Own Your Own Arched House For Under $1000

   By: Eugene Wilkie

In their time building Arched Cabins they have seen them used for everything you can think of, including workshops, animal shelters, vacation homes, RV shelters, retirement homes, and hunting lodges. No matter what your need is, an Arched Cabin can be adapted to suit you. Arched Cabins can be fully insulated and built out with lofts and finished interiors to be the home or cabin of your dreams, or they can be minimally insulated and finished with basic end caps to be used for an animal shelter or garage. The beauty of an Arched Cabin is in part due to their very fast build times, and also because each one is an empty canvas waiting on you to finish it to suit your personality and needs! Very cool. For all those looking for a cost effective tiny house solution this is a great shell to start with. If you look at all the different styles folks have done you can see the options like any home are endless. Very easy for the DYI folks. Sizes range from the smaller 8′ x 8′ unit right up through to a massive 24′ x 40′ unit! www.archedcabins.com

http://www.archedcabins.com/index.html

New Generation Of Excavator Has Spider Ability!

Linesman classic video (you will appreciate your electricity more)

"There are only three things that I have been afraid of electricity, heights and women. I am married too."

 

 

Elon Musk releases master plan! Read it here.

By Eugene Wilkie

I won't go into a deep analysis on this but I will say this is completely expected. One needs to clarify the vision in order to execute. Energy, communication and transportation seamlessly integrated plus a path forward to space. What more can we ask for? So here it is.

https://www.tesla.com/blog/master-plan-part-deux

Master Plan, Part Deux

Elon Musk July 20, 2016

 

The first master plan that I wrote 10 years ago is now in the final stages of completion. It wasn't all that complicated and basically consisted of:

1. Create a low volume car, which would necessarily be expensive
2. Use that money to develop a medium volume car at a lower price
3. Use that money to create an affordable, high volume car
   
   And...
4. Provide solar power. No kidding, this has literally been on our website for 10 years.

The reason we had to start off with step 1 was that it was all I could afford to do with what I made from PayPal. I thought our chances of success were so low that I didn't want to risk anyone's funds in the beginning but my own. The list of successful car company startups is short. As of 2016, the number of American car companies that haven't gone bankrupt is a grand total of two: Ford and Tesla. Starting a car company is idiotic and an electric car company is idiocy squared.
Also, a low volume car means a much smaller, simpler factory, albeit with most things done by hand. Without economies of scale, anything we built would be expensive, whether it was an economy sedan or a sports car. While at least some people would be prepared to pay a high price for a sports car, no one was going to pay $100k for an electric Honda Civic, no matter how cool it looked.
Part of the reason I wrote the first master plan was to defend against the inevitable attacks Tesla would face accusing us of just caring about making cars for rich people, implying that we felt there was a shortage of sports car companies or some other bizarre rationale. Unfortunately, the blog didn't stop countless attack articles on exactly these grounds, so it pretty much completely failed that objective.
However, the main reason was to explain how our actions fit into a larger picture, so that they would seem less random. The point of all this was, and remains, accelerating the advent of sustainable energy, so that we can imagine far into the future and life is still good. That's what "sustainable" means. It's not some silly, hippy thing -- it matters for everyone.
By definition, we must at some point achieve a sustainable energy economy or we will run out of fossil fuels to burn and civilization will collapse. Given that we must get off fossil fuels anyway and that virtually all scientists agree that dramatically increasing atmospheric and oceanic carbon levels is insane, the faster we achieve sustainability, the better.
Here is what we plan to do to make that day come sooner:
Integrate Energy Generation and Storage
Create a smoothly integrated and beautiful solar-roof-with-battery product that just works, empowering the individual as their own utility, and then scale that throughout the world. One ordering experience, one installation, one service contact, one phone app.
We can't do this well if Tesla and SolarCity are different companies, which is why we need to combine and break down the barriers inherent to being separate companies. That they are separate at all, despite similar origins and pursuit of the same overarching goal of sustainable energy, is largely an accident of history. Now that Tesla is ready to scale Powerwall and SolarCity is ready to provide highly differentiated solar, the time has come to bring them together.
Expand to Cover the Major Forms of Terrestrial Transport
Today, Tesla addresses two relatively small segments of premium sedans and SUVs. With the Model 3, a future compact SUV and a new kind of pickup truck, we plan to address most of the consumer market. A lower cost vehicle than the Model 3 is unlikely to be necessary, because of the third part of the plan described below.
What really matters to accelerate a sustainable future is being able to scale up production volume as quickly as possible. That is why Tesla engineering has transitioned to focus heavily on designing the machine that makes the machine -- turning the factory itself into a product. A first principles physics analysis of automotive production suggests that somewhere between a 5 to 10 fold improvement is achievable by version 3 on a roughly 2 year iteration cycle. The first Model 3 factory machine should be thought of as version 0.5, with version 1.0 probably in 2018.
In addition to consumer vehicles, there are two other types of electric vehicle needed: heavy-duty trucks and high passenger-density urban transport. Both are in the early stages of development at Tesla and should be ready for unveiling next year. We believe the Tesla Semi will deliver a substantial reduction in the cost of cargo transport, while increasing safety and making it really fun to operate.
With the advent of autonomy, it will probably make sense to shrink the size of buses and transition the role of bus driver to that of fleet manager. Traffic congestion would improve due to increased passenger areal density by eliminating the center aisle and putting seats where there are currently entryways, and matching acceleration and braking to other vehicles, thus avoiding the inertial impedance to smooth traffic flow of traditional heavy buses. It would also take people all the way to their destination. Fixed summon buttons at existing bus stops would serve those who don't have a phone. Design accommodates wheelchairs, strollers and bikes.
Autonomy
As the technology matures, all Tesla vehicles will have the hardware necessary to be fully self-driving with fail-operational capability, meaning that any given system in the car could break and your car will still drive itself safely. It is important to emphasize that refinement and validation of the software will take much longer than putting in place the cameras, radar, sonar and computing hardware.
Even once the software is highly refined and far better than the average human driver, there will still be a significant time gap, varying widely by jurisdiction, before true self-driving is approved by regulators. We expect that worldwide regulatory approval will require something on the order of 6 billion miles (10 billion km). Current fleet learning is happening at just over 3 million miles (5 million km) per day.
I should add a note here to explain why Tesla is deploying partial autonomy now, rather than waiting until some point in the future. The most important reason is that, when used correctly, it is already significantly safer than a person driving by themselves and it would therefore be morally reprehensible to delay release simply for fear of bad press or some mercantile calculation of legal liability.
According to the recently released 2015 NHTSA report, automotive fatalities increased by 8% to one death every 89 million miles. Autopilot miles will soon exceed twice that number and the system gets better every day. It would no more make sense to disable Tesla's Autopilot, as some have called for, than it would to disable autopilot in aircraft, after which our system is named.
It is also important to explain why we refer to Autopilot as "beta". This is not beta software in any normal sense of the word. Every release goes through extensive internal validation before it reaches any customers. It is called beta in order to decrease complacency and indicate that it will continue to improve (Autopilot is always off by default). Once we get to the point where Autopilot is approximately 10 times safer than the US vehicle average, the beta label will be removed.
Sharing
When true self-driving is approved by regulators, it will mean that you will be able to summon your Tesla from pretty much anywhere. Once it picks you up, you will be able to sleep, read or do anything else enroute to your destination.
You will also be able to add your car to the Tesla shared fleet just by tapping a button on the Tesla phone app and have it generate income for you while you're at work or on vacation, significantly offsetting and at times potentially exceeding the monthly loan or lease cost. This dramatically lowers the true cost of ownership to the point where almost anyone could own a Tesla. Since most cars are only in use by their owner for 5% to 10% of the day, the fundamental economic utility of a true self-driving car is likely to be several times that of a car which is not.
In cities where demand exceeds the supply of customer-owned cars, Tesla will operate its own fleet, ensuring you can always hail a ride from us no matter where you are.
So, in short, Master Plan, Part Deux is:
Create stunning solar roofs with seamlessly integrated battery storage
Expand the electric vehicle product line to address all major segments
Develop a self-driving capability that is 10X safer than manual via massive fleet learning
Enable your car to make money for you when you aren't using it

