New Developments September 2017

Is this a good time to talk about climate change? Experiencing extreme weather events can make people modestly more likely to support policy measures to help communities adapt to climate change. The effect on people’s attitudes is not only small but only lasts about a month. But the world measured in the study may no longer be the one we are living in. The researchers only looked at how the frequency of extreme weather affects attitudes, not the severity. Yet the most extreme weather events may affect people’s psychology over a longer period.

A Washable, Stretchable Solar Cell For Clothes and Awnings Engineers have made a new solar cell that works well even after being washed. The stretchable, water-resistant cells could be used to make clothes that can power wearable devices and sensors. They could also lead to power-generating awnings, shades, and tents. Thin, flexible solar cells made of organic polymers are less efficient, but are easy and cheap to manufacture. This has made them attractive for large-area, flexible devices, especially as scientists have in recent years improved their efficiency and longevity; organic solar cells can degrade when exposed to water and oxygen. They went from efficiencies of 2 percent in 2007 to over 8 percent in 2016.

New Developments August 2017

Where we start the clock for climate change makes a big difference Carbon emissions at the start of the Industrial Revolution are often unaccounted for but may have significant consequences, an analysis published last week in Nature Climate Change finds. According to the study, the small increase in temperature that may have resulted from these early emissions dramatically shrinks the global carbon budget – the amount of greenhouse gases that we can collectively produce in the future while still avoiding harmful increases in global average temperature. The problem is, just what “pre-industrial” means is often poorly defined. The most commonly used baseline is the period between 1850 and 1900. But the Industrial Revolution was already well underway by then. What if temperatures had already begun to increase? Analyses suggest that it’s possible that temperature hadn’t yet begun to increase in the late nineteenth century, making this a reasonable baseline period. But it’s equally plausible that human activities had already increased global average temperature by roughly 0.2 °C by then. If we manage to implement steep reductions in emissions, the choice of baseline period matters a lot. If 1850-1900 was already 0.2 °C warmer than a true pre-industrial baseline, then the chance of avoiding the 1.5 °C threshold drops from 40% to about 12% even with extreme emissions cuts. The chance of avoiding 2 °C drops from 75% to 70%.

How 139 countries could be powered by 100 percent wind, water, and solar energy by 2050  Such a transition could mean less worldwide energy consumption due to the efficiency of clean, renewable electricity; a net increase of over 24 million long-term jobs; an annual decrease in 4-7 million air pollution deaths per year; stabilization of energy prices; and annual savings of over $20 trillion in health and climate costs. The analyses specifically examined each country's electricity, transportation, heating/cooling, industrial, and agriculture/forestry/fishing sectors. Of the 139 countries -- selected because they were countries for which data were publically available from the International Energy Agency and collectively emit over 99% of all carbon dioxide worldwide -- the places the study showed that had a greater share of land per population (e.g., the United States, China, the European Union) are projected to have the easiest time making the transition to 100% wind, water, and solar. The most difficult places to transition may be highly populated, very small countries surrounded by lots of ocean, such as Singapore, which may require an investment in offshore solar to convert fully. The changes in infrastructure would also mean that countries wouldn't need to depend on one another for fossil fuels, reducing the frequency of international conflict over energy. The researchers intentionally exclude nuclear power because of its 10-19 years between planning and operation, its high cost, and the acknowledged meltdown, weapons proliferation, and waste risks. "Clean coal" and biofuels are neglected because they both cause heavy air pollution, which Jacobson and coworkers are trying to eliminate, and emit over 50 times more carbon per unit of energy than wind, water, or solar power.

New Developments July 2017

Japan’s Renewable-Energy Revolution Japan's approach to stewardship of its land and water resources is distinct from that of the U.S. As an island nation with a millennia-long history, the concepts of reuse, repurposing and multiple use are intrinsic to Japanese culture. In 2011, the Tohoku earthquake and subsequent Fukushima nuclear disaster caused Japan to reassess its dependence on nuclear power as a primary source of electricity generation. Building renewable-energy capacity, predominantly in the form of photovoltaic projects, is one answer in the nation's quest for alternatives. These images, from a series of flights over the Tokyo and Kobe/Osaka regions of Japan, show a range of photovoltaic projects on former golf courses, quarries, dams, man-made islands and floating projects on ponds and reservoirs.

