Lifeboat Foundation

As we strive towards a more sustainable future, it’s becoming increasingly important to find innovative ways to decarbonize industry and facilitate clean energy storage.

One promising approach is the manufacture of valuable products and fuels using available, low-cost feedstocks like water, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and solar energy. By harnessing the power of these abundant resources, we can reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and move towards a cleaner, more sustainable energy future.

In a similar effort, Rice University engineers have developed a device that can turn sunlight into hydrogen with record-breaking efficiency – a significant step forward for clean energy. The device combines next-generation halide perovskite semiconductors with electrocatalysts in a single, durable, cost-effective, and scalable device.

The project, called the Arch of Time, will stand 100 feet tall and generate enough solar power every year to offset 40 Texans’ home energy use.

Berlin architect Riccardo Mariano has designed an innovative new project for the city of Houston, Texas, that will generate nearly 400,000 kWh of electricity every year while acting as a public sundial.

The project, named the Arco del Tiempo (Arch of Time), will be a 100-foot-tall triumphal archway that will serve as the gateway to the city’s East End, part of the Second Ward district for the city. It will have a roof covered in photovoltaic modules to produce electricity as well.

According to a study by Astrostrom for ESA, future Moon bases could be powered by a giant space butterfly called the Greater Earth Lunar Power Station (GEO-LPS) covered with solar panels made from lunar materials beaming microwaves to the surface.

One of the major design concerns in setting up a lunar base is finding a reliable means of powering it. Solar power might seem the obvious answer, but with lunar nights lasting 14 Earth days, it isn’t a practical option. However, though the most promising alternative is currently a small nuclear reactor, solar may not be out of the running.

The idea of solar power plants in space has been around for well over half a century. On Earth, solar panels are limited by night time, atmospheric haze, and bad weather, making them only capable of intermittent power generation with limited efficiency. On the other hand, in space, where there is no night and no atmosphere, solar power becomes very attractive.

The energy generation site will be connected to the grid and power Google’s data centers in Nevada.

Houston-based US startup Fervo Energy has claimed that it has achieved “commercial scale” geothermal energy production from its Project Red demonstration site in northern Nevada. The site recently completed a 30-day well test, a standard for geothermal energy installations, a company press release said.

Geothermal energy is one of the sources of renewable power being explored as the world moves away from fossil fuels. Unlike wind and solar power plants, geothermal energy can be sourced around the clock and on demand to cater to increased energy needs.

The thrusters will play an important role on NASA’s Gateway, the outpost orbiting the Moon.

Engineers from NASA and Aerojet Rocketdyne have begun the multiyear qualification testing of the most powerful solar electric propulsion (SEP) thrusters, which are expected to radically change propulsion in space, a press release from the space agency said.

For decades, space research has relied on chemical propulsion to generate millions of pounds of thrust and has attempted to make bigger and more powerful rockets to take us further in our space voyages. While this is a standard even with the most advanced methane-powered rocket engines, it is not necessarily the most efficient way to move about in space.

A huge solar power station in China is generating clean energy, producing salt from sunlight, and serving as a shrimp-breeding site.

State-owned China Huadian Corporation said the 1-gigawatt (GW) Huadian Tianjin Haijing power station will generate 1.5 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year – enough to power around 1.5 million households in China.

Continue reading “This 1 GW solar + salt + shrimp farm is a 3-in-1 power station” »

There’s a new way to harness the power of the sun and it may just revolutionize how we approach solar energy. The development is called quantum dots and it consists of tiny semiconductor particles only a few nanometers in size.

This is according to a report by Fagen Wasanni published on Saturday.

“Quantum dots have unique properties that make them ideal for use in solar cells. Their small size allows them to absorb light from a wide range of wavelengths, including those that traditional solar cells cannot capture. This means that quantum dot-based solar cells can potentially convert more sunlight into electricity, significantly increasing their efficiency,” states the report.

Silicon-based solar cells have a theoretical efficiency limit of around 30 per cent, but adding a perovskite layer enables new designs to harvest more energy.

By Alex Wilkins

“Part of what we’re doing is conceptually simple, reflecting sunlight to a solar panel located in the dark,” said Maxar Chief Robotics Architect and lead for Light Bender Sean Dougherty in a Maxar statement. “Where it gets complex is doing that without humans involved. We’re leveraging investments in autonomy to study how NASA can use robots to assemble and deploy a set of reflectors that keep sunlight focused on a solar panel operating in the shadows. It’s never been done before.”

Light Bender works by hoisting two 33-foot (10-meter) reflectors up a 65-foot (20-meter) telescoping mast. One mirror autonomously tracks the sun and reflects that light to the second mirror, which then reflects those rays towards the intended solar panels.

The Light Bender project is a collaboration between Maxar and NASA’s Langley Research Center, and is scheduled for its first terrestrial demonstration in 2025. The company was awarded the contract in May 2023, under NASA’s Announcement of Collaboration Opportunity Program. For their part, NASA’s team is responsible for Light Bender’s structural design, and Maxar is taking the lead on the robotics — an aptitude for which the company has demonstrated in the past.