Boston Dynamics releases robot SpotMini, Creepy and cool. (video)

By: Eugene Wilkie

It has been fun and interesting to watch the team at Boston Dynamics. Their progression of robots has been amazing. Well they have done it again with their new SpotMini.

From YOUTUBE page: SpotMini is a new smaller version of the Spot robot, weighing 55 lbs dripping wet (65 lbs if you include its arm.) SpotMini is all-electric (no hydraulics) and runs for about 90 minutes on a charge, depending on what it is doing. SpotMini is one of the quietest robots we have ever built. It has a variety of sensors, including depth cameras, a solid state gyro (IMU) and proprioception sensors in the limbs. These sensors help with navigation and mobile manipulation. SpotMini performs some tasks autonomously, but often uses a human for high-level guidance. For more information about SpotMini visit our website at www.BostonDynamics.com

On Kodiak Island, flywheels are in and diesel is 99.8% out

Margaret Kriz Hobson, E&E reporter
EnergyWire: Friday, June 10, 2016

Matson Inc.'s massive electric crane and the Pillar Mountain wind farm dominate the shoreline near the city of Kodiak. Photo by Margaret Kriz Hobson.

 

KODIAK, Alaska -- Darron Scott, CEO of the Kodiak Electric Association, unlocked the door to a small building on a gravel road along Chiniak Bay and pointed to two innocuous metal boxes tucked into a corner beyond a bank of computers.
"Those are the flywheels," Scott said, turning on a computer screen to follow the ebb and flow of the system's electrical output.
More than a mile down the coast, a 340-foot-tall electric crane operated by Matson Inc. shipping company lifted a series of heavy metal cargo containers from the shore and transferred them onto the deck of a waiting ship.
Each time the regenerative crane raised a container into the air, it pulled electricity from the flywheel energy storage system. As it lowered its load, electricity flowed back to the flywheels.
"It's sort of like a Toyota Prius," Scott explained. "When you hit the brake [on the car], you actually make power, which goes back into the battery.

Advertisement

"Well, the crane does the same thing," he said. "When the crane drops the load, it will actually inject power back into the flywheels, which helps speed them back up again. The flywheel has just enough time to get recharged as the crane gets ready to pick up the next box for the next lift."
KEA's two flywheels can each store up to 1 megawatt of electricity. That's enough power to lift a heavy cargo container from the dock and move it to the ship.
Matson's $10 million electric gantry crane, which looks like a giant praying mantis perched along the island coast, began operations in Kodiak just this winter. The new machine is twice the size as the rusty, 40-year-old diesel-powered machine that it replaces.
Company officials say the new crane, the largest in Alaska, is designed to accommodate the new generation of wider container ships. The process of loading a vessel can take four to eight hours, depending on the size of the shipment and the weather conditions, according to Scott.
KEA was initially reluctant to agree to provide power to the shipping company's energy-gobbling electric crane. After all, the cooperative's electric grid is designed to supply energy to the region's 13,000 residents, as well as the city's small businesses, massive fish processing plants and U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak. It also serves the island communities of Chiniak, Pasagshak and Port Lions.

Kodiak, located on the United States' second largest island, has emerged as one of the nation's largest seafood ports and a powerhouse of renewable energy. Photo by Margaret Kriz Hobson.

 

On an average day, KEA's customers use about 17 MW of power, with demand climbing to 20 MW during the island's peak fish processing season.
Scott said the initial request to install a large electric crane came from Horizon Lines Inc., which owned the local shipping company before it was acquired by Honolulu-based Matson.
"The company called us a few years ago, and our first reaction was, 'No. We're not set up for this,'" Scott said, referring to the vast amount of energy the crane would draw. "We have to balance our electric system at all times. And the crane has the ability to go from 0 to 2 MW [of electrical demand] in a couple seconds."
But after studying the project and the potential solutions, KEA joined forces with Matson and the city of Kodiak to buy the $3 million flywheel system to manage the crane's fluctuating electricity demand.
The flywheels are just the latest addition to the company's impressive lineup of renewable energy systems. Roughly 76 percent of KEA's electricity comes from hydroelectric energy, with wind providing another 23 percent. The utility also relies on a storage battery system and the flywheels to back up its variable wind systems.
In total, the electric cooperative provides a remarkable 99.8 percent of its power from renewable sources of energy. The shift away from diesel energy has been good news for Kodiak residents, who now pay less per kilowatt-hour of electricity than they did in 2001.
It's also brought Kodiak praise from high places. During President Obama's visit to Alaska last fall, he applauded Kodiak as "the first in the world to put flywheel and battery energy storage together to stabilize its variable electric power from wind turbines."

