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India must consider off-grid options to expand energy access: IEA
 India stands out as “one of the largest electrification success stories in history,” accounting for two or every five people newly electrified since 2000, according to a new report by the International Energy Agency.

However, the report painted a future quite different from the centralized grid focus of the current Indian government, saying that decentralized systems, led by solar PV in off-grid and mini-grid systems, “will be the least-cost solution for three-quarters of the additional connections needed” to achieve full energy access before 2030.

“Over the period to 2030, new connections to the grid bring electricity to over half of those that gain access, and offer the most cost-effective means of access in urban areas, but decentralized systems are the most cost-effective solutions for over 70% of those who gain access in rural areas," read the report.

"By 2030, renewable energy sources power over 60% of new access, and off-grid and mini-grid systems provide the means for almost half of new access, underpinned by new business models using digital and mobile technologies,” according to IEA.

Without doubt, India has made enormous strides. The report said India has reached 82 percent of the population, up from 43 percent in 2000. The pace of has quickened as well, with the number of people gaining access rising from 28 million per year between 2000 and 2012 to 41 million people per year in 2016.

“If this pace is maintained, India will achieve universal access in the early 2020s,” the report said, “with renewables accounting for about 60% of those who gain access."

Over 99 percent of people who have gained access in India since 2000 have done so as a result of grid extension, it added. Coal fueled about 75 percent of the new electricity access since 2000, with renewable sources accounting for around 20 percent. Globally, the number of people without access to electricity fell to below 1.1 billion people for the first time in 2016, with nearly 1.2 billion people having gained access since 2000, 500 million of which were in India, the report said.

This piece was originally published at Powering Rural India on Medium and was reprinted with permission from Power For All.

Output: Decentralising power generation using renewables is the most effective way to increase access to electricity in India, according to the International Energy Agency. A report by the intergovernmental organisation found that while extension of the country's national power grid would provide the most cost-effective solution for increasing access in urban areas, decentralised technology such as solar PV provides the most efficient solution for rural areas. The agency found India has hugely increased access to electricity to 82% of the population from 43% in 2000, and that maintaining this pace will result in universal coverage by the early 2020s.


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Stanford professor sues journal over 100% renewables claim
 The battle over the viability of 100 percent renewable energy will soon spill into a court of law.

Among clean energy advocates, there is disagreement about what kind of renewable energy target to shoot for -- 80 percent or 100 percent -- and what's the most expeditious way to get there. Stanford professor Mark Jacobson has long led the charge for a 100 percent plan, publishing road maps he says will reliably power the grid without any fossil fuel or nuclear energy.

This summer, 21 notable clean energy scholars led by grid researcher Chris Clack published a critique of Jacobson's work in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the same prestigious journal that released Jacobson's study.

Now Jacobson is suing the publisher and the lead author for libel.

His lawsuit, filed September 29 in D.C. Superior Court, asserts that the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) inflicted "significant undue damage" by publishing statements in the critique that Jacobson said were false or misleading.

Clack declined to comment on specific questions due to the pending litigation, but said via email that he was disappointed that the suit had been filed.

"Our paper underwent very rigorous peer review, and two further extraordinary editorial reviews by the nation’s most prestigious academic journal, which considered Dr. Jacobson’s criticisms and found them to be without merit," Clack wrote. "It is unfortunate that Dr. Jacobson has now chosen to reargue his points in a court of law, rather than in the academic literature, where they belong."

Jacobson declined to comment other than to say that "the complaint has nothing to do with stifling scientific inquiry or opinions," and pointed to a paragraph that describes what he sees as "egregious false statements" published by NAS and Clack.

Error or assumption?

The conflict revolves around the accuracy of the critique. Clack and his co-authors pointed out what they saw as grave errors in Jacobson's work, which has become a model that policymakers and celebrities cite and emulate.

When the journal alerted Jacobson that the critique was moving through the editorial process, he responded with a critique of the critique.

Jacobson sent multiple messages to the journal on this topic, first with a list of "thirty false and five misleading statements in the Clack Article," and later with a line-by-line counter-rebuttal. The journal saw those comments and went ahead with the publication. Having failed to achieve satisfaction via the internal editorial process, Jacobson is turning to the courts to resolve the dispute.

Many of the factual disagreements hinge on highly technical points, but one stands out in a big way.

The Clack paper called out Jacobson's work for its use of hydropower, which backs up the proposed grid system by dispatching power when wind and solar can't cover demand.

Jacobson's supplementary details list an installed hydropower capacity of 87.5 gigawatts for 2050, essentially the same as it is today. But elsewhere, he includes a chart showing 1,300 gigawatts of hydropower dispatched, which is roughly 15 times the stated installed capacity.

Clack and company describe this discrepancy as a modeling error that undermines the whole system Jacobson proposes: If the key backup resource needs to deliver 15 times more power than it actually can, the grid balancing falls apart.

In his response, though, Jacobson describes this as an "intentional assumption." His idea is that the annual flow of water through U.S. hydropower facilities has to be held constant, but it is possible to increase the discharge rate by upgrading turbines at existing dams.

This explanation, and associated costs, do not appear in the original article or its supplement. But Jacobson says he explained his thinking to Clack, and Clack went ahead and published a critique of the hydro modeling anyway. Jacobson says that amounts to a false claim.

Let the legal battles begin

For practical observers, the salient point here is that the 100 percent renewables plan hinges on a massive upgrade project at hydropower facilities around the country, which raises serious logistical and ecological concerns.

There's a big difference between operating current hydro capacity and the "intentional assumption" scenario that involves storing up the water and releasing it in massive deluges at times of peak grid demand. Downstream communities, aquatic ecosystems and river navigation would all be impacted. It's unclear just how feasible this would be, and such discussion is not included in the original study.

The lawsuit isn't really concerned with this, though. It seeks to penalize the critical publication for not listening to Jacobson's responses to the critique.

As a result, Jacobson is asking the court to order a retraction of the article, plus damages from NAS and Clack on the order of $10 million each. The initial conference is set for December 29.

It's unclear how the courts will evaluate these claims, but the case clearly ups the stakes on the academic debate over the best path to decarbonization. The fight over 100 percent renewables, versus some other target, already elicits heated debate on Energy Twitter and other forums.

Now the stakes are no longer just academic or intellectual -- there's big money on the table.

Output: Stanford University professor Mark Jacobson is suing a US scientific journal for libel after it published a paper heavily critical of one he had previously written for them. Jacobson claimed in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that there was a viable plan for the US to reach 100% renewable energy, but this was challenged in a subsequent paper signed by 21 clean energy scholars led by Dr Chris Clack, who advocate a target of 80%. Jacobson has begun legal proceedings against Clack and the National Academy of Sciences, alleging they have caused him "significant undue damage."


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Indian rooftop solar installations fall 83% short of target
 The government has targeted to install 5 GW of grid-connected solar rooftops by 2017-18. However, the current installations stand approximately 83% behind the target.

The committee shared the rooftop status and initiatives at the meeting of Consultative Committee of Members of Parliament for Ministry of Power and New & Renewable Energy, chaired by MNRE minister RK Singh held in Guwahati on October 31.

About 810 MW of solar rooftop systems had been installed as of October 31, and 2,363 MW aggregate capacity have been sanctioned in the country so far. The installations came in residential, industrial, commercial and institutional sectors.

The government has targeted to install 5 GW of grid-connected solar rooftops by 2017-18. However, the current installations stand approximately 83% behind the target.

The committee has proposed a new rooftop scheme considering the poor performance in this sector, which aims at removing the existing operational difficulties.

The Government of India had pledged to install 40 GW grid-connected solar rooftops by 2022, and in revision, it has scaled-up the budget from INR 6 billion ($93 million) during the 12th Five Year Plan to INR 50 billion ($773 million) to be installed up to 2019-20. This will provide financial assistance for the installation of about 4200 MW solar rooftops in the country (2100 MW with subsidy and 2100 MW without subsidy)”.

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The government also provided a 30% subsidy for the residential and institutional (hospitals, educational institutions etc.) rooftop sectors. However, still it is seriously behind the target values, and it asked to revise the rooftop targets.

