This week in renewable energy and cleantech news, wind energy continues to capture corporate investment dollars, and human ingenuity continues to turn out inventions helping the environment. Read about the first hands-free crops, a wind turbine taller than the Statue of Liberty, and the deployment of a device that captures litter in the waters of Australia.

What news have you been reading this week? Share with us @GreentownLabs!

 

Greentech Media – How Batteries Can Bridge the EV Infrastructure Gap

• Batteries may be the key to making EV charging stations more affordable, as customers would be able to use stored power rather than solely relying on grid power to charge their vehicles.

“The consulting firm laid out a peak-shaving model in which on-site batteries can charge off-peak, store the power, and discharge to cars without taking more power from the grid. If more than one car needs to charge at one time, one can draw from the battery while the other pulls from the grid.”

 

Bloomberg – GE Unveils the World’s Most Powerful Wind Turbine

• General Electric Renewable Resources has announced plans to build what will be the world’s most powerful offshore wind turbine by 2021, the height alone being three times that of the Statue of Liberty.

“One 12-megawatt turbine will generate as much as 67 gigawatt hours a year, which is enough to power 5,000 households, GE said. Bigger turbines need fewer foundations and less complex grid connections than smaller units. That means a wind farm’s layout can be made more efficient, and fewer machines means less maintenance.”

 

UCI News – Wind and solar power could meet four-fifths of U.S. electricity demand, study finds

• According to scientists at the University of California, Irvine, the U.S. could reliably meet 80 percent of its electricity demand via solar and wind power generation.

‘“We looked at the variability of solar and wind energy over both time and space and compared that to U.S. electricity demand,” Davis said. “What we found is that we could reliably get around 80 percent of our electricity from these sources by building either a continental-scale transmission network or facilities that could store 12 hours’ worth of the nation’s electricity demand.”’

 

The Gaurdian – More than 100 cities now mostly powered by renewable energy, data shows

• The number of cities predominantly powered by clean energy has more than doubled since 2015 as the global shift towards renewable energy continues to progress.

“Data published on Tuesday by the not-for-profit environmental impact researcher CDP found that 101 of the more than 570 cities on its books sourced at least 70% of their electricity from renewable sources in 2017, compared to 42 in 2015.”

 

Futurism – The Seabin Will Start Cleaning Australian Waterways in March

• The Seabin, a waste receptacle device capable of capturing litter in ports, marinas, and other calm bodies of water, is set to be deployed for the first time in several Australian cities.

“Ideally, the device should be checked twice daily, emptied as required, and cleaned thoroughly once per month. Still, that amount of human labor is far less than what’s required through current clean-up techniques, which revolve around patrolling “trash boats” and maintenance workers using nets closer to the shore.”

 

ABC Rural – World’s first hands-free crop planted, grown and harvested in the UK

• Hands Free Hectare, a research project in the UK, has just successfully grown the world’s first hands-free crop using only robot tractors and drones.

“[Researcher] Mr. Abell said the crop was seeded, sprayed, monitored and harvested autonomously, and it is something farmers could be doing soon.”

 

CleanTechnica – California Looks To Zero Emissions Buildings As Next Climate Frontier

• A group of California State lawmakers have introduced bills that aim to update outdated policies around the use of fossil fuels to heat buildings and hot water, and move towards carbon zero building standards.

“Assembly Bill 3232 (Friedman) aims to cut climate pollution from the building sector in half by 2030, and to require all new buildings to zero out their carbon emissions by 2030, meaning they would generate enough solar power to offset their annual energy-related emissions.”