Cutting back on a costly diesel habit

Kodiak Island, the nation's second largest island, is a lush, green 3,600-square-mile landmass with snow-capped mountains and rocky bays. The island is accessible only by boat or airplane and is located about 250 miles south of Anchorage at the edge of the Gulf of Alaska.
Inhabited by Alutiiq natives for thousands of years, the island was settled by Russian trappers in the 18th century.
After the Japanese bombed the Aleutian Islands during World War II, Kodiak became the heart of the U.S. government's Alaska military operations. Remnants of concrete lookout posts, gun emplacements and other installations are still scattered across the island.
During Alaska's devastating 1964 earthquake, the island was hit by a 30-foot tsunami that killed 15 people and wiped out several communities and businesses. The quake also changed the shape of the island, raising some coastal lands by as much as 30 feet.
Since then, Kodiak has grown into one of the nation's top five fishing ports in both volume of seafood caught and monetary value. Fish processing plants dot its shoreline, and commercial and recreational fishing boats fill the harbor. The island is also known for the Kodiak bears that crowd the rivers during the region's abundant salmon runs.
When KEA's Scott moved to Kodiak in 2000, the electric cooperative was providing almost 70 percent of the community's power needs from the Terror Lake Hydroelectric Generating Station, a hydro unit fed by a remote high-altitude lake located 25 miles outside of town.
The other 30 percent came from diesel generators powered by expensive fuel oil that was regularly brought to the island on barges.
Kodiak's hydroelectric unit was one of four dams built in southern Alaska in the 1980s by the Alaska Energy Authority to lower the communities' reliance on expensive diesel power.
In 2001, Kodiak, along with the other Alaskan communities served by the dams, bought the four hydropower units from the state and created the Four Dam Power Pool Agency to operate the systems.
Eventually, KEA acquired the local Terror Lake unit from that group and assumed sole control of the local hydro operation.

Cleaner power that's also cheaper

Kodiak's hydropower success led the KEA board to investigate other sources of clean, low-cost renewable energy. In 2007, the board adopted a bold vision statement proposing to generate 95 percent of the utility's electricity from renewable sources by 2020.
"We were looking at the price of diesel, which was going up," Scott explained. "At the same time, you had the pollution issues. Wind looked like the most likely avenue to go, because hydro and wind have some good synergies.

Darron Scott, president and CEO of the Kodiak Electric Association, has been at the helm of the electric cooperative as it built a six-unit wind farm on Kodiak's Pillar Mountain. Photo by Margaret Kriz Hobson.

 

"We have very strong winds," he noted. "When we were talking to General Electric about purchasing the wind turbines, their sales rep came down here and we took him up to the site. The wind was so strong that we had to stand basically at a 45-degree angle. We were really only out there for a minute or two before he said, 'Yeah, I'm good.'"
In 2009, KEA installed three 1.5-MW wind turbines on Pillar Mountain, a 1,200-foot hill that rises up behind the city of Kodiak. Three years later, the company added another three turbines to its lineup, along with a 3-MW battery storage system.
To build those renewable projects, KEA was able to ride the wave of funding opportunities that were then available at the state and federal levels. The wind turbines and the backup battery system were funded through a series of grants from Alaska's Renewable Energy Fund. That program is expected to be defunded by the Alaska Legislature this year as a result of the state's fiscal crisis.
The electric cooperative also secured a low-interest loan from the federal clean renewable energy bond program.
KEA estimates that power from the company's Terror Lake station costs 6.8 cents per kilowatt-hour. Wind energy is a little more expensive at 11 cents per kWh. But the two renewable sources are significantly cheaper than diesel generation, which costs 28.9 cents per kWh, given an average cost of diesel fuel at $3.50 per gallon.
Scott said the company still maintains four diesel generators on "hot standby." But thus far, those units have been turned on only during maintenance work on the hydropower facility and every few months to make sure they're still functioning.

Finding reliability in renewables

In recent years, the Kodiak electric cooperative board has revised the company's long-term vision statement. KEA now promises to use renewable sources of energy for at least 95 percent of the electricity it sells its customers for the foreseeable future.
That will require the company to find new sources of renewable energy to serve Kodiak's expanding fish processing industry. The cooperative is already working on a plan to enlarge its hydroelectric system, which now has three turbines delivering power to its customers.
"Right now, we're looking at diverting some nearby creeks through a tunnel" into Terror Lake, Scott explained. "That would add a lot more water and a lot more energy to the system." The company also plans to install a fourth hydroelectric turbine.
The project is designed to increase KEA's hydroelectric output by roughly 25 percent, enough to handle anticipated growth on the island through the late 2020s. The company is now pulling together the permits for the expansion project and hopes to begin construction in 2018. Under that timeline, the new system could begin operations a year later.
Scott said he is frequently asked when the electric cooperative will add more wind turbines to its hillside fleet, which has become a symbol of Kodiak's eco-friendly reputation. But he explains that despite Kodiak's history of strong winds, energy from the turbines is not always reliable.
"If we went too much further with the wind, we'd have situations where the lights would go out because it's just too variable at times," he said.
"We had an issue last November," Scott recalled. "We had hydro and wind running just like normal. And just over a couple of seconds, all the wind stopped. The wind went from 20 miles an hour to nothing in just a matter of two or three seconds."
But KEA's system was equipped to handle the abrupt change.
"Everything came up. The flywheels fired, the batteries fired, the hydro started picking up over time, and everything worked perfectly," he explained. "And we stayed above our trip points. Because the next line of defense is that you start turning people's power off to keep things stable. And obviously we don't want to go there.
"We've never had to go there due to a wind incident so far," he said. "And we'd rather not have to do that."
After they enlarge the company's workhorse hydropower system, they may consider more wind turbines. At the same time, Scott said he's also watching promising technologies like wave and tidal power.
Kodiak has several promising wave and tidal power spots, he noted. "But neither one of those technologies has really been commercialized yet," he said. "So we'll keep an eye on it."
By contrast, Scott doesn't consider solar energy to be a viable option in stormy, foggy Kodiak, where rain or snow falls during more than half of the year.
Scott said the company's renewable program appeals to the wide variety of Kodiak Island residents, who work primarily for the Coast Guard, fishing industry and shipping companies.
"We're a cooperative that's owned by the folks up here," he noted. "Part of the community is very concerned about the environment. And then there are some folks that are equally concerned about the cost, because they've got businesses to run. Well, our costs now are cheaper than they were 15 years ago.
"So it's kind of a win-win for both parties," he said. "The lights are more reliable than they were before. The cost is lower. And the environment is a whole lot better off."