Therefore, earlier in July, the standing committee on Energy gave a serious viewpoint on the Ministry’s 40 GW of grid-connected rooftop solar PV projects. The group concluded to reconsider the target, conduct public awareness programs, simplify the process of subsidy distribution, mandate compulsory roof-top solar on new buildings, and adopt a single window clearance system for approvals like connectivity, net-metering, electricity inspection, limitation in sanctioned load, etc.

They also singled out the net-metering policy as the key driver for solar roof-top systems, as it reduces aggregated technical and commercial (AT&C) losses and needs for large tracts of land. It even helps DISCOMs to avoid buying expensive peak power. Therefore, the concept of cross-subsidy should be reconsidered so that net-metering for all users will make more financial sense, clear installation guidelines, and proper implementation training of DISCOM's staff should be devised.

However, it is still in discussion, and there is no decision on target revision yet. It seems government is ambitious about the target, and would implement new schemes to raise the rooftop sector in India.

Output: The Indian government has pledged more money for rooftop solar after revealing that just 810 MW of capacity had been installed by 31 October, 83% short of its 5 GW target for 2017/18. The Ministry of Power and New & Renewable Energy announced a budget increase from INR6bn ($93m) to INR50bn, to install 4,200 MW of rooftop solar by 2019-20, as well as a 30% subsidy for the institutional and residential sectors. In July, a standing committee on energy offered recommendations, including rethinking the government's 40 GW target of rooftop solar by 2022.


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WElink to build Europe's largest unsubsidized solar facility
 WElink Energy is to construct a 221 MW solar project in Vagueiros, Southern Portugal. When it becomes operational, the project named Solara4 will be the largest unsubsidised solar PV plant in Europe, generating enough power to provide 150,000 homes with electricity.

It will comprise 850,000 solar modules and is expected to employ around 300 people during its construction. The plant is scheduled for completion in mid-2019.

The signing of an EPC contract between WElink, and its longstanding industrial and strategic partner China Triumph International Engineering Co., Ltd (CTIEC) earlier this year meant that construction of the plant could get underway.

The increasing price-competitiveness of solar projects is what has made WElink’s transition to unsubsidized projects possible, alongside it and CTIEC’s ability to optimize the cost of delivery across the chain value.

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Furthermore, the favorable location in southern Portugal means that the plant will soak up one of the highest solar irradiation levels in Europe, making solar PV without a subsidy ideal.

WElink Group’s Chief Executive, Barry O’Neill said of the project, “WElink Energy is leading the way in European solar generation. We are delighted to be in a position to commence construction on our flagship Solara4 project, demonstrating that industrial scale clean-energy can be profitable without government subsidies and is a mature technology.”

WElink Energy’s Head of Development for Iberia, Eduardo Aguilar added, “The construction of Solara4 is the result of many months of great team work to deliver this internationally significant unsubsidized project in Portugal. Solara4 is a beacon of WElink Energy’s portfolio and is part of a long-term strategy of development in Iberia. We are excited about both the delivery of this project as well as the additional opportunities Iberia represents.”

Output: A solar energy facility being built in southern Portugal will be the largest unsubsidised solar PV plant in Europe when it is completed in 2019. The 221 MW Solara4 project will generate enough electricity to power 150,000 homes, and will consist of up to 850,000 solar modules. It is being built by international renewable firm WElink, with its industrial partner China Triumph International Engineering.


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Chilean renewable energy prices drop by 50% in a year
 Chile's Energy Ministry has confirmed that the lowest bid in its 2017 power auction was $21.48/MWh, with an average price of $32.5 MWh. As previously reported by Reuters, Enel submitted the lowest bid of $21.48 MWh for one of the blocks in dispute. The second-lowest bid was from GPG Solar Chile, a unit of Spanish power and gas utility Gas Natural Fenosa, which offered $24.80/MWh for the same block.

Although 2,200 GWh of capacity was contracted in the auction, the submitted bids reached a volume that was nine times higher, for a total of 20,700 GWh. “100% of the energy we allocate today is renewable, clean energy, which is equivalent to approximately 600 MW of installed capacity in new renewable projects, through which we hope to attract close to $1 billion dollars in investment in new infrastructure for the country,” said Andrés Romero, executive secretary of the National Energy Commission (CNE).

The average price in the 2016 auction was $47.6/MWh, with 12,430 GWh contracted per year. In the 2015 tender, which was the first of its kind in Chile, the average price was $79.3/MWh, with 1,200 GWh contracted per year.

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“The goal set by President Bachelet was to lower energy prices by 25%. Today we can say with great calm, transparency and joy, we have managed to lower the price of energy by 75% in the last three years,” said Minister of Energy Andrés Rebolledo.

Under the last two auctions, time blocks were allocated to allow for more solar plants. Projects that were selected in the auction will start delivering power on January 1, 2024, with power to be supplied until December 31, 2043. The power will be sold to customers of the Central and Northern Large Interconnected Systems (SIC and SING).

Output: Chile has reduced renewable-energy prices by half in the past year and by 75% in three years, with its most recent auction reaching an average bid price of $32.5/MWh. The submitted bids of 20,700 GWh were nine times the 2,200 GWh contracted, and roughly equivalent to 600 MW of installed capacity. The winners will invest almost $1bn in the projects, according to the National Energy Commission.


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'Disordered' materials in cathodes improve battery storage
 Several years ago, the team at Berkeley had discovered that certain types of disordered material could store more lithium when used as a cathode than current ‘ordered’ materials which layer the lithium and transition metal particles more nearly.

Up to now, research into these materials has proceeded haphazardly, through testing based on trial and error. Research published this week in the journal Physical Review Letters, however, outlines a set of criteria for the production of useful disordered structures for cathode materials.

“Discovering new disordered materials has been mostly driven by trial-and-error, and by relying on human intuition,” explains Alexander Urban, lead author of the paper ‘The electronic structure origin of cation disorder in transition metal-oxides. “Now we have for the first time identified a simple design criterion to predict novel disordered compositions. The new understanding establishes a relationship between the chemical species, local distortions of the crystal structure, and the tendency to form disordered phases.”

As well as having the potential for higher capacities than current lithium battery technologies, the cathodes could also allow scientists to work with a wider range of materials and, crucially, to avoid the use of cobalt – a relatively rare substance with a highly problematic supply chain. According to the Berkeley lab, disordered materials have already been producing using chromium, titanium and molybdenum.

“We want the ability to have more compositional freedom, so we can tune other parameters,” said Gerbrand Ceder, Senior Faculty Scientist at the Berkeley Lab. “There are so many properties to optimize, there’s so much that goes into taking a battery material to a commercial stage. Now we have a recipe for how to make these materials.”

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Fluorination

Ceder’s research group also published a further advance in lithium battery technology, demonstrating that disordered materials can also be fluorinated, a process which further increases capacity, improves stability and reduces fire risk.

This research was outlined in the paper ‘Mitigating oxygen loss to improve the cycling performance of high capacity cation disordered cathode materials’, published in the journal Nature Communications.

“New cathode materials is the hottest direction in Li-ion batteries, explained Ceder. “To get more improvements in energy storage there are only a few directions to go. One is solid state batteries, and the other is to keep improving the energy density of electrode materials. The two are not mutually exclusive, this research line is definitely not exhausted yet.”

Output: A team at the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has conducted pioneering research into the use of "disordered" materials in cathodes. Such materials have higher potential for energy storage than current lithium batteries, and greater understanding of how to create them opens the way to using more easily available ingredients in battery production. The researchers also demonstrated that the new materials can be fluorinated, a process that further increases their capacity.


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China sparks a boom in Ireland's aviation finance market
 As China’s aviation sector expands rapidly to meet surging domestic demand for air travel, Dublin is emerging as a major hub for Beijing’s growing ambitions in the aircraft leasing market.

One of Ireland’s most established markets is experiencing a renewed burst of growth.

As China’s aviation sector expands rapidly to meet surging domestic demand for air travel, Dublin is emerging as a major hub for Beijing’s growing ambitions in the aircraft leasing market.

Eighteen groups from the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong are using the Irish capital as a strategic bridgehead in their push for a bigger share of the $261bn global market.

With about half the world’s leased aircraft managed from Dublin and most leading lessors long present in the city, Ireland is a global aviation finance centre.