Climate change damages US economy, increases inequality Unmitigated climate change will make the United States poorer and more unequal, according to a new study. The poorest third of counties could sustain economic damages costing as much as 20 percent of their income if warming proceeds unabated. States in the South and lower Midwest, which tend to be poor and hot already, will lose the most, with economic opportunity traveling northward and westward. Colder and richer counties along the northern border and in the Rockies could benefit the most as health, agriculture and energy costs are projected to improve. "Unmitigated climate change will be very expensive for huge regions of the United States," said Hsiang, Chancellor's Associate Professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. "If we continue on the current path, our analysis indicates it may result in the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in the country's history." The team of economists and climate scientists computed the real-world costs and benefits: how agriculture, crime, health, energy demand, labor and coastal communities will be affected by higher temperatures, changing rainfall, rising seas and intensifying hurricanes.

Visit to the Life Cycle Carbon Minus House at the Building Research Institute

We recently visited the Life Cycle Carbon Minus House in Tsukuba, which has as aim to have negative carbon emissions once it is in operation, including the carbon dioxide generation during construction. We first had a lecture on the workings of the house in Japanese. Aside from applying renewable energy in the form of solar cells, the layout of the house uses different principles depending on the season.  

New Developments June 2017

Graphene electrodes offer new functionalities in molecular electronic nanodevices The field of nanoscale molecular electronics aims to exploit individual molecules as the building blocks for electronic devices, to improve functionality and enable developers to achieve an unprecedented level of device miniaturization and control. The main obstacle hindering progress in this field is the absence of stable contacts between the molecules and metals used that can both operate at room temperature and provide reproducible results. Graphene possesses not only excellent mechanical stability, but also exceptionally high electronic and thermal conductive properties, making the emerging 2D material very attractive for a range of possible applications in molecular electronics. "We find that by carefully designing the chemical contact of molecules to graphene-based materials, we can tune their functionality," said Dr Rungger. "Our single-molecule diodes showed that the rectification direction of electric current can be indeed switched by changing the nature of chemical contact of each molecule," added Dr Rudnev. The findings will also help researchers working in electro-catalysis and energy conversion research design graphene/molecule interfaces in their experimental systems to improve the efficiency of the catalyst or device.

Other lithium consuming processes

There are many lithium consuming processes outside of batteries, whether for electric vehicles (EV) or not. Examples include ceramics, glass, polymers, aluminium, medications, continuous casting molds, air conditioning, lubricating greases, etc. However, there is a distinct lack of data on the lithium consumption of the various lithium consuming processes. 

One scientific paper from 2009 (Yakson and Tilton, doi:10.1016/j.resourpol.2009.05.002) estimated the growth rates for 8 different processes until 2100. More recently, two industry reports from Deutsche Bank (DB) (2016) and Stormcrow (SC) (2015) included estimated for a more elaborate range of processes, until 2025. As they both distinguish different processes, only a few can be compared for the assumed volume and growth rates. The resulting similarities and differences, and thereby implications on total lithium demand, are interesting to note. 

I compared these two estimates per process on total volume and growth rates, and extrapolated reasonable growth rates until 2050 for each process to magnify the effect of the estimates and provide a range of likely total industry growth for lithium consuming processes other than EV batteries. The first step was to convert the estimates of lithium carbonate equivalent into lithium in tons. Next I determined annual growth rates for the SC data. For both data sets I estimated reasonable growth rates per process as listed in the table below. As a last step, I compared both data sets to my previously estimated total of demand from lithium consuming processes other than EV batteries (dependent on Yakson and Tilton, 2009).

Estimating the future number of cars - 2

I prepared two scenarios to estimate the future number of electric vehicles (EV), and total number of cars, on a global scale. 

The first scenario is a business as usual (BaU) scenario, where the annual number of new cars is based on the average growth rate of total cars from 1999-2016 (calculated to be 3.28% - data from OICA). The annual number of new EV and the total stock of EV were estimated in line with the target of 41 million cars sold by 2040 (What will the global EV Light-Duty Vehicle fleet look like through 2050?, Sitty & Taft, Fuel Freedom Foundation, 2016). 

The second scenario is called 2DS, as it is in line with the 2 degree Celsius scenario from the International Energy Agency (IEA). This corresponds to reaching 80% greenhouse gas emission reduction by 2050. In this scenario the annual number of new cars is based on the low growth scenario in Sitty & Taft (2016), which leads to 2% growth until 2040, and 1% until 2050. The annual number of new EV and the total stock of EV were based on the IEA goals of 25 million stock by 2020 and 200 million stock by 2030 (Global EV Outlook 2017, IEA, 2016). 

