Air Quality In Northern China During September Was Just As Bad As Last Year, Despite Reduction Initiatives

01.11.2017

Ulica, zagađenje, saobraćaj — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

Despite all of the work put in as part of a campaign to reduce air pollution there, air quality in Northern China was just as bad in September 2017 as it was in September 2016, data from the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) has revealed.

Considering the actions taken by the government there this year, the news doesn’t bode well for the country’s ability to greatly reduce its growing air pollution problems — and may end up provoking a negative public reaction considering the government’s promise to clean things up somewhat by the end of the year.

To be more specific here, PM2.5 levels in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area during September 2017 were around 52 micrograms per cubic meter, the same as during September 2016.

It should also be noted that the country’s PM2.5 levels actually rose to 64 micrograms per cubic meter over first 9 months of 2017 — up 10.3% year-on-year, despite atarget of reducing the yearly average by 15% during 2017.

“Of 74 cities monitored by the MEP, Beijing, Tianjin, Zhengzhou in Henan, Taiyuan in Shanxi and six cities in Hebei province, including the steel producing city of Tangshan, were China’s most polluted cities last month,” Reuters notes.

“All of the cities were among the 28 named by the MEP in August to be subject to a major campaign to tackle air pollution this winter. But ahead of the campaign, local authorities had already begun to inspect factories, forcing many to shut down some of their operations during September. Hebei province has sent out 1,400 inspectors to conduct environmental checks across the province since early September.”

All of this comes just before the winter heating surge begins in the country — which sees coal-fired heating plants rapidly ramp up output, with air pollution levels rising in response.

Plans this year, though, are to require the energy-intensive steel, cement, smelting, and coke industries to stagger production, and to limit use of coal-fueled trucks, from the middle of November until the middle of March. It remains to be seen how effective these plans will be.

Source: cleantechnica.com

Record Loss Of Global Tree Cover In 2016, Driven By Forest Fires

01.11.2017

Šumski požar — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

The record loss of global tree cover in 2016 — totaling around 297,000 square kilometers (114,672 square miles) and representing a rise of 51% on 2015 — was driven partly by increasingly common wildfires driven by rising temperatures and drought, according to the Global Forest Watch (GFW) which utilized data provided by the University of Maryland.

“We saw quite a dramatic spike in 2016,” stated Mikaela Weisse, a research analyst at the US think-tank World Resources Institute, which oversees GFW. “That seems to be related to forest fires in countries including Brazil, Indonesia and Portugal.”

Altogether, tree cover equivalent to the full size of New Zealand was lost in 2016. (It should be noted here that GFW measures the actual loss of global tree cover, and doesn’t attempt to estimate net changes in forests to account for possible re-growth and tree planting.)

“By contrast, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, using different methods, says the net global rate of deforestation has slowed by more than 50% in the last 25 years,” Reuters reports.

“GFW said Brazil’s Amazon region lost 37,000 square kilometers of tree cover in calendar 2016, almost three times more than in 2015. That contrasts with official Brazilian data showing that deforestation in the Amazon fell 16% in August 2016 to July 2017 compared with the same period a year earlier. Brazil said it was the first decline in three years. Brazil’s environmental agency Ibama said 2016 was the ninth-worst year for forest fires since monitoring began in 1998.”

So, what do you know, based on GFW figures, it appears that official deforestation data from the Brazil and the UN (amongst many others) underestimate the problem — what a surprise.

Reuters continues: “Weisse said GFW data often detected smaller-scale losses in tree cover, including in layers beneath the forest canopy, while the Brazilian data was better at recording clearances of large blocks of forest. GFW said Indonesia lost almost 1 million hectares of tree cover in 2016, probably the delayed result of a severe fire season in 2015.”

It seems very likely that we can expect to global tree cover continue disappearing rapidly as temperatures continue climbing and drought continues becoming more common — as that occurs, intense wild fires will become more and more common.

