Consumption Week 26
My notes from some of the media I consumed this week.
The world’s most liveable cities in 2023
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2023/06/21/the-worlds-most-liveable-cities-in-2023
Tags: Liveability, Education, Healthcare, Infrastructure, Stability, Culture, Cost of Living, Politics, Travel
Ranked: The World’s Most Competitive Countries (2019-2023)
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/competitive-countries-rankings/
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Economy, Government, Business, Infrastructure
UK Green Business Awards: And the winner is…
https://www.businessgreen.com/news/4119130/uk-green-business-awards-winners-announced
- Behaviour Change Campaign, Circular Economy Project, Green Building Project, Green Heat Project, Recycling Project, Supply Chain and Logistics Project, Mobility Project, Marketing/Advertising Campaign, Nature-based Project, Renewable Energy Project, Communications Agency, Consultancy, Manufacturer, ESG Investor, Early-Stage Investor, Small Business, Fast Track Company, Innovation, Net Zero Strategy, Rising Star, Sustainability Leader, Politician, Leader, Company, Lifetime Achievement Award
Tags: Climate Change, Circular Economy, Heating, Recycling, Supply Chain, Logistics, Mobility, Renewable Energy, Manufacturing, Sustainability, Awards
Four non-transmission solutions for clean energy with new power lines in the permitting ‘Valley of Death’
- Storage-as-transmission: Batteries strategically placed at congested nodes where load profiles of limited capacity lines allow energy to be stored when loads ease to offset later demand spikes.
- Grid-enhancing technologies: Dynamic Line Ratings, or DLR, can expand a transmission line’s carrying capacity in real time based on readings from sensors throughout the system. Advanced Power Flow Control moves electricity away from overloaded lines to streamline energy delivery. Topology Optimization uses multi-factor awareness to maximize a system’s carrying capacity.
- Economic overbuilding: “If transmission bottlenecks remain formidable, and if the costs of renewables and storage keep falling, overbuilding might be more economic than dealing with queue and permitting obstacles,”
- Engaging customers: Flattening customers’ peak demand during the 5% to 10% of system hours that cause reliability threats.
Tags: Energy Networks, Electricity, Transmission
Land squeeze
Tags: Renewable Energy, Wind, Regulation
China is installing the world’s largest wind turbine enough to power 25,000 households
https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/china-largest-wind-turbine-power-homes
- In a single revolution, the turbine can generate a whopping 34.2 kWh of electricity and 66GWh in a calendar year, enough to power 25,000 households.
Tags: Wind, Renewable Energy
Why plastic-eating enzymes are in fashion with Lululemon, Patagonia, Stella McCartney and Puma
- “Our process can handle hard-to-recycle plastics, contaminated plastics, mixed plastics and plastics containing additives (like colors) again and again, and now textiles in a low-heat environment that is carbon neutral.”
Tags: Plastic, Recycling, Biotechnology
As plastics pile up, can ‘advanced’ recycling cut the waste?
https://www.greenbiz.com/article/plastics-pile-can-advanced-recycling-cut-waste
- Using an “advanced plastics recycling” technique called pyrolysis, post-consumer plastics delivered to the Brightmark plant are subjected to intense heat in an oxygen-starved environment until their molecules shake apart, yielding a type of oil similar to plastic’s petroleum feedstock, along with some waste byproducts.
- There’s a real lack of transparency about how much plastic they’re recycling and what their end product — pyrolysis oil — will actually be used for.
- Powell says his aim is 100 percent circularity, plastic to plastic, “and we’re going to be relentless in that pursuit.” But while the market matures and prices for recycled plastic drop, he admits that as “an interim step” some pyrolysis oil could be sold as fuel (to power airplanes, trucks and other heavy transportation).
Tags: Plastic, Recycling
Europe’s Inflation Outlook Depends on How Corporate Profits Absorb Wage Gains
- Profits (adjusted for inflation) were about 1 percent above their pre-pandemic level in the first quarter of this year. Meanwhile, compensation of employees (also adjusted) was about 2 percent below trend.
Tags: Business, Economics, Profits, Wages, Inflation
Ranking Industries by Their Potential for AI Automation
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/sp/ranking-industries-by-their-potential-for-ai-automation/
Tags: AI, Jobs, Future
xkcd: Alphabet Notes
Tags: Language, Comic