Happy Monday and welcome back to the Green New Spiel, the newsletter bringing you the latest stories and developments in the world of clean-tech, green energy and other climate related news.
We are back with some fascinating stories for you - as ever do let us know if there are topics you would like us to cover more of.
This week on the Green New Spiel:
🖥️ AI’s green credentials
🇺🇸 The US playing import catch up
🏭 Pollution absorbing coating
🪨 Enhanced rock weathering - UNDO’ing emissions
🇬🇧🏠 The UK’s famously inefficient buildings
⬇️ Sign up below to receive this directly in your inbox ⬇️
🖥️ AI’s green credentials
AI is the hot topic at the moment, especially following the hype generated from ChatGPT. However, it is also helping facilitate and streamline decision-making processes across the green technology investment.
One of the primary benefits is its ability to optimise energy distribution by predicting energy demand and pick up on inefficiencies throughout distribution systems, helping utility companies and energy generators to lower their carbon footprint.
Click the link above to learn more about the impacts of AI across the sector, including transport, development of new materials and identifying novel processes.
🇺🇸 The US playing import catch up
Can local US manufacturing supply the country’s demand for solar panels, their fastest growing form of electricity production? They’re definitely trying to reverse their dependence on foreign producers: the recent IRA bill provides huge federal incentives and tariffs against competing foreign producers in an attempt to stimulate the growth of the domestic solar production industry.
The supply gap is huge however, with only 5 gigawatts of solar panels being produced in the US versus 29 gigawatts imported from a mix of Asian countries, such as China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand.
IRA definitely pushes the US closer to its goal, with 70 gigawatts of production capacity announced since the passing of the bill. Whilst not all projects will be completed, some established names in solar such as Qcells, First Solar and Enel have already selected sites or even broken ground on new sites.
🏭 Pollution absorbing coating
Budapest-based Resysten has launched a coating which absorbs polluting gases when applied to external surfaces (think buildings, cars, banners, screens etc). Resysten originally focused on healthcare, helping hospitals address bacteria outbreaks or preventing flu outbreaks via public transport networks as its coating prevents pathogens from adhering to any surface for up to a year. Their new product, Clean Air, can absorb up to 222mg a day of nitrogen oxides from one sqm of exterior coated surface.
🪨 Enhanced rock weathering - UNDO’ing emissions
Enhanced rock weathering, a process that accelerates the natural weathering of volcanic rock to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, has gained attention as a potential method to combat global warming.
Crushed up basalt, a volcanic rock, is used in this process to accelerate carbon removal: by increasing the contact between rain and basalt, the weathering is expedited, which accelerates carbon removal. The crushed basalt can then be spread across farmland as it also improves soil health, allowing farmers to reduce the quantity of fertilisers needed.
UNDO, a company specializing in enhanced rock weathering, is looking to scale up its operations and has recently received support from the Microsoft. The Green New Spiel was fortunate to meet UNDO at the recent Innovation Zero conference in London.
There are challenges of course, such as its scalability, impact accounting and the consideration of the emissions associated with grinding, transporting, and scattering the rock.
🇬🇧🏠 The UK’s famously inefficient buildings
The HotSat-1, a novel British satellite, has been launched with the purpose of mapping the heat signature of buildings. It aims to identify energy-inefficient dwellings that could benefit from better insulation. This is hugely welcome as the data will optimise the impact of grant money and public resources on improving the worst ‘energy leaks’ from our system, and there will be quite a few: the UK has some of the most inefficient housing stock in Europe, with the vast majority of dwellings built pre-1970.
Operated by London-based start-up Satellite Vu, the spacecraft features an infrared sensor developed with funding from UK and European space agencies. The satellite, flying at an altitude of 500km, will have the capability to observe individual roof tops and walls, aiding in the identification of inefficient housing in the UK.
If you’re here, thank you for reading the Green New Spiel today. If there is anyone who you think would find it interesting, click below and invite them to join!
Have any comments or questions? Message us on LinkedIn or reply directly to to this email.
Ciao,
Carlo and Rob