Recall this year’s forest fires on the West Coast of North America and in the Mediterranean if you want to understand where things are headed — it’s only going to get worse from here on out.

Source: cleantechnica.com

Air Mapping Initiative Reveals London’s Most Polluted Postcodes

31.10.2017

The most polluted postcodes in London have been identified as part of a year-long initiative which saw thousands of personal air quality smart sensors handed out to local groups, businesses, and communities to help draw up a picture of pollution levels across the UK capital.

Using Drayson Technologies’ CleanSpace tags, the initiative generated more than 15 million local carbon monoxide (CO) data readings over a 12-month period. It revealed that WC1N – an area encompassing Great Ormond Street Hospital and the Brunswick Centre in Bloomsbury – had the highest overall readings for the pollutant.

It was followed in the pollution league table by W10 – spanning parts of Wormwood Scrubs prison, Ladbroke Grove and West Kilburn – and WC2, which covers parts of the West End as well as Charing Cross and Embankment tube stations.

Bishops Bridge Road near Paddington Station, followed by Euston Road and Great Portland Street were also identified as specific roads in London with the highest CO levels, according to the clean tech firm.

The initiative was also able to identify specific times of the year and day when pollution levels were at their worst, with the highest peak average of CO measured on 23 January this year – when the Mayor of London issued the city’s first ‘Black Alert’ for air pollution.

Repeatedly high levels were also measured throughout November 2016 to February 2017, which Drayson Technologies said indicated that the air is dirtier in London during the winter months.

Meanwhile, the most polluted times of the day were on average seen between 8.51am and 9.21am each morning, as well as during the evenings between 8pm and midnight, spikes which the firm said were most likely due to Londoners being exposed to pollutants inside bars, restaurants or other buildings.

First launched last year by Drayson Technologies in partnership with charity the British Lung Foundation, the Map London initiative also saw green private car hire service Greentomatocars fit its vehicles with CleanSpace tags, generating 1.5 million readings from their daily journeys.

The company said it measured CO – rather than other pollutants such as nitrogen oxides or particulate matter – because it is found in both indoor and outdoor environments, with testing having shown that carbon monoxide “correlates well with all other major urban pollutants across seasons”.

Lord Drayson, chairman and CEO of Drayson Technologies, said the aim of the initiative was to help improve Londoners’ awareness of the air they breathe both indoors and outdoors. “We hope the data that we have collected will help people avoid pollution hotspots and allow us to better understand how air pollution impacts people’s health and in turn help Londoners lead healthier lives,” he said.

The results of the year-long campaign follow the launch of London’s Toxicity Charge last week, which means drivers of older, more polluting vehicles now have to pay an additional £10 fee in order to travel in Central London.

Source: businessgreen.com

Climate Change Already Damaging Health of Millions Globally, Report Finds

31.10.2017

The health of hundreds of millions of people around the world is already being damaged by climate change, a major report has revealed.

Heatwaves are affecting many more vulnerable people and global warming is boosting the transmission of deadly diseases such as dengue fever, the world’s most rapidly spreading disease. Air pollution from fossil fuel burning is also causing millions of early deaths each year, while damage to crops from extreme weather threatens hunger for millions of children.

The findings, published in the Lancet journal, come from researchers at 26 institutions around the world, including many universities, the World Health Organization, World Bank and the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The WMO reported on Monday that the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere made a record jump in 2016 to hit a concentration not seen for more than three million years.

“Climate change is happening and it’s a health issue today for millions worldwide,” said Prof Anthony Costello, at the World Health Organization and co-chair of the group behind the new report. It follows a related report in 2009 that warned that climate change was the biggest danger to global health in the 21st century, an assessment repeated in the new report.

But Costello said acting to halt global warming would also deliver a huge benefit for health: “The outlook is challenging, but we still have an opportunity to turn a looming medical emergency into the most significant advance for public health this century.”