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But China's build-up marks a new turn in a booming market whose guiding light was Tony Ryan, the Irish tycoon who made his first fortune leasing aircraft in the 1970s and then went on to co-found Ryanair.

Ireland offers international lessors big tax advantages, although it is facing fresh competition from Hong Kong and Singapore as these cities look to woo business with new tax incentives.

The flood of Chinese capital into Dublin also comes despite Beijing’s crackdown on overseas dealmaking, which has prompted speculation that China is playing a long game to harness leasing expertise abroad before moving the industry home.

Chinese companies rely heavily on local managers and professional services firms in Ireland.

Globally, the market is also enjoying a big boost from Chinese capital, but this has sparked some concern that a growing pool of money may be chasing too few leasing assets, putting the sector at risk of a bubble bursting.

Industry analyst FlightGlobal estimates the capital deployed by aircraft lessors has grown by 51 per cent to $261bn over the past 10 years — of which $71bn has come from Chinese sources.

Significantly, close industry observers note a rise in prices and compression of yields on second-hand aircraft, saying some Chinese operators may not be properly pricing risk.

Adam Pilarski, senior vice-president at consultants Avitas near Washington DC, warns that an “unreasonably good situation” in global leasing could be upended by recession, disruption to trade under Donald Trump’s “America first” policy and other risk factors such as rising interest rates.

Although Mr Pilarski acknowledges his outlook is “contrarian”, he says: “There’s a lot of new money that is coming in. These people have never lived through a downturn.

“We know why we had this over-ordering and this proliferation of people coming in: because we had this cheap money that can’t make good returns and aircraft are sexy and promise to make good returns.

“You also had new players who want to enter it, the Chinese for example but also the Middle Easterners...You have a bubble and you are waiting for the prick.”

But China, driven by its own ever-increasing market for air travel, continues to push to the fore. The International Air Transport Association believes China is on track to displace the US as the world’s biggest aviation market by 2022, earlier than foreseen and fuelling rising demand for leased aircraft.

In Ireland, the biggest Chinese move by far in leasing came in 2015 when HNA Group, the Hainan conglomerate, acquired Dublin-based Avolon, only nine months after its New York Stock Exchange flotation.

The next year Avolon bought the leasing arm of US-based CIT Group, doubling Avolon’s size and catapulting its €19bn portfolio to number three in the global industry.

This marks rapid progression for Avolon since its origins in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, yet Dómhnal Slattery, chief executive and founder, wants to go further still.

“Our aspiration is to be the number one player in world markets, which in simple terms would mean that we probably would need to double the size of the business again over the next five years,” he says.

“Given our scale now we’re more likely to pursue one other large acquisition, rather than a series of small ones...and my sense is that the next acquisition will happen probably when the industry is in a bit more distress or stress.”

Other Chinese mainland and Hong Kong lessors are also making inroads in Dublin. Groups such as Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Development Bank, Bank of China Aviation, Bank of Communications, Goshawk and Accipiter are expanding in the city.

FlightGlobal data show that more than 1,100 Chinese-owned aircraft are managed from Dublin, about a quarter of the 4,300-strong global leasing fleet in Ireland.

Pat Hannigan, chief commercial officer in Dublin for CDB Aviation, an arm of China Development Bank, says the company has 200 aircraft, another 200 on order and a mandate to grow.

“There is no doubt about it that the Chinese are interested in this sector, have taken to this sector and they now want to go to the next level basically, which is what they’re doing. They also want to expand our portfolio internationally and build our team,” he says.

Although Ireland’s low 12.5 per cent corporate tax rate is a keystone of an economic strategy that has drawn legions of multinationals to the country, the linchpin for lessors is Dublin’s network of double-taxation treaties with more than 70 countries.

Global airlines that lease from Ireland pay less withholding tax upfront thanks to these treaties, boosting the business case to trade from Dublin in a sector that makes low profit margins on very large assets. This provides greater flexibility to Chinese lessors, whose growing involvement in the international market also increases access to dollar revenues.

All of that comes on top of a 40-year record that dates back to Ryan’s pioneering days in the industry, meaning that a large network of finance, debt issuance and accounting expertise is well-established in the city.

“Tax advisers, legal advisers, they’re all in Dublin and have been for many years,” says Ruth Kelly, chief executive of Goshawk, a lessor owned by Hong Kong’s Chow Tai Fook Enterprises and NWS Holdings, which has a $5.8bn portfolio of 114 aircraft under management or on order. “The quality and quantity of [double taxation] treaties would be better than anything in Hong Kong or mainland China.”

Aircraft leasing sustains about 1,200 Irish jobs and the wider aviation sector contributes about €4bn to the national economy.

But Paul Sheridan, chief of Accipiter, another Hong Kong lessor in Dublin, says a key challenge now is for Ireland to ensure it stays competitive. “Ireland is in a really strong position. It has done really well but it does mean other people will inevitably try and repeat the trick.”

There is no shortage of bullish growth forecasts for Chinese aviation. Whether the market can sustain its rapid growth will determine the fate of the country’s lessors in Ireland.- Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2017

Output: Dublin is becoming a major hub for China's aircraft leasing market as Beijing uses its strategic location to tap further into a $261bn global market, which has grown by 51% by capital deployed over the past decade. However, there are fears it is expanding too fast, with some Chinese operators seen as not pricing in risk accurately. This expansion into Dublin comes despite China's crackdown on overseas dealmaking, leading to speculation that Beijing has adopted a long-term strategy of gaining leasing expertise overseas before moving the industry home. Eighteen groups from China and Hong Kong now operate in Dublin.


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Researchers use algae to make organic PV more efficient
 These small creatures could prove to be important in advancing the design of solar technologies known as organic PV, potentially a lower cost option to the conventional PV technologies.

Researchers in a Yale University Laboratory led by Associate Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering applied these diatoms to organic solar cells, their results are published in the journal Organic Electronics.

“It's really amazing that these things exist in nature,” said Lyndsey McMillon-Brown, a Ph.D. student in Taylor's lab, and lead author of the study. “They help trap and scatter light for the algae to photosynthesize, so we're able to use something directly from nature and put it in a solar cell.”

One challenge of designing these devices, though, is that they require very thin active layers, 100 to 300 nanometers, which limits their efficiency in converting light to electricity. The diatoms help because they have been optimized for light absorption through billions of years of adaptive evolution. They are the most common type of phytoplankton found in nature, are cheap and abundant in nature.

Collaborators from NASA, Princeton University and Lincoln University who led the project dispersed diatoms throughout the active layer of a solar cell, which ended up reducing the amount of material needed for the active layer to be efficient.

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“We were able to see what the right concentration was and how much of this material we needed to put into our solar cells to get enhancement,” McMillon-Brown said. “It's really beneficial because the active layer materials we use are both expensive and very rare.”

McMillon-Brown and Taylor said even more can be achieved with a few more minor adjustments. “We can use different species of diatoms and tailor it to the right size, and we can also use some of the better donor-acceptor polymers for a higher performance,” Taylor said. McMillon-Brown said the diatoms seemed like a natural fit for her research as soon as she learned about them.

“My work is on biomimicry, so I'm always looking at existing patterns and structures in nature,” she said. “We're always on the hunt for new patterns in nature because we believe that nature solves all our engineering problems – we just have to find the solutions.”

Output: Researchers from Yale University Laboratory, NASA, Princeton University and Lincoln University have discovered the most common type of phytoplankton can optimise photovoltaic (PV) solar cells. In a report in the journal Organic Electronics, the team revealed how fossilised diatoms, which have evolved over billions of years to optimise light absorption, reduced the amount of rare and costly materials required to make the active layer of a PV cell more efficient.


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Sonnen and Tennet prepare smart-storage systems using blockchain
 After several months of preparation, Sonnen and Tennet have started their first grid-stabilization pilot project, using interconnected storage systems based on IBM's blockchain technology.

The companies will run the pilot project over a six-month period. Initially, Sonnen will connect its decentralized residential storage systems to Tennet’s distribution system via blockchain. The blockchain project is part of a wider program at Tennet as it prepares to transition to clean energy. However, power distributors will also seek news ways to reduce dispatch costs through such pilot projects. Dispatch costs reached around €800 million in Germany last year.

