Solar Energy to Power India of the Future

World Bank

Summary India’s plan to ramp up solar power generation to 100 GW by 2022 is among the largest in the world. It will help bring sustainable, clean, climate-friendly electricity to millions of India’s people. The World Bank Group (WBG) is helping India deliver on its plans with more than $1 billion in lending over FY 2017. This is the Bank’s largest-ever support for solar power in any country. The WBG is also backing the India-led International Solar Alliance which aims to promote solar use globally by mobilizing $1 trillion in investments by 2030.

The World Bank Group is moving to help India deliver on its unprecedented plans to scale up solar energy, from installing solar panels on rooftops to setting up massive solar parks.
This will catapult India to the forefront of the global effort to bring electricity to all, mitigate the effects of climate change, and set the country on a path to become the 'India of the future'.
"The world must turn to (the) sun to power our future," India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the historic COP21 climate conference in Paris last year. "As the developing world lifts billions of people into prosperity, our hope for a sustainable planet rests on a bold, global initiative."
Unveiling its own bold initiative, India pledged that it would derive at least 40% of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2030.
This includes plans for the development of 100 GW of solar energy by 2022, an extremely ambitious target considering the world's installed solar power capacity in 2014 was 181 GW.
Supporting India's solar push is a key part of WBG President Jim Yong Kim's agenda as he visits the country this week. Over FY 2017, the World Bank hopes to provide more than $1 billion to support India's solar plans.
"India's plans to virtually triple the share of renewable energy by 2030 will both transform the country's energy supply and have far-reaching global implications in the fight against climate change," said Kim.
"Prime Minister Modi's personal commitment toward renewable energy, particularly solar, is the driving force behind these investments.
The World Bank Group will do all it can to help India meet its ambitious targets, especially around scaling up solar energy."

"The world must turn to (the) sun to power our future. As the developing world lifts billions of people into prosperity, our hope for a sustainable planet rests on a bold, global initiative."
Narendra Modi
Prime Minister of India

The World Bank has already approved a $625 million loan that will support the Government of India's Grid Connected Rooftop Solar program by financing the installation of solar panels on rooftops across India.
The project draws funds together from the Bank, as well as from the Clean Technology Fund of the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), and will mobilize additional funding from public and private investors.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank Group's private sector arm, is supporting the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh set up the 750-MW ultra-mega solar power project in Rewa. This will be the largest single-site solar power project in the world.
IFC will help structure and implement the transaction to help attract investments of about $750 million.  IFC was one of the earliest financiers of wind and solar power in India, and helped develop the country's first grid-connected solar power project.
While in India, Kim is also extending support for the International Solar Alliance (ISA).
The alliance, spearheaded by India and France at COP21, brings together 121 countries and aims to mobilize a trillion dollars in investments to increase the use of solar energy. By signing an agreement with the ISA in New Delhi, the WBG paves the way for it to partner with the alliance's member countries to help them deliver on their individual objectives.
In India, the WBG has a number of initiatives in the pipeline.
These include developing solar parks, promoting innovative solutions to generate and store solar power, and providing support for solar mini-grids.
The Bank's backing will help increase the availability of private financing, introduce new technologies, build capacity for solar rooftop units, and enable the development of common infrastructure to support privately developed solar parks across India.
India is already planning to develop one of the largest solar parks in the world.
The 2 GW park in the southern state of Karnataka is expected to generate enough electricity to power nearly 1 million households. The park's supply of clean, renewable solar energy will help reduce CO₂ emissions by 20 million tons a year, and save 3.6 million tons of natural gas which is used to generate electricity.
The success of the solar auction for the park highlights the potential for more such large scale renewable projects in the country.
Generating clean renewable electricity is crucial for India where nearly 300 million people—about a quarter of its population—live without access to electricity.
Today, India is one of the lowest per capita consumers of electricity in the world; even when people are connected to the electricity grid, they face frequent disruptions.
Add to that the projected economic growth and the increase in population, and the demand for energy in India is expected to double by 2040.
"With around 300 days of sunshine every year, India has among the best conditions in the world to harness solar energy.
The rapid expansion of solar power can improve the quality of life for millions of Indians, especially for its poorest citizens. It can also create thousands of jobs in the solar industry and underpin progress in all areas of development, helping the country fulfil its dream of becoming the 'India of the future'," said Onno Ruhl, World Bank Country Director in India.
Solar Powers Brighter, Greener Future for India

