Helionomics in Chile, and in Italy

7-Feb-2019 - Italy's Ambassador in Chile, Mauro Battocchi, reviews today Mario Pagliaro's book Helionomics on vivereallitaliana.cl.

The world's leading exporter of lithium, the main component in lithium-ion batteries, Chile is alongside Brazil the Latin America's leading country in renewable energy, with the target to source 60% of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2035, and 70% by 2050.

Published in early 2018 by Egea, Helionomics has rapidly become the reference book in Italy portraying the global transition to the solar economy.

A chemistry, renewable energy and bioeconomy scholar Mario Pagliaro ranks amongst Italy's most cited scientists in nanotechnology and materials science.

Italy's companies are investing sustantially in new utilty-scale photovoltaic and wind power plants in Chile. Most recently, Italy's largest electric utility controlled by Italy's Government, has purchased a fleet of 100 new electric buses and leased them to local transportation operator Metbus.

Charged with electricity supplied by Italy's company, the 100 e-buses are now running through the streets of Santiago, Chile's capitol and largest city.

Electric buses are the first electric vehicles to achieve significant penetration in a segment of the internal combustion engine vehicle market, with over 80% of China's market -- the world's largest -- now controlled by e-bus manufacturers.

Over 99% of the world's 400,000 e-buses are powered by the lithium-ion battery, even though hydrogen fuel cell e-buses are also experiencing their first significant market growth.

A comprehensive study entitled "Electric Bus: A Critical Overview on the Dawn of its Widespread Uptake" from Pagliaro's team is due for publication by a leading international energy journal.

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