Renewable

Today, large commercial and industrial (C&I) companies are setting up their own renewable energy assets, including storage and EV charging, and investing in energy efficiency in a bid to reduce their carbon footprint. As a result, oil and gas companies, and utilities and energy solution providers who have been serving them are now optimising themselves to suit these demands by setting up and managing renewable energy resources. But, as energy generation gets decentralised, demand reduction, shifting, and load management have become more complex, especially due to the intermittent availability of green energy. Companies have to look for greener solutions with intermittent supply, managing grid reliance, and integrating storage and EV charging in their energy mix. It also means delivering value-added services to these C&I customers to reduce peak loads, forecast generation, analyse plant efficiency, maintain a demand-supply balance, and automate the flow of energy.

Recently, power systems are facing the challenges of growing power demand, depleting fossil fuel and aggravating environmental pollution (caused by carbon emission from fossil fuel based power generation). The incorporation of alternative low carbon energy generation, i.e., Renewable Energy Sources (RESs), becomes crucial for energy systems. Effective Demand Side Management (DSM) and RES incorporation enable power systems to maintain demand, supply balance and optimize energy in an environmentally friendly manner. The wind power is a popular energy source because of its environmental and economical benefits. However, the uncertainty of wind power makes its incorporation in energy systems really difficult.

Recently, power systems are facing the challenges of growing power demand, depleting fossil fuel and aggravating environmental pollution (caused by carbon emission from fossil fuel based power generation). The incorporation of alternative low carbon energy generation, i.e., Renewable Energy Sources (RESs), becomes crucial for energy systems. Effective Demand Side Management (DSM) and RES incorporation enable power systems to maintain demand, supply balance and optimize energy in an environmentally friendly manner. The wind power is a popular energy source because of its environmental and economical benefits. However, the uncertainty of wind power makes its incorporation in energy systems really difficult.

A fully autonomous ship called the "Mayflower" will make its voyage across the Atlantic Ocean next September, to mark the 400-year anniversary of the trip of the first Mayflower, which was very much not autonomous. It's a stark way to drive home just how much technology has advanced in the last four centuries, but also a key demonstration of autonomous seafaring technology, put together by marine research and exploration organization Promare and powered by IBM technology. The autonomous Mayflower will be decked out with solar panels, as well as diesel and wind turbines to provide it with its propulsion power, as it attempts the 3,220-mile journey from Plymouth in England, to Plymouth in Massachusetts in the U.S. The trip, if successful, will be among the first for full-size seafaring vessels navigating the Atlantic on their own, which Promare is hoping will open the doors to other research-focused applications of autonomous seagoing ships. To support that use case, it'll have research pods on board while it makes its trip. Three to be specific, developed by academics and researchers at the University of Plymouth, who will aim to run experiments in areas including maritime cybersecurity, sea mammal monitoring and even addressing the challenges of ocean-borne microplastics.

A fully autonomous ship tracing the journey of the Mayflower is being built by a UK-based team, with help from tech firm IBM. The Mayflower Autonomous Ship, or MAS, will launch from Plymouth in the UK in September 2020. Its voyage will mark the 400th anniversary of the pilgrim ship which brought European settlers to America in 1620. IBM is providing artificial intelligence systems for the ship. The vessel will make its own decisions on its course and collision avoidance, and will even make expensive satellite phone calls back to base if it deems it necessary.

A fully autonomous ship tracing the journey of the Mayflower is being built by a UK-based team, with help from tech firm IBM. The Mayflower Autonomous Ship, or MAS, will launch from Plymouth in the UK in September 2020. Its voyage will mark the 400th anniversary of the pilgrim ship which brought European settlers to America in 1620. IBM is providing artificial intelligence systems for the ship. The vessel will make its own decisions on its course and collision avoidance, and will even make expensive satellite phone calls back to base if it deems it necessary.

Imagine a scene, set in the future, where a child in Burning Man–style punk clothing is standing in front of a yurt powered by solar panels. There weren't many books with scenes like that in 2014, when Sarena Ulibarri, an editor, first grew interested in a genre of science fiction that imagines a renewable and sustainable future. Welcome to solarpunk, a new genre within science fiction that is a reaction against the perceived pessimism of present-day sci-fi and hopes to bring optimistic stories about the future with the aim of encouraging people to change the present. The first book that explicitly identified as solarpunk was Solarpunk: Histórias ecológicas e fantásticas em um mundo sustentável (Solarpunk: Ecological and Fantastic Stories in a Sustainable World), a Brazilian book published in 2012. In 2014, author Adam Flynn wrote Solarpunk: Notes Toward a Manifesto.

Fully autonomous robots that are able to inspect damaged wind farms have been developed by Scots scientists. Unlike most drones, they don't require a human operator and could end the need for technicians to abseil down turbines to carry out repairs. The multi-million pound project is showing how the bots can walk, dive, fly and even think for themselves. They're being developed by Orca - the Offshore Robotics for Certification of Assets hub. The hub bills itself as the largest academic centre of its kind in the world and is led from Heriot-Watt and Edinburgh universities through its Centre for Robotics.

Raycatch has introduced'DeepSolar 2.0,' a fully automated, AI-based diagnostic software program for cost-optimized maintenance and monitoring of photovoltaic power plants. Raycatch, which is backed by BayWa r.e., developed the next-generation of DeepSolar, its AI-based Software as a Service (SaaS) solution. The software supports solar plant owners by providing them with comprehensive ROI information and data-driven operational insights. In addition, the diagnostic system can identify the sources behind technical issues, outline issue resolutions, evaluate costs and make prioritized recommendations based on plant owners' respective needs. DeepSolar is a diagnostic software program for cost-optimized maintenance of PV power plants.

During the construction of BBVA's current headquarters in Madrid, criteria was used to ensure its maximum energy efficiency and minimum environmental impact. Together with the use of recycled, sustainable material; the inclusion of extensive green areas; and a sprinkler system that uses rainwater, 50,000 sensors were installed at the bank's headquarters to detect and collect data about the status of the facilities, the environmental conditions, and the proximity of people. BBVA's new corporate headquarters in Madrid have become an architectural and sustainability landmark. Architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron have designed not only a smart but an environmentally and people friendly city, reflective of the financial group's global digital transformation strategy. "Once the complex was functioning and after analyzing all this data, we realized that it didn't have to be limited to properly managing the facilities, it could also further improve our energy efficiency and reduce costs," explains Borja Eugui Pemán, BBVA Head of Facility Management.