This is more than a microgrid project. You might say Sunnova is offering up a new microgrid ecosystem – one with fewer obstructions to microgrid development. It’s not always easy to develop community microgrids because they clash with the conventional utility model. So Sunnova has proposed a new approach — microutilities that would operate microgrids in newly built California neighborhoods of fewer than 2,000 customers. The plan requires state regulatory approval. Whether or not that happens, Sunnova has put forward an innovative model that could spur new ways of thinking about the utility/microgrid relationship.

Like Sunnova, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, sees outdated utility rules getting in the way of microgrid development, so it is bypassing its local utility and creating its own microgrid-friendly utility. The county utility will oversee multiple microgrids built to encourage economic activity and improve energy resilience. Cuyahoga County made last year’s list of microgrid projects to watch too. At the time, we said it would take some time for this project to be realized because of its complexity. County officials, however, are moving forward diligently with a plan to make the county a national microgrid industry hub.

Para leer más ingrese a:

https://www.microgridknowledge.com/microgrids/article/21452302/23-intriguing-microgrid-projects-to-watch-in-2023

Soon, leaders from around the globe will gather in Davos to address the state of our planet and the long list of pressing challenges it faces. The theme of this year’s World Economic Forum annual meeting, «Cooperation in a Fragmented World,» is a clarion call for government, business, and civil society leaders at this critical time.

With the whole world now teetering on edge, bold action is needed more than ever. In the past year, the pandemic persisted, the climate crisis deepened, war erupted in Europe, and high inflation returned, creating storm clouds over the global economy.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/01/axa-future-risks-report-davos23/

Air travel connects the world, linking people, culture, and ultimately enabling global economies to prosper. The aviation industry recognises that it must continue to deliver these benefits while reducing environmental impacts, and the sector has committed to net zero carbon emissions by 2050 or earlier. How can we achieve these ambitious, but crucial, goals? The good news is that if aviation sustainability follows the same trajectory as wind and solar, the industry can achieve these goals—however, much work and investment remains.

Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) is an immediate and scalable solution to decarbonising the industry. As a quick primer, SAF is a mix of hydrocarbons that is chemically similar to conventional jet fuel but not derived from fossil fuels. SAF instead relies on carbon atoms from organic and waste materials known as feedstocks. These include waste oils, algae, forest residues, municipal solid waste, and industrial gasses, as well as atmospheric CO2. By utilising carbon that exists in or would have otherwise been emitted into the atmosphere, SAF can lower CO2 emissions from aviation by up to 100% compared to conventional jet fuel.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/01/scale-sustainable-aviation-fuel-in-the-next-decade-davos23/

Can we break new ground accelerating the energy transition? Can the public and private sectors help depoliticize the issue, move beyond talk, and coalesce around concrete action? I would argue that the answers are a resounding “yes”. A critical path forward to achieve these goals is through transition finance.

Transition finance – new solutions to fund the energy transition to help remediate climate change – is something that all stakeholders can get behind. Done correctly, transition finance can potentially: a) enable a true shift toward decarbonization; b) enable the private sector to generate sufficient returns; c) support the public sector, which cannot fund this effort alone; and d) embrace, rather than ostracize, carbon-heavy industries and economies. In the case of the latter, this allows current high-emitters to participate and share much-needed institutional knowledge while decarbonizing their businesses and promoting economic growth and employment during the period of the transition. Let us examine each of those points in turn.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/01/davos23-transition-finance-decarbonization/

Schneider Electric and BitSight announced a strategic partnership to develop an OT risk-identification and threat-intelligence capability. The partners note how this move furthers their commitment to improve the security and resilience of their communities by detecting OT protocols exposed over the internet and contextualizing them with improved attribution.  

Through a joint effort, Schneider Electric will fuse its knowledge of OT protocols and systems with BitSight’s exposure-detection and management capabilities in order to generate the critical insights necessary for proactive security monitoring of externally observable risks to the OT community. The goal of this collaboration is to strengthen industrial security and provide more visibility into Industrial infrastructure and industrial control system (ICS) devices that may be at risk from a cyber-breach, they note. 

https://www.smartindustry.com/benefits-of-transformation/cybersecurity/news/21529158/schneider-electric-and-bitsight-announce-partnership-to-improve-detection-of-ot-cybersecurity-exposure

With Bosch Rexroth’s ROKIT Locator software, mobile robots can independently determine their position, notes its maker, heralding the launch of this new offering. Locator enables mobile robots to determine their position and orientation in any environment, simplifying the automation of intralogistics tasks in industry and trade, they add, noting that Locator is compatible with various industrial controllers and laser sensors on the market and is suitable for mobile units of all sizes and drive types.

With Locator, the process of introducing autonomous guided vehicles can be replaced with quick and easy commissioning, without requiring additional expert knowledge, claims Bosch. Locator enables the robots to evaluate the signals from a laser sensor in the vehicle and convert them into coordinates in space. No permanently installed aids, such as markers or reflectors, are required for orientation and position determination. Users only need one click to start up the system and familiarize the unit with its surroundings in a one-time orientation trip.

https://www.smartindustry.com/tools-of-transformation/robotics/news/21527779/product-news-software-component-locator-from-bosch-rexroth