Tech­nol­o­gy

Decen­tral­ized renew­able energy

A non-aca­d­e­m­ic per­spec­tive on the future of lithi­um-based batteries

  • Nature 
  • In the field of lithi­um-based bat­ter­ies, there is often a sub­stan­tial divide between aca­d­e­m­ic research and indus­tri­al mar­ket needs. This is in part dri­ven by a lack of peer-reviewed pub­li­ca­tions from indus­try. Here we present a non-aca­d­e­m­ic view on applied research in lithi­um-based bat­ter­ies to sharp­en the focus and help bridge the gap between aca­d­e­m­ic and indus­tri­al research. 
Image: Ehsan Fari­di and Ehsan Keshavarzi, Inmy­work Studio

Revers­ing the charge

  • MIT ener­gy initiative 
  • Bat­tery pow­er from elec­tric vehi­cles to the grid could open a fast lane to a net-zero future. In the future, elec­tric vehi­cles could boost renew­able ener­gy growth by serv­ing as “ener­gy stor­age on wheels”—charging their bat­ter­ies from the pow­er grid as they do now, as well as revers­ing the flow to send pow­er back and pro­vide sup­port ser­vices to the grid. 
Image: Melanie Gonick, MIT

Paper-thin solar cell can turn any sur­face into a pow­er source

  • MIT News 
  • These durable, flex­i­ble solar cells, which are much thin­ner than a human hair, are glued to a strong, light­weight fab­ric, mak­ing them easy to install on a fixed sur­face. They can pro­vide ener­gy on the go as a wear­able pow­er fab­ric or be trans­port­ed and rapid­ly deployed in remote loca­tions for assis­tance in emergencies. 
Image: Dar­ren Hester

5 rea­sons why ther­mal stor­age may final­ly be set to take off

  • Canary Media 
  • You don’t need a bat­tery to store ener­gy. A class of tech­nolo­gies known as ther­mal stor­age can do the job too, and it even has some poten­tial advan­tages over lithi­um-ion bat­ter­ies. A num­ber of ther­mal stor­age com­pa­nies use cheap solar ener­gy at lunchtime to freeze blocks of ice and use these blocks to cool build­ings lat­er in the day when solar ener­gy is no longer being produced. 

Inno­v­a­tive irri­ga­tion sys­tem pow­ered by solar and wind energy

  • Irish Tech News 
  • Aston Uni­ver­si­ty enter 15-month knowl­edge trans­fer part­ner­ship with Solargen Tech­nolo­gies and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Nairo­bi to devel­op irri­ga­tion sys­tem pow­ered by solar and wind ener­gy. Crop yields will increase by 30 to 50% using con­trol and sen­sor sys­tems to deliv­er opti­mised amount of water for soil con­di­tions. Results of the col­lab­o­ra­tion will sup­port farm­ers in Kenya. 

Mobility’s shift to elec­tric vehi­cles and per­son­al­ized ser­vices to trans­form the ener­gy landscape

  • Bear­ing Point 
  • Con­sul­tan­cy BearingPoint’s lat­est study implies that the future of mobil­i­ty will pro­found­ly affect the util­i­ties sec­tor. The study iden­ti­fied three trends that will dri­ve mobil­i­ty in the com­ing years: every jour­ney will become a per­son­al­ized expe­ri­ence; cli­mate neu­tral­i­ty will be non-nego­tiable – from the cra­dle to the grave; users will con­sume ser­vices rather than own vehicles. 

The world is enter­ing a new age of clean tech­nol­o­gy manufacturing

  • Inter­na­tion­al Ener­gy Agency 
  • IEA’s Ener­gy Tech­nol­o­gy Per­spec­tives 2023 high­lights major mar­ket and employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties, as well as the emerg­ing risks, for coun­tries rac­ing to lead the clean ener­gy indus­tries of today and tomor­row. The report notes that major economies are act­ing to com­bine their cli­mate, ener­gy secu­ri­ty and indus­tri­al poli­cies into broad­er strate­gies for their economies. 
Image: Nigel Msi­pa | Unsplash

The Bat­tery That Nev­er Gets Flat

  • Wired 
  • Humans are com­plex machines, with mov­ing parts that bend, squish, stretch, flow, quiver, and beat. Sci­en­tists are now plug­ging into these ener­gy sources to solve a com­mon prob­lem afflict­ing sen­sors, wear­ables, and implant­ed med­ical devices—the dread­ed flat battery. 
Image: Kel­ly Sikke­ma | Unsplash

Could grids of the future pro­vide the path to an equal society?

  • The Manufacturer 
  • Smart grids have been in the head­lines for over a decade. Today we’ve final­ly reached an impasse: our exist­ing ener­gy infra­struc­ture is no longer fit for pur­pose. As the devel­oped world will ben­e­fit from decar­bonised cities, indus­try, and trans­porta­tion with Elec­tric­i­ty 4.0, emerg­ing economies will also ben­e­fit from a more equal ‘play­ing field’. 
mage: Cape Penin­su­la Uni­ver­si­ty of Technology

PV-pow­ered heat pump, refrig­er­a­tor sys­tem for off-grid applications

  • Cape Penin­su­la Uni­ver­si­ty of Technology 
  • South Africa sci­en­tists have devel­oped an inte­grat­ed, solar-pow­ered heat pump and refrig­er­a­tor for use by food ven­dors in sub-Saha­ran Africa. The dual sys­tem is pow­ered by two 90 W pan­els and repur­pos­es waste heat. The warm­ing and refrig­er­ant com­part­ments use the same com­pres­sor. “This arrange­ment is informed by the phys­i­cal phe­nom­e­non that hot air ris­es and cool air descends,” the sci­en­tists said 

Pic­ture cred­its cov­er pho­to: © Emmanuel Ikwueg­bu | Unsplash