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Sonnen and Tennet will also start implementing another pilot project using blockchain technology in the Netherlands by the end of this month. The project, which is backed by local power provider Vandebron, involves building recharge stations for electric vehicles.

Output: German energy storage company Sonnen and Dutch transmission system operator Tennet have begun a six-month pilot grid-stabilisation project using blockchain technology from IBM. Sonnen will link its decentralised residential storage systems to Tennet’s distribution system. The two firms are set to collaborate on another blockchain pilot in the Netherlands, building recharge stations for electric vehicles, at the end of this month.


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Blockchain energy-trading platform LO3 starts German projects
 LO3, a startup that brands itself as a "transactive energy company," is preparing to expand internationally after building the world's first blockchain microgrid.

The company pulled in new investments last week from Braemar Energy Ventures and Centrica Innovations. The capital raise completed a Series A round for the Siemens-backed firm based in Brooklyn, New York.

For the past couple of years, blockchain has been lauded as a potential game-changer in the energy industry, attracting millions of dollars in investment.

“There’s a lot of interest, a lot of hype in the blockchain industry right now,” said Scott Kessler, LO3’s director of business development, during a recent visit to the startup’s new Brooklyn office.

“Ninety-nine percent hype in blockchain,” CEO Lawrence Orsini chimed in.

Much of that attention has fallen on LO3 in the three years since it started using the technology. LO3’s core platform revolves around peer-to-peer energy trading on community microgrids where blockchain verifies the transactions. For all of the publicity that blockchain is getting, Kessler said the real innovation is around how companies are using it.

“We very much think of ourselves as an energy company that happens to use blockchain," said Kessler. "If another, more efficient way to communicate this data came out, we would use that.”

In addition to its latest funding round, LO3 recently announced two new projects underway in Germany. One, the Landau Microgrid Project, is a research project at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and a partnership with local utility EnergieSüdwest AG that includes 20 customers. It’s the first test of a local energy market in Germany. The other, in conjunction with energy provider Allgauer Uberlandwerk, will test a "virtual microgrid" based on disparate sources of distributed generation.

LO3 now has projects in Europe (including an as-yet-unannounced project in the U.K.), Australia and the U.S.

The crown jewel is LO3's Brooklyn microgrid project, which demonstrates the use of blockchain-enabled energy trading among a small group of residents.

The segment of Brooklyn where the project is located -- at the nexus of Gowanus, Park Slope and Boerum Hill -- was meant to be representative of a wide-reaching community and a diverse swath of buildings. Testing transactions there offers a model for how it could function on a larger scale.

LO3 started the project small, with just five energy-producing participants. It now has 60 of those prosumers and another 500 energy buyers participating.

“What we’re trying to do here is partially a business-model test,” said Kessler. “We don’t want this to be something that functions only for a certain type of person or a certain type of building. We have to make sure it works for the entire electric grid.”

Orsini describes the energy system of the future, interestingly enough, as being akin to specialty bottled water.

In the past, he said, people relied on cheap tap water that cost pennies per gallon. And though access to plentiful, cheap tap water still exists, many people spend dollars a day on the fancy stuff. The LO3 team suspects consumers may feel the same about bespoke energy as distributed energy resources become more commonplace. And what better place to test boutique energy purchases than in a fast-gentrifying portion of New York City?

A small monitor in the corner of the LO3 office details the core of the company's platform: the transactions moving through its Brooklyn project on any given day. On the day we visit, transactions are turning over with a 140-millisecond latency, the delay it takes for meters to communicate with each other.

Right now, LO3 is both a software and a hardware company. Because using a blockchain to verify energy transactions is still new, and the data used to run a blockchain and balance a grid requires near-instantaneous monitoring and reaction, LO3 had to build its own meters for customers in Brooklyn, Sacramento, Australia, and soon, Germany.

The meters, which communicate with each other to move energy between consumers, form the hardware backbone of the platform. But LO3 also built an application that makes smart contracts (an automated contract for electricity verified on the blockchain) and allows customers to control their energy usage.

Users on the Brooklyn microgrid can choose how much they want to spend on energy per day. Different resources can be priced at varying levels. In a demonstration LO3 gave on a microgrid installed in the lower level of its exposed-brick office, renewable generation cost a consumer more each day than the conventional power available to them. Users can click through to see exactly where their energy is coming from. They can also vote on sites where they think more solar should be installed in their neighborhood.

With the initial roll-out of its platform underway, LO3 is now looking to expand its consumer and prosumer network. Later this year, the company is scheduled to release a peer-reviewed white paper on its technology and the usefulness in energy applications. LO3 will also begin a “token event” to release parts of the platform so that others can build on top of it with permission to access its application programming interface.

How Brooklyn energy users take to the platform could help set the standard for blockchain in the energy industry. Beyond New York, LO3 has grand visions for the possibilities of transactive energy.

“What we’ve described so far ends up being a pretty small piece of it, because people buying and selling energy to one another should definitely be a function of this platform,” said Kessler. He and Orsini want to go further.

They describe near-limitless potential for how blockchain applications could smooth the production and distribution of energy. Possible next steps include paying consumers to turn devices on and off to meet demand. Or charging different amounts for the transmission infrastructure used to exchange electrons, thus increasing private investment in infrastructure instead of pushing those costs off on ratepayers.

Scott Kessler, LO3's director of business development, shows off the company's metering system. Image credit: Emma Foehringer Merchant.

It’s still early days for the model. LO3's Brooklyn project has about 500 participants, and it's now rolling out the platform’s beta application there.

LO3's blockchain works for transactive energy because it can respond within seconds to verify a transaction, rather than the minutes-long response time for Bitcoin. Speeding up the verification process is especially important when balancing energy.

“There is no command-and-control system that can manage a billion devices at the grid edge efficiently,” said Orsini. “So there’s a different way you have to manage the level of DERs that we’re going to have in the next few years. Blockchain, it turns out, is a really efficient communication platform for value.”

Orsini argues that energy actually has the biggest potential among blockchain applications.

Last year, NRG dispatcher Chris Taylor declared that “we are on the ground floor of one of the most significant transitions in human history.”

Blockchain energy companies have been “cropping up like mushrooms after the rain,” wrote GTM's Jason Deign recently.

“It’s very easy to describe a future in which the utility disappears, the grid is literally just a network of wires and endpoints, and there’s generating assets and users and management of it," said GTM CEO Scott Clavenna on a recent episode of The Interchange. "It’s very easy to hype that that’s where blockchain is taking us overnight, while the reality is there are a ton of obstacles to getting us there.”

LO3 executives have a sense of humor about the attention the technology is getting.

“I like to say that we basically started with the three most-hyped terms we could find, and it was blockchain, microgrid and Brooklyn,” said Kessler.

But that hype exists for a reason. LO3's experimentation with business models on the Brooklyn Microgrid could provide great value for utilities trying to understand how these platforms fit into the larger energy transition.

“It causes issues for existing utility business models, existing retailer business models, and the physical grid itself,” said Kessler. “We position ourselves as the company that’s showing you what the market of the future looks like."

Ultimately, what that market looks like will come down to experimentation. Orsini said he can’t envision a future with no central grid -- but it could look drastically different than the one that delivers energy today.

“Anybody who tells you they know the business model for the electric grid of the future is confused, because nobody knows what it is,” said Orsini. “We have to test these models. We have to see how people respond to new technology and new choices.”

***

GTM will host an entire panel session on Blockchain at the first annual U.S. Power & Renewables Conference in November. You'll get an in-depth look at how the renewable energy market will interact with the U.S. power market, and how those interactions can impact overall industry development and market growth. Curated by GTM Research, MAKE and Wood Mackenzie energy analysts, we’ll take an expansive view of key issues and timely topics, bringing together a diverse group of energy experts and stakeholders to discuss demand dynamics, economics and business model shifts, and policy and regulatory implications.

Output: Brooklyn-based blockchain peer-to-peer energy firm LO3 Energy, which last week completed a series A funding round, has started two German projects in association with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and energy provider Allgauer Uberlandwerk as it looks to expand internationally. LO3's energy trading platform is being tested on a 60-person Brooklyn-based microgrid. It also has a presence in Australia and an as-yet-unnamed project in the UK. The Siemens-backed company last month raised money from Braemar Energy Ventures and Centrica Innovations. Later this year, LO3 will release a peer-reviewed white paper and is set to launch a token event, a form of initial coin offering.