“Our scientists have been telling us for some time that we’ve got a bad case of climate change. Now our doctors are telling us it’s bad for our health,” said Christiana Figueres, who as the UN’s climate chief negotiated the Paris climate change agreement and also co-chaired the new report.

“Hundreds of millions of people are already suffering health impacts as a result of climate change,” she told the Guardian. “Tackling climate change directly, unequivocally, and immediately improves global health. It’s as simple as that.”

One of the most striking of the 40 indicators assessed by the researchers was a huge increase in the number of people over 65 exposed to extreme heat. This rose by 125 million between 2000 and 2016 and worries doctors because older people are especially vulnerable to heat.

“There is no crystal ball gazing here, these are the actual observations,” said Prof Peter Cox, at the University of Exeter, UK. He said the 70,000 deaths that resulted from the 2003 heatwave in Europe looked small compared to the long-term trends: “We were alarmed when we saw this.”

Most of the increase in exposed people resulted from rising temperatures, but the number of older people is also rising, creating a “perfect storm”, Cox said. The report also found that hotter and more humid weather was increasingly creating conditions in which it is impossible to work outside. In 2016, this caused work equivalent to almost a million people to be lost, half in India alone.

The report also found that climate change has increased the ability of dengue fever to spread, because the mosquitoes and the virus they carry breed more quickly. Dengue is also known as “breakbone fever” due to the pain it causes and infections have doubled in each decade since 1990, now reaching up to 100 million infections a year now. Dengue was used as an example in the report and the researchers suggest global warming will also increase the spread of other diseases such as schistosomiasis.

Air pollution is known to cause millions of early deaths every year but the new report highlights the 800,000 annual deaths related solely to coal burning. The good news here, said Prof Paul Wilkinson, is that coal production peaked in 2013 and is now falling. “We are seeing the first turn [in the trend] but we have a long way to go,” he said. “It is a health dividend we are ignoring if we do not act.”

The impacts of climate change are not limited to poorer nations, said Dr Toby Hillman, at the Royal College of Physicians, but also affect developed nations like the UK. He said air pollution kills about 40,000 in the UK each year and criticised low government funding levels for cycling and walking. Hillman also noted other impacts, such as sharp increases in mental health problems after extreme weather events like flooding.

The new report highlighted imminent threats as well, such as the loss of crops to increasingly hot and extreme weather. “We are going to see millions more undernourished children as a result of that,” said Prof Hugh Montgomery, at University College London (UCL).

Montgomery said the potential benefits of climate change appeared to be small in comparison to the damages: “We are not ducking the potential benefits, we just find it hard to see what they are.”

Cox said it was not clear that global warming will actually reduce winter cold spells, which cause early deaths in higher latitude countries, because changes happening in the Arctic can exacerbate cold snaps. Prof Georgina Mace, also at UCL, said the evidence for a warmer climate increasing food production was often very localised and short term: “Overall the overwhelming pattern is negative.”

Clare Goodess, a climate researcher at the University of East Anglia and not part of the Lancet report, said: “The indicators reveal some stark warnings for human health, as well as some glimmers of hope, [and] the key messages appear robust. The attribution of [climate change] temperature trends to human activities is now unequivocal, so the urgency of addressing the issues raised by this report is not in doubt.”

Source: businessgreen.com

India’s Essel Infra To Sell 685 Megawatts Of Solar Power Assets

31.10.2017

photovoltaic-system-2742302__340 — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

Another Indian company which has a substantial renewable energy portfolio is looking to sell off its solar power assets.

Essel Infraprojects, part of the Essel Group, is looking for buyers for its 685 megawatts of solar power capacity, which forms nearly 50% of its overall renewable energy portfolio of 1,400 megawatts. While the company has not specified the reason for this planned sale, it joins several others who have either already sold off or are looking to offload their solar power assets.

Another important commonality in Essel Infraprojects and other sellers is that they are not core power generation companies or renewable energy project developers. Essel Infraprojects has diversified interests and assets in power transmission, transportation, and waste management.