For both scenarios, the total stock of cars is based on OICA figures including the current stock in use (2015), the average of retired vehicles (2006-2015), and the annual number of cars. The ratio of battery electric vehicles (BEV) to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) was based on the average of annual new BEV/PHEV registrations (data taken from the IEA, 2008-2016). This lead to an increase of BEV over PHEV, with 100% BEV reached by 2028. 

Estimating the future number of cars - 1

A lot of information is available for projecting what the future global number of cars, and electric vehicles might look like. Looking at the production of vehicles over the past few years, the top vehicle manufacturers have stayed roughly the same. The top 12 manufacturers were identical from 2010-2015 and produced 75% of all vehicles. 

New Developments May 2017

Discovery of a facile process for hydrogen production using ammonia as a carrier However, low volumetric energy density and the dangers of transporting and handling H2 are drawbacks for commercial applications. These problems could be eliminated by using ammonia as a H2 storage medium (H2 carrier). They found that H2 can be produced by supplying ammonia and oxygen at room temperature to a pre-treated RuO2/?-Al2O3 catalyst without external heating. The heat evolves by ammonia adsorption onto this catalyst, increasing it to the catalytic auto-ignition temperature of ammonia. Subsequently, production of H2 by oxidative decomposition of ammonia begins. In this process, once the reaction is initiated, it can start again repeatedly even if there is no external heat supply because adsorbed ammonia is desorbed during the reaction.

Japan’s Largest Solar Power Plant Breaks Ground Tokyo-based solar project developer, Pacifico Energy has announced the construction plan for Japan’s largest solar power plant with a capacity of up to 257.7MW in Mimasaka-Shi City, Okayama Prefecture. The solar power plant is scheduled to become operational in September 2019. Covering a land of approximately 400 hectares, the solar power plant is planned to be completed within 30 months. 150MWdc from the whole 257.7MWac solar panels will be connected to the grid and all electricity generated will be sold to Chugoku electric Power Company. Pacifico Energy expected that Sakuto Mega Solar Power Station will generate approximately 290,000,000kWh of solar electricity per year, offsetting around 200 thousand tons of GHG emissions.

Principles of Sustainable and Ethical Energy Access and Consumption

Two main aspects need to be considered, with 6 principles each:

Access and consumption for all, now and in the future

1. Energy infrastructure and clean cooking facilities in all areas
2. Access and consumption aligned with climate change mitigation goals
3. Energy prices at reasonable share of minimum income, including indirect costs e.g. resource depletion
4. Energy harvested from renewable sources
5. Energy harvested by processes with little environmental impact, using recyclable materials and techniques
6. Energy not used for unethical purposes

Sustainable and ethical supply chains

1. Safeguarding against natural hazards (floods, earthquakes, space weather)
2. Safeguarding against human hazards (terrorism, hacking, financial market effects)
3. Actively anticipating and solving supply chain bottlenecks; International cooperation on mining rights, land use, and safe transportation
4. Guaranteeing backup availability during emergencies of core services
5. Regular maintenance/replacements in infrastructure, knowledge of techniques, R&D investments
6. Increasing knowledge of best techniques by anticipating needed workforce and skills

To help implement these principles, the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) needs to be calculated justly, including the mining of substances for nuclear reactors and recycling costs; in other words an entire Life Cycle Analysis including the costs of climate impacts.

Japan Geoscience Union - American Geoscience Union Joint Meeting 2017

This Saturday was the first day of the Japan Geoscience Union - American Geoscience Union Joint Meeting 2017, where I was invited to present on the topic of "Sustainable and ethical energy access and consumption" as part of the session "Future Earth - Implementing Integrated Research for Sustainable Future". 

Sustainable and ethical energy access and consumption - legal and ethical principles

Global Reality

Rain does not fall on one roof alone

The chances are high that before reading this post, you used quite a bit of energy today, and this access to energy makes your quality of life beyond decent. Today still 1.2 billion people live their lives without electricity access, and over 2.7 billion people use solid biomass for cooking, leading to health hazards and 3.5 million deaths annually from indoor air pollution. Can you imagine your life under these circumstances?

