China to Allow Private Investments in Green Energy
China announced it would open its energy conservation and environment protection industries to both foreign and private investment. According to Reuters, this signals a change in China’s approach to clean energy, which has primarily been funded by government subsidies, and seen by critics as protectionist. Now China is saying it is willing to work with the international community to find ways to improve green technology. Right now foreign firms can only in invest in equipment manufacturing, and maintain limited stakes in clean energy projects like wind farms.
World Set to Heat Up by 3.6 Degrees Despite Clean Energy Efforts: IEA
A new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) published this week says that technology and high prices are opening up new oil resources, but new resources doesn’t translate into oil abundance. The report predicts that global energy demand will rise by one-third in the period to 2035. It also predicts that greenhouse gas emissions will rise by 20 percent by 2035, putting the world on track for a temperature increase of 3.6 degrees, above the UN target of 2.0 degrees.
Rising oil output from North America and Brazil will reduce the role of OPEC countries in meeting the world’s need for oil, and the Middle East – the only large source of low-cost oil – will take back its role as a key source of oil supply growth from the mid-2020s. Global energy demand will shift to Asia, with China taking a back seat in the 2020s to India and Southeast Asia, which will be the driving forces behind higher consumption. The Middle East will become the world’s second-largest gas consumer by 2020 and third-largest oil consumer by 2030. Lower energy prices in the United States means that it will get an economic advantage in the energy boom, while higher costs for energy-intensive industries in Europe and Japan will become burdensome for consumers and businesses.
MIT’s Marc Kastner nominated to head DOE Office of Science
The White House announced the nomination of the dean of MIT’s School of Science and Donner Professor of Physics Marc Kastner to head the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, which is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, with an annual budget of $4.9 billion. The office is also responsible for 10 of DOE’s 17 laboratories, including Brookhaven National Laboratory, the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Kastner’s early research focused on the electronic and optical properties of amorphous semiconductors. He has also studied the physics of high-temperature superconductors, especially the relationship of their magnetic properties to their electron transport. He has served as chair of the Solid State Sciences Committee of the National Research Council and chair of the National Academy of Sciences Board on Physics and Astronomy.
To read the announcement, click here
Eos Set to Ramp Up Manufacturing of Zinc Air Batteries
Eos Energy Storage and Incodema Group announced they will partner to launch MW-scale manufacturing of Eos’s low-cost zinc hybrid cathode (ZnythTM) battery technology. Eos’s 1MW/6MWh Aurora energy storage system is designed to integrate renewable energy production, increase the electricity grid’s efficiency and resiliency, and reduce utility companies’ costs and consumers’ electricity bills. Incodema Group, a NY-based manufacturer, offers equipment and capabilities required to scale emerging technologies from design to production.
EOS’s first pilot project will launch in 2014 with Con Edison in New York City .
Eos’s proprietary ZnythTM technology can achieve 10,000 cycles (or a 30 year life) at a lower cost than comparable technology: $160/kWh for the DC system. Initial production will be reserved for projects coordinated with a group of global utilities, independent power producers, and energy service providers comprising Eos’s Genesis Program. NRG Energy is an investor in Eos, as is Enel, GDF SUEZ, and National Grid. It also raised money Fisher Brothers, a real estate firm.