The company currently operates six solar power projects with another six under construction. Several of these projects were won in competitive auctions under central or state governments. It is unclear about the future of other renewable energy projects of the company.

In early 2016, the company had committed to have an operational renewable energy capacity of 12 gigawatts including 7.5 gigawatts of solar, 4 gigawatts of wind, and 500 megawatts of waste-to-energy projects. The company also signed an agreement with the government of Rajasthan to set up a 5 gigawatt solar power park; no details or developments have been recently reported in this matter.

possible reason for selectively selling off solar power assets could be the sharp fall in solar power tariffs due to increased competition and fall in solar power modules prices. The increased competition has led to a mad race to the bottom which saw tariffs fall by 86% since 2010. At present the lowest solar power tariff in India is Rs 2.44/kWh (3.7¢/kWh).

Source: cleantechnica.com

Norwegian Firm Signs Deal For 2 Gigawatt Solar Project In Iran

31.10.2017

solar-panel-1393880__340 — Photo: Pixabay

At a time when the future of the Iran nuclear deal seems uncertain, European companies are pushing forward with renewable energy cooperation with the Middle East country.

Norwegian solar modules manufacturer Saga Energy has reportedly signed an agreement with Iran’s Amin Energy Developers for setting up a 2 gigawatt solar power project. The total value of the deal is estimated to be $2.9 billion. Few details are available about the agreement, but the project is likely to be operational in five years.

This is the second Norwegian company to have signed a solar project development deal in Iran. In September this year, Scatec Solar signed an agreement to set up 500 megawatts of solar power capacity in Iran in a phased manner. The first phase of the capacity addition entails the implementation of 120 megawatts of capacity at an estimated cost of $120 million per 100 megawatts.

The country’s total installed power capacity is 77,000 megawatts. In order to diversify its power mix, Iran aims to have more than 5000 megawatts of renewable energy facilities by 2022, which would include 4,500 megawatts of wind power and 500 megawatts of solar power, according to the Renewable Energy Organization of Iran.

Ever since Iran signed up to the nuclear deal that placed restrictions on its nuclear program, several European companies have raced to set up renewable energy projects in the country. At least the interest shown by the the European countries for renewable energy investment in Iran put the country in sync with the rapid renewable energy developments seen in regional neighbors like Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Jordan.

Speaking of the Middle East region, a recent study by the Lappeenranta University of Technology in Finland showed that Iran can play a major role in the development and implementation of a pan-Middle East renewable energy grid. This regional grid would be significantly cheaper than nuclear or fossil fuel+carbon capture systems.

Source: cleantechnica.com

Macquarie Plans Entry Into India Solar Power Market

31.10.2017

photovoltaic-system-2742305__340 — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

After investments in India’s thermal power market, Macquarie Asia Infrastructure Fund (MAIF) is now planning entry into India’s rapidly growing solar power market.

According to media reports, Hindustan Powerprojects Limited is planning to sell off some of its solar power assets to MAIF as the former looks to expand its solar base globally. Hindustan Powerprojects confirmed the development to an Indian business daily.

Hindustan Powerprojects has less than 300 megawatts of operational solar power capacity in India with an additional 150-200 megawatts under construction. The company is reportedly looking to sell off around half of the operational capacity to MAIF.

This is yet another instance of Indian developers looking to sell equity stake or entire assets to interested buyers to raise funds for further capacity expansion. In this case, Hindustan Powerprojects already has a substantial footprint in developed markets like the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and Japan. These international markets will now be the focus of the country as competition in the Indian market has increased substantially. The company has set a target for 2 gigawatts of operational capacity in overseas markets by 2022.

Through this acquisition Macquarie will make an entry into the Indian solar power market. The advantage that Macquarie would get from Hindustan Powerprojects is that the company was among the first entrants in the Indian solar power market.

