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 Earth Observation Group provided the satellite data and software to look at flaring. Researchers are able to look at any flare in the world on a given day, including the air speed of the gas release, the location and the owners of the site. 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 Director Morgan Bazilian and Faculty Fellow Ian Lange contribute to this report by the Wilson Center on how the United States faces a troubling scenario when it comes to the supply chain for critical minerals. Rapidly increasing demand, under-developed national resources, intense international competition, and years of neglect in this issue area place the U.S. at a distinct disadvantage vis-à-vis China in securing access to the metals and Rare Earth Elements that are vital for the energy transition and for geopolitical ambitions. This paper reflects the dialogue sustained by a high-level group of stakeholders in the summer of 2021 and argues that the United States must take a number of key steps to make the critical minerals supply chain more resilient. October 18, 2021.
Payne Institute Communications Associate Elsa Barron, Earth Observation Group Senior Research Associate Christopher Elvidge and Research Associate Feng-Chi, Hsu write about how in Beirut, it plunged the 2.4 million-person city into darkness this weekend. The Lebanese power grid shut down on Saturday due to depleted fuel resources, which comes after months of economic crisis in the country. October 14, 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 Nicole Smith and faculty at Virginia Tech, and the National University of Colombia co-teach a class on Sustainable Development and Earth Resources. The class, which focuses on sustainable development and earth resources, was selected by SDSN as a case study for integrating the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into resource engineering education. October 13, 2021.
Payne Institute Director Morgan D. Bazilian is honoured to be appointed as a new member to the Climate Change Advisory Council (CCAC). A critical part of Ireland’s transition to a low carbon society is the provision of accurate and timely advice. The CCAC needs to have a broad and diverse balance of skills and experience that will advise Government on both carbon budgets and progress on implementation of the climate action plan. October 13, 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.