The farm powers South Australia, which is home to roughly 1.7 million people. Musk had the farm built after South Australia experienced a “near total blackout” after an intense storm consisting of 80,000 lightning strikes and two tornadoes in 2016; he partnered with an Australian billionaire and got the farm up and running.

The new farm “and other grid-scale batteries offer a way to tackle the variability of wind and solar power, and South Australia is seen as a global testbed in the transition away from fossil fuels, with the state getting more than half its power from renewable sources last year,” Bloomberg says.

The farm is full of Tesla PowerPacks, which is the magic behind the structure’s success: the battery is able to smooth out the “ebbs and flows” stemming from renewable energy tech and the region’s surrounding “failure-prone rural grids.” The battery can store wind and solar power up to 100 MW. It can also “absorb brief blips in the grid surrounding it,” which minimizes outages for Australia homes and businesses, Popular Mechanics says. It can also reduce the amount of fossil fuel consumed by backup generators, and can power up to 30,000 homes for up to an hour.

So far, the farm has saved South Australian residents lots of money – more than the $50 million “that Tesla passed on to its Australian investor.” It’s also reduced network costs by about $76 million, and cut back the costs to regulate South Australia’s grid by 91 percent, Popular Mechanics reports.

Thus far, the battery farm’s success has “put South Australia on the map as a world leader in renewable energy with battery storage,” Unilad says. “Basically, Tesla has smashed it.”

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Citing a recent report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), advancements in battery technology have “driven down [battery] costs at rates faster than previously predicted.” Back in 2016, battery prices were at $300 per kilowatt hour (kWh), and were projected to drop to $120/kWh by 2030. However, BNEF says that battery prices might hit $100/kWh by 2024, even with “hiccups along the way.” From there, the BNEF predicts that batteries will get to $60/kWh in 2030.

Utility Dive also says that the BNEF report suspects that the global lithium-ion battery market will grow from today’s value of $20 billion to $60 billion by 2025, and almost $120 billion by 2030.

Why This Matters for Electric Vehicles and Beyond

Because the cost of batteries keeps dropping, it lowers the costs of electric vehicles, too. It also enables battery storage projects to better compete in electricity markets. “For example, the electrification of commercial vehicles, like delivery vans, is becoming increasingly attractive,” BNEF said.

Similarly, cheaper battery prices increase their attractiveness in multiple industry sectors. For example, earlier this year, Amazon ordered 100,000 electric delivery vans; international shipping company DHL is going to pilot its electric delivery vehicles in the U.S. next year.

Utility Dive says that low battery prices will continue to be “the most critical goal for mass market electric vehicles,” but it will also help in other ways. Specifically, batteries in certain vehicles applications, including commercial delivery, may spark more differentiation in battery cells based on customer demand. It could also inspire consumers to put more value in battery life cycles rather than prices, which would add another string of changes to the battery industry. Only time will tell, especially with 2020 around the corner, how the industry will continue to morph and become more accessible to the consumer market.

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That gas, called syngas, is currently made from a combination of hydrogen and carbon monoxide and makes numerous products, including fuels, pharmaceuticals, plastics, and fertilizers. However, researchers at the University of Cambridge recently proved that syngas can be produced in a “sustainable and simple” way via the artificial leaf, pulling from the way plants utilize photosynthesis to create food and energy. Here’s how it works:

• Two light absorbers on the artificial leaf are combined with a catalyst made from cobalt, a naturally abundant element; the light absorbers function similar to the molecules that plants use to soak in sunlight.
• The leaf is then placed in water, which triggers one light absorber and the catalyst to produce oxygen.
• The second light absorber carries out a chemical reaction that breaks carbon dioxide and water into carbon monoxide and hydrogen.
• From there, the syngas mixture is formed.

According to the researchers at the University of Cambridge, one of the best parts of this artificial leaf is that it can work with low light levels, including those emitted on rainy or overcast days. As a result, the technology has minimal restrictions, and can be widely used. “This means you are not limited to using this technology just in warm countries, or only operating the process during the summer months,” said Virgil Andrei, PhD student and one of the university’s researchers. “You could use it from dawn until dusk, anywhere in the world.”

On top of that, the artificial leaf doesn’t produce “additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,” which could help future adopters produce quality products while also combatting climate change.

With the success of the artificial leaf, the University of Cambridge researchers are now looking at ways to “produce a sustainable liquid fuel” that might one day replace petrol. Researcher and professor of chemistry Erwin Reisner said that developing synthetic petrol is important, especially since electricity can only satisfy a quarter of the world’s total global energy demand. “There is a major demand for liquid fuels to power heavy transport, shipping and aviation sustainably,” he said.

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These projects, which include solar, wind, and hydropower, might possibly expand by 50 percent in the next five years. This expansion would be “powered by a resurgence in solar energy” due to its cheaper costs, The Guardian says. “The cost of solar is expected to decline by a further 15 percent to 35 percent by 2024, spurring further growth over the second half of the decade.”

Pulling data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), the world’s capacity for solar energy could grow by 600GW by 2024, which is “almost double the installed total electricity capacity in Japan.” In the next five years, all renewable energy usage is anticipated to grow by 1,200GW, which is “the total electricity capacity of the U.S.”