The company commissioned India’s first utility-scale solar power project even before the National Solar Mission was announced in 2010. Solar power tariffs at that time were as high as Rs 17.91/kWh (27¢/kWh). It also has projects in Gujarat, again with substantially high tariffs compared to the current tariffs.

It is, however, unclear which projects Hindustan Powerprojects will sell to MAIF under the proposed transaction. Still, with power projects tied up with state and central government-owned companies, the revenue is somewhat assured for the next 20-25 years.

Source: cleantechnica.com

Global Solar Market Demand Expected To Reach 100 Gigawatts In 2017, Says SolarPower Europe

30.10.2017

panel-2562239__340 — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

European solar industry association SolarPower Europe has published a new analysis predicting that global solar market demand will reach 100 gigawatts for the first time ever this year, a 30% growth from 2016 levels.

SolarPower Europe, the region’s member-led solar association, published its latest market analysis for annual global solar power demand, which it predicts will reach 100 gigawatts (GW) for the first time ever in 2017. This represents a 30% growth from 2016 solar power demand levels when 76.6 GW was connected to the grid.

“It is good to see the growing deployment and political support for solar power, the most versatile and clean form of energy that is now also the lowest-cost for power generation in most countries of the world,” said Michael Schmela, Executive Advisor and Head of Market Intelligence at SolarPower Europe.

This is not the first time that analysts have predicted 2017 solar demand levels will near or reach 100 GW this year, but this late in the year the validity of the prediction grows. In July, GTM Research predicted that global solar power demand would exceed 80 GW for the first time, whereas in September EnergyTrend published an analysis which predicted China’s demand would help push total global demand over the 100 GW mark.

Published this week, SolarPower Europe’s new analysis predicts that China alone has already installed around 42 GW worth of new solar capacity in the first nine months of the year, and will likely add more than 50 GW for the whole year — a 45% growth over the 34.5 GW installed during 2016. Europe and Japan are both expected to add at least 7.5 GW in 2017, the United States around 12 GW, and India around 10 GW.

“In just two and a half years, the average prices in German auctions for solar power have decreased by nearly 50% to only 4.91 euro cents per kWh — and in Spain solar just won an impressive 4 GW in the national clean energy tender,” said Thomas Doering, Policy Advisor and analyst in SolarPower Europe’s Market Intelligence Team. “The time has never been better to invest in solar in Europe and beyond.”

“Solar is the fastest growing source of new energy and the most popular energy technology amongst Europeans,” added James Watson, CEO of SolarPower Europe. “This serves as a reminder to European policymakers to raise their solar ambitions. On the EU level we need at least a 35% renewable energy target by 2030. If we take advantage of this opportunity, we will see more jobs and investments in solar across the continent, and in turn, solar demand will grow again in Europe.”

Source: cleantechnica.com

China Declares War On Polluters — Shutters 40% Of Factories

30.10.2017

China is getting serious about curbing pollution. According to sources, up to 40% of its factories have been closed at least temporarily recently as the country has struggled to meet its year-end pollution reduction goals. Officials from more than 80,000 factories have been charged with criminal offences for breaching emissions limits over the past year.

“[B]asically, you’re seeing these inspectors go into factories for surprise inspections,” supply chain consultant Gary Huang from 80/20 Sourcing tells NPR (h/t Futurism). “They’re instituting daily fines, and sometimes — in the real severe cases — criminal enforcement. People are getting put in jail.”

How is the crackdown affecting China’s sprawling manufacturing sector? The government says total output will not be affected, but it is hard to see how the stepped up enforcement could fail to have a negative economic effect.

In prior years, factory shutdowns only lasted a few weeks at most, but environmental protection minister Li Ganjie says the number and length of closures this year is “unprecedented.”

“For those areas that have suffered ecological damage, their leaders and cadres will be held responsible for life,” Yang Weimin told the New York Times recently. He is the deputy director of the Communist Party’s Office of Financial and Economic Affairs. “Our people will be able to see stars at night and hear birds chirp,” he promises.