What is needed and what is considered a basic standard of living adequate for one’s health and well-being differs per culture and state of development. We need to reevaluate on a global scale what energy consumption, transportation, and production patterns reflect a ‘decent’ standard of well-being in order to ensure sustainable energy access for all people, now and in the future.  

A sustainable society is founded on equal access to health care, nutrition, clean water, shelter, education, energy, economic opportunities and employment. In this ideal society, humans live in harmony with their natural environment, conserving resources not only for their own generation, but also for their children’s children. Each citizen enjoys a high quality of life and there is social justice for all. This concept transverses national borders and requires we enable these rights on a global basis.

Sustainable and ethical energy access and consumption - Sustainable Development Goals

Of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), #7: 'Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all' is the most relevant to achieving sustainable and ethical energy access and consumption. In total 10 of the 17 SDGs are closely related to this goal. 

Goal #9 shows we need more knowledgeable workers capable of working with renewable technologies. However, even if we reach all of the SDGs, it does not mean we have achieved sustainable and ethical energy access and consumption. For this, some additional concepts need to be adhered to. 

New Developments April 2017

Energy-efficiency labels for buildings are working Energy-efficiency labels have brought energy savings of up to 30 percent in large commercial buildings in Los Angeles. Buildings account for about one-third of the energy consumption and carbon emissions in the US. Three major certification programs attempt to reduce building emissions: the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Energy Star Program, the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), and the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Better Buildings Challenge. the Energy Star program is the most successful voluntary energy-efficiency program in the world. It has saved consumers and businesses $34 billion in electricity costs and prevented more than about 300 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions in one year.

Non-participating buildings tend to be smaller, older, and in less premium locations, but they are greater in number and represent two-thirds of commercial building emissions.

Efficient power converter for internet of things The "internet of things" is the idea that vehicles, appliances, civil structures, manufacturing equipment, and even livestock will soon have sensors that report information directly to networked servers, aiding with maintenance and the coordination of tasks. Those sensors will have to operate at very low powers, in order to extend battery life for months or make do with energy harvested from the environment. Those operations require relatively little current, but occasionally, the sensor might need to transmit an alert to a distant radio receiver. That requires much larger currents. researchers from MIT's Microsystems Technologies Laboratories (MTL) presented a new power converter that maintains its efficiency at currents ranging from 500 picoamps to 1 milliamp, a span that encompasses a 200,000-fold increase in current levels.

Renewable energy needed to drive uptake of electric vehicles Plugging into renewable energy sources outweighs the cost and short driving ranges for consumers intending to buy electric vehicles, according to a new study. "We found the majority of participants placed great emphasis on the need for electricity for electric vehicles to be produced from renewable energy sources in order for them to be a true alternative," he said. "For example, a petrol-driven vehicle produces 119g CO2-e/km, of which most are on-road emissions. In comparison, an electric vehicle produces zero on-road emissions," he said. "However, if electricity is generated from coal to charge an electric vehicle it produces 139g CO2-e/km well-to-wheel emissions, compared with only 9g CO2-e/km well-to-wheel emissions with electricity from renewable energy sources." Australia - the transport sector accounted for 16 per cent of the country's greenhouse gas emissions and 85 per cent of these were generated by road transport.

Viable technologies for 80% GHG emission reduction

As we saw previously, certain renewable energy sources are more in abundance than others. The biggest is solar, and one magnitude smaller is wind. One magnitude smaller again is biomass, and smaller than that in one magnitude again are geothermal energy, wave-tidal energy, and hydro-power. Abundance however does not solely determine which technologies are most viable to reach the 80% or more greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets by 2050. This also depends on the maturity of the technology, and whether or not it emits GHGs to begin with. Given these limitations, there are four main pathways to reach 80% GHG emission reduction by 2050.

Nuclear power generation

Nuclear power has as advantages that during generation there is no emission of the main GHG CO2 or methane (CH4), and it can be produced continuously, as opposed to intermittent renewables like solar and wind. Japan possesses over 60 years’ experience with this technique, a large amount of infrastructure and knowledge workers in the nuclear industry. Before the 2011 GEJET, Japan had 54 nuclear reactors in operation. Since then most of all had shut down for regular maintenance, after which the safety regulations have tightened and prevented restarting regularly scheduled operations. Due to the stricter regulations, some of the older plants have seen early retirement. 42 reactors remain capable of a restart, of which 24 have requested approval to restart. Plans from 2010 from the METI envisioned 50% of the total electricity coming from nuclear power; a plan that could be reawakened.

