Lifeboat Foundation

The batteries comprise ammonium-ion electrolytes that may provide an environmentally friendly competitor to traditional metal-ion batteries dependent on precious, finite, and consistently dwindling resources. The ammonium-ion batteries may also have uses in several fields, most notably for grid storage.

KAUST researchers have innovated metal-free, ammonium-ion batteries that provide a sustainable alternative to power the green transition.

UN hopes to complete revisions to the Law of the Sea governing the protection of marine biodiversity.

In 2017, the members of the General Assembly of the United Nations convened to review the existing Convention on the Law of Sea with the idea to look at providing protection for marine biodiversity and ocean waters beyond marine national government boundaries and exclusive economic zones. Subsequently, there have been meetings at the United Nations to work through outstanding issues with the last in August 2022. A revised Intergovernmental conference is now underway and expected to last two weeks to complete a new High Seas Treaty.

The world’s oceans and seas cover more than 70% of the planet’s surface. The ocean contains 1.35 billion cubic kilometres (324 million cubic miles) of water representing 97% of all the water on the planet. The ocean is where life on Earth first came from and is what makes the continuation of life on this planet possible.

Continue reading “United Nations Meets Today to Finalize Global Treaty for the Ocean” »

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Department of Chemistry have engineered silicon nanowires that can convert sunlight into electricity by splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen gas, a greener alternative to fossil fuels.

Fifty years ago, scientists first demonstrated that liquid water can be split into oxygen and hydrogen gas using electricity produced by illuminating a semiconductor electrode. Although hydrogen generated using solar power is a promising form of clean energy, low efficiencies and high costs have hindered the introduction of commercial solar-powered hydrogen plants.

An economic feasibility analysis suggests that using a slurry of electrodes made from nanoparticles instead of a rigid solar panel design could substantially lower costs, making solar-produced hydrogen competitive with fossil fuels. However, most existing particle-based light-activated catalysts, also referred to as photocatalysts, can absorb only ultraviolet radiation, limiting their energy-conversion efficiency under solar illumination.

Residents of Cardiff’s Odet Court housing complex U.K. are benefiting from “world-first” technology that allows solar energy from a single rooftop system to be shared by multiple residences in the same building.

The new solar system setup can supply up to 75 percent of each apartment’s power requirements, benefiting the residents, Euronews reported on Saturday.

Climate change policy has entered a new era. The growing row between the United States and the European Union over the impacts of the new American green subsidy regime makes that all too clear. Yet, in many ways, this story is ultimately about China.

For the last 20 years, developed countries have used three main types of policies to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. Renewable energy mandates have required electricity generators to invest in solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal power. Emissions trading schemes for energy and industrial businesses put a price on carbon. And energy efficiency standards have been progressively improved on a whole range of products, from vehicles and white goods to homes.

Blade says it will use the ALIA-250 to take passengers from Manhattan to the Hamptons starting in 2025 or 2026.

Say you have a cutting-edge gadget that can crack any safe in the world—but you haven’t got a clue how it works. What do you do? You could take a much older safe-cracking tool—a trusty crowbar, perhaps. You could use that lever to pry open your gadget, peek at its innards, and try to reverse-engineer it. As it happens, that’s what scientists have just done with mathematics.

Researchers have examined a deep neural network—one type of artificial intelligence, a type that’s notoriously enigmatic on the inside—with a well-worn type of mathematical analysis that physicists and engineers have used for decades. The researchers published their results in the journal PNAS Nexus on January 23. Their results hint their AI is doing many of the same calculations that humans have long done themselves.

The paper’s authors typically use deep neural networks to predict extreme weather events or for other climate applications. While better local forecasts can help people schedule their park dates, predicting the wind and the clouds can also help renewable energy operators plan what to put into the grid in the coming hours.

In January 2023, the Caltech Space Solar Power Project (SSPP) is poised to launch into orbit a prototype, dubbed the Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD), which will test several key components of an ambitious plan to harvest solar power in space and beam the energy back to Earth.

Space solar power provides a way to tap into the practically unlimited supply of solar energy in outer space, where the energy is constantly available without being subjected to the cycles of day and night, seasons, and cloud cover.

Continue reading “Caltech to Launch Space Solar Power Technology Demo into Orbit in January” »

Over the past year or so, CleanTechnica has published several stories about Sakuu, the innovative battery company located in Silicon Valley (where else?) that is working to bring 3D-printed solid-state batteries to market.

Last June, Robert Bagheri, founder and CEO of Sakuu, said in a press release, “As far as our solid state battery development, we are preparing to unveil a new category of rapid printed batteries manufactured at scale using our additive manufacturing platform. The sustainability and supply chain implications of this pioneering development will be transformational.” Based on the company’s Kavian platform, the rapid 3D-printed batteries will enable customizable, mass scale, and cost effective manufacturing of solid-state batteries while solving fundamental challenges confronting battery manufacturers today, the company said at that time.