BRAZIL TO OPEN LATIN AMERICA’S BIGGEST SOLAR POWER PLANT

The new plant should provide energy to 268,000 homes by the time it's fully operational in 2017

By plus55 on Jun 03, 2016

In the Northeastern state of Bahia, the Italian company Enel Green Power is building what will be the biggest solar power plant in Latin American, with a potential annual production of roughly 550 gigawatts per hour. It is enough to meet the energetic needs of more than 268,000 homes.
The power company is investing $400 million in the Ituverava Plant, which should be fully operational by the end of 2017. Forecasts about Brazil’s increase in demand for electricity state that consumption will rise an average of 4% per year until 2020.
But the energy used in Brazil is much less “green” that it could be – especially in terms of solar energy. Our country is one of the few in the world receiving more than 3,000 hours of sunlight per year. In the Northeastern region, the daily average is even higher. However, only 0.0008% of the electricity produced in the country comes from solar powered plants. Experts point to the lack of incentive and clear public policies to stimulate the use of solar energy as the main reason for the underachievement.
Still, even with all of the underused solar energy potential, 42% of the energy produced in Brazil comes from renewable sources including wind, sun, and biodiesel.

Dubai's DEWA seeking partners to build 1,000MW of solar power plants

By Staff writer  Thursday, 2 June 2016 3:52 PM

Via: www.arabianbusiness.com


Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of DEWA

Dubai Electricity & Water Authority is seeking partners to help build 1,000 megawatts (MW) of solar power plants as part of the emirate's plan to diversify its energy sources.

Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, managing director and CEO of DEWA announced plans to launch projects to generate 1,000MW by 2030 as Dubai aims to provide 7 percent of its total power output from clean energy sources by 2020, 25 percent by 2030, and 75 percent by 2050.

DEWA said it intends to build the largest concentrated solar power (CSP) project in the world, using the independent power producer (IPP) model.

The state-owned utility firm said it has released a tender for leading international CSP consultants to submit their proposals for advisory services for the first 200MW project of the CSP plant which will be operational by April 2021.

DEWA added that it will generate 1,000MW by 2030 in the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar park, which is the largest single-site solar park in the world that uses the IPP model. It will produce 1,000MW by 2020 and 5,000MW by 2030.

The 13MW first phase became operational in October 2013, and the 200MW second phase will be operational in April 2017. When it's completed, the project will achieve a reduction of approximately 6.5 million tonnes of carbon emissions annually.

Al Tayer said: "We will continue to build clean and renewable energy projects in Dubai to support the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050, and the Dubai Plan 2021, to make Dubai a city whose environmental elements are clean, healthy, and sustainable."

 

Chile is producing so much solar power, it's giving it away for free

Market forces often produce strange quirks in the economic system, like the one we’re seeing in Chile this year: the country is producing so much solar power that it’s being sold for… nothing at all.
While it’s incredibly encouraging to see so much expansion in the country’s renewable energy output, this huge amount of supply does actually cause problems for the companies looking to invest in solar energy.
Solar capacity on Chile’s central power grid (called SIC or Sistema Interconectado Central) has more than quadrupled over the past three years to 770 megawatts – good news for the environment and customers paying their electricity bills.

Read more

SolarWindow™ Claims Better Than Conventional PV By 50 Fold With 1 Year ROI

By: Eugene Wilkie

 



Dr. Scott Hammond with NREL Researchers, Holding a Blue-Green Tinted SolarWindow™ Module, Able to Generate Electricity, Under Development for Skyscraper Glass

Solar Window Technologies Inc. - SolarWindow™  has been busy engineering some of the greatest break through solar technologies I have seen. SolarWindow™ has records of 50 fold better generation than conventional photovoltaic. That is a stunning claim but on top of that it is a see through window product that can be retro-fitted or new and it is much lower cost!

This is from their site:

Engineered to outperform rooftop solar by 50-fold. Works in natural, shaded, and even indoor light.

SolarWindow™ can be applied to all four sides of tall towers, generating electricity using natural, shaded, and even artificial light. Conventional solar simply does not work in shaded areas or perform under artificial light.
The result?  SolarWindow™ can outperform today’s solar by as much as 50-fold when installed on a 50 story building, according to independently validated power production calculations.

What's our secret? Look up.

Look up along the sides of any of today’s tall towers or skyscrapers and you’ll see glass.  Lots of glass.
Our secret is the application of SolarWindow™ coatings to the many vast acres of window glass on a tall tower, turning an entire building into a source of clean, renewable energy.
Conventional solar systems cannot be applied in this way, and are instead limited to only a handful of square feet on congested rooftops. These very small tower rooftops are often crowded with service systems such as heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and elevators.  These spaces are also expected to offer tenant-amenities such as rooftop gardens and pools, and other high-footprint features.
Traditional solar also requires direct sunlight and cannot operate in shaded areas, a key advantage for SolarWindow™ applications where all four sides of a tower becomes a clean power-generator.
Importantly, our engineers have designed and tested SolarWindow™ to generate electricity from artificial light such as the fluorescent systems found inside offices, schools, and commercial buildings. Today’s solar systems do not perform well indoors or under artificial light.

These are ground breaking claims for the solar industry! As I look at all the different issues we have had to overcome over the 30 years I have been in the industry, I am intrigued with the ability to apply a see through layer to glass that allows for energy production. When you add the ability to outperform conventional PV by 50 fold it is a "holy grail, technology disruptive, breakthrough kind of moment." 

The first question of course is financial viability of the product. I am just going to post from the SolarWindow™ site their claims as it is absolutely stunning and completely changes the scenario of how quickly we get to grid parity and how we can quickly install solar to replace fossil.

Under one year, Industry’s fastest calculated financial return.

SolarWindow™ achieves payback within one year, according to first-ever independently validated financial modeling results.
To produce the equivalent amount of power with conventional solar systems would require at least 5-11 years for payback and at least 10-12 acres of valuable urban land.
Unlike the many acres of expensive downtown real estate required for solar array fields, SolarWindow™ systems can be installed on the readily-available vast window glass surfaces on tall towers and skyscrapers.

