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Category: sustainability – Page 585

Tesla’s Semi truck is traveling cross-country ‘alone’

Tesla’s Semi truck has already made some city-to-city trips, but how does it fare on cross-country jaunts — you know, what it’ll be doing when it enters service? Just fine, if you ask Elon Musk. In response to an Electrek piece on the Semi’s latest visit (to Arkansas trucking behemoth J.B. Hunt), the CEO noted that the Semi has been traveling thousands of miles entirely by itself, using the existing Supercharger network. The only necessary help is an “extension cord” to help the truck plug in. To be exact, it’s a system of cords that plugs into multiple stations at once to top up the Semi’s giant battery before the company’s Megachargers come online.

That solo travel is likely meant in part to reassure customers (including J.B. Hunt) that the Semi is already capable of handling long-distance trips without escorts. However, it does leave a few open questions. How long does it take to top up using Superchargers, and how likely is it that drivers could rely on them when Megachargers aren’t available? While it’s easy for a Tesla-operated truck to cross the US using the existing framework, it’d be another matter with thousands of third-party trucks in service. This is a significant step toward the Semi hitting the road in earnest, but there are many more steps to go.

What’s cool is that it was driven across the country alone (no escort or any accompanying vehicles), using the existing Tesla Supercharger network and an extension cord— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 25, 2018

Solar-powered quadcopter drone takes flight

A university in Singapore has conducted one of the first practical flights of a solar-powered quadcopter drone.

The prototype has flown as high as 10 meters (about 33 feet) in test flights using solar power with no battery or other energy storage on board, according to the National University of Singapore (NUS), which announced that an engineering team had conducted the test flight.

“Rotary winged aircraft are significantly less efficient at generating lift compared to their fixed wing counterparts [so] a viable 100 per cent solar rotary aircraft that can take-off and land vertically remains a major engineering challenge to date,” the university said in a statement.

Scientists deliver a longer-lasting lithium-oxygen battery

Packing more energy into batteries is the key to delivering electric cars with longer range, smartphones that can last days—and cheaper electronic products all around.

The promise: Lithium-oxygen batteries represent one of the more promising paths toward that end. They could boost energy density by an order of magnitude above conventional lithium-ion batteries—in theory, at least. In a paper published today in Science, researchers at the University of Waterloo identified ways of addressing some of the major hurdles to converting that potential into commercial reality.

The challenge: A critical problem has been that as a lithium-oxygen battery discharges, oxygen is converted into superoxide and then lithium peroxide, reactive compounds that corrode the battery’s components over time. That, in turn, limits its recharging ability—and any real-world utility.

‘Trash is gold’ as Benin community turns waste into biogas

Garbage has never smelled so sweet for a small village in southern Benin since it opened a pilot waste treatment centre to turn household rubbish into gas—and cash.

“Our trash has become gold. We no longer throw it into the bush. We use it to make money,” beams Alphonse Ago, who lives next to the centre in Houegbo village.

ReBin, a Swiss foundation for sustainable development, built the 1.3-hectare (3.2-acre) facility, which every week turns around six tonnes of into 200 cubic metres of biogas—saving some 164 tonnes of wood from being used to make charcoal.

Supersized solar farms are sprouting around the world (and maybe in space, too)

In a quest to cut the cost of clean electricity, power utilities around the world are supersizing their solar farms.

Nowhere is that more apparent than in southern Egypt, where what will be the world’s largest solar farm — a vast collection of more than 5 million photovoltaic panels — is now taking shape. When it’s completed next year, the $4 billion Benban solar park near Aswan will cover an area 10 times bigger than New York’s Central Park and generate up to 1.8 gigawatts of electricity.

Ecosystems are getting greener in the Arctic

In recent decades, scientists have noted a surge in Arctic plant growth as a symptom of climate change. But without observations showing exactly when and where vegetation has bloomed as the world’s coldest areas warm, it’s difficult to predict how vegetation will respond to future warming. Now, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley have developed a new approach that may paint a more accurate picture of Arctic vegetation and our climate’s recent past – and future.

In a study published online Aug. 20 in Nature Climate Change, the researchers used satellite images taken over the past 30 years to track – down to a pixel representing approximately 25 square miles – the ebb and flow of in cold areas of the northern hemisphere, such as Alaska, the Arctic region of Canada, and the Tibetan Plateau.

The 30-year historic satellite data used in the study were collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer. The data was processed by Boston University, and is hosted on NEX – the NASA Earth Exchange data archive.

New study identifies strategies in US climate litigation

The courts have played a central role in climate change policy, starting with a landmark Supreme Court case that led to the mandatory regulation of greenhouse gases in the United States. How do the courts address climate cases today? Who wins, who loses and what kinds of strategies make a difference in the courtroom?

Researchers at the George Washington University (GW) have published a study in Nature Climate Change that for the first time analyzes all U.S climate change lawsuits over a 26-year period.

“This first-of-a-kind study outlines the types of climate change lawsuits that are more likely to win or lose, and why,” said lead author Sabrina McCormick, Ph.D., MA, an Associate Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health at GW’s Milken Institute School of Public Health (Milken Institute SPH). “Efforts to affect U.S. should consider current trends in the courtroom.”

Strange Lakes Are Speeding Up Arctic Permafrost Melt, And That’s Really Bad News

The Arctic permafrost really should stay frozen. In many places it’s been frozen for tens of thousands of years, locking away greenhouse gasses and ancient diseases.

Unfortunately, our planet’s changing climate is denting permafrosts around the world. And now NASA-funded research has confirmed that the expected gradual thawing of the Arctic permafrost is being dramatically sped up by a natural phenomenon known as thermokarst lakes.

These lakes form when a lot of ice in the deep soil melts. Water takes up less space than ice, so this leaves room for water to collect from other sources as well, including rain and snow.

Ethiopia opens plant to turn waste into energy

Ethiopia on Sunday inaugurated a power plant which converts waste into energy, next to a filthy open-air dump in Addis Ababa where a landslide last year killed more than 110 people.

Named Reppie, the facility is the first of its kind in Africa, according to the government and the British company Cambridge Industries behind the project, and will turn 1,400 tons of per day into .

Ethiopian President Mulatu Teshome said at the ceremony that the country “has been investing extensively in , geothermal, wind energy and now biomass to boost the manufacturing sector with a supply of clean, renewable energy.”