Group items tagged

"Canadian utility redirects $2.3B away from expensive 730MW coal to natural gas conversion, Investment will now fund 3.5 GW of affordable wind and solar." This is a positive move towards a "collective conscientiousness for social and environmental factors," by using renewable energy with new construction aimed for completion in 2025 (H1).

"The global energy management system market was valued at USD 8.2 billion in 2020 and expected to reach USD 19.91 billion by 2026 and grow at a CAGR of 16.2% over the forecast period (2021 - 2026). The increasing focus toward issues, such as managing energy consumption, optimizing the use for renewable energy sources, and reducing carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions, is creating a demand for EMS. Further, cloud services effectively minimize operational costs of software development and maintenance and direct the monetary costs, cost of time, and spent resources on maintaining the in-house IT professionals and infrastructure on gathering, storing, and analyzing energy data.​ Cloud services are an ongoing trend responsible for the growth of the market studied."

A glimpse into the future based on current trends. The outlook is mostly gloomy. Estimates range from one extreme to the other--a renewed democracy or total chaos. The short article touches a lot of the factors that will likley influence the future, but it's hard to say exactly.

Scientists have developed a process that allows them to manipulate wood to make it denser and harder than the natural product. They used the resulting material to make items like wooden knives and nails that rival traditional steel. There is also the possibility that wood processed in this way could replace existing products that are known to be harmful to the environment. "Trees are renewable and wood is sustainable," Li said. "If we look back to mother nature, we can use this natural material toward a sustainable future."

DRIVER-INFRASTRUCTURE-SCARCITY-POLITICS By 2071, nearly half of the 204 freshwater basins in the United States may not be able to meet the monthly water demand. These model projections, recently published in the journal Earth's Future, are just one preliminary component of the upcoming Resources Planning Act (RPA) Assessment expected to be published next year. In 1974, congress required that this assessment of US renewable resources be published every 10 years. Conducted by the U.S. Forest Service, the research describes two causes for the projected shortages. The first is that the U.S. will simply have more people. Despite that the average American is using less water, population growth is still expected to increase water demand across most of the country. Second, the water supply itself is expected to decrease. Projected climate change affects both rain patterns and temperatures. While rainfall is expected to increase in some parts of the US, the southern Great Plains and parts of the South won't be so lucky. The water basins rely on rainfall to feed the rivers and tributaries that flow into them. Separately, more water will evaporate from reservoirs and streams as the climate gets warmer, further chipping away at the water supply. Around 50 years from now, many U.S. regions may see water supplies reduced by a third of their current size, while demand continues to increase.

DRIVERS-SCARCITY-INFRASTRUCTURE This study estimates the likelihood of water shortages over the remainder of the 21st century in 204 watersheds covering the contiguous United States. The estimates are based on monthly projections of water demand and renewable water supply in light of population growth and climate change, taking into account water storage and transbasin diversion capacities. The study then examines several possible adaptations to projected shortages, including water withdrawal efficiency improvements, reservoir storage enhancements, demand reductions, instream flow reductions, and groundwater depletion. Results provide a broad measure of the relative efficacy of the adaptation measures and show when and where the measures are likely to be helpful.

Princeton researchers have developed a new way to make fuel from cellulose-Earth's most abundant organic compound, found in all plant cells-speeding up a notoriously slow chemical process and in some cases doubling energy yields over comparable methods. Cellulosic biomass has long been seen as a key ingredient in curbing greenhouse gas emissions, providing the feedstock for a renewable and clean-burning transportation fuel. The U.S. Department of Energy has conducted a series of studies showing that at least one billion tons of biomass could be sustainably harvested each year in the United States without disrupting forests or food production to produce biofuels, largely from cellulose.

'Practically all types of plastic' can be recycled. Currently, the facility can manage four plastic types, but that number will increase to twelve different types. No packaging is incinerated at Site Zero. The facility is operated with renewable energy. There are also plans to cover the building's large flat roof with solar panels.

Technologists in the U.S. and China, experts in Japan and researchers within the European Space Agency and the United Kingdom Space Agency are all working to make space-based solar power a reality. Over the past decade, researchers have made impressive advances that increase the likelihood that space solar power (SSP) will be realized during the next decade. "Two of the biggest hurdles to the realization of SSP have always been the cost of launch and the cost of hardware. Add flight rate, and all of a sudden you're looking at numbers always talked about for solar power satellites." The experts believe that solar power satellites at scale could be available within a decade, and envision "a world in the year 2100 where about 20% of electrical power comes from terrestrial nuclear and renewables, with 80% supplied by astroelectricity."

The Ever Given incident--the cargo ship that blocked the Suez Canal for several days, pirmarily due to its size--has invoked new ideas about shipping--in this instance, it is wind powered ships. The ships would need to be smaller, but a zero emissions ship would be ideal. Can the increase in demand and port throughput still be accomdated with smaller ships? Is there a trade off for zero emissions and efficiency?

"Through the framework of Collaborative Innovation Groups (CIGs), the Ocean Power Innovation Network (OPIN) offers support to SMEs to collaborate with other organisations, to solve problems which are barriers to the deployment of ocean energy. CIGs focus on challenges which cannot or have not been solved by one SME alone. The OPIN Team have supported a Collaborative Innovation Group (CIG) focussing on creating awareness on the impact of corrosion on offshore renewable projects and how corrosion monitoring can improve corrosion management."

Fully electric trucks, often referred to as commercial battery electric trucks, are reaching wider-scale consideration as truck, engine, and other component makers are developing the systems that will support such vehicles. Battery and power-electronic development has progressed to make these trucks viable in certain applications. These trucks will have many benefits (more renewable energy, simpler design, etc.), but come with challenges (need for new infrastructure, development investments, etc.).

structural steel beams set in concrete allowed them to frame tall buildings that were more fire resistant and more structurally sound than cast iron. Since that time, steel (an alloy made by combining iron and carbon) has not only become the best building material for commercial construction but closely tied to economic health. In fact, many experts look to the steel industry as an indicator of how well the economy is doing [source: Pamuk]. Steel has a long history in the construction industry, but is it still the best material for building?" While no one alternative has become a standard to replace steel, materials like engineered timber and metal composites are becoming more common in new construction projects. "Timber companies tout wood as a durable, renewable resource, and engineered timber is gaining some traction as an alternative to steel. For example, the new arts and media building at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology in New Zealand used engineered wood in place of typical steel and concrete construction, and the company that worked on that building says that it's taking on more and more contracts that would have gone to steel construction companies [source: Nelson Mail]."