At the Communist Party annual congress this week, China announced that it plans to reduce the amount of fine particulate matter (that’s the stuff in the air that is less than 2.5 microns in diameter, which is small enough to cross over into the bloodstream from the lungs) from 47 micrograms per cubic meter in 2016 to 35 micrograms per cubic meter by 2035.

“It will be very difficult to reach the goal, and we need to make greater efforts to achieve it,” Li says. “These special campaigns are not a one-off, instead it is an exploration of long-term mechanisms. They have proven effective so we will continue with these measures.”

The tougher enforcement of pollution laws is putting pressure on China’s industrial sector, which will need to adapt by instituting better, smarter, and safer ways of doing business.

“It’s a huge event. It’s a serious event. I think many of us here believe it will become the new normal,” exporter Michael Crotty from China-based MKT & Associates told NPR. “The consumers of China don’t want red and blue rivers. They don’t want to see grey skies every day.”

Unlike the United States, where polluters are rewarded with generous government subsidies at taxpayer expense, China is determined to do what is necessary to protect its citizens from environmental harm. Some would call that leadership.

Source: cleantechnica.com

Carbon Intensity of Global Economy Falls, but not Fast Enough

30.10.2017

Termoelektrana, Ugalj, Zagađenje — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

The carbon intensity of the global economy is falling faster than ever before, but the pace of change is still not enough to hit global climate targets, new research published by PwC warns today.

In 2016 the carbon intensity of the world’s economy fell 2.6 per cent, a continuation of the “step change” in the pace of decarbonisation seen since 2014.

But according to the latest Low Carbon Economy Index (LCEI), which tracks G20 countries’ efforts to reduce the carbon intensity of their economy, progress still falls well short of the 6.3 per cent rate needed to deliver emissions cut compatible with keeping temperature increases to under 2C.

Some countries actually increased the carbon intensity of their economies in 2016 – Indonesia, Argentina, Turkey and South Africa all saw emissions rise faster than their economies grew.

And although nations such as the US, Australia and Mexico did manage to cut their emissions intensity faster than the global average, only China and the UK cut their emissions in line with the two degrees goal. They reduced their emissions intensity by 7.7 per cent and 6.5 per cent respectively, mainly by cutting coal consumption and boosting energy efficiency.

“As countries prepare to discuss the process for raising the ambition of their national targets at the next round of climate talks in Bonn next week, our report emphasises the fact that the Paris Agreement will only be possible if they are serious about accelerating action,” Jonathan Grant, director of climate change at PwC and co-author of the report, said in a statement.

Emerging economies – the so-called ‘E7’ group of China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Russia and Turkey – together cut their emissions intensity at a faster rate of 4.2 per cent, while the G7 nations lagged behind with an overall emissions intensity cut of 2.9 per cent.

The widening gap between the worst and best performing countries poses a serious problem for business, Grant warned. “Companies are being encouraged by investors and others to assess the risks of two degrees scenarios,” he said. “But they’re not forecasting or planning on a two degrees outcome, because the signals from governments just aren’t there right now.”

“Despite the increase in carbon pricing regulation in countries around the world, the price signal is often too feeble to prompt significant low carbon investment,” he continued. “Many companies are now planning for a range of potential outcomes including an increase in extreme weather and other climate impacts.”

Source: businessgreen.com

Vestas Joins RE100 in Bid to Help More Firms go 100 Per Cent Renewable

30.10.2017

Vestas has become the latest high profile name to officially join the RE100 initiative, after reiterating its commitment to sourcing 100 per cent renewable power as its turbine manufacturing operations expand.

The wind turbine giant already sources all its power from renewables, but said it wanted to join the international group to help support its wider mission to encourage more firms to set and meet renewable power targets.

Launched by The Climate Group, We Mean Business coalition of green business groups, and CDP back in 2014, RE100 has seen over 110 multinational firms set target dates for sourcing 100 per cent renewable power.

