Energy

Ion age: why the future will be battery powered. Why have batteries become important?

In a world increasingly anxious about climate change, the surge in the generation of renewable energy over the past 20 years offers a sliver of hope. But the variable nature of wind and solar power means that storing energy until consumers need it has become the next big challenge. And so, large-scale battery installations are springing up across electricity grids around the world, to make them more flexible. In 2017, more than 1GW of power storage capacity was added around the world – a record, yes, but still a drop in the ocean of global energy demand. How do batteries like this work? Of course, we are not talking about a few AAA batteries here. Electrical energy is converted to chemical energy when you charge a battery, and then the process is reversed when you draw power from it. There are three main constituents of most batteries: two electrodes and some form of chemical medium called the electrolyte, which can be a liquid, gel or solid.

Homo Electric, Part 3: The Sum Of Our Choices – Future Crunch. This article is the third in a three part series.

You can find Part 1: The Trillion Dollar Time Trial, over here And you can find Part 2: How To Make Electricity Great Again, over here Dear future generations: Please accept our apologies. We were rolling drunk on petroleum. Kurt Vonnegut Intergalactic Space Boats of Light and Wonder If you’re looking to do something about climate change, then it’s not only electricity we should be worrying about — it’s the transportation sector.

The Trillion Dollar Time Trial is impossible unless we make vehicles clean too. You can’t do one — cleaning up electricity — without doing the other — cleaning up transportation. Germany’s transportation sector is the now nation’s second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, and if these trends continue, will soon become the first. This challenge is one faced by all countries, and it’s going to become even more important as we get closer to the finish line. China is a renewable energy champion. But it's time for a new approach. The development of renewable energy in China has attracted global attention in recent years.

China is a renewable energy champion. But it's time for a new approach

In 2012, China’s installed capacity of wind and solar power was 61GW and 3.4GW respectively, while the annual electricity generated by renewables was only 2.1% of China’s total consumption. By 2017, China's wind and solar power capacity had increased to 168.5 GW and 130.06 GW respectively, and renewables were generating 5.3% of China’s electricity supply. At present, China leads the world in terms of wind and solar power capacity. And with large-scale industrial applications, the costs have fallen substantially. Decentralized Microgridding Can Provide 90% of a Neighborhood's Energy Needs, Study Finds. A new report funded by the Dutch government finds that microgrid technologies could make a local “techno-economy” 90 percent self-sufficient, through the decentralised sharing of energy at the local level between multiple households.

Decentralized Microgridding Can Provide 90% of a Neighborhood's Energy Needs, Study Finds

The new approach could even pave the way for “100 percent self-sufficiency in power, heat, and water, and 50 percent self-sufficiency in food production”, according to the report’s author, energy systems engineer Florijn de Graaf. If optimized properly, microgrids could play a pivotal role in supporting efforts to transition to renewable energy systems and meet climate targets, finds the report published by Netherlands-based energy systems company Metabolic.

The report was funded by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. Under the Paris Agreement, the Dutch government has pledged to drop its carbon dioxide emissions by 80-95 percent by 2050. From SIDE systems presentation. Earther. Energy-Generating Pavement Just Became a Reality in London. In Brief Today on Bird Street in London, a new outdoor shopping space was unveiled which utilizes some of the most innovative new tech in sustainability.

Energy-Generating Pavement Just Became a Reality in London

More technology is emerging that focuses on energy generation on a micro level. Smart Street. Subscribe to read. Scientists Found a Low-Cost Way to Produce the World's Cleanest Energy Source. In Brief Scientists have discovered a low-cost, efficient catalyst for splitting water to create hydrogen.

Scientists Found a Low-Cost Way to Produce the World's Cleanest Energy Source

This means that the world's cleanest form of energy, hydrogen, may be more easily and cheaply produced. Splitting H2O Physicists at the University of Houston have discovered a low-cost, efficient, and easily available catalyst that can split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The catalyst is far more efficient than other options that have previously been employed, and because it is grown from ferrous metaphosphate on a conductive nickel foam platform, it is both more durable and cheaper to produce.