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Miraah solar thermal plant sends first steam for EOR
 GlassPoint Solar Inc and partner Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), together building the 1-GW Miraah solar thermal park in Oman, announced today that the plant’s first block has successfully delivered steam to the Amal West oilfield.

The project developers said in a joint statement that the first out of 36 standard greenhouse blocks housing parabolic trough collectors was completed safely on schedule and on budget. Upon completion of the remaining blocks, they will make up a complex with the capacity to deliver 1,021 MWp of thermal energy to produce 6,000 tonnes of steam per day.

Using mirrors that concentrate sunlight on a pipe filled with oilfield-grade water, the Miraah plant will generate steam for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Its 36 greenhouses will act as foundations and structures, while also providing protection.

GlassPoint built a 7-MW pilot solar plant for PDO in 2013 and commenced construction work on the Miraah project at the same oilfield in south Oman in November 2015.

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Output: The 1 GW Miraah solar thermal park in Oman has begun sending steam to the Amal West oilfield for enhanced oil recovery. The steam is generated from the first of 36 greenhouse-enclosed parabolic solar troughs due to be built. When complete, Miraah will generate 1,021 MWp of thermal energy, producing 6,000 tonnes of steam daily. GlassPoint’s greenhouse blocks use mirrors to focus sunlight on a tube containing water, yielding high-pressure steam.


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Apple moved subsidiaries to Jersey to lower tax payments
 Apple reacted to widespread criticism of its tax affairs by secretly shifting key parts of its empire to Jersey as part of a complex rearrangement that has allowed it to keep an ultra-low tax rate, according to an analysis of Paradise Papers documents.

The move affected two of its most important subsidiaries, one of which is thought to hold the key to a company cash pile worth more than $250bn (£190bn).

Over the past three years, Apple has reported paying very low tax rates on its profits outside the US – not much more than previously. But this remains significantly lower than all the major markets where its phones, iPads and desktop computers are sold – and less than half the rate in Ireland, where the company has many of its subsidiaries.

Though Apple has done nothing illegal, the disclosure is likely to raise fresh questions for the technology company, which has been forced to defend its tax affairs. It may also prompt awkward questions about the nature of the new tax rules introduced by the Irish government and their timing.

Apple refused to answer detailed questions, but defended the new arrangements and said they had not decreased the company’s tax payment anywhere in the world.

“The debate over Apple’s taxes is not about how much we owe but where we owe it. We’ve paid over $35bn in corporate income taxes over the past three years, plus billions of dollars more in property tax, payroll tax, sales tax and VAT,” it said.

“We believe every company has a responsibility to pay the taxes they owe and we’re proud of the economic contributions we make to the countries and communities where we do business.”

Edward Kleinbard, a former corporate lawyer who is a professor of tax law at the University of Southern California, told the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists: “US multinational firms are the global grandmasters of tax avoidance schemes that deplete not just US tax collection, but the tax collection of almost every large economy in the world.”

Tim Cook announcing the new iPhone 7 in 2016. Photograph: Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP

Documents in the Paradise Papers show how Apple began to consider its options in 2014 following criticism of the way it was doing business through Ireland. A year earlier, a bipartisan US Senate committee had pilloried the company for seeking “the holy grail of tax avoidance”. It highlighted practices that had saved Apple from paying billions of dollars over decades.

The 40-page analysis published in May 2013 described how Apple had incorporated one of its main subsidiaries, Apple Operations International (AOI), in Ireland in 1980. But the subsidiary had “no employees and no physical presence [in Ireland] … and holds its board meetings in California”.

Senators highlighted two other Apple subsidiaries in Ireland, Apple Sales International (ASI) and Apple Operations Europe (AOE), which were also in effect “stateless”. The scale of the tax avoidance was huge, the senators said. They described Apple’s arrangements as “a gimmick”.

Senators were so infuriated by the arrangements that they accused Apple of exploiting the gap between the two nations’ tax laws and creating a “byzantine tax structure” that was inexcusable. One of the report’s authors, the Democratic senator Carl Levin, said Apple had “created offshore entities holding tens of billions of dollars while claiming to be tax resident nowhere”.

The Republican senator John McCain said: “Apple claims to be the largest US corporate taxpayer, but by sheer size and scale it is also among America’s largest tax avoiders … [It] should not be shifting its profits overseas to avoid the payment of US tax, purposefully depriving the American people of revenue.”

Senator John McCain. Photograph: Aaron P Bernstein/Reuters

In the months that followed the publication of the report, and with the European commission also starting to scrutinise Apple’s tax arrangements, Ireland came under pressure to change its tax rules and new proposals were announced in October 2013.

The Irish government said companies incorporated in Ireland, such as Apple’s subsidiaries, would be able to avoid owing corporation tax only if they could show they were being “managed and controlled in another jurisdiction” where they would be liable for tax.

The announcement left Apple with a stark choice. It either had to acknowledge the subsidiaries were being run from the US, meaning they would have to pay American taxes. Or it had to find a new jurisdiction for the subsidiaries, preferably one with little or no corporation tax – such as Jersey.

The documents in the Paradise Papers show Apple was actively looking for a new home for its key subsidiaries in early 2014. The company had approached Appleby through its US lawyers, who asked Appleby’s offices in different offshore jurisdictions to fill out a questionnaire that would highlight the advantages to Apple of moving there.

In a letter from the lawyers on 20 March 2014, Appleby was asked “to provide assistance with and coordination of a multijurisdictional project involving the British Virgin Islands (BVI), Cayman, Guernsey, Isle of Man and Jersey … If your proposal is cost-effective then we will ask you to handle the entire project.”

Sixty-eight minutes later, a senior Appleby executive sent an email to other partners expressing excitement that Apple had made the approach and encouraging a swift and positive response.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for us to shine on a global basis … Please could you consider the questionnaire and provide your best fee proposal for … your jurisdiction. I … would ask that you embrace this opportunity to build a closer relationship with their prestigious client,” the email said.

The executive noted that discretion was important: “Finally, for those of you who are not aware, Apple are extremely sensitive concerning publicity and do not generally permit their external counsel to disclose that they have been engaged by Apple or to make any mention (not even generically) in promotional materials to the relevant engagement.”

Four days later, Appleby partners exchanged further emails in which they spoke of having impressed Apple’s lawyers, who had added Bermuda to its list of potential new jurisdictions – another territory where Appleby had a base.

A partner in Appleby’s Isle of Man office told colleagues: “We have tried to make our answers as attractive as possible given that we would be delighted to work with Apple.”

The need to secure a new home for Apple’s subsidiaries became urgent later in October 2014, when the Irish government made a further announcement. Delivering his budget statement, the then Irish finance minister Michael Noonan said Dublin was tightening the rules even further and would prevent companies that are incorporated in Ireland being managed and run in tax havens.

That could have jeopardised Apple’s plans for moving its subsidiaries to Jersey but for an important caveat.

Michael Noonan, the former Irish finance minister. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Noonan said any companies incorporated in Ireland before the end of 2014 that were being run from tax havens could continue with these arrangements until 31 December 2020 – a six-year period of grace known as “the grandfathering provisions”. This gave Apple two months to finalise a move to Jersey, a crown dependency of the UK, which makes its own laws and is not subject to most EU legislation, making it a popular tax haven.

The Paradise Papers show two of Apple’s Irish subsidiaries, AOI and ASI, in the process of changing tax residency to Jersey.

Apple refused to discuss the details. But the Guardian understands ASI is now a dormant company.

Apple refused to say where the valuable economic rights once owned by ASI had been moved to but it is understood all its Irish operations are now run through companies tax resident in Ireland.

One theory is that AOE “bought” the rights owned by ASI taking advantage of an incentive called capital allowance. This means that if a multinational buys its own intellectual property through an Irish subsidiary, the cost of that purchase will generate many years of tax write-offs in Ireland.

Some experts have suggested multinationals switching intellectual property to Ireland could achieve tax rates as low as 2.5%.