“The private sector is increasingly committed to meeting the challenges of climate change through the use of renewable energy, and so is Vestas,” said Morten Dyrholm, Vestas Group senior vice president of marketing, communications and public affairs. “RE100 underlines our joint efforts to make renewable energy an easy choice for companies, because it’s the right thing to do for the planet, and because it makes economic sense.”

Specifically, the company said working with RE100 would support its efforts to promote and develop a policy framework for power purchase agreements that make it easier for companies to source clean power and for renewables to grow their share of the energy mix.

Sam Kimmins, head of RE100 at The Climate Group, welcomed Vestas’ signing up to the initiative.

“Vestas is already using 100 per cent renewable electricity across its own operations to create wind power infrastructure,” he said “Now the company is furthering that leadership by joining RE100, and calling for important policy changes that will enable more companies to plug into renewables too.”

Source: businessgreen.com

Solar Power Forecast: Record-Low Costs Expected to Keep Plummeting as Technology Improves

29.10.2017

The already-plummeting costs of installing solar power could fall an additional 60 percent over the next decade, the head of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) said Monday.

IRENA director general Adnan Amin told Reuters that the organization expects an additional 80 to 90 GW of solar capacity will be added worldwide each year for the next five to six years, and that improvements in technology, including batteries, will help drive down costs.

Earlier this month, a new solar project in Saudi Arabia set a record for the lowest bid prices ever recorded for solar energy at 1.79 cents/kWh. An Oct. 4 report from the International Energy Organization hailed a “new era” for solar, naming it the fastest-growing source of new energy in 2016.

As reported by ThinkProgress:
“Prices for new solar power projects are falling so fast that the cheapest prices from 2016 have become the ceiling price for solar today.

In April 2016, Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) reported that the record low unsubsidized solar energy price was 3.6 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), in a March 2016 contract in Mexico.

This month, every single bid that Saudi Arabia received for its 300-Megawatt (MW) Sakaka solar project was cheaper than that.

The lowest bid price was 1.79 cents/kWh. For context, the average residential price for electricity in the United States is more than six times that, 12 cents/kWh.

The jaw-dropping price of 1.79 cents is not about to become the new ceiling for solar bids—since the market conditions in Saudi Arabia are fairly unique and it’s not clear the bidder, Masdar (owned by the United Arab Emirates) and its French partner EDF would actually make money at that price.

But, still, seven of the eight bids were below three cents—and the two lowest bids were ‘the lowest prices ever recorded at a global level,’ as PV magazine noted.”

Source: ecowatch.com

Glasses Generate Power with Flexible Organic Solar Cells

28.10.2017

Organic solar cells are flexible, transparent and lightweight, and can be manufactured in arbitrary shapes or colors. Thus, they are suitable for a variety of applications that cannot be realized with conventional silicon solar cells. In Energy Technology, researchers from KIT report sunglasses with colored, semitransparent solar cells applied to the lenses that supply a microprocessor and two displays with electric power. This paves the way for other applications such as the integration of organic solar cells into windows or overhead glazing.

“We bring solar power to places where other solar technologies fail,” says Dr. Alexander Colsmann, head of the Organic Photovoltaics Group at KIT’s Light Technology Institute (LTI). The “smart” solar glasses were designed as a case study by the scientist and his team at KIT. They are self-powered to measure and display solar illumination intensity and ambient temperature. The solar cell lenses, perfectly fitted to a commercial frame, have a thickness of approx. 1.6 millimeters and weigh about six grams, just like the lenses of traditional sunglasses. The microprocessor and the two small displays are integrated into the temples of the solar glasses. They show the illumination intensity and the ambient temperature as bar graphs. The solar glasses also work in indoor environments under illumination down to 500 Lux, which is the usual illumination of an office or a living area. Under these conditions, each of the “smart” lenses still generates 200 milliwatt of electric power—enough to operate devices such as a hearing aid or a step counter.