Currently, the world’s electricity is comprised of 26 percent renewable energy sources; that number is expected to climb to 30 percent by 2024. The growth in renewable energy usage could end the world’s demand for oil and coal in the 2020’s.

“This is a pivotal time for renewable energy,” IEA’s executive director, Fatih Birol, told The Guardian. “Technologies such as solar photovoltaics (PV) and wind are at the heart of transformations taking place across the global energy system. Their increasing deployment is crucial for efforts to tackle greenhouse gas emissions, reduce air pollution, and expand energy access.”

Birol also said that renewable energy use would need to grow quickly “if the world hopes to meet its climate targets.” This might be possible, The Guardian says, since energy-hungry businesses and factories are forecasted to take advantage of dropping costs to cut their energy bills.

Finally, the IEA said that the growing climate ambitions coming from the U.S. and European Union are responsible for its renewables forecast. It also said that China will be a leader in developing wind and solar energy projects.

The post The Sun Could Have a Bright Future in Renewable Energy by 2024 appeared first on My TechDecisions.

This past spring, Amazon announced that one of its three new wind farm projects will be built in southern California in the Tehachapi Mountains, which houses 12,000 people. The wind farms are another step the tech giant is taking to become carbon neutral by 2040, and run on 100 percent renewables by 2030. The mountain range currently houses one of the world’s largest wind turbine farms, featuring around 4,700 turbines that produce about 3,200 megawatts of electricity.

According to CNBC, outside contractors come to work on the wind turbines, and end up staying in Tehachapi’s hotels and eating at its restaurants, ultimately boost ing the economy of the small community. Additionally, the new wind turbine farm could bring in at least 50 new jobs.

“The wind farms have generated quite a number of very good technical, good-paying jobs that can sustain a family and the employers have benefits,” Pro-Tem Smith, mayor of Tehachapi, told CNBC. “So the people in the workforce can look forward to actually a career in the industry if they want, and the pay is good enough where they can afford a home and stay here.”

Similar to the Southern Californian town, Benton County of Indiana, which has a population of 8,700, is home to multiple wind projects. The county has seen a boom in projects over the past decade, which includes electricity needs for an Amazon Web Services data center. This center was the first major renewables project for Pattern Energy in 2016.

The project is expected to make $5 million in economic development payments to Benton County over the course of 17 years, CNBC says. It is also entitled to 100 percent property tax abatements for a 10-year period; tax revenue for the area will also be generated. Past tax revenue has gone towards schools, medical services, new roads, and other expenses.

“Wind…provide[s] a really important additional value and way to maintain the communities that are struggling in rural America, and have the potential to bring technical jobs and new sources of revenue and income to help support these communities during the energy transition,” Stephen Abbott, a city renewables accelerator manager at Rocky Mountain Institute told CNBC.

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Rivian will start deploying the electric vehicles for Amazon in 2021. Amazon is hoping to have 10,000 and running by 2022, and 100,000 by 2030, according to Tech Crunch. “The fleet is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 4 million metric tons per year by 2030.”

Amazon’s purchase is also part of its carbon neutral plan, called “Climate Pledge;” the agreement, in unity with other tech companies, guarantees that it will measure and report greenhouse gas emissions regularly, “implement decarbonization strategies” on point with the Paris Agreement, and other initiatives. Amazon’s investment will also help the company meet its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2040, which is “10 years earlier than is outline by the United Nations Paris Agreement,” Tech Crunch says.

And That’s Not All

Aside from zero-emissions vehicles, Amazon is also committed to speeding up its adoption of renewable energy, “with the goal of converting 80 percent” of its energy to renewable energy by 2024, and 100 percent by 2030. Plus, Amazon has started 15 utility-scale renewable energy projects entailing wind and solar energy that is expected to generate 1.3 gigawatts of renewable capacity, and deliver 3.8 million megawatt hours of clean energy.

Finally, the tech giant said it would commit $100 million to reforestation projects through the Right Climate Fund in partnership with The Nature Conservancy. The money will go towards protecting forests, wetlands, and peatlands that are currently used to remove millions of metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere.

“We’re done being in the middle of the herd on this issue—we’ve decided to use our size and scale to make a difference,” Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, said in a statement.

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IKEA is developing an affordable energy program to help consumers invest in solar and wind energy, Quartz says. Ingka Group, IKEA’s holding company, reported that it invested $2.76 billion in solar and wind energy solutions to power its global operations; the company already has stake in two solar parks in the United States.

“Ingka reports that its green energy infrastructure already generating more electricity than its stores consume,” Quartz says. “The company expects that its entire supply chain will become climate positive by 2030.”

The company has also been piloting the program, called Home Solar Service, in Europe, and is currently available in seven countries; it’s also aiming to make the service available to its 30 markets and millions of customers by 2025.

Why They’re Going Green

The furniture retailer is going green and working to provide cleaner energy to its customers for many reasons. For one, they’re joining the trend of investing in fossil-fuel free power solutions, like many other companies – including Google, Quartz says. Plus, reducing its carbon footprint is key to the company’s continued global success for the long haul.