Apple declined to comment on this, but said: “The changes we made did not reduce our tax payments in any country. In fact, our payments to Ireland increased significantly … (in 2014/15/16) we’ve paid $1.5bn in tax there – 7% of all corporate income taxes paid in that country.”

But Apple refuses to say how much money it makes through its Irish companies, making it difficult to assess the significance of the sum.

Apple’s financial statements indicate that it has continued to enjoy a low tax rate on its international operations. The firm made $122bn in profits outside the US during that same three-year period, on which it was taxed $6.6bn – a rate of 5.4%.

Apple said: “Under the current international tax system, profits are taxed based on where the value is created. The taxes Apple pays to countries around the world are based on that principle. The vast majority of the value in our products is indisputably created in the United States, where we do our design, development, engineering work and much more, so the majority of our taxes are owed to the US.

“When Ireland changed its tax laws in 2015, we complied by changing the residency of our Irish subsidiaries and we informed Ireland, the European commission and the United States. The changes we made did not reduce our tax payments in any country.

An Apple logo on hoarding boards outside the company’s campus in Cork, Ireland. Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty Images

It “We understand that some would like to change the tax system so multinationals’ taxes are spread differently across the countries where they operate, and we know that reasonable people can have different views about how this should work in the future.

At Apple, we follow the laws, and if the system changes we will comply. We strongly support efforts from the global community toward comprehensive international tax reform and a far simpler system, and we will continue to advocate for that.”

The company has repeatedly defended its tax affairs over the years. Its chief executive, Tim Cook, told the US Senate committee that Apple paid all the taxes it owed and complied with both “the laws and the spirit of the laws”.

The company has also condemned attempts by the European commission to get it to pay a record $14.5bn in unpaid taxes.

“The finding is wrongheaded,” Cook told the Irish broadcaster RTÉ. “It’s not true. There wasn’t a special deal between Ireland and Apple. When you’re accused of doing something that is so foreign to your values, it brings out outrage in you.”

Output: Apple moved parts of its business to Jersey in order to maintain an ultra-low tax rate after new rules came into force in Ireland, according to an analysis of the Paradise Papers featured in The Guardian. Two of the company’s major Irish subsidiaries, Apple Operations International and Apple Sales International, were involved in the move. Apple’s behaviour was not against the law, but is expected to raise further questions for the company, which has already been criticised in relation to its taxes.


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Enel awarded 1.18 TWh of renewables in Chile
 Thanks to the synergies between Enel Generación Chile and Enel Green Power, the Group won 54% of the 2.2 TWh per year offered in the tender, more than any other participant. The energy awarded to Enel will be provided by a mix of new renewable projects comprising of 116 MWp of solar, 93 MW of wind and 33 MW of geothermal for a total capacity of 242 MW.

“We are extremely pleased about this new important award for the supply of electricity to Chilean customers,” said Enel CEO and General Manager Francesco Starace. “The combination of different renewable technologies and some thermal generation has proven once again the winning approach. To this end, it is worth mentioning that in the past few years we have grown, through Enel Green Power, a solid renewable footprint that includes hydro, wind, solar as well as completing the construction of the first geothermal plant in South America, Cerro Pabellón. This award grants the possibility to finance and build 242 MW of renewable energy plants sustaining a continuing investment flow in Chile towards a more competitive and more sustainable generation mix in the country and lower cost of energy in the years to come.”

The 242 MW of new renewable capacity are based on solar and geothermal plants located in the Antofagasta region, in Northern Chile, as well as on a wind farm located in the Araucanía region, in Southern Chile. The facilities are expected to enter into service by 2024, generating around 1.180 TWh per year and avoiding the annual emission of around 500,000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere.

The tender was launched following Chile’s General Power Service Law (Ley General de Servicios Eléctricos) n. 4 from 2006 shaping the regulatory framework for public tenders in order to provide distribution system operators with long-term power supply contracts with generators that would enable them to meet the power consumption needs of regulated market customers in their concession areas.

Enel is a multinational power company and a leading integrated player in the global, power, gas and renewables markets. It is Europe’s largest utility in terms of market capitalisation and figures among Europe’s leading power companies in terms of installed capacity and reported EBITDA. The Group is present in over 30 countries worldwide, producing energy with more than 86 GW of managed capacity. Enel distributes electricity and gas through a network of over 2 million kilometres, and with over 65 million business and household customers globally, the Group has the largest customer base among European competitors. Enel’s renewables arm Enel Green Power already manages more than 39 GW of wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and hydropower plants in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia and has recently arrived in Australia.

The Enel Group operates in Chile in the conventional generation and distribution sectors through Enel Chile and its subsidiaries Enel Generación Chile and Enel Distribución Chile. The Group also has a significant presence in the country’s renewable energy market through Enel Green Power Chile. The Group has a total installed capacity of around 7.5 GW (4.8 GW renewables and 2.7 GW thermal), 1.9 million customers and over 2,200 employees in Chile. The country is also home to Enel Americas, which is the Enel Group’s platform for investment in the conventional generation and distribution sectors in other countries of Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru).

Output: Italian utility Enel has won a contract for the supply of 1.18 TWh of wind, solar and geothermal energy per year through its subsidiary, Enel Generación Chile. The Comisión Nacional de Energía put out a tender for 2.2 TWh of annual supply between 2024 and 2043.


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Engie partners with WEG for residential solar finance program
 Brazilian electrical equipment manufacturer WEG SA (BVMF:WEGE3) announced last week it has entered a partnership with a local unit of France’s Engie SA (EPA:ENGI) to create a new solar programme in Santa Catarina state.

The state's federation of industries (FIESC) is also part of the agreement. The goal of the Programa Industria Solar, as it is named, is to facilitate the installation of residential photovoltaic (PV) systems through credit lines with lower interest rates.

The programme only covers at this initial stage employees from the three companies and in other local institutions and companies like Santa Catarina's unit of the National Service for Industrial Training (SENAI) and Brazilian utility Celesc (BVMF:CLSC3).

These companies have together more than 40 thousand employees, thus a great potential for joining PV systems, WEG's Automation Managing Director, Manfred Peter Johann, stated.

During its second phase, scheduled for 2018, the programme will benefit employees from other Santa Catarina companies. It will later expand further.

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Output: Brazilian electrical equipment provider WEG is partnering with a local subsidiary of Engie to establish a Santa Catarina solar programme alongside Brazil's federation of industries, FIESC. The Programa Industria Solar will create residential photovoltaic solar systems with lower-interest credit offers, designed to cover employees initially, as well as local businesses and utilities. The programme's second stage, which should begin in 2018, will be offered to further Santa Catarina companies, with further expansion planned in future.


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Irradiated plastic can reduce the eco-footprint of concrete
 Discarded plastic bottles could one day be used to build stronger, more flexible concrete structures, from sidewalks and street barriers, to buildings and bridges, according to a new study.

MIT undergraduate students have found that, by exposing plastic flakes to small, harmless doses of gamma radiation, then pulverizing the flakes into a fine powder, they can mix the irradiated plastic with cement paste and fly ash to produce concrete that is up to 15 percent stronger than conventional concrete.

Concrete is, after water, the second most widely used material on the planet. The manufacturing of concrete generates about 4.5 percent of the world’s human-induced carbon dioxide emissions. Replacing even a small portion of concrete with irradiated plastic could thus help reduce the cement industry’s global carbon footprint.

Reusing plastics as concrete additives could also redirect old water and soda bottles, the bulk of which would otherwise end up in a landfill.

“There is a huge amount of plastic that is landfilled every year,” says Michael Short, an assistant professor in MIT’s Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering. “Our technology takes plastic out of the landfill, locks it up in concrete, and also uses less cement to make the concrete, which makes fewer carbon dioxide emissions. This has the potential to pull plastic landfill waste out of the landfill and into buildings, where it could actually help to make them stronger.”

The team includes Carolyn Schaefer ’17 and MIT senior Michael Ortega, who initiated the research as a class project; Kunal Kupwade-Patil, a research scientist in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Anne White, an associate professor in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering; Oral Büyüköztürk, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Carmen Soriano of Argonne National Laboratory; and Short. The new paper appears in the journal Waste Management.

