Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian writes this opinion piece in the Financial Times newsletter on next month’s UN climate conference in Glasgow and how to make the 26th Conference of the Parties actually do something to help fix the climate crisis? October 19, 2021.
Payne Institute Fellow Dr. Jay Lemery has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). Election to the Academy is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service. October 18, 2021.
Payne Institute Fellow Benjamin Attia and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how globally, the top 10% of countries consume 20 times more energy than the bottom 10%. And 1.1 billion sub-Saharan Africans share the same amount of power generation capacity as Germany’s 83 million people. At least half have no access to electricity at all. These stark energy inequalities are fueling thorny debates around financing Africa’s energy future as world leaders and their negotiators prepare for COP26. October 14, 2021.
Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Ryan Richards collaborates on a paper that looks at how the surface of an electrocatalyst undergoes dynamic chemical and structural transformations under electrochemical operating conditions. There is a dynamic exchange of metal cations between the electrocatalyst and electrolyte. Understanding how iron in the electrolyte gets incorporated in the nickel hydroxide electrocatalyst is critical for pinpointing the roles of Fe during water oxidation. Here, we report that iron incorporation and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are highly coupled, especially at high working potentials. October 12, 2021.
Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian contributes to this article about how a plant threatened with closure in a Colorado town is hiring again after switching to renewables. For its developers the project is a shining example of the energy transition. October 11, 2021.
Mines/NREL Advanced Energy Systems PhD student Jesse Dugan, Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Salman Mohagheghi, and NREL Researcher Benjamin Kroposki write about how natural disasters can lead to large-scale power outages, affecting critical infrastructure and causing social and economic damages. These events are exacerbated by climate change, which increases their frequency and magnitude. Improving power grid resilience can help mitigate the damages caused by these events. Mobile energy storage systems, classified as truck-mounted or towable battery storage systems, have recently been considered to enhance distribution grid resilience by providing localized support to critical loads during an outage. This paper provides a comprehensive and critical review of academic literature on mobile energy storage for power system resilience enhancement. October 10, 2021.
Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian contributes to this article on how the demand for coal is moving back near peak levels. Across the world, fossil fuels are making a remarkable comeback as a super-charged recovery from the pandemic boosts demand. For all the green energy promises and plans, that transition is in its infancy, and the world still leans heavily on fossils. October 10, 2021.
Payne Institute Fellow William Nuttall writes how Boris Johnson is set to announce at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester that all of Britain’s electricity will come from renewable sources by 2035, according to a recent report in the Times. The government suspects that the British public – tired of petrol station queues and dreading winter gas bills – will like the idea of moving away from fossil fuels, and towards nuclear power. October 6, 2021.
Emon Chatterji, Kate Anderson, and Payne Institute Director Morgan D. Bazilian write about the resilience of power systems is already a key issue that is getting frequent attention all over the world. It is useful to analyze resilience issues not only for bulk supply, but at all levels including at a customer level. This is because distributed energy resources can play a prominent role in enhancing resilience. A planning model is developed that incorporates multiple facets of resilience and individual customer preferences. September 28, 2021.
Payne Advisory Board Member Mimi Alemayehou, Katie Auth, Murefu Barasa, Director Morgan Bazilian, Fellow Brad Handler, Uzo Iweala, Fellow Todd Moss, Rose Mutiso, and Zainab Usman write answer the question why do we need to reframe climate justice for development? They propose six basic principles to help development funders support inclusive and equitable energy transitions in the poorest countries. September 28, 2021.