Links

• Press Release: World Bank, India Sign Deal to Boost Solar Globally
• Climate Investment Funds (CIF)
• Carbon Finance for Sustainable Development: 2015 Annual Report
• Shock Waves: Managing the Impacts of Climate Change on Poverty
• State and Trends of Carbon Pricing 2015

Global Coral Bleaching Continues For a Record Third Year

Climate Central - Brian Kahn

Bad coral reef news seems to be never-ending these days. Case in point: on Monday, scientists announced that the world is in for an unprecedented third year of coral bleaching across the globe. The announcement comes courtesy of NOAA Coral Reef Watch, which keeps an eye on a number of climate factors that can stress reefs out. That includes rising ocean temperatures, which have absolutely pummeled reefs in recent years and will only ratchet up the pressure as the globe continues to warm.

A dying giant clam in the Great Barrier Reef following severe bleaching in winter 2016. Credit: XL Catlin Seaview Survey

"This is the most widespread, longest coral bleaching event ever to occur globally," Mark Eakin, the director of NOAA Coral Reef Watch, said. Over the past two years, reefs have been essentially boiled to death in parts of every ocean basin on earth. Abnormally hot waters have turned vibrant coral communities into pale white ghost towns as heat has sapped coral of the algae they need to survive. That includes a tragedy unfolding in the Great Barrier Reef, which could be permanently reshaped by rising ocean temperatures.
It kicked off in 2014, when El Niño was still bubbling, and it's still going strong in the middle of 2016 despite El Niño's demise. Bleaching alerts are in place through fall despite increasing odds of La Niña, a Pacific Ocean phenomenon which tends to cool the planet a bit as a whole.There are only two other global coral bleaching events to precede this one: 1998 and 2010. Both came during El Niño years. This event is a different creature, though. Not all parts of the ocean are cooler than normal during La Niña, however. In particular, NOAA Coral Reef Watch sounded the alarm for Palau and the Federate State of Micronesia, which sit on the edge of the horseshoe of warm water that typically forms during La Niña in the western tropical Pacific.
Both are small island nations where reefs play a vital role in tourism and storm surge protection. Other areas such as the Caribbean are still dealing with the added heat of El Niño propagating through the ocean and can expect bleaching risks to remain this summer and fall.

Coral bleaching forecast through September 2016. Credit: NOAA Coral Reef Watch

That risks extends to many reefs in the U.S. including the Florida Keys, U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Other U.S. reefs are also at risk through the fall including those near Hawaii, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Overall, U.S. reefs have been disproportionately affected by bleaching by dint of their wide geographical reach.
"More than 70 percent of U.S. reefs have already been hit," Eakin said, noting that in comparison, 40 percent of reefs have been affected globally.
In some areas such as Florida, the bleaching event has lasted so long that reefs have been beset by bleaching twice and could be in for their third go-round this summer and fall.
The U.S. is far from the only place to suffer, though. The Great Barrier Reef has also been hit hard with up to 93 percent of the reef showing signs of bleaching. The damage was so extensive, it brought scientists to tears. Research released in April showed that global warming made the bleaching there up to 175 times more likely.

Scientists surveying coral bleaching in the Maldives in May 2016. Credit: XL Catlin Seaview Survey

Other parts of the ocean have been equally devastated, including some of the most pristine reefs on the planet that sit in the middle of the Pacific. The death of El Niño has helped cool waters in that region a bit, but warming in other parts of the ocean mean a new set of reefs are in the crosshairs.
Scientists have pointed to global warming as a major driver. Roughly 93 percent of the heat the planet has been absorbing due to excess carbon pollution is ending up in the oceans. That's causing changes to ecosystems across the high seas, but none are quite as dramatic as what's happening at coral reefs.
"If you think of them as a (climate change) bellwether, they're ringing the bells like crazy right now," Jennifer Koss, NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program director, said. "We can't afford to not listen to them."
As to whether this round of bleaching goes from being a singular event to a new normal, Eakin said, "ask me next year if this doesn't end."