How is this possible? Liquid electricity.

Exponentially out-performing today’s solar photovoltaic (PV) systems is made possible when engineers apply electricity-generating SolarWindow™ coatings to glass. These see-through liquids create electricity-generating glass windows, successfully prototyped in the most aesthetically appealing colors in demand by building architects.

Electricity-Generating SolarWindow™ Module, Being Developed in Architecturally-Neutral Color

When one looks at how quickly can SolarWindow™ get to market it is clear that due to the materials SolarWindow™ is using it should be a fairly low impact process so once again I will just post from the SolarWindow™ site.

Earth-abundant organic materials. Liquid coatings ideal for high speed production.

SolarWindow™ modules are created by applying ultra-thin layers of liquid coatings on to glass and flexible plastics. These liquid coatings produce ultra-small solar cells and form groups called ‘arrays’. Because of the family of materials we use and the way in which we architect our design, the final product is generically referred to as an ‘organic photovoltaic solar array’ (OPV).
Importantly, our liquid coatings are primarily made of hydrogen and carbon – two of the most abundant materials found in nature.

What makes our organic liquid coatings so good? Performance.

We use organic materials (polymers) which are dissolved into liquid form.  We apply these liquids to surfaces such as flexible plastics and glass to produce see-through products which generate electricity.
Our approach works.  Here’s how.
We avoid fabrication using raw materials which are difficult to process or cannot be turned into liquids.  Applying liquid coatings on to glass surfaces makes our SolarWindow™ technology ideally suited for high speed roll-to-roll and sheet-to-sheet manufacturing. High-speed manufacturing techniques result in lower production costs.
Our methods do not require expensive high-temperature or high-vacuum production techniques inherent to conventional solar.
And, by manipulating our liquid coatings we’re able to produce a color wheel of architecturally-aesthetic varieties while remaining see-through. Traditional solar cannot be produced in this way.
The result?
When applied to glass, SolarWindow™ modules appear with a pleasant neutral-tint.  They are aesthetically appealing and not disruptive to the eye, seemingly passive.  SolarWindow™ modules invisibly capture energy from the sun and other light sources while quietly generating valuable electricity.
But, how does this compare to today’s solar?
In comparison to conventional crystalline and thin-film PV technologies, our SolarWindow™ coatings have numerous advantages:

1. Designed to generate electricity on glass, enhancing the performance of today’s typically insulated commercial and residential windows. Traditional solar cannot be applied to glass windows.
2. See-through, with high level of ‘visible light transmission.’ Traditional solar is not see-through.
3. Able to generate significant electricity from natural, artificial or even shaded light. Traditional solar does not work in artificial or shaded light.

Currently available solar cells are largely made of silicon wafers, an expensive and brittle material that can limit their commercial usability.
Other newer generation, lower-cost, flexible thin film solar materials such as amorphous silicon, copper-indium-gallium-selenide, and cadmium telluride, often require high-vacuum and high-temperature production techniques, and are thick, bulky, and impossible to see through when compared to SolarWindow™

In conclusion I would like to point out their real journey is just going to get started as the implications of their discoveries filter into the market. The fact is we have much more window square footage than rooftop in metro areas which are often the most energy intensive consumers on the grid. Even when there is available rooftop there are a multitude of structural, permitting and actual feasible space issues.

Energy Department Launches Five New Solar Ready Vets Training Locations

Written by IVN
Published: 17 May 2016

Washington, DC - Today, the Energy Department announced five additional military bases will join Solar Ready Vets, a solar jobs training program that prepares service members for careers in the solar industry when they leave active duty. The Department is also awarding $10 million to 10 new projects through its Solar Training and Education for Professionals (STEP) funding program, which was created to help meet the solar industry’s growing demand for well-qualified, highly skilled installers and other industry-related professionals.
“Jobs in the dynamic solar energy sector have grown more than 20 percent per year for the past several years,” said Deputy Secretary Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall. “At DOE, we are committed to training the solar workforce of the future through our partnership with the Department of Defense, the solar industry, and community colleges around the country.”
These solar energy training efforts build on the success of the SunShot Initiative’s Solar Instructor Training Network, which has trained 1,100 certified solar instructors and provided hands-on solar workforce training to more than 30,000 students nationwide through our nation’s community colleges. Today the solar industry is a leader in hiring military veterans—employing nearly 17,000 veterans to date­—and it is committed to employing 50,000 veterans by 2020.
Connecting a Skilled Veteran Workforce with a Growing Solar Industry
The SunShot Initiative's Solar Ready Vets program trains our nation’s skilled military service members to succeed in the solar energy industry by training them to size and install solar energy systems, safely connect them to the grid, and understand and comply with local building codes. This program, enabled by the Department of Defense’s SkillBridge initiative, allows exiting military personnel to pursue civilian job training, employment skills training, apprenticeships and internships up to 6 months prior to their separation date.
The new training locations and training partners announced today are:

• Eglin Air Force Base (Florida) with training provider Florida Solar Energy Center
• Fort Bragg (Army; North Carolina) with training provider Fayetteville Technical Community College
• Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (Air Force, Army, Navy; New Jersey) with training provider Rowan College at Burlington County
• Joint Base San Antonio (Air Force, Army; Texas) with training provider Alamo College System’s St. Philip’s College
• Marine Corps Base Hawaii with training provider Honolulu Community College

Since the program’s launch, approximately 250 graduates have already completed the Solar Ready Vets training program from 14 cohorts at five military bases across the country: Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton (California), Fort Carson (Army, Colorado), Naval Station Norfolk (Virginia), Hill Air Force Base (Utah) and Fort Drum (Army, New York).
Training American Workers to Build a Vibrant Workforce
To help meet the President’s goal of training 75,000 solar workers by 2020, the 10 new STEP-funded training projects announced today will advance America’s solar workforce by training technicians for solar careers. One awardee under the STEP program, The Solar Foundation, will serve to support Solar Ready Vets and the five new bases announced today as the national administrator of the training program.
These projects will also focus on providing professionals in related fields like real estate, architecture, and fire and safety with the information they need to help accelerate solar deployment. Broadly, the STEP program is meant to build an efficient, well-trained workforce that is familiar with solar energy in order to help make it easier for Americans to install solar by improving inspection compliance, expediting system permitting, and reducing liability and insurance costs.
The awardees are as follows:

