Straight Talk with Chukwudi Obi

DuPage County Forest Preserve commissioners recently agreed to expand a proposed clubhouse at The Preserve at Oak Meadows. The expansion will include include the installation of a solar power system for a cart storage building at the district-owned golf course in Addison, Illinois. "It's not a home run," forest preserve President Daniel Hebreard said. "I would like a better vision. But we did a great thing in adding a responsible environmental project to the construction project." The Preserve at Oak Meadows  (formerly Oak Meadows Golf Course)had a clubhouse for decades until the structure was destroyed in a 2009 fire. Now officials are going to seek price quotes for a new structure. Construction of the clubhouse is estimated to cost roughly $12 million. That number could change once the results of the bids are known in July. If commissioners agree to move forward, the project would break ground in late September or early October. The board discuss...

The average American,  is responsible for 14.95 metric tons, compared to 6.57 metric tons per person in China and only 1.57 metric tons in India. There’s also a huge difference in CO₂ emissions per person among the US states. Wyoming has the highest CO₂ emissions per capita at 110 metric tons, while New York has the lowest with under 9 metric tons, according to US Energy Information Administration figures from 2015. While the US is way ahead of China under the CO₂ per capita measurement, China is the world’s biggest emitter overall. It overtook the US in terms of total emissions back in 2006 and now emits more than the US and EU combined. Rapid economic growth and a large population have been driving up China’s emissions. This chart from the World Resources Institute shows the scale of its contribution to global warming. Canada has neither the large population nor the high total greenhouse emissions of China and the US, but when its CO₂ emissions are measured per person...

Applying AI to the development of new materials can reduce embedded emissions, toxicity and costs while saving researchers precious time in the lab. Experiments done by trial-and-error are often repeated thousands of times before a breakthrough occurs. Instead, AI could automate complex scientific tasks and enable researchers to focus on tasks that require more creativity and ingenuity. Using AI in this way can give manufacturers an edge. Manufacturers tend to invest in optimizing downstream production functions, which has led to several AI applications in sensor technologies and process optimization. Using AI for upstream design purposes, however, is an untapped business opportunity that could reduce the time it takes to discover new materials, freeing up capital for deployment and commercialization strategies. Current clean energy manufacturing processes are highly specialized, require upfront capital, and are energy-intensive. This is why the market is heavily concentrated in ...

At a site in the Western Desert, some 650 km south of Cairo, one of the world’s largest and most ambitious solar energy projects is underway. The Benban Solar Park will produce enough electricity to power one million homes. But more than that, it is part of a whole new strategy for infrastructure projects that will see the Egyptian government start to work closely with private enterprise. It is expected to go live in 2019, at which point it will house 32 power stations across a 37km2 site, and will be capable of generating 1,650 megawatts of electricity. This will go a long way toward Egypt hitting its goal of having 20% of its energy needs met by renewables. But the effect it will have on the economic fabric and policy-making strategies of the country are equally significant. Egypt is heavily reliant on fossil fuels and almost all the country’s power facilities have been built and owned by the government. The government also runs a series of costly fuel subsidy schemes, whic...

India has proposed incentives worth 885 billion rupees ($12.4 billion) to encourage power plants to install equipment to curb emissions and to develop infrastructure for electric vehicles (EVs), according to a government statement. The bulk of the money, 835 billion rupees, would be aimed at curbing sulphur emissions from power plants, with the rest devoted to development of EV infrastructure in 70 cities over five years ending 2025, the statement said. The proposal by India's power ministry to its finance commission is in addition to an existing proposal that envisages installation costs for emission-cutting equipment to be passed on to consumers. The ministry's plans come against the backdrop of a utilities sector under financial stress, with loans from mostly state-run lenders turning sour or requiring restructuring, according to an Assocham-Grant Thorton report this month. The Association of power producers, an industry group that represents private companies suc...