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Category: sustainability – Page 382
The tidal power plant is making waves
We have so many types of green energy available to us, so why the hell do we still rely on fossil fuels when tidal plants like this do the same job without any emissions? Swansea Bay Lagoon has a breakwater approximate lifecycle of at least 120 years, meaning it will last twice as long as a nuclear facility and 5X longer than offshore wind turbines. It’s a no-brainer 🧠 This is how you fight climate change!
📹 Preconstruct via Vimeo / TidalLagoonSwanseaBay / ℹ️ Good News Network.
Nuclear fusion startup test fires plastic waste-powered rocket
A UK company with lofty aspirations around sustainable space travel has test-fired a rocket engine powered in part by plastic waste. Pulsar Fusion’s hybrid rocket engine is part of an ambitious journey that also involves the development of nuclear fusion technology for high-speed propulsion, which could cut travel times to Mars in half.
The idea of incorporating recycled plastic waste into hybrid rocket fuels is something we have seen explored before. Virgin Galactic flirted with the idea back in 2014 through the use of a rocket powered by a fuel based on a class of thermoset plastics, though this was swiftly abandoned after a failed test flight. Scottish company Skyrora is another outfit working on such a technology, having successfully tested out its Ecosene fuel made from converted plastic waste.
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Autonomous robot for concentrated solar power installation and maintenance
Heliogen announced the roll-out of its robots to install and clean its CSP plants.
Heliogen, a California-based developer of concentrated solar power (CSP) plants, held the first technical demonstration of its ICARUS, or Installation & Cleaning Autonomous Robot & Utility Solution.
ICARUS is a system of autonomous robots designed to clean the heliostats, which are the reflective mirrors of the CSP system. Heliostats reflect sunlight into a collection tower, where the light and heat is converted to electricity and usable thermal energy. Recently, the company partnered with Bloom Energy to produce hydrogen fuel.
Only SpaceX can meet NASA’s safety requirements, says NASA
SpaceX has work to do, Tesla sells Cyberquad, Elon Musk gets a haircut.
SpaceX is granted three additional NASA missions, Tesla sells out a Cyberquad for kids, Cybertruck pending, and Elon Musk gets a heavily-memed haircut.
Researchers Show a 100% Renewable US Grid with No Blackouts Is Possible
And it would create 4.7 million long-term jobs.
The United States’ energy system that’s running completely on wind, water, and solar, combined with storage, would not only avoid blackouts but also lower energy requirements and consumer costs, a Stanford University study has shown. In addition, this would create millions of jobs, improve health, and free up land for various other purposes.
This is incredibly important because, for some people, a future powered by renewable energy isn’t feasible due to concerns about blackouts driven by inconsistent electricity sources. Take, for example, the grid blackouts caused by extreme weather events in California in August 2020 and Texas in February 2021.
However, the study, which examined grid stability under various scenarios in which wind, water, and solar energy supplied 100 percent of all energy needs in the U.S., has now demonstrated that those concerns are misplaced.
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A ‘World First’ Solar RV Awning Enables More Affordable Off-Grid Living
The auto-retracting system can be deployed when solar energy is needed.
California-based energy firm Xponent Power developed an auto-retracting Xpanse Solar Awning that can be deployed if and when solar energy is needed, a report from New Atlas reveals.
The retractable solar panels move out to the side of the RV, creating a nice bit of shade for travelers, at the same time as providing on-demand solar energy. Depending on the model, owners will get 800, 1,000, or 1,200 watts of charging power.
The off-grid solution was designed to allow RV owners to camp away from electrical sockets for days at a time, and it can be easily mounted to either side of the vehicle. The Xpanse awning is made up of a 16 × 7-foot (4.9 × 2.1-m) “fabric” of high-efficiency glass-based solar panels. The awning features “bi-facial” solar panels, meaning it captures the energy of the sun from above as well as from below — the underside can capture a surprising amount of energy from reflection off the ground and the RV itself.
The Xpanse awning is deployed at the push of a button, and it has an auto-retraction feature that will automatically pull it back in during stormy and windy conditions to avoid damage. On top of this, Xponent says that the panels feature small air gaps that make them more stable in moderate wind conditions.
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A New Bird-Shaped Air Taxi Can Take Off With a Nearly Vertical Trajectory
Like a cybernetic pelican.
In all our coverage of air taxis that include wing designs, propulsion technologies, flight endurance, top speeds, we have surely not come across something so radical as this intriguing piece called PHRACTYL. If this appears to you like a bird that has mistakenly grown a pair of propellers at first glance, you are right on spot.
While birds have been the source of inspiration for human flight, after the success of the Wright Brothers, the flat wide wings have become a standard in aviation and technological advancements have happened on getting more lift from these wings. However, the engineers at PHRACTYL have dumped this conventional wisdom for a radically unique design that resembles a bird’s wing. But that’s not where they have stopped. The tail and the landing gear are no different, giving the aircraft the appearance of a bird.
Copying concepts from nature might be straightforward, but the team at the PHRontier for Agile Complex Technology sYstem evoLution (PHRACTYL) is geared up to manufacture working prototypes of this as well. Their aim is to build a mean, green, and clean flying machine using electric propulsion. However, they recognize that battery technology still has a long way to go before it can power these flights in their current format and therefore went about tinkering with the aerodynamic design of the craft till they came up with a radically new one; they call the Macrobat.
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