1 Wood Mackenzie: Energy storage has ‘found a foothold nationwide’ in the US
https://www.energy-storage.news/news/wood-mackenzie-energy-storage-has-found-a-foothold-nationwide-in-the-us
The latest quarterly US Energy Storage Monitor, produced by the national Energy Storage Association and analysis firm Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables, has predicted annual deployments will reach 7.3GW by 2025.
A more than 14-fold increase is forecast, from 523MW recorded in 2019, with the “sharp scale-ups” both regionally and nationally to be driven primarily by a combination of “utility procurements and the accelerating residential market,” the report claims.
2 Call to cancel new coal facilities globally as renewables ‘out-compete’ on cost
https://www.energyvoice.com/otherenergy/227888/call-to-cancel-new-coal-facilities-globally-as-renewables-out-compete-on-cost/
Coal power developers risk wasting hundreds of billions of pounds as new renewables are now cheaper than new coal plants around the world, a report warns.
In all major markets from the US to Europe, China, India and Australia, it already costs less to generate power from installing new wind or solar farms than new coal plants, the latest study from think tank Carbon Tracker found.
3 Uber’s Green Competitor Is Riding A $30 Trillion Mega-Trend
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Ubers-Green-Competitor-Is-Riding-A-30-Trillion-Mega-Trend.html
If it’s not green, it’s not millennial–and that’s a big problem for a company like Uber, or Lyft. Millennials love ride-sharing, but they don’t appreciate the CO2 footprint that comes with it.
The immediate problem for Uber is this: The next-generation of ride-sharing is already here–born out of massive millennial demand. It’s green through and through, and it’s set to command some serious market share.
4 Miners Begin Cleaning Up Their Act With Renewables
https://about.bnef.com/blog/miners-begin-cleaning-up-with-renewables/
The mining industry faces an interesting paradox. It is the lynchpin of the transition to a low-carbon economy, providing the materials that go into new grids and electric vehicles, yet miners’ extraction processes gorge on large amounts of power. Miners account for 6% of the world’s energy demand, and meet most of it with fossil fuels.
5 Photovoltaic Markets and Technology
https://www.pv-magazine.com/
Many solar factories in China are starting to resume production, suggesting that concerns about supplies of PV components could soon begin to ease. Nevertheless, the temporary standstill will have an impact on the global solar market, as the implementation of some projects will probably be postponed until next year.
6 Green tariffs drive big increases in corporate renewable procurement
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/green-tariffs-drive-big-increases-in-corporate-renewable-procurement/574060/
The trend of utilities offering green tariffs so large customers can purchase renewable energy has remade the map of states with the highest relative amounts of corporate clean energy procurement, boosting some states with regulated electricity markets above others with deregulated markets, a new report released by the Retail Industry Leaders Association on Thursday said.
7 EIA projects air-conditioning energy use to grow faster than any other use in buildings – Today in Energy
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=43155
In the Annual Energy Outlook 2020 (AEO2020) Reference case, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects that delivered energy for air conditioning will increase more than any other end use in residential and commercial buildings (also known as the buildings sector) through 2050, while energy consumption for space heating will decline.
8 Canada is asking for more time to enact a promised ban on shipping plastic waste
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/plastic-waste-basel-convention-canada-1.5495920
The government of Canada has formally notified the United Nations that Canada’s laws will not be in compliance with a treaty meant to stop rich countries from shipping their hazardous waste to poor countries.
The specific amendments that Canada has asked for extra time to codify are intended to address a problem that is supposed to be a signature issue of the Trudeau government: plastic contamination.
9 Powering the future with revolutionary lithium extraction technique
https://www.monash.edu/news/articles/powering-the-future-with-revolutionary-lithium-extraction-technique
An international research team, led by Monash University, has developed a new filtration technique that can slash lithium extraction times.
A world-first study, led by Monash University, has pioneered a new filtration technique that could slash lithium extraction times.
The research team has developed a synthetic MOF-based membrane that can filter lithium ions in an ultra-fast and highly selective manner.
Preliminary studies have shown this technology has a lithium recovery rate of approximately 90 per cent.
10 Lithium-sulfur solid-state batteries promise fire safety at high performance
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/03/12/lithium-sulfur-solid-state-batterys-promise/
A ‘cupcake’ approach may have brought the commercialization of lithium-sulfur solid-state batteries one step closer.
Researchers from Singapore’s A*Star NanoBio Lab (NBL) have designed a hybrid, quasi-solid electrolyte featuring a liquid-infused porous membrane which they say offers higher conductivity and stability properties than alternatives. The results have been published in Nano Energy.
11 How Virus Outbreak May Change Solar Manufacturing: Q&A
https://about.bnef.com/blog/how-virus-outbreak-may-change-solar-manufacturing-qa/
First there were the U.S. tariffs on solar components from China, now the coronavirus has struck in the heart of its manufacturing base, and still the solar industry is cranking out more and more panels at lower and lower costs.
“The demand for solar has never been stronger,” said Andy Klump, chief executive officer of Clean Energy Associates, in an interview with BloombergNEF in Houston in late February. The Shanghai-based firm inspects components and the factories that make them for the buyers, typically developers of solar farms.