Disadvantages to nuclear power include Japan’s tectonically active location, leading not only to a high chance of natural hazards with potential disastrous effects as seen in the aftermath of the GEJET, but also a lack of safe storage space for the small amount of waste that remains unable to be processed further after nuclear power generation. A second issue is the reliance on imported uranium, as this resource cannot be mined in Japan itself. Some of the countries that have the most abundant uranium resources are Australia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan, with whom political ties are likely to remain good. The environmental impacts of mining uranium however are often not factored into the cost of the resource. The third issue is that only several kg of nuclear material are needed in order to create nuclear weapons, and an large nuclear power plant produces several hundreds of kg annually. One the one hand, this makes any nuclear facility a potential target for terrorists and raises security issues until a more peaceful global society is created. On the other hand, the current reality is that Japan cannot fully abandon its nuclear power installations due to the necessity of using the hypothetical capability of producing nuclear weapons within several weeks as a potential threat for certain international political maneuvers, as instigated by other countries. This situation is unlikely to change in a significant way until the global powers are reorganized, or a stronger focus on global peace is enforced throughout citizens of all countries, including their governments. 

Japan's current energy use

Information from the Japan Center for Climate Change Actions shows that in 2015 most CO2 emissions came from the electricity generating sector and from industry, with 39 and 32% respectively. Transportation is another large contender at 17% of the total CO2 emissions. 

[Based on information from http://www.jccca.org/chart/chart04_04.html]

New Developments March 2017

Research advances energy savings for oil, gas industries A Washington State University research team has improved an important catalytic reaction commonly used in the oil and gas industries. The innovation could lead to dramatic energy savings and reduced pollution. Methane also is a primary ingredient in natural gas used to heat homes, and it can be converted into many useful products including electricity. But breaking the strong bond between its carbon and hydrogen takes a tremendous amount of energy. To convert methane, the oil and gas industry most often uses a nickel-based catalyst. But it is often less expensive to simply burn the methane in giant flares on site; however, this adds greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, contributing to global warming, and wastes energy. In the U.S., for example, the amount of methane burned annually is as much as 25 percent of the country's natural gas consumption. The researchers determined that they can dramatically reduce the energy needed to break the bond between carbon and hydrogen by adding a tiny bit of carbon within the nickel-based catalyst. This creates nickel carbide, which generates a positive electrical field. This novel catalyst weakens the methane molecule's hydrogen-carbon bond, allowing it to break at much lower temperatures.

A city’s solar potential depends on the length of its road network This is because the formation of the road network defines the spaces that can be filled by buildings. And the resulting arrangement of buildings influences the amount of sunlight each building receives.

Road maps, visions, scenarios

Many policy plans and studies concerning the emission reduction of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases (GHG) rely on ideas of possible future energy production and consumption. There are many names for such ideas: road maps, visions, scenarios, forecasts and backcasts; and equally many different definitions. A main distinction can be made between an extension or a continuation of business as usual or projections made following current trends; and an ideal future situation, state or goal combined with steps as to how to reach this goal. McDowall and Eames [doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2005.12.006] describe this distinction as descriptive or normative, and apply the following definitions: 

"Descriptive:

• Forecasts use formal quantitative extrapolation and modelling to predict likely futures from current trends.
• Exploratory scenarios explore possible futures. They emphasise drivers, and do not specify a predetermined desirable end state towards which must storylines progress.
• Technical scenarios explore possible future technological systems. They emphasise the technical feasibility and implications of different options, rather than explore how different futures might unfold.

How fast should we start working on greenhouse gas emission reduction?

Climate change, though inevitable, can still be mitigated. If we are to enable the scenario with a maximum 2 °C increase, we need to construct emission targets corresponding to reaching that goal in a timely fashion. But how timely?

Already two years ago the New Climate Institute and the Netherlands Environment Assessment Agency compared the results of different organizations in determining the target years for greenhouse gas (GHG) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) net zero emissions.

• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported in their Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) from 2014 that, if we want to have a 66% chance of meeting the 2 °C target, global GHG emissions should be net zero around 2100 and CO₂, the main contributor of GHG emissions, should be net zero around 2085. That is to say, if we start measures in 2010 to reach that target.
• The United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) analyzed in 2014 what would happen if we started reducing emissions in 2020 rather than 2010, which is a more likely starting time for many countries. This led to global GHG emissions having to be net zero around 2075, and CO₂ around 2065.
• The Climate Action Tracker used the IPCC data but instead analyzed how we could have an 85% chance of meeting the 2 °C target. For this, GHG emissions would have to be net zero around 2070, and CO₂ around 2055. 

It seems that with our current research vision of 80% GHG emission reduction and beyond for 2050, we would not be able to achieve this target on time, and our emphasis should be on ‘and beyond’ even more. 

Figure based on Net phase out of global GHG emissions, NCI, 2015.

Effects of 2 °C increase Japan

As can be seen in this hypothetical weather report for 2050 from the World Meteorological Organization, despite a successful 80% greenhouse gas emission reduction, climate change in Japan has led to elongated heat waves and droughts of over 50 days, and the number of annual heat-related deaths has risen to 6,500. The increased average temperature is affecting the environment as well, with trees delaying their traditional autumnal shift in colors, which consequently has shifted tourism patterns. Coral reefs in Okinawa have become affected by irreversible bleaching and are attracting less tourists. Rice yields have increased but the quality has decreased. The average annual number of cyclones making landfall has increased from 2.6 between 1971 and 2000, to 5.2 between 2031 and 2050, and the number of category 4 and 5 storms (super typhoons) has doubled, which has caused increased deaths, infrastructure damages and power blackouts. While the cyclones bring a temporary relief to heat waves, their destruction includes storm surges up to 10 meters. In addition, the sea level has risen by 40 cm, diminishing beach areas and requiring additional flood protective infrastructure for a great deal of the nearly 30,000 km coastline. However, due to Japan’s long experience in preparing for natural hazards and investing in mitigation, a larger share of the population now lives in safer areas, through combined demographic and infrastructural plans.

This is the best case future for us and our children we are trying to make happen today. The effects are summarized in the figure below:

References

Rice yields and other effects on flora and fauna: Climate change and its impact in Japan, Financial Year 2012, Ministry of the Environment. 

Average number of cyclones: Typhoons more predictable but still deadly, Japan Times. 

More about future cyclones: Asian Typhoons becoming more intense, study finds, The Guardian. 

New Developments February 2017

Surge in methane emissions threatens efforts to slow climate change

To save energy on heating and cooling, look at the shape of cities, not just their buildings  In North America and Europe, the greatest gains are likely to come from improving energy efficiency of buildings, especially retrofit of existing buildings. Efficiency gains matter relatively more in those regions that are already highly urban,” the researchers write. That’s because where cities are well established, their general form—compact or sprawling—is already set. Surprisingly, though, retrofitting buildings immediately doesn’t necessarily produce the greatest savings. Current technologies widely available for energy retrofits can save 20 to 40 percent of building energy use. But cutting-edge technologies could save 70 to 90 percent. Waiting five years or so for those new technologies to go mainstream and come down in cost could save more energy in the long term. And the picture is different in rapidly urbanizing regions like China, South Asia, Pacific Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa. There, changes in urban density will have the biggest effect on building energy use.

Technologies under development in NIMS: solar cell technology

In addition to batteries and fuel cells, another important technology helping society to reach 80% or more greenhouse gas emission reduction is photovoltaics or solar cells. At NIMS, a team lead by Kenjiro Miyano is researching the application of perovskites in solar cells to increase efficiency rates.

"Perovskite" is the name given to a structure whose elements can vary. Researchers are still discovering different combinations of elements that can function as perovskite structure and that have a high efficiency for solar power conversion. At NIMS one of the configurations under study is CH3NH3PbI3. You can learn more technical details about perovskites in this TEDX talk.

Perovskite CH3NH3PbI3 

(Image from https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms8497)

Technologies under development in NIMS: fuel cells

A future technology enabling 80% or more greenhouse gas emission reduction is that of fuel cells. The difference between a fuel cell and a battery is that batteries have their energy stored inside, whereas fuel cells generate electricity from external fuel that can be refilled. At the moment hydrogen fuel cells are still under development, but their main advantage over current battery driven electric vehicles are their short refueling time. It takes several minutes to replace a hydrogen fuel tank, whereas charging batteries of electric vehicles regularly still takes several hours. Other advantages of fuel cells compared to batteries are their longer life time, their continued efficiency vs batteries whose efficiency decreases over time, and the reduced environmental impact in comparison with batteries that require more recycling processes. 

