Emissions targets being imposed by corporates in the U.S. and Europe are forcing manufacturers in other parts of the world to decarbonise, writes Kwangyin Liu at Clean Energy Wire. Here, she looks at how Taiwan’s TSMC – the world’s third largest chip manufacturer – is having to set up factories in Arizona (U.S.) and Kumamoto (Japan) where emissions are lower and thus to comply with requirements set by customers like Apple, Google and Microsoft. … [Read more...]
Will this be the decade of Carbon Capture or another false start?
Ten years ago there was a major drive to get carbon capture off the ground. But only 30% of the earmarked $8.5bn worldwide was ever spent. Spending timescales were too short, deadlines were missed, projects were too focussed and too complex, and long-term liability was poorly understood and managed. This time it can be different, says Samantha McCulloch at the IEA who compares that faltering history with the plans now being put in place. New … [Read more...]
The nexus between data centres, efficiency and renewables: a role model for the energy transition
How much will electricity consumption from data centres grow from today’s 1% of the global total? 40-fold by 2030? Or a more manageable 5-fold? Or less? Sean Ratka and Francisco Boshell at IRENA try to answer this question by looking at the innovations being made by the tech industry to drive down power costs and emissions. The evidence is promising. Though data centre computing output jumped 6- fold between 2010 and 2018, their energy … [Read more...]
A record year for big corporates buying renewable energy to run their operations
In the U.S. 2018 set a new record for total capacity of announced corporate renewable energy (RE) purchases. Facebook, AT&T, Walmart, ExxonMobil and Microsoft top the list. This unprecedented demand has been met with robust supply from renewable energy project developers as well as from utilities, which have demonstrated their willingness to work with these buyers in finding new solutions in the market. The Rocky Mountain Institute’s Lily … [Read more...]
