Happy Thursday! Today’s headlines begin with an international story that has implications for all cleantech developers, including in the Midwest. The International Energy Agency released a report showing an immediate need to ramp up clean energy technology development and deployment to meet energy and climate goals.

• The report stressed that transitioning only the power sector to clean energy would get the world just one-third of the way to net-zero emissions. Greater work is needed in energy end-use sectors such as transportation, buildings, and industry.
• No single solution can achieve net-zero goals. The report offers guidance for numerous clean energy technologies. Four technology sectors are named as contributing about half of the cumulative CO2 savings: widespread end-use sector electrification (e.g. advanced batteries); carbon capture and storage; hydrogen and hydrogen-related fuels; and bioenergy.
• Governments should play a large role in accelerating clean energy transitions. They should create long-term visions and measure progress in five key areas: existing assets’ emissions, strengthening markets for early-stage technologies, developing/upgrading infrastructure that enables technology deployment, expanding international technology collaborations, and increasing support for innovation research, development, and demonstration.

Today’s headlines:

🌬️ WIND: A study from Purdue University indicates that advances in wind power technologies since 2008 have made utility-scale wind farms economically viable in communities across Indiana that couldn’t adequately benefit from earlier wind technologies.

🎉 EXPANSION: Today Argonne National Laboratory cut the ribbon on an expansion to the Materials Engineering Research facility. Work at the facility will help to accelerate commercialization on manufacturing technologies for hard-to-make energy materials and chemicals.

🏆 COMPETITION: AgriNovus Indiana is accepting submissions for software solutions to help Indiana farmers manage their data, including sustainability information. Submissions are due Sept. 25, and the winning team will receive $25,000 from the Purdue Foundry.

💻 VIRTUAL EVENTS:

• GTI’s monthly tech talk webinar on Sept. 15 will address digitalization tools and trends in the energy industry.
• One America Works and TechPoint will hold a virtual recruiting event on Sept. 18 for a variety of Indianapolis-based tech businesses, including those in the agtech, transportation, and science fields.
• A Chicago Area Clean Cities webinar on Sept. 23 will highlight the latest technologies for reducing vehicle idling.
• The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) is hosting an online panel discussion on Sept. 24 looking at biofuels’ role in the transition to clean energy.