Links 

• There's a Hopeful Message Hidden in These Dead Reefs
• Fishing For Bright Spots in a World of Sick Reefs
• Climate Change is 'Devastating' The Great Barrier Reef
• Scientists Urge Obama to Halt Oil Leasing in the Arctic
• With May Record, Global Temps in 'New Neighborhood'
• Antarctic CO2 Hit 400 PPM For First Time in 4 Million Years

Coalition Will Need To Choose Between The Centre Or Extreme On Climate

Climate Institute - John Connor*



Australia's election results could actually support considered climate action, particularly when viewed in the context of community and mainstream business support. But that will require assistance and leadership.
Polling shows support for climate action is at its highest since 2008.
A very persuasive 66 per cent of Australians want our country to be a world leader in finding solutions to climate change.
At the same time, an overwhelming majority, including over two thirds of Coalition supporters, think tackling climate change will create economic opportunities, such as new jobs and investment.
Mainstream business has been urging the integration of climate and energy policies, recognising the need for net zero emissions and highlighting the costs of piecemeal action.
With the major party numbers tight it is important to note that four out of five of the lower house crossbenchers support credible climate action.
Only Bob Katter is ambivalent. Cathy McGowan and Andrew Wilkie supported the previous carbon pricing mechanism and have strong and/or inclusive policies. Nick Xenophon's team backed strong 2030 targets and look likely to gain three Senate seats.
And it appears at least eight Green Senators will be returned.
As a matter of fact The Coalition, Labor, Greens and Nick Xenophon Team (NXT) now all support emissions trading and renewable energy, albeit to varying degrees. Labor had stronger policies but both they and the Coalition share support for the Paris climate agreement's goals of keeping global warming well below 2°C and the pursuit of limiting it to 1.5°C.
There is a centre that can support credible climate action and there are extremes with Hanson and others that won't.
Only the centre offers chances of political, investor and community stability.
If the Coalition manages to retain government, it will need to choose between the extremes and the centre on climate change and on other issues.
It will also need to choose between scare campaigns and substance.
It was a bittersweet irony at best to hear the Coalition complain about scare campaigns given its colourful past of wrecking balls, cobra squeezes and distortions regarding the impacts of the carbon pricing mechanism.
It continued this election with claims of a 78 per cent electricity price hike from Labor's policies which were an extreme misrepresentation which got no traction.
A move beyond scare campaigns would be welcome but will need mediation from independent institutions and/or assistance from civil society and business partnerships such as the Australian Climate Roundtable of business, investor, welfare, union and environment groups.
Though it has committed to a review of climate policies in 2017, and consideration of a long term emissions reduction target, the Coalition may benefit from bringing that process forward.
It would certainly be supported by regular independent processes such as that offered by the Climate Change Authority - which has survived despite continued Coalition opposition.
Oddly, after a week of Brexit chaos, our country can learn from a UK decision welcomed across the political spectrum, by mainstream industry, by investors and by environmental activists.
On Thursday, the Conservative UK government accepted the advice of the independent Committee on Climate Change, responding to its regular carbon budget driven review process, and adopted an ambitious 2030 emissions reduction target.
Perhaps surprisingly, climate action in UK and in Australia could be a lifebuoy of stability amongst turbulent political waters. But it will require a clear choice.
A choice for inclusive processes, independent institutions and considered deliberation.
Not a choice for extremism, scare campaigns or deliberate distortions.

*John Connor is CEO of The Climate Institute. Whilst qualified as a lawyer, John has spent over twenty years working in a variety of policy and advocacy roles with organisations including World Vision, Make Poverty History, the Australian Conservation Foundation and the NSW Nature Conservation Council. 

Links

• Clarifying the impacts of Brexit on the Paris Agreement and Australia's climate policy
• Election Research: Mind the political gap – voters, business frustrated by inaction on climate change and energy
• Extreme weather: Managing climate risk to property is the joint responsibility of many stakeholders

'Sleeper Issue' Of Leaking Coal Seam Gas Fields May Blow Hole In Emissions Goals

Fairfax - Peter Hannam

Gas has long been touted as cleaner than coal and marketed as a "transition" fuel until the mass take-up of renewable energy becomes viable.
But a growing chorus of voices from Australia and overseas is warning that any perceived benefits could easily be lost with just small leakages.
Professor Peter Rayner from the University of Melbourne says it takes just 1-2 per cent of gas leakage for any advantage to be lost.

Queensland's coal seam gas industry now has more than 7000 wells. Photo: Saah Moles, Wilderness Society

Australia's coal seam gas industry claims its leakage is just 0.02 per cent but increased detection of leaks in the US – triggering a flurry of studies – suggest some big changes are in the winds.
US regulators this year lifted their estimate of America's annual emissions of methane – the potent gas that makes up most of natural gas – by 13 per cent with leakage from the oil and gas industry largely blamed.
While methane clouds have been detected near gasfields, it took a huge leak starting last October from a gas storage site near Los Angeles to grab media attention.