• Clean Energy States Alliance (Montpelier, VT) will receive $568,000 to provide resources and training for state and local government officials on how to ensure inclusive participation in the solar economy, especially for those with low and moderate incomes and those without solar-friendly roofs, and how to help consumers find and use reputable, competent vendors and contractors.
• Elevate Energy (Chicago, IL) will receive $445,027 to educate residential real estate agents, appraisers, and related regulatory officials about solar energy systems through web-based, continuing education classes.
• Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. (Knoxville, TN) will receive $1,000,000 to support the education of the next generation of power systems engineers. In partnership with university, utility, and electric industry partners, this project will establish GridEd-West, a distributed energy technology training consortium for the western United States.
• George Washington University (Washington, DC) will receive $430,727 to develop multimedia solar energy training materials that can be used to train diverse audiences, including real estate agents, financiers, and state regulators and policymakers.
• Interstate Renewable Energy Council, Inc. (Albany, NY) will receive $2,200,000 to train 100,000 code officials, inspectors, and firefighters in solar by facilitating the integration of state-of-the-art solar training into existing professional development platforms.
• National Conference of State Legislatures (Denver, CO) will receive $950,615 to develop a solar training program for state regulators, legislators, and energy officers using traditional instruction, interactive games and simulations, and peer exchange.
• North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners, Inc. (Clifton Park, NY) will receive $1,119,195 to develop new industry-validated personnel certifications for individuals working in photovoltaic (PV) operations and maintenance and mid-scale PV system design and installation.
• The Solar Foundation (Washington, DC) will receive $1,947,730 to become the national administrator for the Solar Ready Vets program. The Solar Foundation will work with training institutions at ten military bases to train more than 2,500 transitioning military service members and veterans for jobs in the solar energy industry.
• Trust for Conservation Innovation (Schenectady, NY) will receive $799,949 to support the development and dissemination of solar reference materials and training for building design professionals.
• University of Central Florida (Orlando, FL) will receive $1,000,000 to continue the Foundations for Engineering Education for Distributed Energy Resources (FEEDER) consortium under the Grid Engineering for Accelerated Renewable Energy Deployment (GEARED) program, which is aimed at training the next generation of power systems engineers to meet the needs of America’s rapidly changing energy portfolio.

Together, these efforts by the Energy Department’s SunShot Initiative help to introduce Americans to the benefits of our nation’s rapidly growing solar energy industry, in addition to access to clean, affordable electricity and career growth opportunities.

DEBATE OVER CARBON TAX VERSUS CAP AND TRADE IN WASHINGTON STATE

 

PHOTO PROVIDED BY NOW SOLAR

 

John Upton

 

Thursday, April 28, 2016 - 12:50am
VIA https://www.greenbiz.com 

As governments worldwide begin imposing fees on pollution to try to protect the climate, a debate over dueling approaches — one that long has been restricted to conferences and academia — is becoming prominent in Washington state.

Washington voters will decide in November whether to introduce a carbon tax on fossil fuels and electricity from coal and natural gas, with the goal of slowing global warming while reducing taxes on sales and manufacturing and keeping total tax revenue flat overall.

If Initiative 732 (PDF) passes, the Evergreen State would buck a national trend in which other states have been adopting a different system for carbon pricing — that of cap-and-trade, in which pollution levels are capped and allowances to release pollution are sold and traded.

"Some folks on our executive committee and in our grassroots base have a strong preference for a carbon tax," said Yoram Bauman, an economist and comic involved with Carbon Washington, a group that drafted the initiative and gathered signatures.

Carbon pricing is popular among economists and climate experts because it can account for some of the hidden costs of climate change by taxing fossil fuels, which raises prices and reduces demand. That helps solar, wind and other climate-protecting alternatives compete on price.

"The differences between carbon taxes and cap-and-trade programs are dwarfed by the similarities between them."

Worldwide, carbon pricing is being adopted rapidly as countries and states work to slow global warming. China plans to roll out a nationwide program next year, joining the European Union, Kazakhstan, California and other governments in putting a price on carbon.

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund were campaigning in support of carbon pricing ahead of the signing last week of the United Nations’ climate treaty, finalized in Paris in December.
Some experts prefer a carbon tax over cap-and-trade, arguing that it’s more efficient and less complicated. Others prefer cap-and-trade, arguing that the approach provides governments with greater control over the amount of pollution that’s released each year.

Bauman said a carbon tax is "simple and transparent," and he pointed out that neighboring British Columbia already has a carbon tax in place. "The choice of a carbon tax for I-732 came from some issues that are pretty specific to Washington state."

(Carbon pricing programs worldwide in 2015. Credit: World Resources Institute, "Putting a Price on Carbon: A Handbook for U.S. Policymakers.")

 

The debate has spilled into the Democratic primary race, with Bernie Sanders pushing for a carbon tax. In 2007, Hillary Clinton said she opposed a carbon tax — but only because she favored cap-and-trade.

The ballot initiative is the latest effort to establish a system in Washington that prices carbon pollution. Cap-and-trade legislation by Gov. Jay Inslee was rejected last year by lawmakers, and his administration is trying to cap carbon pollution using regulatory powers.

"The differences between carbon taxes and cap-and-trade programs are dwarfed by the similarities between them," said Noah Kaufman, a climate economist at the nonprofit World Resources Institute. "A lot of the differences that you hear talked about are not really fundamental differences between the policies, but what to do with the revenue."

The Washington ballot measure was crafted to be revenue neutral for the state, helping to curb pollution while reducing other taxes. A government analysis indicated those cuts substantially could reduce state revenue overall, although backers of the proposal disagree with the finding. Major winners would be low-income families, which would receive $1,500 tax rebates.

Carbon Washington is facing opposition to its ballot initiatives from corporations that use and produce energy.

"We don’t think a price on carbon is necessary," said Brandon Houskeeper, who oversees government affairs at the Association of Washington Businesses. "We think it’s the wrong approach."
The planned revenue neutrality of the measure also has sparked opposition from groups that are fighting for a system that sets aside funds for environmental initiatives.

California, European nations and some other governments earmark large chunks of revenues from cap-and-trade programs to be spent on efforts to promote clean energy and reduce pollution impacts in poor communities.

Washington’s carbon tax ballot initiative "doesn’t have a huge united coalition behind it," said Kristin Eberhard, a researcher who tracks carbon pricing for the Sightline Institute, a think tank based in Seattle.

