Lifeboat Foundation

Some blogs and news outlets eschew long titles. Publishers want readers to scan a list of topics that fit on one-line each. But, a better title for this article would be:

“Massive electric consumption by cryptocurrency mining:
An unfortunate environmental nightmare will soon pass!
… Proof-of-Work alternatives are on the horizon”

A considerable amount of electricity is used in the process of mining Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Miners are effectively distributed bookkeepers, and this use of resources is part of a system called “proof-of-work”. It keeps the books fair, honest, and without an ability for the miners to collude (In other words, they cannot ‘cook the books’).

Continue reading “Proof-of-Work Alternatives: Massive electric consumption by cryptocurrency mining” »

• Ketones could super-charge the body in a way that’s unlike any other source of fuel.
• San Francisco-based startup HVMN recently launched a drink made of pure ketone ester to harness its performance-boosting qualities.
• The company partnered with Oxford University to leverage $60 million-worth of scientific research on elite athletes.

The nutrition label on a shot-sized bottle of this clear, odorless liquid defies traditional explanation. It contains 120 calories — roughly the equivalent of a hearty slice of bread — yet it has no fat, no protein, and no carbohydrates.

Those calories instead come from ketones, an ingredient that Geoff Woo, cofounder and CEO of San Francisco-based human performance startup called HVMN (pronounced “human”)to call “the fourth macronutrient.”

LED bulbs contributed to a reduction of 570 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions in 2017, according to an estimate by IHS Markit—equivalent to closing more than 160 coal power plants.

Published 2 hours ago | Photo by Reuters/Toru Hanai.

Why wearable? Many industrial and academic studies are currently addressed to design and to optimize the technologies related to portable and wireless.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=LHGVBTDDnKU

Engineers at The Ohio State University are developing technologies that have the potential to economically convert fossil fuels and biomass into useful products including electricity without emitting carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.

In the first of two papers published in the journal Energy & Environmental Science, the engineers report that they’ve devised a process that transforms shale gas into products such as methanol and gasoline—all while consuming carbon dioxide. This process can also be applied to coal and biomass to produce useful products.

Continue reading “Scientists Develop Fossil-Fuel-Based Technology That Consumes Carbon Dioxide” »

https://youtube.com/watch?v=LHGVBTDDnKU

Engineers at The Ohio State University are developing technologies that have the potential to economically convert fossil fuels and biomass into useful products including electricity without emitting carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.

In the first of two papers published in the journal Energy & Environmental Science, the engineers report that they’ve devised a process that transforms shale gas into products such as methanol and gasoline—all while consuming carbon dioxide. This process can also be applied to coal and biomass to produce useful products.

Continue reading “A fossil fuel technology that doesn’t pollute” »

“A review of the most important developments in rate design, distributed energy deployments, and utility business models.”

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Drone technology is getting better all the time, and one area folks are putting a lot of energy into is boosting the amount of time the things can stay in the air. Drone manufacturer Quaternium is claiming a new milestone in this field, after flying its HYBRiX.20 fuel-electric quadcopter for four hours and forty minutes in what it describes as a world record flight for a self-powered multicopter.

Most multicopter drones you can buy off the shelf boast flight times of 25 to 30 minutes, though we have seen custom-built multicopters fly for far longer. Last year, for example, a commercial drone operator used a bespoke quadcopter to cross the English channel in a 72-minute jaunt, while others such as dronemaker Skyfront have previously claimed endurance records well in excess of four hours.

Germany has spent $200 billion over the past two decades to promote cleaner sources of electricity. That enormous investment is now having an unexpected impact — consumers are now actually paid to use power on occasion, as was the case over the weekend.

Power prices plunged below zero for much of Sunday and the early hours of Christmas Day on the EPEX Spot, a large European power trading exchange, the result of low demand, unseasonably warm weather and strong breezes that provided an abundance of wind power on the grid.

Such “negative prices” are not the norm in Germany, but they are far from rare, thanks to the country’s effort to encourage investment in greener forms of power generation. Prices for electricity in Germany have dipped below zero — meaning customers are being paid to consume power — more than 100 times this year alone, according to EPEX Spot.

Continue reading “Power Prices Go Negative in Germany, a Positive for Energy Users” »