“We have to do this because we’re here for the long term,” Pia Heidenmark Cook, the chief sustainability officer for Ingka Group, told Quartz. “We want to empower millions of customers to produce and use renewable energy.”

Ultimately, IKEA’s move towards utilizing cleaner energy, and giving consumers access to it for their own homes, is helping them achieve the mission of their People & Plant Positive sustainability strategy: giving people a chance to attain a better life. We want to “inspire and enable more than 1 billion people to live a better everyday life within the limits of the planet,” Heidenmark Cook told Quartz.

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The project will include the construction of millions of solar panels and hundreds of wind turbines across all three continents, according to a statement by Google. Its “renewable energy fleet” currently includes 52 projects, “driving more than $7 billion in new construction and thousands of related jobs;” its renewable energy portfolio will also increase by more than 40 percent. Google also says that it will not buy any power from existing wind and solar farms, and will continue its commitment to developing new projects.

In a statement, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that the company has been carbon neutral since 2007, and matched its “entire annual electricity consumption with renewable energy” in 2017 and 2018, making it “the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy in the world.”

All That Glitters Isn’t Green

While Pichai appears proud of Google’s commitment to clean energy, Google employees aren’t entirely impressed. According to Engadget, hundreds of employees have criticized Google for “not taking the environment seriously enough,” especially considering the company’s carbon footprints at its data centers, and investing in lawyers who vote against climate change.

An article by Medium cited a petition that over 2,000 Google employees signed to sway the company to better support climate change. The employees stated that they stand in solidarity with the climate goals outlined by Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, which include:

• Zero emissions by 2030
• Zero contracts for fossil fuels companies to accelerate oil and gas extraction
• Zero funding for climate denying lobbyists and politicians
• Zero harm to climate refugees and frontline communities

Those employees also joined employees from Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter for the Global Climate Strike that took place on Sept. 20.

According to the petition, all employees are hopeful that their employers seriously consider their roles in minimizing their carbon footprints, and in leading the charge to keeping the planet green. “As individuals, we may feel alone in facing climate change. But if we act together…we can build a better future,” they said.

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Unfortunately, two years down the road, the Normandy solar road is a colossal failure.

According to Business Insider, a report by Le Monde has found that the Normandy road has failed to hit a number of goals set two years ago – and in fact has reached the point where it might not even be worth salvaging.

Components don’t fit together. Wear on the road is worse than expected, and one stretch of road 100 meters long got so bad it had to be demolished. Rotting leaves and thunderstorms are causing damage. In fact, the road is so loud when driving on it that the speed limit had to be reduced.

Not only that, but the road isn’t even generating enough energy to be worthwhile. As Business Insider explains:

The original aim was to produce 790 kWh each day, a quantity that could illuminate a population of between 3,000 and 5,000 inhabitants. But the rate produced stands at only about 50% of the original predicted estimates.

The Normandy road was a grand idea that didn’t work the way constructors had hoped. That doesn’t necessarily mean that renewable energy projects aren’t worthwhile – but this one certainly seems to be. While there are tax breaks and grants available for companies that reduce their carbon footprint through organizations like the USGBC, perhaps organizations will want to wait for proof of concept before venturing forth on the road to renewable energy. Lest we end up on the road to nowhere in Normandy.

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The US Department of Energy released a report that looks back on wind power in the US in 2018, and analysis shows that the cost of owning and operating a wind farm has fallen below the cost of buying fuel for an equivalent natural gas plant.

One of the main reasons for these findings is the technology behind wind turbines. In 2008 there were no turbines in the US with 100m rotors, whereas 99 percent of rotors in 2018 were over 100m. The turbine’s generator grew at the same rate, up 5 percent even from 2017 to 2018.

While the prices for wind power were rising up through 2009, there have declined ever since. According to Ars Technica:

The report uses an estimate of future natural gas prices that show an extremely gradual rise of about $10/MW-hr out to 2050. But natural gas—on its own, without considering the cost of a plant to burn it for electricity—is already over $20/MW-hr. That means wind sited in the center of the US is already cheaper than fueling a natural gas plant, and wind sited elsewhere is roughly equal.

What’s all of this mean for technology managers? Simply put, it’s time to consider a strategy of moving to alternative energy sources. While it’s a big change, it can also have big benefits for the business.

The ROI alone should be a good enough reason. It’s clear that the trends show natural gas is rising in cost while wind power is falling. Making the switch now, with tax credits in place for renewable energy, could set the organization up to save thousands over the coming years. There is a ways to go, of course, but switching some operations over will give the organization the infrastructure and experience to continue moving to renewable energy sources down the line.

There’s also the PR impact – organizations that commit to going green often see great receptions from customers and potential customers. In a world where eco-friendliness is akin to benevolence, switching to operations that rely on wind power could provide a huge boost to the company’s reputation. Couple that with the fact that you might be saving money overall and it’s a win-win.

Reports like this are something technology managers should keep an eye on. The renewable energy industry is only growing, and you don’t want to be the organization left behind.

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