CSG has its protesters now – before fugitive emissions are known. Photo: Andrew Quilty

Thousands were forced to evacuate their homes, with the leak venting almost 100,000 tonnes of methane over 16 weeks. Methane has as much as 100 times the warming impact of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period and the release was akin to adding 500,000 cars to the roads during the event, local media reported.
While Australia's gas boom, particularly for coal seam gas, is of a much smaller scale than the US shale bonanza, many of the issues are identical. These include the lack of baseline studies to distinguish the impacts of drilling and fracking of wells from natural methane seepage.

Closer to the surface

The industry says just 0.02 per cent of the gas developed vents as methane to the atmosphere. Photo: Glenn Hunt

The uncertainties around CSG in particular "are really very large", Professor Rayner said.
"It's closer to the surface [than conventional gas] ... it's more dispersed, and the chances for something to go wrong are much higher," he said.
CSG operators such as Santos, Origin Energy and BG Group, say they have every incentive to limit leakage of the lucrative commodity from their lattice of CSG wells and pipelines.

LNG exports were worth $16.9 billion in 2014-15, APPEA says. Photo: Stephanie Kelly

According to Santos' environmental impact statement (EIS) for its $25 billion Gladstone LNG project, fugitive emissions would only be 0.1 per cent for the CSG gasfields themselves. Total emissions were just 20,000 tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent last year across its entire business.
"Santos meets all its regulatory requirements around emissions," a spokesman said. "We monitor, independently audit and make this data publically available in our annual Sustainability Report."
But a spokesman for Queensland's Department of Environment and Heritage Protection conceded that Santos's EIS "does not include provisions for a formal auditing process". However, the proponent is required "to document its proposed operations and how these will impact on the environment, which the department uses to "to inform the relevant permit conditions and requirements".

Chinchilla community members said the Condamine River has never bubbled with such frequency before CGS mining came to the region. Photo: Max Phillips

Even without unanticipated leakage, the surge in CNG and its processing for export markets is set to play a big role in a forecast jump Queensland's greenhouse gas emissions. The government estimates that the state's emissions will surge 35 per cent between 2014 and 2030 even as Australia is aiming to cut them.

Migratory emissions
Researchers, though, say little is understood about how drilling and fracking may create conditions for leakage through the soil long after a well has been decommissioned.
With more than 7000 CSG wells in Australia and headed towards tens of thousands, "the long-term, post-production fugitive [emissions] are certainly a sleeper issue," Professor Rayner said.
Dimitri Lafleur, a former geoscientist at energy giant Shell, said the industry has little idea of how much "migratory emissions" are making it to the surface.
"With such a vast network and thousands of wells, it is very difficult to come up with an accurate number if you don't monitor on a regular basis," said Mr Lafleur, a PhD student at Melbourne University under Professor Rayner.
"And given it is not a requirement to minimise fugitive emissions, why would you?"
Mr Lafleur is part of a team commissioned by The Australia Institute to examine how big a problem such leakage is and how it might affect Australia's national emissions targets given the industry's rapid expansion.
"No one knows what the baseline emissions are – from natural emissions from seeps, bores, for example – but I believe there is a chance that these emissions will become larger, with continued water extraction," he said. Companies remove huge amounts of water to get to the gas, depressurising the aquifers in the process.

'Social licence issue'
Political opposition to CSG has come mostly from the Greens. Labor and the Coalition generally back developments in Queensland, but have mixed views of the sector in other states such as Victoria and NSW.
NSW Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham became an internet sensation when he set the Condamine River in Queensland alight in April. Deputy Greens leader Larissa Waters, along with independent senator Gleenn Lazaus, has helped lead senate inquiries into CSG.
"Coal seam gas and fracking wells and pipes leak like a sieve, and they could be just as bad for the climate as burning coal," Greens Senator Larissa Waters said.
"As disused gas wells age and concrete casings break down, we risk further leaks for decades to come," she said. "No studies have systematically examined the deteriorations of old wells."
Fairfax Media sought comment from Environment Minister Greg Hunt and his Labor counterpart, Mark Butler.
Gas produces as much as 77 per cent more energy per molecule of CO2 than coal.
Professor Rayner said emissions issues with CSG had the potential to diminish public support for an industry already dogged with problems such as salt disposal, access to farmers' lands and interference with ground water.
If CSG is not cleaner than coal, "the whole social licence issue is brought into question," Professor Rayner said. "It becomes quite serious."