“This is a part of our dedicated effort in our laboratory for involving undergraduates in outstanding research experiences dealing with innovations in search of new, better concrete materials with a diverse class of additives of different chemistries,” says Büyüköztürk, who is the director of Laboratory for Infrastructure Science and Sustainability. “The findings from this undergraduate student project open a new arena in the search for solutions to sustainable infrastructure.”

An idea, crystallized

Schaefer and Ortega began to explore the possibility of plastic-reinforced concrete as part of 22.033 (Nuclear Systems Design Project), in which students were asked to pick their own project.

“They wanted to find ways to lower carbon dioxide emissions that weren’t just, ‘let’s build nuclear reactors,’” Short says. “Concrete production is one of the largest sources of carbon dioxide, and they got to thinking, ‘how could we attack that?’ They looked through the literature, and then an idea crystallized.”

The students learned that others have tried to introduce plastic into cement mixtures, but the plastic weakened the resulting concrete. Investigating further, they found evidence that exposing plastic to doses of gamma radiation makes the material’s crystalline structure change in a way that the plastic becomes stronger, stiffer, and tougher. Would irradiating plastic actually work to strengthen concrete?

To answer that question, the students first obtained flakes of polyethylene terephthalate — plastic material used to make water and soda bottles — from a local recycling facility. Schaefer and Ortega manually sorted through the flakes to remove bits of metal and other debris. They then walked the plastic samples down to the basement of MIT’s Building 8, which houses a cobalt-60 irradiator that emits gamma rays, a radiation source that is typically used commercially to decontaminate food.

“There’s no residual radioactivity from this type of irradiation,” Short says. “If you stuck something in a reactor and irradiated it with neutrons, it would come out radioactive. But gamma rays are a different kind of radiation that, under most circumstances, leave no trace of radiation.”

The team exposed various batches of flakes to either a low or high dose of gamma rays. They then ground each batch of flakes into a powder and mixed the powders with a series of cement paste samples, each with traditional Portland cement powder and one of two common mineral additives: fly ash (a byproduct of coal combustion) and silica fume (a byproduct of silicon production). Each sample contained about 1.5 percent irradiated plastic.

Once the samples were mixed with water, the researchers poured the mixtures into cylindrical molds, allowed them to cure, removed the molds, and subjected the resulting concrete cylinders to compression tests. They measured the strength of each sample and compared it with similar samples made with regular, nonirradiated plastic, as well as with samples containing no plastic at all.

They found that, in general, samples with regular plastic were weaker than those without any plastic. The concrete with fly ash or silica fume was stronger than concrete made with just Portland cement. And the presence of irradiated plastic along with fly ash strengthened the concrete even further, increasing its strength by up to 15 percent compared with samples made just with Portland cement, particularly in samples with high-dose irradiated plastic.

The concrete road ahead

After the compression tests, the researchers went one step further, using various imaging techniques to examine the samples for clues as to why irradiated plastic yielded stronger concrete.

The team took their samples to Argonne National Laboratory and the Center for Materials Science and Engineering (CMSE) at MIT, where they analyzed them using X-ray diffraction, backscattered electron microscopy, and X-ray microtomography. The high-resolution images revealed that samples containing irradiated plastic, particularly at high doses, exhibited crystalline structures with more cross-linking, or molecular connections. In these samples, the crystalline structure also seemed to block pores within concrete, making the samples more dense and therefore stronger.

“At a nano-level, this irradiated plastic affects the crystallinity of concrete,” Kupwade-Patil says. “The irradiated plastic has some reactivity, and when it mixes with Portland cement and fly ash, all three together give the magic formula, and you get stronger concrete.”

“We have observed that within the parameters of our test program, the higher the irradiated dose, the higher the strength of concrete, so further research is needed to tailor the mixture and optimize the process with irradiation for the most effective results,” Kupwade-Patil says. “The method has the potential to achieve sustainable solutions with improved performance for both structural and nonstructural applications.”

Going forward, the team is planning to experiment with different types of plastics, along with various doses of gamma radiation, to determine their effects on concrete. For now, they have found that substituting about 1.5 percent of concrete with irradiated plastic can significantly improve its strength. While that may seem like a small fraction, Short says, implemented on a global scale, replacing even that amount of concrete could have a significant impact.

“Concrete produces about 4.5 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions,” Short says. “Take out 1.5 percent of that, and you’re already talking about 0.0675 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. That’s a huge amount of greenhouse gases in one fell swoop.”

“This research is a perfect example of interdisciplinary multiteam work toward creative solutions, and represents a model educational experience,” Büyüköztürk says.

This story has been updated to clarify that concrete containing both irradiated plastic and fly ash, rather than with irradiated plastic alone, is stronger, by up to 15 percent, compared to conventional concrete.

Output: Undergraduates at MIT have developed a technique which strengthens industrial concrete and makes it more environmentally friendly using irradiated plastic bottles. Concrete manufacturing is responsible for approximately 4.5% of human-induced CO2 emissions. Introducing plastic to the concrete can lower emissions, but also weakens the structure of the material. However, the students discovered that certain forms of plastic grow stronger after exposure to gamma radiation. When such plastic was added to cement, it increased the concrete’s strength by 15% compared to control samples.


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Irradiated plastic can reduce the eco-footprint of concrete
 It's a familiar refrain in engineering circles — in any industry, really: You never know where the next big idea is going to come from.

An undergraduate class project at MIT may prove to be the next big idea in cement manufacturing. A group of students developed a new technique to make industrial concrete stronger and friendlier to the environment, according to newly published research. And the secret ingredient for the eco-friendly concrete is discarded plastic bottles blasted with gamma radiation.

“The thing that's most interesting to me is that undergraduates actually did this,” Michael Short, an assistant professor in MIT’s department of nuclear science and engineering, told Seeker. “We instructors helped to keep them on the rails, technically. But this was the students idea.”

The research, published in the journal Waste Management, details the project, which as an independent study exercise aimed at finding ways to lower carbon dioxide emissions using nuclear technologies.

Concrete manufacturing generates about 4.5 percent of the world’s human-induced carbon dioxide emissions. One way to reduce that footprint could be to make plastic-reinforced concrete. But introducing even small amounts of plastic tends to weaken the material’s structures.

But rooting through the literature, the students discovered that certain types of plastic actually become stronger when exposed to gamma radiation. The students' hypothesis: Irradiate the plastic before adding it to the concrete mixture.

The student researchers gathered plastic bottles from the local recycling center and took them over to an MIT lab where they crushed the plastic using a high-energy ball mill.

“That's basically a hardened canister with metal balls that shakes back and forth real fast and violently,” Short said. “But that didn't finish the job, so the students actually did it by hand with a mortar and pestle.”

RELATED: We've Made 9.1 Billion Tons of Plastic and Have Recycled Almost None of It

They then walked the crushed plastic to another MIT lab, which houses a cobalt-60 irradiator that emits gamma rays — a radiation source often used commercially to decontaminate food.

“It's constantly emitting radiation, only there's a shield in front of it,” Short said. “They were able to put the plastic in there, remotely open the shield, then go back in safely to retrieve it.”

After the irradiated plastic was added into standard cement mixes, the team ran tests. Sure enough, the irradiated plastic improved the concrete, increasing its strength by up to 15 percent compared with control samples.

Short cautioned that the new technique is in a very preliminary stage, and more research is required to confirm the study's various findings.

“The paper is basically saying, here's a method that works, here's the quantification on how well it works,” Short said. “We know that the plastic makes it denser and forms particular crystalline structures in the material that make the final concrete stronger.”

RELATED: Thirsty Concrete Reduces Runoff at Yellowstone Park

The research team — students and instructors both — intend to stay with the project and keep publishing new findings. The group is working on a proposal for the National Science Foundation for further funding.

Short, who guided the project in his role as faculty adviser, said that he's particularly proud of the student-run aspect of the project.

“Actually, I took this same class in 2004, as an undergraduate,” he said. “It was well-taught, but I found the design aspect to be lacking. I thought we were going to do something or make something physical, and we didn't.”

As an instructor, Short wanted to let the students use hands-on methods to take the idea as far as they could.

“They decided what to do, they did it, and they wrote it up,” he said. “This is a bunch of twenty-year-olds that may have just developed a new kind of cement.”