12 For richer or poorer: coronavirus, cheap oil test climate vows
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-climate-analysis-idUSKBN20Z0PD
The challenge looks formidable. When the 2008 financial crisis tipped the world into recession, carbon emissions fell. But as economies grew again, governments proved unable to halt an emissions rebound.
The issue now is that at a crucial moment for international negotiations, the latest global economic blow could put paid to costly ideas for slowing climate change from political leaders and the private sector alike.
13 Polar ice caps melting six times faster than in 1990s
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/11/polar-ice-caps-melting-six-times-faster-than-in-1990s
The ice loss from Greenland and Antarctica is tracking the worst-case climate warming scenario set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), scientists say. Without rapid cuts to carbon emissions the analysis indicates there could be a rise in sea levels that would leave 400 million people exposed to coastal flooding each year by the end of the century.
14 Storage Hybrid Plants Becoming More Attractive in Maturing Wind and Solar Markets
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/storage-co-location-getting-more-attractive-for-maturing-wind-and-solar-markets
The scope for adding batteries to wind projects is expanding around the world, building on the considerable momentum that already exists for hybrid solar-plus-storage plants.
In the U.S., solar-plus-storage is an increasingly mainstream proposition for large-scale renewables developers. In Europe, the pairing of batteries with utility-scale solar is still less common, though a peek at the midterm development pipeline suggests that’s about to change.
15 Site of Old Gas-Fired Power Plant in California Will Host World’s Largest Li-Ion Energy Storage Reserve
https://www.energytrend.com/news/20200311-16581.html
To reduce reliance on gas-fired power plants and eliminate unsightly chimneys associated with most generation facilities, the US state of California has approved the proposal to develop four battery energy storage projects in Monterey County. These projects are scheduled for completion by the end of 2020 and designated to replace three older gas-fired power plants. Tesla is one of the main participant in this endeavor and again has an opportunity to build another highly efficient large-scale energy storage station.
16 Canadian Solar coy on coronavirus impact on China manufacturing operations
https://www.pv-tech.org/news/52191
‘Solar Module Super League’ (SMSL) member Canadian Solar has provided some limited insight into the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) to its substantial PV manufacturing operations in China.
The SMSL said that the “impact to the Company’s delivery schedule is now mainly limited to the capacity loss in last week of January and first 10 days of February of 2020. There have been limited cases in which the Company has had to change shipping schedules and/or product types, but all have been settled with customers.
17 Daimler Trucks measures customer experience with battery-electric fleet
https://www.transportdive.com/news/daimler-trucks-battery-electric-fleet/573742/
Daimler Trucks North America LLC (DTNA) launched its Freightliner Customer Experience (CX) Fleet for its electric truck program. The fleet of all-electric trucks includes six heavy-duty Freightliner eCascadias and two medium-duty eM2-106 trucks.
18 Solar for construction
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/03/11/solar-for-construction/
Enerwhere Sustainable Energy DMCC, a Dubai-based solar project developer, has built a 540 kW off-grid rooftop PV installation on top of a parking lot at a skyscraper construction site in Dubai.
The plant is hybridized with a diesel-powered microgrid and provides power for the entire construction site, including the site office and heavy applications such as tower cranes, man hoists, and pumps from a centralized power generation hub.
19 ExxonMobil proposes framework for industry-wide methane regulations
https://www.bicmagazine.com/departments/operations/exxonmobil-proposes-framework-for-industry-wide-methane-regu_1/
ExxonMobil today released a model framework for industry-wide methane regulations and urged stakeholders, policymakers and governments to develop comprehensive, enhanced rules to reduce emissions in all phases of production.
“ExxonMobil has been applying the principles of this framework to our oil and natural gas operations for several years, resulting in improvements that demonstrate what’s practicable and achievable,” said Darren Woods, chairman and chief executive officer of Exxon Mobil Corporation.
20 Charging electric-vehicle fleets is a huge business opportunity
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/sustainability/our-insights/charging-electric-vehicle-fleets-how-to-seize-the-emerging-opportunity
As more people and organizations acquire electric vehicles (EVs), companies will have chances to lift their revenues not only by selling more electric power and charging infrastructure but also by providing services that support the charging of EVs. EV fleets represent a particularly promising segment of the potential market for charging services, which can help fleet operators reduce their costs by procuring and managing energy in efficient ways. In the United States, the market for fleet-charging services could amount to $15 billion per year by 2030.
21 Tesla Passes 1 Million EV Milestone & Model 3 Becomes All Time Best Seller
https://cleantechnica.com/2020/03/10/tesla-passes-1-million-ev-milestone-and-model-3-becomes-all-time-best-seller/
Elon Musk revealed on Monday that Tesla has just produced its millionth vehicle, a red Tesla Model Y. Tesla is the first of any automaker to hit the million-EV milestone. We can also safely estimate that the Tesla Model 3 has now overtaken the Nissan LEAF in sales, to become the all time best selling EV globally. In just 2½ years of volume production, the Model 3 achieved sales that took the LEAF almost 10 years.