NIMS has two teams working on fuel cell developments. One is the  Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell Group led by Je-Deok Kim. This group is developing new conducting electrolyte membranes for alternate temperature fuel cells and new catalyst electrode materials. Another group is the Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Materials Design Group led by Toshiyuki Mori. Their goal is to increase fuel cell efficiency, by developing an optimum of materials on the active solid electrolyte/electrode interface and enable high speed ion diffusion pathways. 

The main difference in functioning of these two types of fuel cells is explained below: 

Technologies under development in NIMS: batteries

Our team has as task to help determine which future research directions and technology developments could be necessary and promising if we are to reach a society with 80% or more greenhouse gas emission reduction. To achieve this task, we coordinate with other GREEN team leaders and investigate current research projects at NIMS. Regarding energy storage, two types of batteries are being developed at NIMS, namely lithium air batteries, and all solid state batteries. 

You may have heard of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that you find in mobile phones and laptop computers. They often rely on expensive metals like cobalt for the positive electrode and cheaper graphite for the negative electrode. A lithium air battery uses a simpler chemistry of lithium and oxygen and could be developed to be cheaper, and they have 5-15 times more energy per unit mass (also known as specific energy) than lithium ion batteries, which makes them highly sought out in the automobile industry. Under the leadership of Yoshimi Kubo, the lithium air battery team at NIMS is aiming to develop a battery with the highest energy density possible. 

Kazunori Takada leads the NIMS research team on all solid state batteries. They are developing batteries with higher energy densities than those obtainable with lithium ion batteries. Solid state batteries have a solid electrolyte and thus do not leak, and they can be made to be ultra thin, with finished products of only several mm thick. 

This short investigation in NIMS' technologies currently under development has taught me that batteries for mass storage of energy are nowhere near where we would like them to be. While there are billions of batteries in the world, they are often small, and have either little power stored in them (energy density) or a low capability of transferring energy (power density). For a sustainable energy supply, we need to develop more energy storage options with high energy and power density that allow capturing and transferring the intermittently produced energy from renewable sources such as solar, wind, and hydro.  

New Developments January 2017

Off-grid power in remote areas will require special business model to succeed More than 1.2 billion people lack access to basic electricity service. The majority of those people are living in developing nations, in rural or isolated areas with high rates of poverty. Steep costs and remote terrain often make it impractical or even impossible to extend the electric grid.

Turning up the thermostat could help tropical climates cool down The best cognitive performance, as indicated by task speed, was recorded at 26°C; at 29°C, the availability of an occupant-controlled fan partially mitigated the negative effect of the elevated temperature. In the United States, about 75 percent of electricity is used in buildings. Meanwhile, in the U.S. and worldwide, air conditioning accounts for 40 percent of total energy use and relative greenhouse gas emissions. The tests used smart, energy-efficient desk fans that run on more efficient, direct-current (DC) motors using between 3 and 17 watts, rather than alternative-current (AC) motors that use around 100 watts.

New job

This Thursday I have begun my new job as postdoctoral researcher at the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), at the Global Research Center for Environment and Energy based on Nanomaterials Science (Green), Technology Integration Unit. The job will involve examining future energy use scenarios of Japan, and how the newly developing technologies at NIMS can contribute to greenhouse gas emission reduction and increased renewable energy generation, with a focus on solar power.

The job vacancy was rather unconventional, asking for people to think in unconventional manners as well.

"Qualification:

• Ph.D. degree in the related field. 
• Those who are flexible to work in non-conventional approach and to work beyond the research field of his/her present expertise. Those who can share the mind of “challenging the things that one should conquer toward an ultimate goal”, rather than “continuing efforts that one can do” is highly welcome. Experiences of developing or applying methodology in the specified field or experiences in computational science is positively evaluated, but not necessarily required."

The main reason for this change in approach is that if we continue our 'business as usual' regarding energy consumption and production and merely extrapolate on existing trends, we cannot reach the necessary climate change mitigation goals required to minimize environmental damage. The world needs people who can come up with solutions to produce, consume, and thus behave differently in order to evolve into a sustainable global society. Let's work together and create sustainable lifestyles for all!