Electric grid

A research group led by postdoctoral associate Minde An analyzed China’s greenhouse gas emissions over the past decade, finding a substantial increase thought to be primarily driven by aluminum production, reports Ellen McNally for The Guardian. The researchers, writes McNally, say these levels could be reduced “with technological innovation and incorporation of the aluminum industry into the carbon market, or a national carbon trading scheme allowing emitters to buy or sell emission credits.” 

Ubiquitous Energy, an MIT startup, has created a transparent photovoltaic glass coating, called UE Power, that can turn any surface into a tiny solar panel, reports Teodosia Dobriyanova for Mashable. “The company, however, is prioritizing the use of UE Power on windows in an attempt to help buildings reduce their colossal climate footprint,” writes Dobriyanova.

WBUR reporters Bruce Gellerman and David Greene spotlight Form Energy, a startup co-founded by MIT scientists with the mission to find a low-cost way to transform the global electric system. The startup “had a eureka moment when they thought about harnessing the rusting process to power batteries,” write Gellerman and Greene. 

Ubiquitous Energy, an MIT startup, is developing technology to transform windows into surfaces that capture solar energy, reports Catherine Clifford for CNBC. “Ubiquitous makes a coating for windows that uses semiconducting materials to convert sunlight into electricity,” writes Clifford. “The coating is just nanometers thick and tiny wires connect the solar window to electrical systems where the energy is used.”

MIT startup Ubiquitous Energy has created transparent solar panels that can also generate electricity, reports Adele Peters for Fast Company. “The windows, with two panes of glass that are sealed together, have wires that can be connected either directly to something next to the window – such as a light or electronic blinds – or connected to a battery in the building or back into the electric grid,” writes Peters.

MIT scientists have concluded that nuclear fusion can be used to power electricity grids within the next decade, reports David Abel for The Boston Globe. “It may sound like science fiction, but the science of fusion is real, and the recent scientific advancements are game-changing,” says Dennis Whyte, director of the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center.

MIT researchers have found that while battery and fuel production for electric vehicles creates higher emissions than traditional cars, those emissions are offset by the greater energy efficiency of EVs. “Currently, the electric vehicle in the U.S., on average, would emit about 200 grams of CO2 per mile,” says senior research scientist Sergey Paltsev. “We are projecting that with cleaning up the grid, we can reduce emissions from electric vehicles by 75%, from about 200 (grams) today to about 50 grams of CO2 per mile in 2050.”

Writing for The Hill, Prof. Sanjoy Mitter, Prof. Munther Dahleh, research affiliate Le Xie and their colleagues underscore the need to build a “resilient energy ‘superhighway,’ an electric grid that delivers a wide portfolio of energy supplies to the end users in a reliable manner.” They add that: “Investments are needed both in building the backbone interconnections, as well as in upgrading the ‘last mile’ distribution grid.”

Francis O'Sullivan, director of research at the MIT Energy Initiative, speaks with Emre Kelly of USA Today about the value of microgrids in increasing resilience to natural disasters. O’Sullivan says that the Caribbean islands impacted by hurricanes Irma and Maria should “look to integrate today’s newer technologies and not simply rebuild the old system we had.” 

In a WBUR segment examining efforts to make electrical grids more resilient, Bruce Gellerman highlights how MIT researchers are developing a digital test bed that “will set national standards for the control devices that will manage the complex microgrids, making sure power from large utilities meshes perfectly with that produced by local intermittent sources like wind, solar and backup batteries.”