Climate Solutions, a nonprofit in the Pacific Northwest, said it can't support but won't oppose I-732, preferring to continue to push for adoption of an alternative carbon pricing program — one that would provide funding for environmental initiatives in Washington.

"We need a more comprehensive solution," said Vlad Gutman, director of Climate Solutions’ Washington office. "We need to drive investments to clean energy."

John Upton

Senior Science Writer

Climate Central

ON

King County Judge Makes Historic Ruling Against Washington State in Climate Change Case

by Sydney Brownstone • Apr 29, 2016 at 12:30 pm
VIA https://www.thestranger.com

King County Judge Hollis Hill sided with eight kid plaintiffs arguing that the state wasn't doing enough to address climate change. SB

 

A King County Superior Court judge has reversed a ruling that gave the Washington State Department of Ecology the opportunity to decide when to cut statewide greenhouse gas emissions. Because of a lawsuit filed by eight Washington State kids, Judge Hollis Hill has ruled that the threat of climate change is so urgent that the state must be placed on a court-ordered deadline to hold polluters accountable now.

The decision was the first of its kind. Earlier this year, Judge Hill found that the state had a constitutional responsibility to protect its citizens—including the children who filed the lawsuit—but that dictating an additional greenhouse gas rule-making process wouldn't be necessary. After all, in July of last year Governor Jay Inslee had directed Ecology to come up with a rule to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
That changed when Ecology withdrew the draft rule in February of 2016 in order to take more time to confer with stakeholders. When that happened, the kids' lawyer, Andrea Rodgers, asked the judge to change the earlier ruling in favor of the state based on two criteria: one, that the state had misrepresented the facts, and two, that extraordinary circumstances deemed it necessary.
Judge Hill didn't think that Ecology committed fraud or misrepresentation by committing to a rulemaking process and then withdrawing a draft rule later. But she did agree with the kids' lawyer that climate change constituted extraordinary circumstances.

"Ecology doesn't dispute that current science establishes that rapidly increasing global warming causes an unprecedented risk to the earth, to the land, sea, and atmosphere, and all living plants and creatures," Judge Hill said. Then the judge used Ecology's own words to demonstrate the "extraordinary" circumstances, reading back a quote from 2014 warning of "serious economic and environmental disruptions."
Judge Hill continued:

The reason I'm doing this is because this is an urgent situation. (...) These children can't wait, the polar bears can't wait, the people of Bangladesh can't wait. I don't have jurisdiction over their needs in this matter, but I do have jurisdiction in this court, and for that reason I'm taking this action.

Now the state must come up with a rule to cut greenhouse gas emissions by the end of 2016. In addition, it must make recommendations to the legislature next year to update the state's greenhouse gas reduction goals based on the most current science.
In order to demonstrate how climate change posed an immediate threat to Washington citizens—and how the state had failed to protect them from it—lawyer Andrea Rodgers cited the Quinault Indian Nation's plan to relocate its ancestral village of Taholah away from the coastline because of rising sea levels. "People think that this is something that's going to happen down the road when our friends, and our family, and our people in Washington are literally being relocated," Rodgers said.

As for the judge's ruling on extraordinary circumstances, "It's not climate change that's the extraordinary circumstance, it's that this agency hasn't done what it's legally obligated to do for almost 30 years," Rodgers told me after the courtroom let out. "And [Judge Hill] recognized that a court has a responsibility to step in and protect the rights of young people that are being harmed by climate change. This is world-changing and it's amazing."
The kid plaintiffs and their friends inside the courtroom were similarly stoked.
"I think it's our biggest victory so far," 12-year-old Athena Fain said.
"I mean, [Ecology] are our 'elders,' so to speak, and they're supposed to guide us and help us, and it kind of feels like we're guiding them to help us," 14-year-old Gabe Mandel added. "So we're totally thankful that amazing Judge Hollis Hill ruled in our favor."
A spokesperson from the Department of Ecology stressed that the state was already taking climate change seriously. "We're already working on an aggressive schedule trying to put this policy in place, and we're going to stay on that schedule," Ecology spokesperson Camille St. Onge said. "It's our top priority as an agency. We understand how vital it is to protect our air, and our water, and our land for future generations."

UPDATE: Governor Jay Inslee released a statement on Judge Hollis Hill's ruling.
Below:

This case is a call to act on climate, and that call is one that has been a priority for me since taking office. Our state is helping lead the way on climate action in our country.
It appears the court is essentially reaffirming the need to do what we've already committed to doing, which is putting a policy in place by the end of the year that reduces carbon pollution in Washington state.
In a way it is gratifying that the court has also affirmed our authority to act, contrary to the assertion of those who continue to reject action on climate change and ocean acidification. Hundreds of people have participated in the creation of our state's Clean Air Rule and the draft will be out in just a few weeks. People can also view the webinar held earlier this week in which over 500 people participated.

I'm fully committed to making sure we do our part to protect our air and water for our children in the years ahead.

Cover this amount of U.S. land with solar power plants and you could power the entire United States.

Mercom Says Global Solar Installations Set To Reach 66.7 GW In 2016

Global solar installations are expected to reach 66.7 GW in 2016, thanks to strong growth in China, the US, Japan, and India, according to Mercom.



READ THE REST OF THE REPORT HERE

A Researcher Just Accidentally Developed A Battery That Could Last A Lifetime

April 22, 2016 | by Alfredo Carpineti
VIA http://www.iflscience.com

Hang on renewables this is only the beginning. We have seen great leaps in renewable production due to investment and markets. Product efficiency has grown dramatically while cost has plummeted at unprecedented rates.
The last couple of years we have witnessed this happening on the storage side as it is very apparent that if renewables wants to really be a competitive power option it needs to be available on demand. This article posted below from IFLScience! focus' on the science aspect so it will be interesting to discover what the financial feasibility reveals.


Poor battery life is the number one complaint when it comes to smartphones and laptops. As a wireless society, having to tether ourselves down to power up our gadgets seems more and more a nuisance. And while researchers are looking into wireless charging, if batteries were better we would have to worry less.

Now, a new technology promises just that. Researchers from the University of California, Irvine, have invented a nanowire-based battery that can be recharged hundreds of thousands of times, a significant leap towards a battery that doesn’t require replacing.

Nanowires possess several ideal characteristics for electric storage and transmission. They are highly conductive and thousands of times thinner than a human hair, which means they can be arranged to provide a large surface area for electron transfer. Unfortunately, nanowires are usually very fragile and don’t do well after repeated charging and discharging.