'Rivers shouldn't do that'
Locals say the bubbling of the Condamine River, which was highlighted when Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham set fire to it on Friday, is caused by a nearby CSG operation.

Links

• Australia's environmental peril revealed in five charts
• 'Largest community-owned' solar farm in Australia taking root in Canberra vineyard
• Canberra weather: Rainy start to July follows wettest June on record
• Antarctic ozone hole has finally started to heal, scientists report

Climate Change: Big Four Banks' Lending To Australian Renewables Projects Falls

The Guardian - Michael Slezak

Market Forces finds only two financing deals closed in first half of 2016 despite banks' purported support for sector

The National Australia Bank lent money to a windfarm in South Australia and both NAB and Westpac helped finance one in New South Wales. Photograph: Angela Harper/AAP

Australia's big four banks' lending for Australian renewable energy projects has tumbled in the first half of 2016, despite all of them spruiking their continuing support for the sector.
Based on public announcements from the banks and their customers, the activist group Market Forces has found only two financing deals were closed this year in the Australian renewables sector.
The National Australia Bank lent money to a windfarm in South Australia and both NAB and Westpac helped finance one in New South Wales.
Although more financing could be revealed in the second half of the year, the figures seem to show the banks have slowed their flow of money to the renewables sector in Australia.
"This is what you see when you have years of stagnation and cutting into renewable energy policy," said Julien Vincent from Market Forces.
The group has been collecting the data on financing for Australian renewable energy projects for the past eight years.
The first six months of 2016 have seen the big four banks lend only $162m to renewable projects. That is less than half the average amount loaned in all previous six-month periods since 2008 and the fifth-worst half-yearly figure in the dataset.


So far this year, according to public announcements, both the Commonwealth Bank and ANZ have not closed any deals for renewable energy projects in Australia.
Market Forces data previously showed the big four banks lent $5.5bn to the Australian fossil-fuel sector in 2015 and that the amount lent to the fossil-fuel sector was six times more than lent to the renewables sector since 2008. One bank had a ratio of 13 to one, favouring lending to fossil fuels over renewables.


When approached in February and then again in May to comment on their continuing lending to fossil-fuel projects in Australia, all four banks responded to the Guardian's questions by emphasising their lending to the renewables sector.
But Vincent said the lack of local investment wasn't entirely the banks' fault.
"This is what you get when you have years of debate about whether the renewable energy target should be cut and you have a carbon price that is cut and then you have a billion dollars taken out of the [Clean Energy Finance Corporation] to paper over cracks, trying to protect the reef," he said. "There is so little going on and so little to invest in now."
That analysis was confirmed by a spokesman for the Commonwealth Bank, who told the Guardian: "The limited number of renewable energy developments, and therefore financing opportunities in Australia, has resulted in the majority of CBA renewable financings being offshore in the last year and we have been active in both Europe and North America."
However, Vincent said the banks all had commitments to invest in renewable energy and, if government policy wasn't allowing them to do that, they should be publicly calling for change.
"They're getting credit and applause for carbon reduction and renewable energy – so where are they in the public debate?" Vincent said. "Why aren't they saying 'hey we're doing our best but there aren't enough opportunities being created'?
"They're four of the biggest and most powerful companies in Australia and if they want policies that would let them unlock this finance – which is in the tens of billions of dollars ready to deploy – then they could get them."
Vincent said it was bad news for the Australia economy, because this money was flowing overseas, with the big four banks lending to overseas renewable projects more than they were to local ones.
"We're missing a trick, where there is a huge amount of funds sitting there that the banks would certainly be able to get a lot of benefit from, in terms of reputation, if they were able to deploy that in Australia," he said.
In 2015, global investment in renewable energy grew to more than twice that in coal and gas-fired power generation, according to UN environment program figures.
In the 2014-2015 financial year, an all-time record of about US$320bn was invested in renewable energy worldwide but in Australia investment fell by 31%, with government plans to cut the renewable energy target blamed.
The Market Forces database was built from public statements and could be missing deals. But Vincent said the group had spoken with key players in the renewables sector and nobody had found financing deals that had been missed.
The banks all said they were unable to comment on specific deals that could be in the works, due to client confidentiality.
Westpac emphasised their lending to a broader category called the "CleanTech and environmental services sector", to which it lent $6.3bn in the six months to March 2016. They also pointed to their work on climate bonds and discounted loans offered to business seeking to improve their energy efficiency.
NAB told Guardian Australia they would continue to work towards their commitment "to invest $18bn over the next seven years to support the transition to a low-carbon economy".
ANZ declined to comment.

