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Category: food – Page 155

Eco-friendlier hydroelectric tech would swap dams for electric trucks

While hydroelectric dams are capable of generating a lot of electricity, they drastically disrupt the environment. Scientists have now proposed a simpler but still effective alternative, in which electric trucks replace such dams.

In a typical hydroelectric facility, a dam is built across a river, causing a reservoir to form directly upstream of that dam. When a gate in the dam is opened, water from the reservoir flows through and drops down to a lower elevation. As it does so, it spins up turbines which generate electricity.

Unfortunately, formation of the reservoir involves the flooding of land which may previously have contained forests, crops, or even people’s homes.

Jacques Cousteau’s grandson is building a network of ocean floor research stations

Fabien Cousteau has a vision for how humans can live and work in the ocean. He imagines that long-term stays under the waves could be enabled through the construction of underwater habitats, which would look and feel like houses, as opposed to just sealed, submarine-like bubbles.

These habitats would have a galley, kitchen, workspace, and sleeping quarters, he describes. And of course, there would be windows, or viewports, to the outside world, and a front door in the form of a moon pool that will actually be on the bottom of the house. This would allow easy access into and out of the facility.

The project, called Proteus, would be a marine analog to the International Space Station, and would primarily accommodate aquanauts, the equivalent of an astronaut in the ocean. It’s an idea that has been bubbling for some time now. But it could start taking shape relatively soon. Proteus Ocean Group, a private company which would operate and run Proteus, has recently signed an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract with a firm that has expertise in creating hyperbaric and pressure vessels in the ocean environment. Much of what Proteus is doing in terms of the technology they’re exploring is similar to space technology.

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Hybrid system produces electricity and irrigation water in the desert

In remote desert locations, at least two things are likely to be lacking: an electrical grid, and a source of water for agriculture. An experimental new system addresses both problems, by combining photovoltaic panels with an absorbent hydrogel.

Developed by scientists at Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), the setup is known as the integrated water-electricity-crop co-production system – or WEC2P, for short.

It incorporates an array of connected photovoltaic panels, each one of which lies directly atop a layer of hydrogel. Both the panel and the gel form the lid of a downward-sloping metal box, which has a spout at the bottom.

One piece of good news as energy prices explode in European markets

With the war in Ukraine raging and gas and energy prices climbing across world markets, there is one piece of good news for European energy markets.

Economists from Poland’s state Pekao bank are reporting a large reduction on the price of CO2 emission certificates. The prices have fallen dramatically from €95 to €62 per ton. This is especially good for countries like Poland, which are forced to pay a premium for energy derived from “dirty” sources like coal. The fall in the price of this “tax” is expected to make the cost of energy especially more bearable for many of Europe’s poorer nations.

The CEO of Poland’s Development Fund, Paweł Borys, also commented on the issue on Twitter. “It is significant how CO2 prices have collapsed, falling by 30 percent since they peaked in February. This is good news, as it means that electricity prices may fall, thereby reducing inflationary pressure that have been exacerbated by hikes in oil and food prices.”

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