Sustainable Technology Reaching a Critical Moment in 2023: The Future of Green Tech

There is now evidence showing that implementing renewable energy sources could be more cost-effective than continuing reliance on traditional fossil fuels. This is mostly due to substantial decreases in the cost of both solar and wind power technologies driven by technological developments over the past ten years.

With forecasts predicting savings totaling $12 trillion from widespread adoption internationally by 2050, renewable energies may well become increasingly attractive options moving forward.Green hydrogen is among the most promising technologies for progress in 2023.

Making use of this clean-energy source would enable transportation of captured electricity from distant renewable sources such as solar or wind resources to areas with high power demands situated thousands of kilometres away.

Nuclear fusion also emerges as an exciting green technology worth keeping an eye on during this time due to its recent successful proof-of-concept demonstrating its ability now exceed minimum threshold limitations required for fulfilling the process's objective.

Even though actual implementation at scale may still be years off, these breakthroughs stimulate further research and development into technological advancements offering limitless potentiality for safe and clean power production.

Green Hydrogen

Government subsidy programs poised to start in 2023 may just be the driving force behind paving the way for a lucrative global green hydrogen industry as one of the leading sources of renewable power.

The road towards making this vision a reality requires substantial funding amounting up to trillions of dollars which cannot be made possible without significant investments from major oil and power firms such as Shell, Adani, TotalEnergies and ACWA Power who have acknowledged its importance as the energy source of tomorrow.

In order not miss out on opportunities arising from this endeavor, both public and private organizations must work collaboratively. In 2023, several green H2 projects will either receive their final investment decisions or start construction by the end of that year.

The United States hydrogen tax credits are among the most notable support programs available. Through its Innovation Fund, the European Commission has announced Carbon Contracts for Difference (CCfD) grants for green hydrogen, while the UK government has developed its own subsidy scheme known as Contracts for Difference (CfD) dedicated exclusively to clean hydrogen.

In Europe, Germany's H2Global program is providing financial support specifically for green hydrogen imported into the EU.

Food Tech

Annually, an astonishing amount of approximately one third of all produced worldwide ends up being wasted or lost--this equates to a massive 1.3 billion tons of food loss each year at an estimated cost to the global economy totaling almost $940 billion.

When measured against greenhouse gas emissions for individual nations' contributions, only China and the United States emit more pollutants than those generated during worldwide food waste.

With facts in hand it would seem like common sense for efforts to start utilizing old materials e.g wastes for making new products - avoiding unnecessary discard – a process known as circular economy practices – namely via composting , anaerobic digestion methods or even feeding animals .

Reducing food waste and promoting sustainable use of resources while curbing the damage done on the environment are all made possible through circular thinking in our food systems.

An illustration of this is how we convert our organic wastes into valuable soil amendments through composting. Anaerobic digestion of leftover foods furthermore leads to generation of biogas.

Byproducts like grain residuals and fruit pulp from the agro-processing stage have additional meaningful applications such as being turned into animal feed or ingredients for other products.

Nuclear Fusion

An astounding achievement took place at The National Ignition Facility situated at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. The researchers have discovered how to conduct nuclear fusion - an aspect that fuels not only our Sun but also all other stars!

It's deemed as one of the most significant developments when it comes down to generating potential sources of energy because unlike nuclear fission (currently existing technology powering most active nuclear power stations), it generates much more electricity with small quantities of short functioning radioactive waste materials produced as a side effect.

By applying focus lights from a powerful 192-beam laser they managed to heat up hydrogen fuel just enough for compression which then eventually led them able generate considerably more electrical power output than inputs!

Despite a miniscule amount of energy generated, research on scaling up and enhancing energy production in fusion is required. The process demands extremely high temperatures and pressures which present the key challenges, and comes with an enormous price tag. Though we are nearly there to achieve a fusion-powered future, several obstacles need to be overcome.

Circular economy

The Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO) aims to establish a circular economy for the goods sector by designing materials and products, developing recycling technology, and improving reverse supply chain logistics.

The linear model of manufacturing is based on extracting raw materials, turning them into intermediate and end-products, and disposing of them in landfills. In contrast, a circular economy enables the reuse and re-manufacture of consumer products at the end of their life cycle.

This reduces landfill waste, energy costs, and emissions across the manufacturing economy. Supporting the circular economy across industries such as plastics, resins, and synthetic rubber can improve energy efficiency and decrease waste and emissions.