Links

• Australia's biggest banks pump billions into fossil fuels despite climate pledges
• Global coal and gas investment falls to less than half that in clean energy
• Climate change: John Hewson accuses Coalition of 'national disgrace'
• Climate change: Victoria aims to generate 25% of electricity via renewables by 2020
• Peabody's Australian mines in jeopardy despite minister's advice, says lawyer
• Climate change: Australia's big banks urged to reject new loans for coal projects
• Saving Great Barrier Reef from climate change should be central election issue, says Tim Flannery
• Labor proposes two emissions trading schemes costing $355.9m
• Malcolm Turnbull risks Australia's economy with inaction on climate change
• Australia's leaders 'wilfully blind' about climate change, says former NAB chief

Stem CTO: Lithium-Ion Battery Prices Fell 70% in the Last 18 Months

Greentech Media - Stephen Lacey*

"There are new markets opening up because of what we've seen in battery pricing."

Tesla's battery factory gets a lot of attention.
When completed, the so-called Gigafactory will manufacture more lithium-ion batteries each year than were produced globally in 2013.
That will help push prices further downward.
But a few other large producers -- LG Chem, Panasonic and Samsung -- are already making batteries at unprecedented scale.
 There are numerous giga-scale factories producing cells and battery packs for electric cars and stationary applications throughout Asia. And the recent wave of capacity is already impacting pricing in a big way.
According to Larsh Johnson, the chief technology officer of Stem, the company is paying 70 percent less for lithium-ion batteries than it was 18 months ago.
"It's happening. The capacity is out there," said Johnson in an interview. "The momentum continues."
Stem has installed 68 megawatt-hours of batteries for commercial and industrial applications, mostly to shave demand charges for customers that consume a lot of power in the middle of the day. Johnson said the improvement in pricing is allowing Stem to think beyond traditional demand charge management.
"There are new markets opening up because of what we've seen in battery pricing," he said.
Traditional demand management typically requires systems that discharge for 1 to 2 hours. Stem is now getting customer requests for systems that can provide 4 or more hours of storage to support grid management services, such as frequency regulation or load-shifting to support renewable energy integration. The company is also looking at a broader geographic range, which includes Texas, Germany and Ontario.
The energy density of lithium-ion batteries continues to improve as well, helping vendors improve performance without adding new costs. "Double-density batteries are important," said Johnson.
As battery costs go down, more hours of storage can be packed into the same battery.
"I'm not surprised that customers are asking for 4-hour duration systems," said Ravi Manghani, director of GTM Research's storage practice. "As soon as you start using storage for something beyond demand-charge management, you're looking at a multi-hour project."
Many utilities looking to aggregate behind-the-meter storage services in New York and California are requiring more than 4 hours of discharge. And it's getting cheaper to provide that level of service every month.
There are a couple of reasons for the 70 percent drop in pricing. Expansion of worldwide production capacity played a role. Since much of the new capacity was designed for electric vehicle demand that never materialized, stationary storage vendors are getting a better deal.
According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, there was a total of 53 gigawatt-hours of lithium-ion cell production capacity in 2015 -- but only 40 percent of that was utilized.
Stem's large purchase orders give it an advantage as well. Of the 70 percent price improvement reported by Stem, Manghani estimates that roughly 40 percent comes from oversupply, and another 30 percent comes from bulk ordering.
Johnson said that Stem is expecting a similar drop in pricing over the next 18 to 24 months. He wouldn't give any exact numbers on pricing, however.
"We're trying to balance our purchasing decisions with this continuing price decline," he said.
By 2020, GTM Research expects average lithium-ion battery costs to hit $217 per kilowatt-hour. "But we're already starting to hear numbers in the $200 to $250 per kilowatt-hour range," said Manghani. And Tesla may already be well below those numbers, say some analysts.

*Stephen Lacey is the Managing Editor at Greentech Media, where he reports on energy efficiency, solar and grid modernization. He is also host of The Energy Gang podcast, a weekly audio digest of cleantech news.