The world spent less money to add more renewable energy than ever in 2016. A new study tracking global investment in renewable energy found that investors spent less money in 2016 to add more renewable energy capacity than in any previous year.

In total, investors only spent about $241.6 billion in renewable energy investments in 2016, down 23 percent from 2015. But they got a lot of bang for their buck. According to the collaborative report from the UN, the Frankfurt School, and Bloomberg New Energy Finance, investments in “wind, solar, biomass, and waste-to-energy, geothermal, small hydro, and marine sources [like wave and tidal energy]” resulted in the addition of 138.5 GW of energy capacity in 2016. That represents a nine percent increase year-over-year from the 127.5 gigawatts added in 2015. The difference in trends—falling investment but rising capacity—reflects the plummeting prices of certain kinds of renewable energy, especially solar photovoltaic panels and wind installations.

Marine power: can UK companies rule the waves? “In two weeks we face the full brunt of the South Westerlies and we’ll see what the sea is going to do to us.”

Simon Gillett has a habit of talking about the device his company, Wave-tricity, has created as an extension of himself. This must be a nerve-wracking time. The Ocean Wave Rower, launched into West Wales’s Milford Haven estuary in March, is undergoing a period of initial testing before it gets towed out to the open seas. It’s an attempt to crack one of the toughest engineering problems in renewable energy: how to extract usable energy from the ocean waves, and do it affordably.

Embedded fuel cells power smartphones for a week… and could run the world. People love their smartphones but hate poor battery life.

We love having access to the world’s information at our fingertips but tire of the need to constantly plug in to the world’s electricity grid. The recharging model of batteries fails us — the marketplace is ready for a new approach to portable power. We may be entering the early days of refueling products to gain longer performance and freedom from cords and electric sockets.

Beyond powering our devices 10 times longer than batteries, this refueling model of personal power systems might also set the stage for a “leapfrog” energy scenario that brings billions of people into the age of electricity by delivering clean fuels to retail shelves. Refueling versus recharging. Scientists Accidentally Discover Efficient Process to Turn CO2 Into Ethanol. Scientists at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee have discovered a chemical reaction to turn CO2 into ethanol, potentially creating a new technology to help avert climate change.

Scientists Accidentally Discover Efficient Process to Turn CO2 Into Ethanol

Their findings were published in the journal ChemistrySelect. [Go here for a new in-depth interview about the findings with one of the lead researchers.] The researchers were attempting to find a series of chemical reactions that could turn CO2 into a useful fuel, when they realized the first step in their process managed to do it all by itself. The reaction turns CO2 into ethanol, which could in turn be used to power generators and vehicles. Poo power: Dutch dairy industry launches €150m biogas project. The air smells fruity, slightly alcoholic.

Against the strong hum of machinery, 175 cows are eating hay. As their dung drops to the slatted floor, a machine sweeps it through and it runs underneath the barn to a futuristic dome outside. The Heegs’ 75-hectare family farm in remote Friesland, in the north-west of the Netherlands, where cows outnumber people almost two to one, marks the start of a national experiment to encourage farms to turn their manure into biogas. The process is simple: the dung is broken down by bacteria into biogas in an anaerobic digester. Other machines then extract nitrates and phosphates to make fertiliser, leaving organic matter, which is spread on the Heegs’ farm. Masterminded by FrieslandCampina, the country’s largest dairy collective which buys milk from 13,500 of the Netherlands’ 17,000 dairy farmers, the project has established an initial target of getting 1,000 large farms across the country to make power from cow manure within four years.