“The solar glasses we developed are an example of how organic solar cells may be employed in applications that would not be feasible with conventional photovoltaics,” says Ph.D. student Dominik Landerer, who largely contributed to the development of the solar glasses at the Material Research Center for Energy Systems of KIT. In the eyes of the engineer, these solar cells, which are based on hydrocarbons, offer mechanical flexibility. Their color, transparency, shape and size can be adapted for the desired application.

According to Colsmann, another application is the integration of solar cells into buildings. Since the glass facades of high-rise buildings must often be shaded, it is an obvious option to use organic solar modules for transforming the absorbed light into electric power. Another possibility is to coat large surfaces with organic solar cells using reel-to-reel technology.

The study published in Energy Technology is titled “Solar Glasses: A Case Study on Semitransparent Organic Solar Cells for Self-Powered, Smart Wearable Devices.”

(KIT)

Air Pollution Kills 9 Million, Costs $5 Trillion Per Year

28.10.2017

“For decades, pollution and its harmful effects on people’s health, the environment, and the planet have been neglected both by Governments and the international development agenda. Yet, pollution is the largest environmental cause of disease and death in the world today, responsible for an estimated 9 million premature deaths.”

So begins the executive summary of the landmark Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health, just published. It continues: “The substantial health and economic costs of pollution globally can no longer be ignored.”

The introduction to the report is stark: “Pollution is one of the great existential challenges of the Anthropocene epoch … Pollution is now a substantial problem that endangers the health of billions, degrades the Earth’s ecosystems, undermines the economic security of nations, and is responsible for an enormous global burden of disease, disability, and premature death.”

Some of the statistics and findings are startling. People are not just dying—they are getting sick and living with years of disability. This has an economic toll. The “welfare losses due to pollution to be more than US$4.6 trillion per year, which is equivalent to 6.2% of global economic output.”

If the message was not unambiguous enough: Air pollution “threatens the continuing survival of human societies.”

The impact on health is immense: Air pollution was responsible in 2015 for 19 percent of all cardiovascular deaths worldwide, 24 percent of ischaemic heart disease deaths, 21 percent of stroke deaths, and 23 percent of lung cancer deaths.

However, the burden is disproportionately on the poor and the world’s most vulnerable. More than ninety percent of all pollution-related mortality is seen in low-income and middle-income countries.

Children are also “at high risk of pollution-related disease and even extremely low-dose exposures to pollutants during windows of vulnerability in utero and in early infancy can result in disease, disability, and death in childhood and across their lifespan.”

The commission points the finger at the fossil fuel industry: “Pollution is intimately linked to global climate change. Fuel combustion—fossil fuel combustion in high-income and middle-income countries” is a key driver of pollution and “coal is the world’s most polluting fossil fuel, and coal combustion is an important cause of both pollution and climate change.”

“We fear that with nine million deaths a year, we are pushing the envelope on the amount of pollution the earth can carry,” said professor Philip Landrigan at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who co-led the commission.

Landrigan told the Guardian that the scale of deaths from pollution had surprised the researchers and that two other “real shockers” stood out. First was how quickly modern pollution deaths were rising, and secondly, “The current figure of nine million is almost certainly an underestimate, probably by several million.”

Landrigan added, “We always hear ‘we can’t afford to clean up pollution’—I say we can’t afford not to clean it up.”

Instead of cleaning up pollution and pioneering a clean energy future, the Trump administration is promoting dirty fossil fuels, including coal. Gina McCarthy, former head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, criticized the Trump administration after the report was released: “Now is not the time to go backwards in the U.S. Environmental protection and a strong economy go hand in hand. We also need to help other countries, not only for the benefit it will bring them, but because pollution knows no boundaries.”

It does not have to be this way. “This Lancet Commission should inform policy makers and serve as a timely call to action. Pollution is a winnable battle … Current and future generations deserve a pollution-free world,” the commission said in an editorial.

The time to act is now.

Source: ecowatch.com

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