The researchers, whose findings are published in the American Chemical Society’s Energy Letters, have coated gold nanowires in manganese dioxide and cocooned them in a Plexiglas-like gel. This combination keeps all the properties of the nanowires' intact and makes them resistant to fractures.

Mya Le Thai, the lead study author, has charged and discharged the battery up to 200,000 times without breaking the nanowires and without loss of capacity.

“Mya was playing around, and she coated this whole thing with a very thin gel layer and started to cycle it,” said senior author Reginald Penner, chair of UCI’s chemistry department, in a statement. “She discovered that just by using this gel, she could cycle it hundreds of thousands of times without losing any capacity.”
“That was crazy,” he added, “because these things typically die in dramatic fashion after 5,000 or 6,000 or 7,000 cycles at most.”


The researchers believe that the combination of the PMMA (plexiglass-like) gel electrolyte and the magnesium oxide gives flexibility and structure to the nanowires, preventing cracking and thus extending their operational life.

“The coated electrode holds its shape much better, making it a more reliable option,” Thai said. “This research proves that a nanowire-based battery electrode can have a long lifetime and that we can make these kinds of batteries a reality.”



VIA http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acsenergylett.6b00029

We demonstrate reversible cycle stability for up to 200 000 cycles with 94–96% average Coulombic efficiency for symmetrical δ-MnO₂ nanowire capacitors operating across a 1.2 V voltage window in a poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) gel electrolyte. The nanowires investigated here have a Au@δ-MnO₂ core@shell architecture in which a central gold nanowire current collector is surrounded by an electrodeposited layer of δ-MnO₂ that has a thickness of between 143 and 300 nm. Identical capacitors operating in the absence of PMMA (propylene carbonate (PC), 1.0 M LiClO₄) show dramatically reduced cycle stabilities ranging from 2000 to 8000 cycles. In the liquid PC electrolyte, the δ-MnO₂ shell fractures, delaminates, and separates from the gold nanowire current collector. These deleterious processes are not observed in the PMMA electrolyte.





 Degradation and Failure Discovery Platform. (a) Schematic diagram showing critical dimensions of the Au@δ-MnO₂ all-nanowire capacitor investigated here. The PMMA gel layer, consisting of 20 (w/w)% PMMA in 1.0 M LiClO₄ and PC, is 180 μm in thickness. (b) Low-magnification image of a several Au@δ-MnO₂ nanowires on the capacitor surface. (c) High-magnification SEM image of the gold nanowire core of the Au@δ-MnO₂ nanowires with lateral dimensions of 35 nm (h) × 240 nm (w). (d) High-magnification SEM image of a Au@δ-MnO₂ nanowire showing the morphology of the electrodeposited δ-MnO₂ shell with a mean thickness of 124 nm.(1) (e) Photograph of the capacitor containing 750 parallel nanowire loops patterned onto a glass microscope slide.






(Below) SEM (a–d) and AFM (e–h) images of gold (a,e), and Au@δ-MnO₂ core@shell (b–d, f–h) nanowires: (a,e) gold nanowire comprising the core of Au@δ-MnO₂ core@shell nanowires. A height versus distance amplitude trace is shown below each AFM image. (b,f) Au@δ-MnO₂ core@shell nanowire prepared by electrodepositing MnO₂ onto the gold nanowire shown in (a) for 5 s. (c,g) MnO₂ deposited for 10 s. (d,h) MnO₂ deposited for 40 s. (i–k) Charge storage performance for all nanowire capacitors composed of Au@MnO₂ nanowires. All data here were acquired using the PMMA gel electrolyte except in the case of the 222 nm shell thickness, where data for the PMMA gel electrolyte and PC-only electrolyte are both shown (k). (i) Cyclic voltammograms at 100 mV/s for capacitors prepared with three MnO₂ shell thicknesses, 143, 222, and 300 nm, as indicated. (j) Galvanostatic charge/discharge curves for nanowire capacitors at 1 A/g. Total C_sp values are 19, 34, and 56 F/g for t_MnO2 values of 300, 222, and 143 nm, respectively. (k) C_sp versus scan rate for MnO₂ nanowire arrays. For the 222 nm shell thickness, data for PMMA (solid green line) and no PMMA electrolytes (dashed green line) are compared. Error bars represent ±1σ for three as-prepared capacitors at each t_MnO2.





Cycle stability of Au@δ-MnO₂ core@shell nanowire capacitors. (a,b) C_sp versus cycles for MnO₂ shell thicknesses as indicated. Also plotted (top) is the Coulombic efficiency for the 222 nm MnO₂ shell thickness. Other shell thicknesses were virtually identical. (b) Detail showing the first 20 000 cycles in (a). (c) CVs at 100 mV/s for the 222 nm MnO₂ shell thickness acquired for cycle 1 and cycle 100 000, as indicated. (d) C_sp versus scan rate for the 222 nm MnO₂ shell thickness, for data acquired at 6000, 40,000, 75 000, and 95 000 cycles, as indicated




Figure 4. SEM analysis of Au@δ-MnO₂ nanowires before and after cycling. (a–d) SEMs at low (a,c) and higher (b,d) magnification show two identical, as-prepared Au@δ-MnO₂ nanowires with shells of thickness 220 nm. (e,f) SEMs of the same nanowire shown in (a,b) after 4000 charge/discharge cycles. The short-range loss of MnO₂, from 100 to 500 nm domains, is readily apparent in these images (green arrows). (g,h) SEMs of the same nanowire shown in (c,d) after 100 000 charge/discharge cycles. In contrast to (e,f), using the PMMA gel electrolyte, no shell loss is observed in this case. SEM analysis of Au@δ-MnO₂ nanowires before and after cycling. In PC without PMMA, short-range loss of MnO₂ (e,f) precedes long-range loss of the MnO₂ shell over a length scale of microns. SEM images of a single nanowire loop of a Au@δ-MnO₂ core@shell structure without PMMA (i) and with PMMA (j) document the loss of the MnO₂ shell (green arrows) in the absence of the PMMA





Scheme 1. (a) Illustration of the Two-Stage Progression of Degradation for Au@δ-MnO₂ Nanowires in PC Electrolyte without PMMA gel^a and (b) Addition of PMMA to the PC Electrolyte Forestalling Both of These Degradation Modes