A Fossil Free Tomorrow: LA Takes Steps Towards 100% Clean Energy. In Brief The LA City Council has adopted a measure that instructs its power utility managers to collaborate with local stakeholders to find the best way towards a 100% clean energy portfolio. Running on 100% clean energy is all the rage right now, with major cities pledging to completely phase out fossil fuels in their energy mix. This movement has gotten so big that a whole country, Costa Rica, ran completely on renewables for almost 300 days. Now, the city of Los Angeles is taking a step towards that fossil fuel-free future.

The LA City Council has voted to adopt a measure which will have its power utility companies studying the best path towards the 100% clean energy goal. Inhabitat - Green Design, Innovation, Architecture, Green Building. As many nations are discussing the best methods to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and slow down global warming, a few countries are lightyears ahead of the game. Costa Rica has achieved 99 percent renewable energy use this year, showing the rest of us it’s possible to use sustainable and readily available energy sources if we want it badly enough. Costa Rica’s lush jungles and waterfalls make hydropower one of the most accessible natural energy resources in the country, yet geothermal plants are catching up quickly, and officials hope to continue to build this and other industries.

The Battery Miracle Will Transform Both Transportation And Power Generation. Low-cost, high-performance electric batteries are a game changer for the two key clean energy sectors: power generation and transportation. They enable much greater adoption and penetration of both renewable energy and electric vehicles — not just electric cars but electric buses and electric planes. Since lithium-ion batteries have only just crossed the key price point for enabling widespread usage in both sectors — $300 per kilowatt-hour — we are really just at the beginning of the battery-driven clean energy revolution. Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) projects that over the next 25 years, small-scale battery storage will become a $250 billion market. They “expect total behind-the-meter energy storage to rise dramatically from around 400 MWh in today to nearly 760 GWh in 2040″ — nearly a 2,000-fold increase!

A Quarter Of The World's Power Now Comes From Renewables. In Brief Renewable energy now accounts for a quarter of the world's power, according to a new global report by REN21. The Rise of Renewables The days of fossil fuels may finally be numbered. A new report states that renewable energy now accounts for a quarter of the world’s power. REN21 published a global status report for renewables, highlighting that renewable energy was already supplying about 23.7% of global electricity by the end of 2015. Renewable energy surges to record levels around the world. Image copyright Getty Images. Berkeley Lab research on how lithium-rich cathodes work is leading to 50% higher capacity lithium ion batteries. Why cheap green energy could derail the renewable revolution. Rolf Schulten/Bloomberg via Getty Images. Why clean energy is now expanding even when fossil fuels are cheap.

Solar panels are seen in the Palm Springs area, California, in this April 13, 2015 photo. Makawanpur village illuminated with wind-solar energy - The Himalayan Times. Scientists combine coal waste and algae to create a new super-clean fuel. Scientists have discovered a new, clean-burning fuel made from unlikely ingredients: coal dust and algae. Coalgae is easy to produce, low in cost, burns without smoke, and researchers believe it can be make a major dent in crude oil imports. Uruguay makes dramatic shift to nearly 95% electricity from clean energy. As the world gathers in Paris for the daunting task of switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy, one small country on the other side of the Atlantic is making that transition look childishly simple and affordable. In less than 10 years, Uruguay has slashed its carbon footprint without government subsidies or higher consumer costs, according to the country’s head of climate change policy, Ramón Méndez.

Global Development Professionals Network. 1. Printable solar panels Unlike most solar panels, which use cells made of silicon, solar inks can be printed on to rolls of plastic up to A3 size. Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg join tech titans to launch the Breakthrough Energy Coalition. G20: Barack Obama hails India's economic growth and focus on renewable energy. PTI Nov 15, 2015, 11.51PM IST. How Renewables Are Redefining Jamaica's Energy Economics (Part 4) Scientists seek to harvest electricity from algae in green-energy effort. Storing solar, wind, and water energy underground could replace burning fuel. This could be the biggest sign yet that the battery revolution is here.

The world's first solar-powered bike path is generating more energy than expected.

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