Links

• Breaking: EV and Battery Builder Tesla Offers to Acquire PV Leader SolarCity for ~$2.5 Billion
• Tesla Discontinues 10-Kilowatt-Hour Powerwall Home Battery
• The Benefits and Drawbacks of Tesla's Plan to Acquire SolarCity

Bionic Leaf Turns Sunlight Into Liquid Fuel

Harvard Gazette - Peter Reuell

New system surpasses efficiency of photosynthesis

A new "bionic leaf" system uses solar energy to produce liquid fuel. Jessica Polka/Silver Lab

The days of drilling into the ground in the search for fuel may be numbered, because if Daniel Nocera has his way, it'll just be a matter of looking for sunny skies.

Co-creator of the new system Harvard researcher Daniel Nocera. Rose Lincoln/Harvard Staff Photographer 

Nocera, the Patterson Rockwood Professor of Energy at Harvard University, and Pamela Silver, the Elliott T. and Onie H. Adams Professor of Biochemistry and Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School, have co-created a system that uses solar energy to split water molecules and hydrogen-eating bacteria to produce liquid fuels.
The paper, whose lead authors include postdoctoral fellow Chong Liu and graduate student Brendan Colón, is described in a June 3 paper published in Science.
"This is a true artificial photosynthesis system," Nocera said. "Before, people were using artificial photosynthesis for water-splitting, but this is a true A-to-Z system, and we've gone well over the efficiency of photosynthesis in nature."
While the study shows the system can be used to generate usable fuels, its potential doesn't end there, said Silver, who is also a founding core member of the Wyss Institute at Harvard University.
"The beauty of biology is it's the world's greatest chemist — biology can do chemistry we can't do easily," she said. "In principle, we have a platform that can make any downstream carbon-based molecule. So this has the potential to be incredibly versatile."

Co-creator of the new system Harvard researcher Pamela Silver. Rose Lincoln/Harvard Staff Photographer

Dubbed "bionic leaf 2.0," the new system builds on previous work by Nocera, Silver, and others, which — though it was capable of using solar energy to make isopropanol — faced a number of challenges. Chief among those, Nocera said, was the fact that the catalyst used to produce hydrogen — a nickel-molybdenum-zinc alloy — also created reactive oxygen species, molecules that attacked and destroyed the bacteria's DNA. To avoid that, researchers were forced to run the system at abnormally high voltages, resulting in reduced efficiency.
"For this paper, we designed a new cobalt-phosphorous alloy catalyst, which we showed does not make reactive oxygen species," Nocera said. "That allowed us to lower the voltage, and that led to a dramatic increase in efficiency."
The system can now convert solar energy to biomass with 10 percent efficiency, Nocera said, far above the 1 percent seen in the fastest-growing plants.
In addition to increasing the efficiency, Nocera and colleagues were able to expand the portfolio of the system to include isobutanol and isopentanol. Researchers also used the system to create PHB, a bio-plastic precursor, a process first demonstrated by Professor Anthony Sinskey of MIT.
The new catalyst also came with another advantage — its chemical design allows it to "self-heal," meaning it wouldn't leach material into solution.
"This is the genius of Dan," Silver said. "These catalysts are totally biologically compatible."
Though there may yet be room for additional increases in efficiency, Nocera said the system is already effective enough to consider possible commercial applications, but within a different model for technology translation.
"It's an important discovery — it says we can do better than photosynthesis," Nocera said. "But I also want to bring this technology to the developing world as well."

Working in conjunction with the First 100 Watts program at Harvard, which helped fund the research, Nocera hopes to continue developing the technology and its applications in nations like India with the help of their scientists.
In many ways, Nocera said, the new system marks the fulfillment of the promise of his "artificial leaf," which used solar power to split water and make hydrogen fuel.
"If you think about it, photosynthesis is amazing," he said. "It takes sunlight, water, and air — and then look at a tree. That's exactly what we did, but we do it significantly better, because we turn all that energy into a fuel."

Note: This work was supported by the Office of Naval Research, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. The Harvard University Climate Change Solutions Fund is supporting ongoing research into the bionic leaf platform. 

Links

• A leap for 'artificial leaf'
• Clean energy pioneer brings lab to Harvard
• Tackling carbon emissions in China
• Discovering soil-less farming
• Targeting the ills of climate change