WATCH: What Would a World Without Plastic Look Like?

Output: Undergraduates at MIT have developed a technique which strengthens industrial concrete and makes it more environmentally friendly using irradiated plastic bottles. Concrete manufacturing is responsible for approximately 4.5% of human-induced CO2 emissions. Introducing plastic to the concrete can lower emissions, but also weakens the structure of the material. However, the students discovered that certain forms of plastic grow stronger after exposure to gamma radiation. When such plastic was added to cement, it increased the concrete’s strength by 15% compared to control samples.


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Vaccine could prevent 100,000 annual infant deaths
 More than 100,000 stillbirths and baby deaths worldwide could be prevented by the development of a vaccine against an infection commonly carried by pregnant women, according to a groundbreaking report.

The impact of disease caused by group B streptococcus (GBS) has not been properly chronicled before and only in relatively recent years has anyone taken seriously its role in the deaths of babies in the womb as well as in the early days of life.

Worldwide, more than 21 million pregnant women carry the bacteria which used to be thought harmless, say researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). Today it is recognised as a cause of septicaemia and meningitis in newborns, with potentially deadly effects, and also as a major cause of stillbirths, but vaccines against it are only now in development.

Eleven papers have been published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases and presented at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Annual Meeting in Baltimore, revealing the scale of infection and the damage it causes. They say there are 410,000 cases of disease every year and 147,000 stillbirths and infant deaths. One in five pregnant women carries the bacteria, which can cause meningitis and also life-threatening septicaemia – blood poisoning – in them and their baby.

In wealthy countries, women thought to be at risk are given antibiotics in labour, but that does not prevent stillbirths and is not a practical solution for Africa and other developing countries where the infection rate is high. It could also contribute to antibiotic resistance, which is a global problem.

“Vaccines are the way to go,” said Joy Lawn, co-lead author of the papers and professor of maternal, reproductive and child health at the LSHTM. “They are on the way but it is going to be probably a five-year time horizon. The vaccine process needs to be accelerated. The World Health Organisation is already moving to make sure that when we get a vaccine it will be available for countries where the need is highest.”

In affluent countries, parent groups have called for more action against GBS, including universal testing to check whether pregnant women are carrying the bacteria.

“In the US particularly and also in the UK, it is an issue that is upsetting to parents, because neonatal death rates [in the first month of life] are quite low now and this happens to articulate, rich families; people don’t expect their children to die any more,” said Lawn.

But most of the focus has been on babies born alive who then become ill and die, or are damaged. There has been little attention to GBS as a cause of stillbirths. The team calculate it causes 90,000 infant deaths and 57,000 stillbirths worldwide at a very conservative estimate. There is no global goal to reduce stillbirths, as there is for newborns. “There are 2.6 million babies dying in the last three months of pregnancy, the same number as in the first month of life,” said Lawn. “For the baby who dies five minutes before birth, there isn’t a global goal.”

Stillbirths are under-investigated even in affluent countries, partly because of a sense of fatalism and also stigma. “People don’t know what the causes are. This [GBS] is an incredibly preventable cause,” said Lawn.

The researchers say that a vaccine which was 80% effective and reached 90% of women, could potentially prevent 231,000 infant and maternal cases of disease.

Dr Keith Klugman, director of the pneumonia team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which funded the research, said: “The first few days and weeks of a baby’s life are the most vulnerable – by far. By filling in one of the great voids in public health data, this work provides crucial insight and shows the pressing unmet need for the development of an effective GBS vaccine. Immunising expectant mothers is a potentially groundbreaking approach that could dramatically reduce the number of maternal and child deaths.”

Johan Vekemans, co-author of the papers from the World Health Organisation, said an unacceptable number of families were affected. “It is now essential to accelerate the GBS vaccine development activities,” he said.

Output: Over 100,000 infant deaths and still births across the world could be prevented by a vaccine against group B streptococcus, carried by one in five pregnant women, according to research presented at a scientific conference in the US. The bacteria, linked to septicaemia and meningitis, has only recently been considered in relation to the health of newborns and babies in the womb. A vaccine would reduce dependence on antibiotics in developed countries and could offer a way of countering deaths in developing nations.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Statoil wants buyer for New York offshore wind power by end 2018
 Norway’s Statoil ASA (NYSE: STO) aims to sign a power purchase agreement with a U.S. utility to develop an offshore wind power project off New York, a senior company official said on Oct. 31.

Statoil won a lease sale of 79,350 acres offshore New York, which could be potentially used to develop up to a one gigawatt capacity wind power park, by bidding $42.5 million December 2016.

“Now we need to sign a power off-take agreement to develop the project. The counterpart would be one of New York’s utilities,” Stephen Bull, Statoil’s senior vice president, told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference.

“We expect to sign the agreement towards the end [of] 2018,” he added.

Statoil, which also supplies New York with natural gas from the Northern Marcellus shale play, sees the U.S. as an important emerging market for offshore wind, both for bottom-fixed and floating turbines.

The company built the world’s first floating wind power park off Scotland in 2017 and is looking at more opportunities in Japan, California and Hawaii.

“We hope to have a new [floating wind power] project within the next three years,” Bull said.

Statoil plans to invest up to 100 billion Norwegian crowns (US$12.3 billion) in the renewable energy and low carbon technologies from 2017 until 2030.

Output: Statoil plans to sign a power purchase agreement for the output of a wind farm offshore New York by the end of 2018. The Norwegian energy major paid $42.5m last December to lease a 79,350-acre site that could host a 1 GW wind farm in that location. Statoil already supplies New York with natural gas from the Marcellus shale. It aims to invest up to $12.3bn in renewable energy and low carbon technology through 2030.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Paradise Papers reveal extent of offshore tax arrangements
 What are the Paradise Papers?

The name refers to a leak of 13.4m files. Most of the documents – 6.8m – relate to a law firm and corporate services provider that operated together in 10 jurisdictions under the name Appleby. Last year, the “fiduciary” arm of the business was the subject of a management buyout and it is now called Estera.

02:07 What are the Paradise Papers? – video

There are also details from 19 corporate registries maintained by governments in secrecy jurisdictions – Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Cook Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Labuan, Lebanon, Malta, the Marshall Islands, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, and Vanuatu.

The papers cover the period from 1950 to 2016.

How many media organisations have been looking at the data?

The Guardian is one of 96 media partners in the project. A total of 381 journalists from 67 countries have been analysing the material.

Who got the documents – and how?

The leaks were obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, which also received the Panama Papers last year. Süddeutsche Zeitung shared the material with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a US-based organisation that coordinated the global collaboration. Süddeutsche Zeitung has not, and will not, discuss issues around sourcing.

Do the Paradise Papers focus on companies or individuals?

Both. They are united by one thing – money. Some of the world’s biggest multinationals feature in the leak, including Apple, Nike and Facebook, as well as some of the richest people in the world, from the Queen to Bono, and from the stars of British sitcoms to the stars who grace Hollywood Boulevard.

What do the documents show?

The files show the offshore empire is bigger and more complicated than most people thought. And even companies such as Appleby, which prides itself on being a standard bearer in the field, have fallen foul of the regulators that try to police the industry.

The files set out the myriad ways in which companies and individuals can avoid tax using artificial structures. These schemes are legal if run correctly. But many appear not to be. And politicians around the world are beginning to ask whether they should be banned. Are they fair? Are they moral? A fundamental question posed by the Paradise Papers is: has tax avoidance in all its guises gone too far?

Key revelations include:

What does Appleby say?

The firm has denied any wrongdoing, either by itself or by any of its clients. But it has conceded that it is not infallible and has tried to learn from its mistakes. The company has agreed to take part in any formal inquiries that come out of the disclosures. Estera has declined to comment.

Output: Offshore tax avoidance is more extensive than previously thought, according to 13.4 million leaked files referred to as the Paradise Papers. Of these files, 6.8 million relate to law firm and corporate services provider Appleby. The files reveal the ways in which individuals and companies can use artificial structures to avoid paying tax. Such structures are legal, if operated correctly, but are facing increasing political scrutiny. Companies including Apple, Facebook and Nike, as well as individuals including Bono and the Queen, feature in the leak.