El impacto de la tecnología en la energía. Un informe de McKinsey & Co:
| Last week we delved into how McKinsey experts see the global energy transition unfolding in the coming decades. (In short: less oil, more efficiency.) This week, we’re looking at the related issue of sustainability. Here are just a few of the innovations that are expected to shape new technologies. |
| Long-term energy storage. Solar and wind power are ripe with promise, but power has to be stored for when the days are short or the wind doesn’t blow for stretches. Short-term energy storage, such as lithium-ion batteries, often isn’t enough, making long-duration energy storage an important frontier. Several innovators believe they are close to developing new technologies on that front, with one company working on storing renewable energy in molten salt. |
| Public electric transport. The rise of electric vehicles (EVs) for personal use isn’t really news anymore. But there’s lots of room to apply EV technology to municipal fleets. In China, 300,000 electric buses hum down city streets every day. European cities are expected to follow suit. Although eBuses have higher acquisition prices thanks to up-front battery costs, their total cost of ownership is lower because they don’t rely on pricey diesel. They also help to reduce emissions, which is great for cities. |
| Plastic recycling. Each year, the world generates 260 million tons of plastic waste. Only 16 percent gets recycled. The plastics industry has the opportunity to adopt a circular business model that aims to eliminate waste across sectors while creating economic, societal, and environmental benefits. One promising circular process is pyrolysis, which uses heat and the absence of oxygen to reconvert plastic waste back into liquid feedstock. The benefits are economic as much as environmental—with a recycling-based profit pool estimated at $55 billion by the next decade. |
| Hydrogen’s future. If we want to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 60 percent, hydrogen should be part of the solution. Although battery-powered EVs are more fuel efficient, hydrogen-powered fuel cells can store more energy with less weight. This makes them ideal for long-haul, heavy-cargo vehicles. Hydrogen-powered fuel-cell vehicles are already on the roads in California, Germany, Japan, and South Korea—and more than ten new models are slated for release by 2020. |
| For more, check out McKinsey’s new Sustainability blog. |